Lost Wages

I had the opportunity to attend a management seminar this past weekend in that most decadent of American cities-Las Vegas. Departing from Charlotte Douglas airport on Thursday, I left my wife and my cat to fend for themselves for a few days while I cavorted. Well, cavorting may be a bit of a bold statement for a 51-year-old who doesn't gamble. Actually, I was a good boy. No shows, no nudies or call girls, no gambling. I was there strictly for the seminar and no more. While the seminar focused on new strategies for the e-generation and managing "outside the box" (I despise that term), I took away several ideas that should improve my grasp of the fine art of managing human resources. For example, imagine your office space without a human being in attendance...nothing but expensive, fancy paperweights and a chair that serves no purpose. Elementary, sure. Often overlooked by upper management? Too often! In this throwaway world of ours, humans are often the last resource that a company throws resources at. You can requsition new hardware and software, all the office supplies that you need, fancy phone banks, networking systems...companies don't even blink an eye. Want to add a person to the mix? Whoa Nellie! Now we're talking about training costs, insurance and benefits packages, 401K administration fees, etc. When a company downsizes, it hits the human quotient first. It doesn't look at other ways of creating revenue (which takes people to do), it only looks for short-term savings by getting rid of said people and saving the company money. Silly, I think. I say invest in your people, train them to be revenue generators, allow those that excel the space to do their jobs and provide oversight and feedback to those who are struggling. The only way to grow a company is to provide the proper fertilizer...and bullshit has never been a good fertilizer.
During my downtime I walked around and checked out the sights, ate a couple of good meals and scoped out the myriad of shows that blanket the strip. After a couple of bums approached me for money I decided to head back to the air-conditioned room and check out the local tv scene. The best idea I had the entire trip was going to the room and catching sleep. What a restful few days!
The weather in Vegas was hot, the atmosphere was dry as dust, the tourists were thick as thieves and the thieves were as thick as tourists. Thank goodness for seminars...otherwise I would have never had the desire to visit this sinful city. As it is, I now know that I don't need to go back there. For me, nothing to see here...move along.