#and meanwhile everyones like '100% remote? you poor thing :('

[crplpunkklavier]

the pandemic was and still is a horrifying threat but there was something about returning to my old job after my country's very first lockdown and like, finding that my female coworkers had stopped wearing makeup every day, my male coworkers had grown out their hair and beards, and like half of us were suddenly fat and the other half was suddenly jacked because we'd all out found what mattered to US and ONLY us in those months we'd spent locked up with ourselves...... imagine a world where everyone had been allowed to actually finish that thought instead of being forced to return to the grind as if nothing had ever happened

[arcticdementor]

Discussions of genes and behavior results in a lot of what I’d call lawyering. That is, there’s a ton of nibbling around the edges of the argument to disqualify the debate rather than grappling with the heady philosophical issues straight on. I’ve complained about this in relation to the definition of “heritable” in the past - yes, there are some conceptual and linguistic complexities there, but many debates get derailed by quibbling over that term rather than getting to the meat of how we might act in a world where we knew human talents were influenced by our genes. And this seems pointed, to me, in the sense that I think the avoidance aspect of these debates is the whole point. People just do not want to engage with this stuff. With the publication of Gideon Lewis-Kraus’s recent New Yorker article, there’s been heroic amounts of lawyering going on.

…

I don’t want to pick on Quiggin here, as there’s a lot of people expressing this sentiment. But I find this attitude… a little crazy? If human beings are in any sense unequal in their innate cognitive and behavioral abilities, in the way we all accept they are in their athletic abilities, then this has massive policy and politics implications. I wrote a whole book about one obvious place where there are profound policy consequences, which is in education. And nowhere was blank slate thinking more destructive in education policy than with No Child Left Behind.

NCLB was, notoriously, a massive disaster. It was so obviously a disaster, in fact, that when the endless war between Barack Obama and the Republican Congress was at its height, the two sides still came together to get rid of the law. What made NCLB such a profound failure? Well, for one thing, the collision of Common Core and NCLB created onerous testing requirements that drove parents to rebel and passed down huge costs to states, resulting in the opt-out movement that has become woven into today’s social justice movement. More relevant here, NCLB essentially mandated perpetual improvement in student scores and in effect demanded 100% compliance with state standards. Schools that failed to meet these requirements faced harsh sanctions. This resulted in both states and the feds devising workarounds for what was the law of the land - states set standards that were so low it strained the very definition of a standard, and the Obama Department of Education issued exemptions by the bushel. It turns out that you can do a lot of talking tough about how you’re going to insist on excellence, but that doesn’t change the fact that excellence can never be mandated, particularly when dealing with the crooked timber of humanity. And while NCLB is gone, its replacement (the Every Student Succeeds Act) still enshrines unmeetable goals for our education system, just largely toothless ones. Meanwhile, states, schools, and teachers continue to shoulder the burden of the “no excuses” rhetoric that led to No Child Left Behind.

I really must underline this point. A little back-of-the-envelope math suggests that more than 100,000 public school teachers in this country operate under merit pay systems. Those teachers are seeing their wages fluctuate based on the outcomes of their students. Thousands of teachers in this country have been fired (or had their contracts not renewed) on the basis of poor academic performance in their classrooms, and hundreds of schools nationwide have been closed based on test scores and other quantitative educational metrics. But this whole edifice depends on the notion that student outcomes are more or less under the control of schools and teachers. If, on the other hand, we pay attention to decades of research, the experience of many teachers, and common sense, we would rather assume that different people have different levels of intrinsic underlying academic ability, and that this inequality prompts the remarkable stability of relative academic performance over time. And if we thought that way, we would have never passed NCLB in the first place. A truly ruinous law, passed with great fanfare by liberals and conservatives working together, would have been avoided had we taken genetic influence on cognition seriously. How could you say that this scenario doesn’t have policy relevance, Dr. Quiggin?

“No excuses” thinking was always based on blank slatism. The entire school reform movement was predicated on the assumption that talk of inherent ability was just excuse making, lazy teachers and corrupt unions trying to shirk their professional responsibilities. That movement, though wounded in the present moment, has had immense political and policy consequences. Meanwhile, speaking as someone who reads a lot of education research, the topic of student ability sort of flits around the field, not expressly forbidden but rigorously avoided. In study after study, including ones that expressly seek to understand parental influence, the question of any given student’s inherent tendency to struggle or excel is studiously avoided. Similarly, wonks of all types who work at nonprofits and in media conspicuously avoid discussing whether everyone has the same academic potential. When inherent ability is referenced at all in the literature it tends to be a vague handwave that does not factor into the final analysis. But if what we’re interested in is how people learn and why some succeed and some fail, this is totally nuts!

…

Again, I’m left with the same basic point: it is not remotely scientifically contentious to say that literally all elements of our physiological selves are influenced by our genome. If that’s true, how could it possibly be the case that there is no influence of our genes on our behavior or cognition, which arise from the physical bodies that we all acknowledged are built by DNA? That notion is so obviously untrue that almost no one is willing to come out and state it directly. But since denialists also don’t want to acknowledge that it’s unthinkable that our genomes could mean everything to our bodies but nothing to our behavior, they partake in the previously-mentioned lawyering as a means of avoidance. I have already read several reactions to Dr. Harden’s book that fixate on minute details, the typical methodological criticisms of kinship studies and GWAS, without once engaging with the question of whether it’s even remotely conceivable that bodies that are built with DNA can house minds that are completely uninfluenced by that DNA. But that’s the fundamental question, the essence of this whole debate. If given perfectly matched environments, will two people with different genomes have the exact same outcomes? And how could such a condition square with 150+ years of research suggesting that genes change everything?

Also, to return to Quiggin’s tweet, we are already changing the gene pool. Assortative mating, which has massively increased in recent decades, is among other things an effort in genetic engineering. Mate selection among humans is a very complicated thing, but there’s no doubt that we are in part selecting for reproductive fitness, broadly defined. If someone decides that they want to partner up with someone else because that person will help provide financial stability - a very common concern in marriage and a perfectly legitimate one - that person is, to some degree, selecting based on genes. Physical attraction is also, among other things, related to our perceptions of the desirability of the genes that potential partner might pass on to our children. But of course it is; we are the products of evolution, and evolution forces us to want to produce offspring who are more likely to produce lots of offspring. Those professional class liberals who are delaying marriage and kids until later and later in life are practicing excruciatingly exacting mate selection, looking for just the right person to make some babies with. That is genetic engineering; the fact that it’s the polite kind does not change the fact that, if such trends continue, on a long enough timescale we will have a rigidly stratified species based on genetic parentage. I do not need to share the extremely durable research showing that more highly-educated parents have more highly-educated children, which has serious consequences even if you suppose that influence is entirely environmental. If it’s even partially genetic, the consequences are civilization-altering. But how can we think through that condition if we must pretend genes and behavior are totally disconnected?

[all-of-your-mercy]

Despite treating my blog as a way to freely express and provide personal perspectives of how I portray specific ideas / items ( that usually fall into something that's related to me ) and often have a negative undertone around them

I do truly aim to recover from past things that lead to me with such ideas / perspectives, and I do truly aim to develop new forms of thinking that lean into a more positive outlook.

Honestly? It's always been too fucking hard. You'd think I could just be 3 steps into something that's getting better, then I get FUCKED with intensive forms of emotions ( and they are never good to begin with ) and I fall back -100 steps and back to the amateur level at handling things.

I hate not having remote opportunities for resources to get better, I hate the possibility of being seen vulnerable in the eyes of my relatives or anyone close to me because I see the lack of positivity / mental stability as failure.

I have close people, yeah, I could always talk to them. But I hate It, you know? Everyone has some sort of issue and I hate being a part of someone's build up of bad events(TM) because now they know someone who's going through something pretty fucking intense. It could make them think that their feelings are lesser to what they are going through now, or have them believe that they are incapable of help, just because one's mind is just too stubborn for rational thinking or remote stability and their advice ends up unheard by the stubborn mind.

I can't help it, but I hate expressing anything to anyone / anything. I loathe the concept of journals, I loathe the idea of sharing my mind because I already have a low circle of who I can really express to. They are individuals with their own issues; to begin with.

I hate the fact that past events, past encounters of people made me escalate to having some sort of inferiority and superiority complex altogether. I always see myself lesser than anyone, yet GOD forbid I don't aim to be overly better to fill some fucking temporary ego gauge; that probably even exists because that's how I evolved my acceptance to anything remotely good said about me, going too far with It because I've had the good words so rare for me, that I have to put remote shit like this to a high pedestal and treat it as a reason that "hey! I'm not as bad as you think! someone said I'm nice to them!". Meanwhile people are supposed to be half and half on the "goodness" level.

I can't help to strive so hard to be seen as a good person, so at least I can see others perspectives about me, that aren't just pure hatred compared to how I have it for myself.

