#((Alas there are things called public decency and not getting too much attention))

[dcggersedge]

🎄

What was this ridiculous sprig of green and red? A single irritated gander directed toward sky and ceiling provisioned that answer. Rafal grunted, the low hanging brush of prickly leaves swept aside by his waving hand, thoughts to follow within ear shot of the companion at his side as if she might wield better understanding of it. Wise over man made triviality was this dragon not.

"Mistle. . .toe, is it? Such strange and groundless tradition that humankind conjures into being." Nigh incomprehensible to the spiritless denizens of a long dead Gradlon, a land dreary always, and festive never. The greater layer of lunacy at hand; one could scarcely fathom the origins of a tradition dedicated solely to bringing mouths together and minds in embarrassed conflict.

What was the purpose; did people welcome this opportunity, enjoy it, the casting off of inhibition and propriety for the fleeting union beneath a accursed leaf? Perhaps there were room to find out for oneself.

"Well. I am at least aware of the rules. In accordance with them, I could begin to imagine that we are at a stalemate." There was nothing stopping Rafal from moving on, but still he stayed within an inch of Yunaka. He crossed his arms, steadily rooted on his heels. Gaze lowered to surveil her. . .why was it that his eyes lidded, too? "How exactly is it to be broken, Yunaka?" A curious and meandering nonchalance, born with every intent to find out.

"Perhaps, just perhaps, you can show me."

'tis the season | accepting!

Man. He was so lucky that he was pretty. It almost made up for how annoying he could be.

Even as she rolls her eyes, she's smiling. Oh, sure, he totally hates the tradition so much that he's going to stick around just to find out just how much he hates it. Totally believable and real. She wonders if he hears how he sounds when he talks like that, or if he's just so confident in himself that it doesn't even register as silly. She wishes she had that kinda energy.

"Stalemate? Sounds like you're just making up an excuse to hand me a win." The proud and scary dragon could never be the one to admit that he just wanted a kiss. Absolutely not. Yunaka leans back against the doorframe with a tilt to her head, like she's trying to think. "What does that make it now? Like, a million to one, for me? You're slacking, Rafal."

Now, how does she want to enjoy her win?

"There's lots of ways we could break it, I think." Casually, she reaches out and places a hand on his arm. She slides it along until she can wrap around his wrist and pull it free. From there, her grip shifts, until she's holding his hand like a knight might take their lord's.

"We can do something boring and simple that gets the job done." Her first suggestion is punctuated by the press of her lips to the back of his hand. Her eyes never leave his, watching for any hint of fluster. She wants her win to be sweet, after all.

But that's boring. She didn't hang around Rafal because he was boring. And just a kiss to the lips was so predictable.

"Or, if we wanted something a little more bold..." There's a few ideas, but none of which she wants to do where someone might pass by and see. She moves his hand, still keeping it near her, still keeping the back of it facing her. She pushes lightly, until she's able to get him to hold his ring finger just a little separate from the others.

Enough that she can bite down on it. Not hard, just enough for the threat of teeth to be felt, right where an Emblem Ring would have sat. Sharp eyes still watch, this time with a promise.

A little more bold, if they have the privacy.

[robert-c]

Big Business vs Small Business

I admit to having a love/hate relationship with both sides of this title. 

The Big Business can accomplish things through economies of scale that are completely unthinkable to the small business. Its command of capital makes virtually all significant research and discovery possible because investing in the unknown is both risky and costly, even if the payoff (admittedly most often a long shot) can be huge.

However, Big Businesses tend to be overly conservative, as in risk avoidance. The momentum of what has worked for them in the past tends to blind management from thinking of something new. The people who rise to the top in such a business tend to be unimaginative, status quo keepers. Right up until bankruptcy, the argument that following what we know has been true in the past always seems to make more sense, because it appears to be less risky and in some minds “more prudent”.

While Big Businesses often do get away with treating their employees unfairly, they are the easier to force into compliance with regulations and laws due to their public profile as long as others are willing to make a concerted effort at exposing their illegal behavior. (And as long as the mindless, blind faith believers in the goodness of big business don’t make too much of an impact.)

Small Businesses are the soul of invention and creation. They are often captained by people whose vision was ignored by their former big business employers. Their close contact with their employees, who make their business successful, gives them a chance to ensure their vision is implemented correctly. This contact usually (but alas not always) makes them willing to treat their employees as well as the business can afford. Unfortunately without the resources of the big business, wages and benefits typically suffer by comparison to the larger organization.

At the same time, by virtue of their size, they are often exempt from many regulations put in place to protect applicants and employees from discrimination and to provide minimal employee benefits. Because the Small Business is typically totally owned by a single individual, or family, there are little to no checks and balances to protect against the failings of the owner. The confidence to strike out on one’s own is a rare and special quality; which sometimes can lead to arrogant and egotistical behavior that ignores or discounts the contributions of others, and blocks consideration of any idea or advice that doesn’t originate in their own head. Worse still is the thought that their employees should feel honored and consider it a privilege to help the owner achieve their dreams. All too often they treat the personal lives of employees as if they were somehow under the control of the business because of the presumption that they might reflect poorly on the owner.

