Forget the job - give me a short term contract

My friend Julie at Churchillbrook posted a discussion recently on the trend towards short term contract employment. A real prospect in the current business climate.
It immediately triggered a thought back to the 80's and early 90's when Total Quality Management ...Business Process Re-engineering ....Management Delayering were all  collaborating to change the shape and reduce the headcount of businesses.

For those of us that were "downsized" with no job to go to it was a traumatic experience! Many were a product of the good old days, when you could leave one job and find another with ease. And I think we also had an evolutionary issue to handle (inserting a quick disclaimer on any credentials as an anthropoligist) in that we are of a culture that expects  employment to be provided! Certainly, the suggestion once made by a famous politician of that era that to find work we should  "get on our bike!" was felt to be alien to say the least!
So not surprisingly the change in employment attitudes was evolutionary rather than revolutionary ...and perhaps tribal too.
But over time - sometimes after further redundancies -people accepted that things had changed.  We had our epiphany moment and decided that being part of an establishment headcount wasn't for us! And we came to discover how good it was:
- Feeling that what we did was for ourself and getting such a buzz out of it.
- Being appreciated more for our objectivity, expertise and contribution.
- Getting the refreshing variety of a new industry or company. 
- Having that great sense of independence and control over our own life.
- And because of that - and rather unexpectedly - feeling more secure than ever before.
But it did take us a while to recognise all these benefits - where was OnWeGo when we needed it??
Commerce and industry is however more accustomed to outsourcing these days.
Even smaller enterprises where much of the hope for growth must be centred, have a more businesslike attitude when it comes to outsourcing work to freelancers. They know that they need to flex their manpower requirements up and down as they plot a path to recovery and growth out of the recession.
So the quicker we recognise how much we get out of offering the same flexibility the better.
And then everyone is a winner! 

    

Now where was I? Because it was good!

It's been a strange week in the absent-mindedness department!
Monday it was the mislaid camera charger. Having got several people searching in the different places where I insisted it would be found - I then find it hooked over the office door handle.  Everyone seemed pleased for me!
Tuesday I discover that my red polo shirt has been stolen over-night from my washing line. I work out how with trellis and posts I can extend the height of the garden fence and improve security between me and the adjacent open plot. 
Wednesday - I find red polo shirt in the laundry basket!
Thursday, after shopping for provisions and settling back at my desk, the previously-left-behind shopping list reminds me that my salmon and mackeral need to go in the 'fridge. Three circuits of the house later and with no sign of the orange plastic bag a return trip to Sainsbury's is in prospect. Thinking I'm low on milk I check the 'fridge.  I am puzzled! I already have some salmon and mackeral? Why did I buy some more?  I was obviously experiencing some form of denial.
So I decided it would be a good idea to have a quick refresher on the causes and cures of absent mindedness.
First stage of self-diagnosis. Is my problem Retrospective remembering - forgetting whether or not I have done something?  Or Prospective remembering - forgetting to do something ahead of me? Not sure I can narrow it down really as symptons exist under both headings.
So I crack on with the research, and it comes up with some familiar results - which in itself I think is an encouraging sign!  Also encouraging is the suggestion that absent-mindedness is really just a form of intensely focused concentration! 
I particularly like the suggestions offered on howstuffworks Some very practical tips like:

Get organized.
Make lists and calendars and use them.
Have a set place to keep things and stick to it.
Keep all key information in one place.
When remembering dates, 'phone numbers etc., repeat them several times until they stick.
Focus on one thing at a time.
All useful tips on how to manage so called absent-mindeness - rather than trying to stop it.
And I think that's absolutely the right attitude.
Ask any creative genius and they'll tell you that their best thoughts come whilst in a trance. Try to find an old rocker who isn't convinced he wrote his best stuff while in "another place."
So what's all the fuss about ....we're in our own "another place"
It's legal. It's free. And we're doing our best stuff!

Is it who I think it is?

"Is it who I think it is?"
"I don't know ....who do you think I am?" is the ironic reply I've often whispered back.  But not any more. That funny in others but not in yourself senior's syndrome of insisting you recognise a stranger has now smitten me. Fortunately the lady at the checkout yesterday was good natured about it. Not so sure about her husband?
So I've been looking for a cure and it could be that help is on the way. 
In some collaborative research at Pennsylvania Uni's Penn Memory Centre (how many ironic remarks must they get in a day) they've established that memory decline is related to ageing.
Well yes I knew that - although I had forgotten?
All the evidence suggests that our anterior temporal lobes are critically involved in the retrieval of people's names.  And in experiments with photographed faces the recall level of the participants was significantly improved by passing a small electrical current through these lobes.
The scientists do point out that this is not the electro-convulsive therapy famously depicted in "One flew over the cuckoo's nest!"  Be that as it may - the equipment still won't be available for £25 alongside the tens machines at my local Llloyds Pharmacy.
So - interesting but not immediately helpful!
However, of more immediate help is an excellent workbook available from http://www.mindtools.com/ which gets you practicing the association technique for remembering faces and names. Hopefully that will cure me of calling Oz "Joe" when I'm in the office on Friday - and save me from that understanding look he gives!
I also like the help suggested by some research carried out in 2008 at the University of Michigan http://tinyurl.com/236d4d that showed that talking to people can significantly improve memory.
In one of the studies a  sample of 3600 people of representative ages, demographics etc were classified according to their frequency of social contact - how often they got out and connected with people. The participants completed the mini-mental state examination and the results clearly show improving levels of success commensurate with increasing levels of social contact. The study also reports that social isolation can have detrimental effects that are both emotional and intellectual - something referred to as the "Bowling alone" syndrome.