I feel like THIS is the reason why I'm simply prone to losing connections / relationships / etc. It's my die hard strive to be seen as SO good, that when I'm at my worse -- My dysfunctions, my TENDENCY to isolate myself heavily and rid of people during my MOST vulnerable status destroys everything I achieve.

I feel like at this rate, I had become just a shell of what my young self strongly expected. My young self expected me to BLOSSOM both appearance wise and personal growth and I just became this constantly-depressed bitter individual with constant rejective sensitivity dysphoria events that lead them to even suicidal ideas; with rare desires to even ACT up on them. Still growing up being seen as unattractive or hardly appealing, because, hey! Who knew my low self esteem and self hatred will manifest into some shit like body dysmorphia!

Yes, I do use specific terminologies for things because It's the best way I can describe them. I am just aware that a person shouldn't go through this shit so strongly and have such a strongly poor perception of themselves. That's why I state them.

Who knew I would spiral into this form rambling because I'm going through intensive feelings again and do feel like this.

I will end up waking up tomorrow, feeling like absolute PISS because I've essentially showed extreme signs of insecurity / vulnerability, isolate myself further because I feel like I'm WORTHY of it, run myself on auto pilot during my studies because GOD forbid someone saw me vulnerable at school. God forbid a school connected to another one, containing both adults who study a profession and those who go through high school AND the profession would see me remotely vulnerable. I already just want to neck myself at the thought of it.

I do feel like I have failed everything I could at this age. I feel like this particular age ( the twenties(TM) ) was supposed to be the age where I could achieve remotely something.

I haven't.

Nothing of skills wise, nothing really worthy of recognition or notice. Not even long-term relationships / friendships because of own dysfunction and self destruction of those things. Nothing that could make me feel like I have actually done something in my life at all. Nothing I could remember for a longer time, because those events are just one day dopamine fillers and wouldn't reside with me forever in my mind. And I have to life with that thought for my life.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 109: Rescue Exercise

Previously on BnHA: Bakugou and Deku’s groups met up after passing phase one of the exam. Bakugou eyed Deku and was all, “I see you made that *~*~*BORROWED POWER*~*~* your own,” which caused me to lose my shit, but then he walked off without saying anything further. Aoyama and Iida were big damn heroes, but Aoyama really took the cake, firing up his laser and using it as a beacon to draw in the remaining class 1-A strays so that they could all regroup and pass. Which they did, with not a second to spare. Back in the anteroom, the 100 remaining examinees were directed to watch as the examiners demolished the testing field with a series of explosions, and then announced that phase two of the exam would be a rescue operation.

Today on BnHA: The exam guys explain that the second part of the test will involve rescuing old folks and little kids from a mock disaster site. The “victims” are professional actors who basically do this for a living. While the group waits for phase two to begin, Sero gossips to the others about Deku and the Weird Naked Girl from Shiketsu Academy. Meanwhile a polite Yeti from Shiketsu comes to apologize to Bakugou on behalf of his dick classmate (the meat lump guy from a couple chapters ago). Shouto goes up to Yoarashi and is all “is it just me or do you hate my guts” and Yoarashi is all “yeah I do, cuz your eyes remind me of Endeavor’s.” Phase two begins and the kids set off a-rescuin’. Deku gets chewed out for not being smiley enough, but recovers. Ochako decides she’s going to stop acting like she’s in a shoujo manga for the time being, which, finally!! The exam continues, with a plot twist or two very clearly on the horizon.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 148 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

~new volume time~!

oh. yeahhh

now that’s the shit I do like. my boys being two sides of the same coin

and in the background it looks like Yoarashi and Todoroki are indeed being rivals, and Todo looks to be embracing his fire side at long last!

and is that Gang Orca just randomly there in the background also or what

anyway

“IT’S ABOUT YOUR QUIRK FUCKWIPE”

(ETA: after this volume, FA got a new translator, and I feel like this was the original translator’s last hurrah lol. to be fair, the guy apparently had a ton of impact on early BnHA fandom. he was even the one who came up with “quirk” as a translation for kosei which obviously stuck. but all the same, I’ve definitely noticed a steep drop in the number of profanities uttered in FA’s translations since he left.)

oh my god shit’s gonna hit the fan. fucking finally. they wouldn’t have brought it up out of the blue in the previous chapter unless things were about to come to a head! I smell another Kacchan essay coming on before these next nine chapters are done

wow look at this title page though

Todoroki looks very ~moody~ here and I can’t help but feel more daddy angst is on the horizon. there’s got to be some reason why the otherwise stand-up guy Yoarashi keeps looking at him like he smells something bad

yay the character page has the characters in action again instead of just profile pictures of them! for a little while I was afraid Horikoshi was running out of steam to keep doing these. I really like them every time he does one and this is no exception

Bakugou looks like he’s gotten more jacked. been hittin the gym

is Tokoyami using Dark Shadow to fly...? can he do that?

Rat Principal’s just sitting there in All Might’s lap. interesting to see him here; I assume this means more plot stuff is on the horizon. WHO IS THE TRAITOR

poor Kirishima, shown here a split second away from falling flat on his face

Jirou is perfect as always, I wonder if she’s ever not been perfect

go away Mineta

anyways. on to the chapter

so the first thing I wondered upon reading this opening panel (“we’ll be having you conduct rescues as ‘bystanders’ at this disaster site”) is, what the fuck do they mean by “bystanders.” but thankfully the kids are asking the exact same thing

oh, you did it as a lesson once. REMEMBER? no I don’t fucking remember because I wasn’t there. I can’t believe you did a bystander rescue lesson without me. fuck you guys!

they’re saying that they won’t be acting as ordinary citizens, but as people who’ve already secured a provisional license. so basically, heroes who happened to be onsite during the disaster

and there are the old men and kids we saw earlier

I wonder if they’re going to purposely make things as difficult for the rescuers as possible

wow, apparently they all do this professionally. they’ve got fake blood and everything

the exam guy is saying they work for the “Help Us Company” or HUC for short. haha I love this

so okay, the examinees have to rescue them and do it as professionally as possible. but are there any other crazy requirements for this exam like there have been with all of the other ones

wow, apparently not. “this time you and your rescue efforts will be graded via points.” how curiously normal. almost suspiciously so

Iida and Deku are staring at the field

if that’s the case, I wonder is it just a rescue operation then, or did they hire any actors to possibly play villains as well...? like, exactly how realistic are they going for here

anyway, the resemblance seems to make this more personal for them. Deku’s looking serious and determined. “let’s give it our best shot”

hoh boy Sero is coming over to Kami and Mineta and says he has something to tell them, and immediately you know it’s gonna be about that naked chick from Shiketsu

I’m so torn on this because. basically they think Deku was fooling around with her and they’re like “WHAT, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE EXAM??” and caught somewhere in between outraged and impressed. but like, they’re horny teenage boys and of course they’re gonna be interested

really, if it was just Sero and Kaminari (a.k.a. the two that actually respect their fellow students and haven’t groped and/or attempted to peep on and/or raid their underwear and/or all of the other disgusting things Mineta has done or tried to do), I wouldn’t mind it, because really they’re just gossiping and fantasizing. but as usual Mineta ruins everything

ffff okay screw it, this is pretty funny. I mostly just like that they all think Deku’s got game now. and this girl is not helping at all

now they’re all disappearing in a cloud of angry fight smoke (as one does), and Ochako is staring

c’mon Ochako you know he wouldn’t do you like that. you know him better than that

over by the refreshments table, some guys from Shiketsu are coming over to say hi to Bakugou

they’re asking did Seiji go after him and he’s like “yeah and I knocked his punk ass out”

this sasquatch-looking guy is apologizing for Seiji’s behavior. hmmm

hmmmmm. is this sincere? I don’t fucking trust anyone from any of these other schools until the exam is finally over

everyone else is skeptical too lol

Todoroki is remembering Yoarashi’s >:( face from earlier and is like, then wtf was up with that

Shouto they all have hats. be fucking specific

obviously he’s talking to Yoarashi though

so he’s asking if he did something

Yoarashi’s turning to him like

“no. absolutely nothing at all”

haha. no, actually he’s addressing him as “son of Endeavor.” so yeah I’m starting to get an inkling here that he doesn’t like Todoroki’s dad

okay, whoa

okay, HOLD UP. you come into my house and you come up to my son who’s already been through enough dad-related trauma for a lifetime and who already has ten thousand hang-ups about being too similar to his dad, and who is actually THE SWEETEST BOY WHO EVER LIVED, TRUFAX, and you go up to him and you say you don’t like him because HIS EYES ARE THE SAME AS ENDEAVOR’S? Yoarashi, I’ll have you know that I liked you. but if it’s going to be like that, I WILL MAKE YOU MY ADVERSARY IN A HEARTBEAT and don’t think for a second that I won’t!!

