As my partner pointed out in the email she sent me that is the genesis of this post our representatives in Washngton – men and women who work for us, on our behalf – cannot pass meaningful healthcare reform, cannot seem to find time to extend unemployment, seem wholly unable to do anything to stimulat ethe economy or create jobs but by golly they can introduce legislation to regulate cosmetics.

That’s right. House Bill H.R. 5786 was introduced yesterday and aims to make sure that no unsafe ingerdients are used in cosmetics sold in the US. Because that, like defense of marriage, is really frigging important right now. There is NOTHING more pressing than making sure that the make-up and shampoo we use doesn’t have ingredients that aren’t approved by the FDA – an agency that is known for it’s ability to stop bad things from entering our food and drug supply.

Give me a break!! I think it’s time we recall every one of the politicians in Washington and get some new blood in there. These guys and gals are ineffective and wasting our hard earned money. I talk to people ever day about what’s on their minds and no one – not one single person i know or who is known by someone I know – has EVER mentioned that, at this point in time given what’s going on in our world, they give one good shit about cosmetic safety.

This is unbefreakingbelievable. What are these people thinking?

His answers were straight forward, honest and without any of the political horsehockey that most canidates employ to avoid actually taking a stand. I found his responses refreshing and not just because they happen to be similar to if not the same as my position on the issues. I thin Colorado could do much worse than Andrew Romanov.

I’m really looking forward to HD Video and panoramic photos as well as a faster processor and a larger screen with higher resolution.

I’ll let you know what I think of it as soon as I get it. Oh, and lsatly may I just say that switching to Verizon is the BEST wireless decision I’ve ever made. SO much better than AT&T. Not a single dropped call to date and consistently high connectivity for data and internet.

I’m excited to see competitors to Apple. I’m looking forward to checking this out.

Lately I’ve noticed a precipitous decline in professionalism from these firms. I keep an updated profile on Dice and Monster and a few other public resume databases because I can typically judge what the business climate is like by how often i get pinged by recruiters. Additionally, I like to know what kind of projects are going on in my local area and I find this is a faster way than reaching out to individuals at companies with whom I have relationships – plus I hate to bother people as we all seem to be so darned busy.

In the past two years 90%+ of the emails I receive from recruiters don’t address me by name. 60% of the emails pertain to positions for which i’m not qualified – you’d not believe the number of emails i get for developer jobs – and about 30% are so poorly formatted or worded that they are unreadable.

Typically when I receive one of these I send a canned response that tells the sender that if they don’t have the professionalism to address me by name, then don’t bother. Normally, I get no response. But sometimes I get a nice apology back and I thank that sender and we both go on with our lives.

Rarely, I get a response like this one from David Herr, Manager of Consulting Services at the Staff Aug firm York Solutions:

I’m going to pull your name from our database James. I’ve received this same goofy email from you 3 times now. We get it…you’re awesome! You’re a professional and deserve ultimate respect. I’m truly sad that the way we bring our services to market do not meet your exceedingly high expectations.

Very sorry to waste your time!

Now, I’m just puzzled by this. First and foremost, since when is common courtesy an “exceedingly high expectation”? I mean, is it really too much to ask to be treated like a human being instead of as a number?

But what’s far worse about this exchange is that David is responding to me not as David Herr a man with a different opinion than me. David is responding as a representative of York Solutions. At the end of the day I couldn’t care less whether David agrees with me or not. My opinion is mine and his is his and it doesn’t matter if they match up.But I think it’s a huge deal that David thinks it’s ok to lash out at me when he is representing York – acting as its public face.

This is unprofessional on a staggering level. Clearly David didn’t think before he sent this. He was annoyed by my mail and reacted. Which, if he had used his personal email would have been fine but he didn’t. It is this lack of thinking, lack of courtesy, lack of professionalism, lack of holding oneself to any standard of behavior that has me turned off by most staffing firms. They hire the lowest common denominator, pay them next to nothing and expect to get results for their clients. And the clients are the ones who really suffer.

I can tell you from vast personal experience that companies that employ the methods similar to York’s typically provide lower quality talent because they spend less time vetting that talent and follow the principle of “throw enough crap against the wall and some of it will stick”. That’s great for their bottom line since the cost to operate that way is less to their margin is higher. But as the client i can tell you it takes longer to complete projects, you cycle through talent more frequently because the firm doesn’t understand/care what your requirements are and it’s harder to find cultural fits, it takes more effort and energy to manage the resources you do get and it ends up costing more.

There are firms out there that are different. I’ve mentioned before that TekSystems is the most professional firm I’ve ever worked with. As part of their business model they take the time to understand the culture and environment at their clients. They spend the time to ensure they understand the projects and the needs so that when they send a candidate profile/resume over you can be sure it truly meets the requirement. Further, they meet their talent and check references before they ever submit them. Once the talent is on site, TekSystems meets with the talent and the hiring manager regularly to make sure things are going well and to stop issues before they occur.

As I said, I don’t care if David thinks I’m goofy or wrong or whatever. But I do care that he thinks it’s appropriate to lash out at me in such an unprofessional manner as a representative of York. I also think there needs to be an awareness in the staff aug industry that client’s expect more and better for their dollars and you can only provide that if you have professional recruiters who are following best practices – something York Solutions – or at least Daivd Herr – isn’t doing.

Here’s a link to an article in today’s Denver Post: http://www.denverpost.com/frontpage/ci_14935171?source=rss

So I switched to Verizon and got myself a Motorola Droid. I friggin love it!!!!

There are TONS of apps – most are free and the phone is faster than the iPhone has all the features that the iPhone has plus many the iPhone doesn’t. And i’ve yet to experience a dropped call or slow internet connection – I have even tethered it to one of my laptops and used the Droid to access the internet on my pc.

Oh and, the phone is just sexy!!

“While this decision has not been an easy one, recent events regarding Republican National Committee fundraising at Voyeur, an LA based lesbian bondage themed nightclub finally tipped the scales,” Daniels said.

I think this is just the type of person the Republicans need to reinvigorate their image and help win back control of the Government.

I’m not one to criticize the members of the US Armed Forces who are doing incredibly tough jobs in even tougher environments but this is pretty egregious.