So there's a clear message for us here my fellow OnWeGo'ers - especially those of us in the work-from-home fraternity  - get too isolated and you may not remember your own name.
Get back out there and all those hazy and forgotten facts will come clear again.
I knew my frequent coffee breaks down at Costas were for a good reason.
I wonder if Carol Vorderman will be there again tomorrow?

Doing the unexpected!

We said good-bye to Aunty Ada yesterday - bless her!

Funerals always provide that unique behavioural dilemna - mourning for the loved one that we've lost - whilst trying not to over-enjoy the fun of meeting up with cousins we've not seen since the last funeral. Given the ironic sense of humour enjoyed by our lot it's always a particular struggle. Yesterday wasn't a problem though. Ada's wicked sense of humour was soon in everyone's minds ...even the vicar's during the eulogy.
Looking around at my cousins I was reminded that Ada was the last of the previous generation. We are the "silverbacks" now. And as I chatted with cousins, nephews and nieces I sensed another unusual behavioural trait amongst us which I'm sure  is again unique to families at funerals. We began chatting about life today in that understated slightly disappointed way that you do. Then inevitably we started to reminisce over the great times when we were all much younger. 
And as we rolled back the years ...chins lifted .....voices rose ....eyes widened ...shoulders  straightened ...hands waved energetically ...feet jigged around.   The "silverbacks" were kids again!
There is a lot of evidence suggesting that enviroment and circumstance pre-dispose us to adopt an appropriate behaviour and demeanour.  That as we mature within our family and workgroup, we calm down, become less assertive, less ambitious. Because that is what is expected!
Then suddenly something triggers a change - like the recollections of the cousins - and we shed about 30 years of demeanour!
Psychologist Ellen Langer's famous 1979 research study at Harvard, recreated in a recent BBC TV programme showed how people could "lose years off their life" by being kept within a recreated retro-time environment.
The "engineering" explanation for this seems to be that as we stop doing things certain areas of our brain network become disconnected.  But only disconnected - and there are some widely endorsed remedies for restablishing those networks.

• Physical exercise, anything from walking to working out.
• Mental exercise maybe from your favourite on-line game.
• Then there are remedies that exercise the creative and learning areas such as painting or writing.
• If you're up for it why not get both and learn something physical like Tai Chi or Salsa - highly recommended!
• But if you're really serious about reconnecting those networks and firing up those neurons.  Go for the best remedy of all. 
• Get yourself out of that demeanour dulling, stress generating, decline inducing job you're in and change careers   - come on OnWeGo ...do the unexpected!

Keep challenging those life long beliefs

I'm going to my Aunty Ada's funeral next Wednesday. She was 95 bless her! I didn't see her much in recent years but I certainly remember visiting her when I was a kid!
And two things always instantly come to mind:
Digestive biscuits ...dipping into the ever available tin of rejects bought from the McVities biscuit factory where she worked.
Laughing ...all the time, at her often outrageous observations on people and life ...offered with essential amounts of "Eff 'ing and blinding!"
The influence others have on us when we are small was discussed in an article I read on Tuesday.  
It reported on research carried out by Notre Dame Psychology Professor Darcia Narvaez into changes in the child rearing practices that shape the people we become in later life. And makes the point that well-being and moral sense are potential casualties of some of the changes that are happening.
The full findings which will be presented later this month at Notre Dame included some that came as no surprise ...but one or two that did. 
Such as you can't spoil a baby! I'd always argued against picking them up too much, and in favour of letting them cry. Wrong answer! Apparently crying causes the release of toxic chemicals into the brain. Professor Narvaez's research say we should be comforting the baby and keeping its brain calm at a time when it is forming its personality.
Such questioning of the things we've always believed can leave you in a bit of a quandry when it comes to offering seasoned wisdom.

Because we do believe those things that we have always believed to be true. Those things that someone (usually Gran) told us before we had even asked the question. Things like:
"Appearance really does count" - Which probably explains why the current fashion to be tie less annoys me!
"It's rude to interrupt" - Yes, I do tend to yawn a bit when in conversation.
"Manners maketh the man! - Clearly reflected in my obsessional and occasionally irritating habits of:- holding doors open for people, refusing to start a meal until everyone is sat at the table, and staring aghast at people who sniff!
Yet I'm happy to offer out my wisdom without qualification. And as my daughter reminded me this week ..."as Silverback my opinions are noted!"
So maybe seasoned wisdom is about occasionally questioning those deeply held beliefs.
Not just because we share them with others. But because we listen to them ourselves  -especially those self-limiting ones. Those ones that stop you from doing new things ...just because!! 
So no disrespect Gran. But to be true to OnWeGo beliefs I think we may have to look at one or two of yours, especially  "Accept where you are in life and be grateful."
But I tell you what Gran.  Aunty Ada was absolutely right with what she taught me - Compared to McVities those other Digestives are xxxxxxg rubbish !