AND HE’S REALLY GOING OFF NOW WITHOUT EVEN FUCKING EXPLAINING WHY HE DOESN’T LIKE ENDEAVOR AND WHY HE’S CONDEMNED SHOUTO TO NOT BEING LIKED JUST BECAUSE OF HIS JERK DAD

ARE YOU TRYING TO UNDO ALL THAT SHIT DEKU WORKED SO HARD FOR DURING THE SPORTS FESTIVAL ARC?? DEKU’S ARMS DIED FOR THIS

and I’m not sure if Deku actually saw all of this happening, but now he’s asking if Todoroki is okay

or at least he starts to, but then this girl whose name I unfortunately forgot (hold on I’ll look it up again... Camie) is bidding him farewell and he’s getting distracted by that. and then immediately Kami and Mineta are tearing into him again

meanwhile Ochako is staring at Camie with a weirdly contemplative look

jealousy!?!??! like, is it not obvious?? there’s a whole shipping thing that Horikoshi is trying to do with you and Deku here, but I’m really skeptical of his ability to pull it off even remotely gracefully. but it sure doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere so I guess WE SHALL SEE

whoa now all of a sudden a voice is blaring over the speakers and interrupting all of their teenage shenanigans

finally. Todoroki angst aside, that was beginning to get tiresome

and here they go!

I wonder if they’re also going to be tested on their ability to work with the kids from the other schools here. because in a real life rescue effort, they’d have to put aside their differences. and that scene just before this sure did a good fucking job of establishing that various people here all have various beefs. I hope they don’t get sidetracked by that

so they’re all setting off, and they’re wondering how they’re going to be graded. well, my speculation is that the ones who bring the others together and work cooperatively will get the highest score. in other words, I think this test is going to weed out the ones with too much ego, among other things

so, Bakugou... lol. good luck kiddo

(ETA: sob)

like two seconds in and they already stumbled upon a crying little kid

oh shit these instructors are not fucking around

DEKU YOU FUCKED UP SOMEHOW

he’s screaming at him why didn’t he check if he was okay first, look at all the blood on him, etc.

he says heroes with provisional licenses need to be able to judge the victims’ situations at a glance. well thank you for the helpful hint dude

someone from another school is saying that they’re going to mark the area as dangerous, and someone else is saying no, make it a wider area because we don’t know if the damage might spread

someone else is making roads and helipads

and some of Ms. Joke’s kids are setting up a temporary refuge and triage station

Aizawa’s rubbing his head and says he knew his kids would fall behind when it came to this sort of thing. well how much training have they had for this?

okay this is actually really interesting. this is something we haven’t gotten into at all yet

and that kid that was yelling at Deku says that most of all, a hero’s first words upon arriving at the scene shouldn’t be, “OH NO THAT’S TERRIBLE,” but rather...

wow Deku you really did fuck up, huh. wasn’t this the entire reason you wanted to be a hero in the first place?

but thanks again HUC kid for your free advice

so now Deku is snapping himself out of it and getting his game face on

I kinda wish his game face wasn’t so cuddly, but I’ll take it

now the HUC kid is immediately getting back in character and telling Deku to go save his grandpa

so Deku’s directing the others to go help gramps while he takes the kid to the first aid station

Ochako is just STANDING THERE WATCHING HIM

I don’t know but get a move on, girl, I need you to get your license too so you can become even more of a badass

she’s thinking that she needs to push aside all of her DO YOU LOVE HIM??? feelings

and that whenever she sees Deku acting like that and never giving up, she thinks it’s just so cool

well, good, because this is the provisional license exam arc, not the Can These Two Crazy Kids Really Make It After All arc. we’re barely a hundred chapters in; there’s still plenty of time for that shit later down the line

and thankfully the last page seems to be introducing some sort of twist, because things were getting a little too straightforward for a finale lol

is that Todoroki? I can’t tell what’s going on. I GUESS I’ll just have to keep reading, oh well

 BONUS:

  Chewbacca here is first mate on a ship that might suit us

whaaaaaaaat he’s the class rep?? okay then, I guess that was a sincere offer of friendship. this guy seems like a solid bro

apparently he can freely manipulate his hair and make it longer and such. “though it’s tough how often it tangles up on him.” that sounds troublesome

I like him. Nagamasa... I’ll try to remember that

[beccaland]

What are your opinions on the RTD era's companions' relationship with the Doctor? 'Cos personally, they bother me a little sometimes, and I was curious what your opinion was.

Yeah, they bother me a little too. I’m actually going to share some thoughts about the characters themselves, as well as their respective relationships to the Doctor. Partly, I want to do that because not to do so would be an injustice to the characters. So, here goes.

Rose (and Mickey a bit, because you can’t really separate an analysis of their characters and he’s a companion too):

Rose is a charismatic character, and I think just right for relaunching the series. She’s young and displays many of the flaws of young people, yet in other ways is more mature than other adults, including her own mum–indeed Rose is often seen taking on a role of parenting her parent. While Jackie seems content to live off the dole, Rose has a job. It’s not a particularly good job, but she seems to be given a fair bit of trust and responsibility, probably above what her official position warrants, which suggests that she’s earned the admiration and reliance of her boss–and given her home life, that’s not surprising. Rose is clearly used to having to be more responsible than her peers. She’s vibrant, curious, compassionate, and brave.

She also takes advantage of Mickey’s affection for her, perhaps without realizing it (at least at first). She’s pretty judgy generally, and she’s not above using the Doctor as well. This suggests that despite (perhaps in part because of) being brought up by an emotionally immature parent and having to take on a lot of responsibility before she was really old enough to bear it, Rose is quite selfish.

Now, as to her relationship to the Doctor, meeting him does two things for her: it gives her an apparently easy escape from a life she feels trapped in, and it gives her the opportunity to develop a relationship with someone unlike anyone she’s ever known, who seems to see potential in her far beyond what any other person in her life has ever shown (especially Jackie and Mickey), and who is both willing and able to protect her and to care about what she feels and wants. Am I saying the Doctor started out as more of a parent-substitute than a boyfriend? Yes I am. Is that kind of creepy? I think so. But not necessarily more creepy than him being her boyfriend, given the age gap.

OK, so Rose gives Mickey a kiss and obliquely tells him “thanks for nothing” before swanning off with the Doctor. By the time she comes back, a year has passed for everyone she knows but just one day for her. This causes ENORMOUS problems for Jackie and Mickey in particular, and she does seem genuinely sorry (well, sorry to Jackie–she seems mostly annoyed with Mickey’s anger AT BEING SUSPECTED OF MURDERING HER. BECAUSE SHE RAN OFF WITH AN ALIEN). This gets swiftly brushed aside by alien shenanigans, and Rose swans off again–leaving Mickey apparently in some doubt as to their relationship status. The nature of her relationship to the Doctor is also left ambiguous at this point, but she’s clearly not thinking of him as “substitute for parental acknowledgement and affection” anymore. She flirts like crazy with Jack who flirts like crazy with both her and the Doctor and both she and the Doctor seem vaguely jealous of the other’s attention to Jack. Back to Mickey meeting them in Wales, who apparently STILL DOESN’T KNOW that Rose has basically dumped him, and does she make that clear? No, but the Doctor is acting more and more like a jealous boyfriend (and really doesn’t stop treating Mickey like garbage until the poor guy saves them and stays behind in Pete’s World, thus earning his respect, I guess, and also removing the threat), and none of this is Mickey’s fault. He’s astute enough to see, at least, that the Doctor and Rose’s relationship is destructive to others.

After the Doctor regenerates, they’re 100% in couple mode, with Rose referring to the events of S1E2 as their “first date” and the Doctor happily assenting to this characterization (has Rose actually broken up with Mickey yet? Honestly can’t remember, but I don’t think Mickey knew it if she had). The Doctor and Rose have a deeply codependent relationship. We might attribute this to her dysfunctional relationship with Jackie and the Doctor’s recent PTSD. They latch onto each other like needy puppies, and this isn’t a criticism, because there are really people who fit these profiles, and they are not bad people, and it does make for interesting characters and good storytelling, but it’s by no means a healthy depiction of a relationship.

Consider, for instance, that the Doctor tries to send her away (no doubt he felt he was making a noble sacrifice, but he did this against her clear and repeatedly expressed wishes, and with the complicity of Pete). Rose ignores the Doctor’s clearly expressed wishes and comes back, which, fair enough I guess, but it all ends in tragedy anyway. So what does he do? HE BURNS UP AN ENTIRE SUN just so he can say goodbye. I mean, I’m sure he verified it was not an inhabited solar system, but seriously. In that goodbye chat, he specifically tells her that they cannot get across the barrier between universes because “the whole thing would fracture. Two universes would collapse.”