I’ve seen some Big Businesses try to act like the small ones. A charismatic CEO seeks to impose his vision on the whole organization and talks the talk of all employees having a stake in the business and the authority to do their jobs as if they “owned the business”. But in practice, the ideas flow only from the top down, others never make it up the chain, and employees soon realize that they can act as if they owned the business only so long as they can successfully act like the CEO would in each case. Not surprisingly, few employees choose to risk their jobs on their ability to “read the mind” of the boss.

While I doubt any Big Business has really managed to capture the nimbleness and commitment of the best of the small businesses, I’m willing to admit to the possibility. At the same time I would be more suspicious the more the business tries to advertise itself that way. Because committing resources to image making is exactly the sort of thing a Big Business can afford to do much more easily than actually becoming that sort of entity.

In my consulting career I had hoped to help Small Businesses by giving them the tools and expertise of the large businesses at rates they could afford. It was my hope and belief that the innovation and enthusiasm of the Small Business coupled with the techniques of the big business could make them even more successful. It was to be the validation of the free enterprise system’s competition mythos beating the power of moneyed big business. Though I had some successes, I discovered that there were a lot more of the Small Businesses that were just the tiny fiefdoms of petty tyrants than there were those who understood the value of consistent policies and procedures.

So here I am, at the end of a long career of trying to be professional and fair and encourage better practices for businesses of all sizes. The harshest lesson I have learned is that egotistical and greedy people out for power and/or money seem to dominate too many of the roles in businesses (big and small) and that it is only law, regulation and vigilance that keeps them from even more disastrous cutting of corners on safety, quality and basic human decency. It isn’t just the decision makers and their cheerleaders who are to blame. It’s also all of the rest of us who fail to realize that “capitalism” can be the incentive for this sort of anti-social behavior, and that even at its very best, it is biased in favor of short term results.

When touting the successes of capitalism let’s not overlook the role public incentive played in some of our greatest and most important developments.

A transcontinental railway, that knitted together a diverse and far flung country, bringing goods from one coast to the other much more rapidly, and spurring all sorts of businesses. Who knows when such an effort would have been completed without land grants to the railroads. In a purely “free market” the payoff would have seemed far off and hard to control especially since so many other businesses (and the people) could potentially benefit from the effort.

The Federal promotion of the Interstate highway system (as a grander follow up to establishment of “US” highways) certainly gave the automotive industry quite a boost; as well as trucking companies, providing viable competition to rail.

The space program and the race to the moon may have been born of a cold war rivalry and image grandstanding, but the innovations engendered by that program kicked computers, satellites and a whole host of technologies into high gear and rapid development. Even beyond the electronics, materials science benefited from the seeds planted in the early research to achieve these goals.

I’m happy when businesses, large or small, can make improvements in the cost or range of options (while keeping the quality) of any good or service. But I’m also mindful that in addition to sometimes needing a boost to move in the right direction, they also sometimes need a brick wall to stop them from moving in another.

Call me whatever name makes you feel comfortable (socialist, communist, etc.); it will only underline your ignorance of their definitions. I am not now, and never will be again, a devotee of laissez faire capitalism. I believe it works best when it is regulated to enforce some consideration for the general welfare and safety of the consumers and employees who actually make a business a success. It succeeds in its promise of a better life and opportunity for all where there are legal disincentives to counter the very real financial incentives to “do it on the cheap”, to play fast and loose with the truth, etc. The excuse of profit cannot be an unimpeachable defense for every decision. As much as we all like to imagine ourselves as powerful individuals, free to act as we wish, perhaps to one day be a “billionaire”, I think it’s time to temper that image with one that is a bit more realistic; one where we acknowledge that almost nothing is accomplished by someone truly on their own and alone, unconnected to others.

Even the “pulp fiction” of the nineteenth century that glorified the possibility of rising to success from humble beginnings recognized “luck” as a factor, (e.g. Horatio Alger’s “Luck and Pluck” among others). So even the myth-makers of this rags to riches version of capitalism acknowledged that other factors had to be in play, beyond hard work and good ideas.

So big business or small there are challenges to do it right.

If you are a Big Business, instead of seeking to be seen as an “employer of choice”, BE that employer. Walk the talk of employees being able to do the right thing for customers on their own decision. Respect the ideas of the professionals who work for the company when they have ideas or reservations about managements’ ideas. Instead of meetings where all we hear about are the grand plans of the executive council, how about basic education about the business and solicitation of ideas about strategies going forward? WHEN these ideas are gathered and evaluated management can come back with a meeting about executive plans with clear answers to why this path was selected over others. NOW with everyone understanding the plan they will be in a better position to support it with their own decisions. And since none of these decisions can be made perfectly, perhaps (humbling as it may seem) management should establish and communicate the criteria which will mean the current strategy has failed and open the discussion up to a new approach. Despite the apparent awkwardness of such an idea, it is a whole lot better than the pretense that nothing has gone wrong, which fools no one you would really want working for you.

If you are a Small Business you may already enjoy the benefit of everyone understanding what the business is about and what needs to be done to succeed. What you need to be mindful of is the lack of attentiveness to ideas from any level of the staff as well as inconsistencies in policies and pay that reflect personal biases.

It truly is my fervent hope that all businesses will be successful by doing the right things by their employees and customers. When they don’t, I consider it a failing of our cultural morality as well as a failure of regulation and law.