Does Rose accept the judgment of the person who is unquestionably the foremost person in either universe able to evaluate the risk of such an attempt? No she doesn’t. We learn in series 4 that even before the stars started going out, she was having Torchwood build a DIMENSION CANNON to P U N C H. A. H O L E. IN THE UNIVERSES!!! like presumably as many as it took for her to find the right one. Just so she could get back to him. AFTER HE MADE IT CLEAR THAT IS NOT WHAT HE WANTED. BECAUSE IT WOULD DESTROY THEM. This is portrayed as romantic rather than horrific. Seriously. And then he dumps his problematic clone on her and goes back to his own universe. SO ROMANTIC. Sorry, I try not to be rude about Rose’s relationship with the Doctor. I think it’s actually an interesting dynamic that makes sense in context, but it really bugs me that so many people view it unproblematically, and it bugs me even more that people don’t imagine both Rose and the Doctor growing out of it. Like, I can’t lie: I think that’s wacked and super unhealthy, in much the same way (though to a lesser degree) as the Twilight series and its fans are, except Doctor Who is still better-written and far more interesting.

That said, I’d be willing to read a well-written fix-it fic that depicts them growing out of their unhealthy codependent dynamic while staying together romantically. TBH I’d be more interested if it were Rose and Tentoo because then it would be canon-compliant, but I’m not too picky on that point. I AM picky about it not even remotely disrespecting the relationship the Doctor had with any other companion though. And it would have to have a whole “you were so obsessed with me that you were willing to destroy an unspecified number of universes, INCLUDING THE ONE YOUR FAMILY AND BEST FRIEND WERE IN, just to see me again for a brief period of time before this universe also collapsed WITH US IN IT and honey, that’s actually CREEPY AND GROSS even though I thought it was super sweet at the time, but in my defense the universe was already ending at that point anyway and you don’t have that excuse because in your case it was PREMEDITATED” conversation because otherwise I won’t believe they’ve actually grown as people. Also it’d be nice if it were funny more than angsty (but lbr you can’t write what I’m talking about without a fair amount of angst). So, y'know, if anyone has actually written that fic lmk.

Meanwhile, there’s MARTHA.

OK so I’m on record about how awesome Martha is. This is already getting long so I won’t belabor Martha’s total awesomeness as a character, but even though I got a bit tired of dysfunctional family relationships in New Who, it was novel to see them have any ongoing family relationships at all, and Martha’s was particularly rich, partly there were so many of them for her to interact with, thus revealing lots of different facets of her character. And despite her fractious relationship with them, she remained fiercely loyal, which was an interesting source of tension between her and the Doctor, and one that diverted attention away from the dental-drill painfulness of the unrequited love subplot.

It’s super gross that the writers made her hung up on the Doctor all the way through series 3. Not because it’s ridiculous for an intelligent, perceptive, professional young woman to be hung up on an emotionally unavailable man. No, that really happens to actual human beings (and again, possibly related to serious parental issues, so it’s not even without narrative justification). Handled with any sensitivity at all, it could have made for a lovely level of complexity. What really bugs me, and I’ve also written about this before, is how the Doctor treats her like GARBAGE, and this is barely addressed as a problem that he is responsible for. In the end Martha realises her mistake in sticking around for so long, but her attempts to call out his bad behavior in the past fell on deaf ears. Martha is the rebound girl but he acts like he doesn’t even know he’s doing it. Which, IDK, maybe he really doesn’t know? Like for all his 900+ years the Doctor has little previous actual relationship experience and also he’s super blindingly hung up on his high school-esque sweetheart Rose. And it’s not just in regards to Martha’s romantic feelings that he treats her poorly. He also dismisses her VERY VALID CONCERNS about her own safety and well-being when traveling in the past for the sake of his own whims. And he brushes off legitimate questions about how stuff works. Anyway. This is well-trodden ground. As is the fact that RTD later inexplicably fobs Martha off on MICKEY, the only other black companion in the series up to that point, despite having already paired Martha off with a cute, sweet doctor who seemed like a MUCH better fit, and there literally being no narrative reason for them to be a couple in that scene.

Donna! Well, as we all know, Donna is among the best-developed companions ever.

She didn’t start out that way though. She started off as a Deeply Problematic (read: disgustingly misogynistic) Stereotype who was never meant to be more than a one-off, but CT and DT got along so well that they brought the character back full-time, and so we got a lot of deconstruction, exploration, and development of that first impression. And I’ll forever be happy we did. But even in The Runaway Bride, she had moments of surprising depth and pathos. Deep down, Donna was always better than she seemed. The fact that she was the last person (other than her mother) to realize that fact is part of what makes her so compelling.

Her relationship to the Doctor is also the least problematic, because they’re both on the same page about being platonic bffs. To be fair, part of the reason he does make sure this is clear from the outset is because he has finally realized how he hurt Martha (NOT THAT HE EVER APOLOGIZED TO MARTHA FOR THAT–for a guy for whom “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry” was basically a second catch phrase, Ten actually sucks at apologising to the people close to him). Unlike Martha, the Doctor doesn’t overlook Donna or brush off her concerns. Unlike Rose, he is not codependent with her. Donna calls him on his BS, and he listens. She helps him to face his emotional vulnerability rather than running from/shutting out potentially scary personal relationships (like with River and Jenny). The Doctor helps Donna to see that she really is brilliant and important, and she grows to believe him.

That’s not to say that Donna’s character was handled perfectly. No, indeed. Even after her first story, we’re repeatedly subjected to jokes about her desperate need for and inability to get a man. Even the Doctor, who is otherwise kind to her, takes these jokes for granted and sometimes participates in them. At the end of series 4, we’re shown that the one person in the universe that Mr. Pansexuality Personified, JACK HARKNESS has no interest in flirting with is Donna Noble, the man-hungry middle-aged slightly overweight loud temp from Chiswick. And then, of course, the Doctor denies her agency and takes away her access to the memories of everything she saw, everything she did, everything she discovered about herself while traveling with him. Just so he wouldn’t have to see her die. It was selfish of him. She made her choice and he ignored it to spare HIMSELF pain. But, y'know, at least the Doctor cheated the lottery to make her rich as a wedding present to a very attractive, kind-looking, and clearly adoring man–right before he regenerated. So she did get a happy ending.

[cygnahime]

Okay, by unpopular request, Troll Final Fantasy XV. Under a cut because I love you and want you to be happy, or at least not forced to read my Certified Bad Opinions.

So, let’s start in the center and work our way out. The central story is clearly the tale of Prince Noctis And His Pale Harem. Like, it’s 100% a self-indulgent Harem AU of itself. Because, see, ever since Noctis was little he was basically Assigned Ignis and Gladio as his moirails, because obviously as the Crown Prince his physical and emotional stability is too important to be left to chance. [N.B. Noctis is clearly a tyrianblood, like, that’s not remotely up for debate. Unusually short-lived tyrianbloods? The Crystal drains their energy, making their lifespans unnaturally brief? IDK it’s Troll Fiction.] Ignis is there to take care of his physical wellbeing and support him emotionally, and Gladio is there to protect him and be honest with him.

BUT! One of the awkward things about growing up in an arranged moirallegiance with someone is that it isn’t always all that romantic. And Noctis is kind of a shit moirail to both of them, because he doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing and also they’ve just. Always been there. So he doesn’t completely think of them as romantic relationships that he has to put work into. I mean, obviously he supports them financially and politically, but that just sort of happens without his active input.

Enter Prompto! This lowblood [Probably some kind of weird Niflheim-specific blood caste passing as a Lucian lowblood? Fortunately the game doesn’t show blood spatter, so it’s easy to conceal from the audience, but the fandom has to bend over backwards to explain how the other characters don’t notice.] comes into Noctis’s life after a lot of Brotherhood-era drama about being Good Enough to be frenemies with The Crown Prince, but the important point is that Noctis is suddenly seized with the urge to support and protect him and has no idea what to do. Meanwhile, Prompto swears he just wanted to be frenemies! Really! But he wants to be there emotionally for Noct, who seems so lonely!

Most of the previous paragraph is wild fan speculation, but like. That motel roof scene is the palesmut equivalent of sex in semi-public places. GET A PILE, YOU TWO! There are some people who redship it, but imo the writers intended it to be pale.

What really gets the fans into heated debate and/or wild flamewars is how the rest of the group’s relationships shake out. How do Ignis and Gladio feel about this serendipitous relationship pushing them aside? Is it a big pale orgy, or is there quadrant-swapping there? There’s a compelling argument to be made that Gladio and Noct fumble toward a black relationship, which fits their actual adult feelings much better than their arranged moirallegiance. There’s also an argument to be made that that shit goes rotten after Altissia, to the point where Ignis steps in to auspisticize. And then of course Noctis gets sucked into the Crystal and it all becomes kind of a moot point. :c

(The Troll Animaterrorists put in the time to animate some fucking hugs on their last night together, because despite being, you know, members of troll society, they’re not monsters.)

SPEAKING of arranged relationships, the forced/arranged matespritship between Noctis and Luna is still a thing, and the game is very coy about whether we’re supposed to think it’s serendipitous or not. I mean, they seem fond of each other, and they know each other’s vulnerabilities, but they haven’t met since they were children, so it’s hard to see if the concupiscent attraction is there. Fandom is divided: is it red? Is she pale for him too, because Noctis is just that much of a mess that everyone wants to comfort him? Are they platonic and both shipped red & pale with others? Fandom fight!

Speaking of Luna, I struggle to explain how trolls would depict her relationship with Ravus, because as we know trolls have no siblings. I mean, they’re clearly in a situation where they were raised together and are very attached to each other and are of the same bloodcaste [violet probably], but what does that...mean? I’m hesitant to say this, but troll culture might go for moirails. Like, really rubbish moirails, because Luna’s ability to control Ravus’s poor decisions and Ravus’s ability to protect Luna are both highly in question, but they’re trying. Extremely trying, in Ravus’s case. I’m not entirely comfortable putting siblings in a romantic relationship, but trolls don’t really have a concept of incest, so ??? Let’s not think about it too hard.

While I’m talking about things that make me uncomfortable, I’m not even going to try to explain Gladio’s and Iris’s relationship. They’re the same bloodcaste and were raised by their mutual ancestor and Gladio is supportive of Iris’s red crush on Noctis. Unless in troll AU it’s a black crush, which would at least be interesting. Let Teen Girls Have Innocent Black Crushes 2k17.

Circling back around, Prompto is the fandom pale bicycle. [I can tell because there’s an entire tag on AO3 devoted to his suffering. It’s science.] There’s definitely a small but enthusiastic Prompto♦Aranea fandom since Episode Prompto came out, though it’s hampered somewhat by the fact that Aranea is written as kind of flat in her self-sufficiency. There’s also definitely some Prompto/Noctis/Luna in some red/pale combination or other, which I personally am all about. I mean, I’m the pale orgy person, it is I.

I’m sad to say that Ardyn♠Noctis is definitely a thing, canonically speaking. That’s what complicated murder/suicides are all about, in troll terms. It’s also literally destined, so there’s really no getting away from it, even though it’s manifestly an unhealthy relationship that does no one any favors. That or it’s Noctis♣Ardyn/the Astrals and/or the world at large, which you could also make a solid argument for. I think I prefer that, because that’s not how blackrom works at all. I’m pretty sure Ardyn is gunning for Noct’s pitch quadrant regardless, though not as hard as Loqi is gunning for Cor’s. With an actual gun. It’s doomed to be unrequited, because you will take aroace Cor from my cold dead hands. So I guess in troll AU he’s aconciliatory/aconcupiscent. (I say this just to demonstrate how little of the quadrant-specific vocabulary I have forgotten.)

Kingsglaive is a hard movie to pin down, quadrant-wise. Like, I definitely feel like there’s some kind of spark between Nyx and Luna, but it’s hard to pin down to one side of the red/black divide. There’s probably fic for both tbh. I guess canon keeps it ambiguous as well. I mean, they clearly respect each other, but also there’s a lot of sharing deep-seated insecurities. Personally, I’m all for healthy blackrom, as you know. Lunafreya could use a chance to clash with someone for fun.

Libertus is much more popular in the troll fandom than the human fandom. (Am I salty about the lack of fan content for my fave? Why would you say that?) He’s so soft and in such emotional distress! Your pale self-insert goes here! [Obviously all the Glaives are rust- or brown-bloods. The magic probably is replaced by unlocking latent psychic abilities. Or else they keep magic and this is a ~strange world~ where there are ~no psionics~.] Nyx and Libertus and probably Crowe are like...how Vriska and Terezi used to call each other ‘sisters’? Long-term stable nonquadrant cahootship? That’s them. I realize I had one use of ‘siblings’ in this post and I used in on characters who aren’t actually siblings, but nyeh. Maybe Gladio and Iris are also Troll Siblings. Cahootfriends. It’s not my fault Luna and Ravus kind of suck at being in cahoots.

And that I think covers most of the cast! This is only twelve million words long! I have so many thoughts, apparently! If you also have thoughts, please come share them! You are also a giant nerd and we should be friends!

[ultralaser]

wasting my time debating with my facebook friend's racist aunts

let me be less flippant for a moment - it is not a coincidence that the crimes ppl are so concerned about right now are always committed by an **other**, outside our assumed white majority monolith urban black youth, undocumented mexican and latin american immigrants, muslim refugees, and so on like, we have cops out arresting ppl for unpaid fines for petty offences levelled overwhelmingly against poor poc in poor communities - bc collecting fines is how police depts stay funded - and when black ppl with no money run from the cops bc they don't want to serve jail time they can't afford for a fine they can't afford for a broken taillight they can't afford to fix, and they get gunned down in the streets, and someone says 'this is inhuman, how can ppl be treated like this in a just society', then white ppl obsessed with **law and order** rush in all "then don't break THE LAW?" this was true under bush, when nine eleven happened, and everyone even vaguely muslim or arabic looking ended up on a nationwide no-fly list 100% of the time this was just as true in the 80s and 90s when reagan bush and clinton got "tough on crime" and put hugely unequal numbers of black and brown youth in long jail terms for everything from gang violence to petty marijuana possession, meanwhile the same white ppl voting for those presidents - liberal and conservative alike - spent the entire 60s and 70s smoking weed and watching cheech and chong, but now they were 40 and suddenly "how dare you break the law, any law, even small laws i flouted in my own youth with zero consequences, jail FOREVER" it was true in the 60s and 70s when the fbi dedicated vastly more resources to dismantling, by any means neccessary, not just the black panthers - and their school breakfast program, and their efforts to shield their communities from police discrimination - but also mlk and his peaceful resistance, literally the fbi called him relentlessly and told him to kill himself and threatened his family, this was their focus, black **radicals**, and sympathetic white youth, and the bia, and so on, and not even remotely as much money or effort ever went into trying to undermine, say, the kkk it was true in the 20s and 30s, when mexican immigrants, even legal ones, were rounded up and deported after the great depression started, and when mexican americans in la and their **lawlessness and violent nature** were blamed for a riot started by white sailors on shore leave, and when japanese americans, not immigrants but //full citizens//, were rounded up and put in camps until war's end, never reimbursed for property and livelihoods lost, an injustice german americans never even had to fear, let alone face AND WHEN WE TURNED AWAY A BOAT FULL OF JEWISH REFUGEES WHO WENT BACK TO EUROPE AND WERE KILLED IN AUSCHWITZ it was true before 1863, when mass violent revolts by **ungrateful slaves** were the only thing we feared more than **indian savages** fighting to regain their stolen land, and it was true after 1863, when freed slaves became pathologized as amoral violent brutes who posed an imminent threat to white society and so on - we are living on stolen land, in cities built by indian, chinese, and african labor, and now as at any point in our history, when a rich white man stands up and talks about **law and order** and only mentions crimes commited by an other, whose fault everything is, against whom we must unite, and who we might consider ejecting from our nation entirely? you're being had.

[componentplanet]

Tesla Sales Climb Nicely. But the Stock Price Soars. What Gives?

Ignore the Tesla production delays, flaps in China, and Autopilot confused by a 35-mph speed sign defaced to read 85 mph. Tesla is on a roll. Production continues to climb and Tesla’s total stock market value – the market cap – has passed $100 billion, making it the world’s second most valuable car company after Toyota. It has already doubled in 2019.

This after having sold a record 368,000 cars in 2019. Toyota, with twice Tesla’s market cap, needed to sell nearly 30 times as many vehicles to have two times the value.

Tesla is on a tear this year: The $917 stock price Feb. 19 is 2.2X what it was at the end of December 2019. 2019 was up 25 percent but all in the last six weeks. TSLA’s early-January 2019 value didn’t return until Nov. 12. It takes a bold investor to know, not hope, the stock will keep rising. Still, who wouldn’t be happy seeing a 23 percent return in 2018 and 25 percent in 2019?

Why Tesla’s Doing So Well

It’s becoming clearer why Tesla stock is soaring: People value Tesla for its long-term potential as the leader in electrification.

Tesla is a tech company as much as it’s a car company. Meaning: Huge run-ups are possible.

The stock market sees EVs as the long-term future even if EV sales (all brands) in the US and Europe are super-soft so far this decade.

Tesla stock is the clearest way to invest in an EV future. Also just about the only way, except for component parts (sensors, batteries), because there aren’t many publicly traded, EV-only car companies.

The month-to-month miscues don’t affect Tesla’s long-term future. (Mostly.)

Investors see Elon Musk as a visionary and they discount the short-term-goofy things he does, says, or smokes.

Tesla’s market cap is currently (as of late February 2020) at $165 billion, versus $227 billion for Toyota. In comparison with Tesla, the market cap of General Motors is $49 billion and Ford is $31 billion. So Tesla is twice as big as Ford-GM combined.

Tesla’s Huge Lead on Autonomy

Tesla is not all smoke and (heated side) mirrors. Nikkei Asian Review recently did a teardown of the Tesla Model 3 and engineers who did the analysis were surprised how far ahead Tesla appears to be in electronics.  “We cannot do it,” a Japanese car engineer said of the Model 3’s central controller and of Tesla’s head start on everyone else, which may be five to six years. One reason put forth is that Tesla does not favor legacy suppliers. As a new company, Tesla has started fresh, at least in regards to its core processing. It’s also generally agreed to have the best battery and battery-management technology.

If you wanted a reason to explain the exuberance over TSLA, this could be it.

Tesla sales have gone steadily upward. Well, mostly upward, with several quarterly hiccups. Tesla will hit 1 million cumulative sales in the next couple of months. The Model 3 represents 85 percent of sales. Model S and Model Y (no longer broken out) share the other 15 percent. Model 3 sales got real, as one might suspect from the chart, in the second half of 2018. The chart shows worldwide sales.

Who Else Could Build a Wedge-Shape Pickup?

With Tesla products, they arrive late or horribly late. But when they do arrive, they surprise and delight, and they create a cadre of loyal followers, sort of like Apple Moonies and Bernie Bros. (We won’t even begin to rank them for sense of humor.)

Most recent is the Tesla Cybertruck pickup, a vehicle clad in stainless steel and shaped like a wheel chock. Others are working to deliver electric pickups, including Ford, GM, Rivian (which is supplying technology to Ford), and Bollinger. With pickups, range will be important, and Tesla’s ability to squeeze more miles out of every thousand pounds of battery could be a big advantage.

We’ll have to see how Tesla fares with the Tesla Semi. Electrification makes sense for drayage hauling (coastal port to warehouse 25 miles away). Adding enough power to take an 80,000-pound tractor and trailer 500 miles adds battery weight that reduces cargo capacity. Putting megawatt chargers for each of 100 trucks at a rest area means building a power plant sized for a small city.

Production-line quality hasn’t been Tesla’s strong suit, but it’s getting better. Broadly, we’re seeing Tesla does well by having more hits than misses in products.

Pollution and global warming may drive demand (or requirements) for more EVs. (Photo: Alfred T Palmer, Library of Congress)

Bottom Line: The World Needs EVs

EV sales are soft in the US and in the world. Where penetration is high (Norway) it’s because of government incentives for EVs and disincentives for combustion-engine vehicles. 2019 US sales actually fell 9 percent, to 330,00 sales for pure EVs (no plug-ins), or 2 percent of sales. Worldwide sales were estimated at 1.9 million, down 4 percent. That’s now. Add plug-in hybrids and market penetration might double. It’s still small.

Meanwhile, China’s middle class is showing unhappiness with dirty air. The European Union has talked about banning combustion engine vehicles within two decades. Much of the world has concerns about climate change. Every year, fewer people say climate change is a hoax.

Energy used for transportation is about a quarter of all consumption in the US, according to the US Energy Information Agency, and 96 percent of that locomotion comes from petroleum. This is why EVs have a stronger future that combustion-engine cars. And this may be the primary reason Tesla stock keeps rising, as mentioned above: the belief that there will need to be more electric vehicles over our lifetime. And Tesla is the purest stock market play to benefit.

There are plenty of times in company history when a one-year in-and-out investment in TSLA would have cost you big bucks. Right now, only Tesla short-sellers have been burned.

Be Careful Betting on Car Stocks

This is a tech site, not an investing site. So we’d offer the obvious insight that returns of 23 percent and 25 percent the last two years – calendar 2018 and 2019 – are phenomenal for all but the savviest, or greediest, investor. We’d point out that some of the late 2019/early 2020 gains came at the expense of short-sellers who believed TSLA was overvalued. People such as investment managers James Chanos (Yale) and David Einhorn (Cornell), probably smarter than you, or me, who borrowed money to go short and control high-priced Tesla stock they’d give back when they bought the same stock cheaper later on. Chanos last fall had described Tesla as “fundamentally unprofitable” and Einhorn had said “the wheels are falling off [Tesla] – literally” after some poor safety reports. Profitability and safety/recalls are the kinds of near-term issues that hurt mainstream automakers such as Ford, which had a horror show getting its Chicago factory to run right as a new generation of Ford Explorers and Lincoln Aviators were coming to market last year. For Tesla, it was water off a duck’s back.

Be wary of stories that talk about big gains from time X to time Y. There were other times when Tesla languished after a nice run-up and you’d have gone nowhere. Example: Tesla ended 2016 about where the price was at the beginning of 2016. (Off 4 percent.) It climbed nicely and peaked at $383 in June 2017 … then fell and didn’t get back to that level until a week before Christmas 2018. Tesla stock is volatile perhaps less from what Elon Musk says and does, but because Tesla and Apple are two of the most-shorted stocks and as much as one in five shares are held by investors going short, meaning they’re hoping to profit when the share price goes down. Some of this year’s early gains in TSLA value came from short-sellers who had to overpay to cover their short investment positions before the price when higher and they got clobbered even worse.

In other words, be mindful of point four further above when investing: “The month-to-month miscues don’t affect Tesla’s long-term future.” So far, at least.

The Standard & Poor 500 stock index historically returns about 10 percent per year. Subtract 2-3 percentage points per year for inflation and most people should be happy with the resulting 7 percent, which doubles your after-inflation return in 10 years. Tesla’s 2018-2019 annual return of about 24 percent would need a little under three years to double at that continued rate. Instead, it took six weeks.

It is a certainty Tesla cannot continue growing its stock price at the current pace. Tesla is currently worth $165 billion (market cap). The value of all stocks in the world (effectively the value of every public company) is $75 trillion, 425 times as big. If Tesla stock doubled every year, by 2030 Tesla would be worth as much as the rest of the world.

Non-Tesla EV Stocks

If you want an EV or autonomous-vehicle play in the stock market, promising newcomers such as Rivian are privately held. You can also invest in suppliers such as these (suggested by Barron’s):

Amphenol Corporation (APH)

Aptiv PLC (APTV)

BorgWarner Inc. (BWA) (author conflict-of-interest disclosure: I worked in a BorgWarner timing-chain factory in college; no current affiliation)

Delphi Technologies PLC (DLPH)

Magna International Inc. (MGA)

TE Connectivity Ltd. (TEL)

Or you could play the long game: Put part of your money in a mutual fund that tracks the tech sector broadly. Don’t touch it until your kids go to college or you retire. Hands-off and you’ll be well-off.

Now read:

Tesla Teardown Scares Competitors: ‘We Cannot Do This’

Tesla Remotely Removed Autopilot Features from Used Model S After ‘Audit’

Phone App Unlocks Rental Car, Then Strands Driver in California Boondocks

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/306382-tesla-sales-climb-nicely-but-the-stock-price-soars-what-gives from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2020/02/tesla-sales-climb-nicely-but-stock.html

[d2kvirus]

Dickheads of the Month: August 2019

As it seems that there are people who say or do things that are remarkably dickheaded yet somehow people try to make excuses for them or pretend it never happened, here is a collection of some of the dickheaded actions we saw in the month of August 2019 to make sure that they are never forgotten. 

When there was the possibility of the parliamentary sovereignty that Leavers harp on about, off sprinted proven liar Boris Johnson to Balmoral to beg the Queen to suspend parliament in order to force through a No Deal Britait - but of course, everyone but him are the “traitors” in this sordid affair, even after Ben Wallace apparently forgot that cameras and microphones exist when blabbing about how Johnson did this due to fearing that his working majority of one wouldn't survive a No Confidence vote

It was so nice of Michael Coudrey to post a blatantly faked screenshot of El Paso shooter Patrick Crusias’ MyLife profile page to try and claim that Crusas was a left-wing extremist rather than, oh I don’t know, a white supremacist who happened to parrot several of Trump’s soundbites about Hispanics, let alone consider that maybe mass shootings are something that shouldn’t happen with alarming frequency

Meanwhile it was equally predictable that Paul Joseph Watson was jumping up and down yelling “See!  See!  A leftist went on a killing spree!” which not only made it obvious he was trying to divert attention from the El Paso shooter, but also drew attention to the fact that while the alt right were tripping over one another to make excuses for Patrick Crusas as he’s some poor innocent victim of society, as soon as it emerged that Connor Betts isn’t one of them the excuses evaporated

So naturally, peak twattery followed when Dmitriy Andreychenko walked into his local Missouri branch of Walmart toting a tactical rifle and handgun while wearing body armor, and when he was arrested for being such a monumental fuckwit he bleated something about testing to see if Walmart respected his Second Amendment rights

Yet somehow the UK couldn’t laugh at Americans trying to blame video games for mass shootings thanks to Priti Patel trying to create a direct link between stabbings and fried chicken

Of course Jo Swinson has taken it upon herself to say she and only she can stop Britait, which was obvious by her rejecting Jeremy Corbyn’s proposal of an interim government out of hand without any reason in spite of the fact that, as Leader of the Opposition, of a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson does get through the Commons it will be Corbyn who is asked to put together an interim government - but Jo Swinson instead suggested the first tow backbenchers she could think of because she cannot countenance the idea of Labour stopping Britait, as at that point what is she other than somebody who lies about her voting record?

This month it was Arron Banks who wanted to sound triggered to a sociopathic degree by Greta Thunberg with his lovely response to her yachting across the Atlantic by tweeting that freak yachting accidents tend to happen at this time of year, while Julia Halfwit Hartley-Brewer posted some lame tweet gloating about she and her family would be flying across the Atlantic instead, meanwhile Roger Helmer resorted to calling her a “Swedish pixie” during one of the rare occasions he remained awake when in public and Paul Joseph Watson talked about how an autistic girl was being “exploited” - but because Arron Banks has to be Arron Banks, he had to have the most cuntish last word and said it was just a joke...like saying women wearing burqas look like letterboxes

As if proven liar Boris Johnson hadn’t used the NHS as a platform for his outright lies enough in the past three years, he pledged an increase in funding...that was actually funding that NHS providers had been saving up for the past three years, but had been unable to spend in that time as the Tory government banned them from spending it...until it became convenient enough to allow them to spend their own money

If only somebody suggested to Lou Dobbs that, if you see a group of protesters sat in the road outside the ICE facility that employs you, driving your truck just inches from their faces is guaranteed to piss them off - and then using that as an excuse to plow through the pissed off crowd is guaranteed to cost you your job and piss off everyone bar the weirdos who believe it’s not vehicular assault if you run into people with differing opinions to you

It clearly did not occur to Steve King when trying to find a logical reason to say abortions should be banned that saying the human race may not exist if not for cases of rape and incest tens of thousands of years ago doesn’t in any way defend his position, instead make it sound uncannily like he’s on the side of those who raped and pillaged

It didn’t take long before Boris Johnson started reading from the Bannon playbook, stating that he would not take interviews with the press as they’re all biased against him - yes, even the BBC, the Murdoch Empire, the Daily Mail and Daily Express, all of whom have been churning out unthinkingly slanted headlines in his favour

It was so nice that James Cleverly repeatedly wanted to talk about how the Tory MP  William Wilberforce fought to end slavery...even after it was pointed out to him the first time he made that statement that Wilberforce stood as an independent and not a Tory, no matter how many times Cleverly tries to rewrite history

Let’s see if I’ve got this straight: the Lib Dems state that they will do everything in their power to stop Britait...yet Jo Swinson has ruled out going into coalition with either Labour or the SNP, in spite the fact they both have far more MPs than the Lib Dems and just so happen to also be opposing Britait

Similarly, the best idea Caroline Lucas had for solving Britait was for an all-woman cabinet that just so happened to include her, Jo Swinson, Heidi Allen, Justine Greening, Yvette Cooper and Anna Soubry among others - and seemed confused when it was mentioned that not only did her dream cabinet exclude all men but it didn’t include a single non-white MP either, and appears to have forgotten that a woman spent between 2016-19 fucking the process up at every turn

In the latest Priti Patel brainfart, she suggested that migrants earning less than £36,000 a year are no longer welcome in the UK...clearly failing to comprehend that arbitrary figure is higher than the basic salary of any member of NHS staff, any teacher or any police officer - you know, something a Home Secretary should be able to understand...

Walking proof that nominative determinism isn't really a thing James Cleverley could only try and claim that the leaked Operation Yellowhammer dossier was “out of date” and was no remotely relevant to any discussion about what would happen if the UK leaves the EU without a deal...even though the dossier was dated 1st August 2019

There was something deeply sinister about how the BBC described Owen Jones as a “Labour activist” after he was assaulted, as opposed to...oh I don’t know?  A journalist?

With the Leave hardcore now lionising chlorinated chicken of all things, it;s not surprise that Darren Grimes tried to say there’s no issue because we also have chlorinated water...somehow spectacularly missing the point

I have no idea how the Entertainment Software Association managed to bungle so badly that they managed to release the personal information of thousands of people who attended this year’s E3, including games journalists and Youtubers/Twitch streamers, but they managed it nonetheless

In a quite remarkable turn of events there was a controversy regarding Borderlands 3 that didn’t involve Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford, instead it was Take Two Interactive sending private investigators to the doorstep of Youtuber SupMatto to harass him into keeping quiet, and because he wasn’t keeping quiet they abused Youtube’s copyright system on an industrial scale with over 100 copyright strikes to force him off the platform because of reasons

For a documentarian Stacey Dooley makes an awful lot of factual blunders, the latest of which being a Panorama documentary where she described a Muslim prayer gesture as an “ISIS salute”, leading to the BBC removing the clip from the documentary...on the iPlayer, but leaving it in unchallenged for its initial broadcast

You would think that Microsoft wouldn’t be so dense as to release an update that cripples the computers of everyone using Windows 7 due to somebody typing a 2 instead of a 1 in one line of code, but that’s exactly what happened with the KB4512506 update that was coded by someone who assumed everyone has Windows 10

As it was time for Suzanne Moore to vomit another opinion piece into the pages of the Guardian, she took it upon herself to write a piece that managed to insinuate that Shilpa Shetty somehow deserved the racial abuse she received from Jade Goody, Jo O’Meara and Danielle Lloyd on Celebrity Big Brother back in 2007 because...hold on a minute...because Shetty had servants at home while the others didn’t which apparently makes it alright

The outraged howls from Manchester City fans and football pundits alike all because VAR rightly disallowed what would have been a last-minute winner for City was truly a sight to behold, because apparently VAR exists to make things easier for a small kabal of teams and everyone else can get fucked

...and demonstrated by Mike Dean using The Wenger Defence of “I didn’t see it guv” a week later to overrule VAR stating that Tottenham should have been awarded a penalty

...and yet the depths were truly plumbed when Ian Holloway blamed the EU for the fact he doesn’t understand the offside law, even though as a football pundit (and former manager) he’s literally paid to understand it

Ooblets developers Glumberland decided to double down on their dickheadishness which began with their smug and condescending blog post explaining why they decided to make their game an Epic Games Store exclusive, but they followed that up by acting like complete bellends on their Discord that culminated with them responding to somebody asking when they could buy the game with their own currency by telling them that nobody owed them the game

With both Bury and Bolton facing extinction, trust Sky Sports News to cover this by having a clock ticking down in the corner of the screen all day, as if the possibility (and, in Bury’s case, eventuality) of a club being kicked out of the league was the same thing as Deadline Day

Britain’s most triggered man Piers Moron Morgan was predictably irked by the Meghan Markle guest-editing Vogue because obviously somebody doing that is only after the publicity...a sentiment he neglected to express when Kate Middleton did the exact same thing a few years previously

The sensible thing that Bethesda should have done after the have done after the humiliation conga line that was Fallout 76 was try not to do anything that would irritate gamers further.  So instead they decided that, when releasing Doom - that’s the 1993 original, not the 2016 reboot - it would require players to use their Bethesda account to play the actual game 

I know it’s a cheapshot, but did UKIP really elect somebody named Dick Braine as their new leader?

How the hell did Apple develop a credit card that gets discoloured if it touches materials such as denim or leather, or to put it another way if it’s in somebody’s pocket or wallet?  What are they supposed to do?  Carry it around in their hand at maximum reach?

If you have a name like Michael Buerk it isn’t a good idea to make your name fair game, but that’s exactly what he did when he suggested that it’s potentially a good thing for obese people to die early as it would save the NHS money

And of course, it wouldn't be a month without Donald Trump being a colossal cockhead, and he certainly disappoint with his prioritising schmoozing with guests at Mar A Lago while people in Dayton and El Paso were experiencing the aftermath of their respective mass shootings, and when the Orange Overlord deigned to make a statement he not only demonstrated he couldn’t give a toss by talking about the mass shootings in Toledo and El Paso, but his response to it being plain for all to see that white nationalism was the catalyst for both was to blame video games for all of society’s ills

[mrsbluebertgreggleson]

“Bring ‘Em Back Alive”

-100 for Lucifer trying to get what is technically his little sister to play strip poker with him. What a classy characterization we have going here.

+10 because I like Sister Annaby's outfit.

+20 for when Lucifer flipped his eyes red and said "He's a PRIORITY" to try to spook Duma and she was... very much not intimidated. She's just like, "*sigh* *fake smile* Of course!" like he's her annoying boss. I love this angel. She'd better live.

+30 for the "You sure that's what this is about? You sure it's not... personal?" about AU Charlie because oh MAN I could feel the editors just itching to drop like 10 flashbacks in that pause. Thank you guys, for the restraint.

+5 for when Dean was getting jumped because I really wanted him to look up and see Ketch hiding behind a tree, just peering out at him and cocking his eyebrow. Dean should probably know the importance of being stealthy since he's been hunting since he was a teenager, but I'll let this one slide because Sam and Dean usually are pretty inelegant in their approach to hunting, lol.

-5 for Dean: "Where were you going to take me?" Slaver: "You think I'm going to tell you?" Dean: *shoots him right in the stinkin knee* Slaver: "AAAAH!! ... okay, all right." Like dude you are SO composed, you should be crying like a baby into that snow and blubbering out answers.

-20 because it’s weird to me that the writers explore the fallout of Gabriel’s torture trauma but not so much Sam and Dean’s. Angels canonically per S4 can’t be tortured but degraced ones can and degracing is canonically extremely painful as well, so Gabriel being traumatized I can believe, and I can headcanon an explanation on torture in Hell affecting the mind differently than torture on Earth to justify why Sam and Dean are even remotely functional, but the show itself doesn’t really touch on this and really, after all the angst and suffering the Winchesters have undergone, they really should be allowed to fall apart and build back up. It’d be cathartic for the audience. The fanficcers do a way better job exploring this and I really wish the show writers would show at least some instances of Sam and Dean dealing with their issues in the day-to-day and trying to handle it as best they can. Otherwise it’s just a Trauma Conga Line and it’s harder to care about bad things happening to them when we know it’s gonna be like water off a duck’s back and never really addressed/handled.

-20 So Gabriel faked his death well enough to fool Lucifer and also God? I'd think either one of them would be able to tell whether Lucifer was killing the real deal... I mean the fake Gabriel's death looked very permanent so maybe Gabriel created a lesser angel replica of himself to bite it so the light show would convince everyone, but... idk that explanation is not a great explanation to me, I would've preferred it if he'd really died and then been resurrected (maybe from Cass waking up, maybe somehow that woke up Gabriel too and in his newly resurrected state Gabriel got captured). I also just really like how the big explanation does not at all try to explain how presumably fully powered and crafty Gabriel got captured by Lucifer's weakest creation. I have to assume he found some spell similar to the one Crowley used on Lucifer, to enslave an archangel; it's just weird that they glossed over it so completely.

-5 Also dinging them for the “Hammer of the Gods” flashbacks. Just a little, because it has been eight seasons since it happened, but still, I count it as excessive flashbacking.

-5 because that Exorcist's girl “demon” voice was very unfitting and goofy.

-10 for "Your wound might be more serious than we thought." HE GOT SHOT, DUDE. Like TV is usually pretty flippant with how serious gunshot wounds are if they're not in the heart/head, but I'm pretty sure in real life Dean would be bleeding to death no matter where he got shot, lol. Let's assume they patched him up offscreen with some secret MoL magic trick that kept him from dying.

-5 because I'm surprised Dean doesn't fight Ketch more on the cure. I think Ketch is probably honest here, but Dean obviously didn't trust him a whole hell of a lot - and Ketch could easily be poisoning him or something. I guess he figures Ketch is his only shot, he's Ketch's ride home and route to possible redemption, and Sam and Cass would kill Ketch if he came back alone, but still, Dean doesn’t forgive easily, likes to be stubborn, and give people a hard time. It’s to advance the plot faster but still a little OOC that he didn’t at least give a token protest.

-10 because shouldn’t the BMoL already know about the Winchesters' connection to Charlie? Even though they were supposed to be all researched about the Winchesters and went through their bunker and belongings and never found anything out about her?

-30 because THERE'S the sad Dean-Charlie flashbacks. I’m taking back all my restraint points.

+5 Now I want Ketch to feel bad about killing Mick, because Mick was the only cool BMoL. Five points in remembrance, cheers, mate.

-10 because what the hell, Dean is all cool with Ketch now, even after everything? That's weird, he usually holds onto grudges like a mofo. Is it because Ketch has a thing for Mary and Dean wants someone for his mom to live with? I... wouldn't think Dean would want his mom to be with anyone other than his dad, and I especially wouldn't think Ketch. It's weird Dean is doing such a turn-around on this guy he was eager to kill. Between Ketch and Benny, I guess there's just something about washed out, dirty pocket universes that makes Dean click with the guy he's with.

-5 for Sam's Inconvenient Auto-Speakerphone Phone

-5 because Sam should’ve just fuckin hung up on Asmodeus after Asmodeus was like “DON’T YOU DAHR HANG UP”. That would've been such a power move. Just keep pissing off King Dedede while he's riled.

+10 because Sister Annaby is really pretty, dang. I do like that healer-for-pay business she set up in the last (?) episode she was in, it was a good idea for Earth-bound angels. I just wish she weren't stuck in a storyline with Lucifer because he's just... the worst (or that the had not named her so similarly to my poor lost Anna). If they'd used her in a separate role and spent more time on the healer-for-pay thing, for example, that could've been a cool nugget.

-5 Shouldn't the angels have known and called her by her real name instead of "Charlie Bradbury"?

-50 ABADDON SHOULD HAVE ATTACKED THE BUNKER, DAMN IT. She should've known where it was after her first episode, she wanted the things in it, and we got a demon break-in this episode. I’m still so mad that the writers in S8/S9 didn’t do this, and I’m taking it out on this episode! MANNN.

-30 lol Sam's like, "I'm warding the bunker!" You should always have the bunker warded, my dude! Otherwise you're sitting ducks staying in one unprotected spot.

+15 Sam and Cass were sitting close enough during Asmodeus's attack that for one second I really thought one of them would reach out and hold the other one's hand while they were dying. I don't know why I thought that because the writers would never in a million years do that, but it would've been touching (and also because it would be so funny to see the fandom explode).

+100 Don't have to listen to Asmodeus ever again, yeeeee. I'm just disappointed he didn't die via punch-to-the-heart so that his killer could pull their arm out, smack their lips, and say "Finger-lickin' good", the ultimate final and best joke.

-50 Dean's whole emotional, angry blowout at the end, Sam and Cass standing all silent and scared, and I'm just thinking of "The Thing" like, "If you cared so much, maybe you should've read more fucking books last episode to help your mom sooner, Dean." Like my dude, don’t get mad that your brother and friend restored Gabriel (he also killed Asmodeus, who would’ve killed them if Gabriel wasn’t all juiced up? and SINCE he was all juiced up, how were they supposed to stop him? I get Dean’s upset and frustrated because it seems they’re all out of options, but it really seems like he’s not getting that they’re only alive because of that, and lashing out at them because he’s frustrated, which is one of his worse character traits), another one will probably fall into your lap in like... four episodes? whenever the next big plot advancement needs to happen. It’s been awhile so I don’t remember if Lucifer got his archangel grace still or not, but I think he’s recharged by now, so they can just concentrate on tracking him down. Or hey, maybe convince Rowena to pop the Cage back open and snatch some of your Michael’s grace. I just wish character development meant addressing Dean’s anger issues so that Dean’s loved ones maybe don’t flinch and get scared whenever he gets mad. Not a good look for a heroic character.

To sum it up: Pure plot episode. We were teased the idea of Dean and Ketch in Apocalypse World saving Mary and Jack, but somehow ending up too far away (is the portal opening up in different spots going to come up again?) and saving AU Charlie instead. Dean bonding so quickly with Ketch seemed hinky considering their past; since it seems like Dean might have a snarky frenemyship with Ketch in the future like the one he had with Crowley, I guess Ketch is gonna die by the end of this season since Death Equals Redemption and we need a reason for Dean to look stoically sad. I think it would’ve been more fun to leave Dean trapped in Apocalypse World to get more POV on it for the audience, maybe see some other old characters, and reunite with Jack and Mary.

Meanwhile, Gabriel recovered enough to kill the Big Bad. Sleep well, sweet Prince. You were the only thing I was looking forward to going into the season and I had high hopes you’d be cool, and much like Dagon, you were not. Hopefully the next demon Big Bad is better - maybe a white-eyed demon, so we can find out what those were compared to Knights and Princes? ... but only if it doesn’t finish ruining the demon mythos for me. I’m surprised they repowered Gabriel so quickly since I thought they brought him back to be a fan favorite member of Team Free Will and that means he can’t be too powerful, but part of his appeal is that he can snap his fingers and do whatever zany thing he wants, which would be considerably harder to pull off if he were powerless. I’m still kinda surprised that they went the route of bringing him back the way they did, but until we see more of him, I’ll have to wait to see if it was worth it in terms of character development. Still kinda weird they never explained how Asmodeus got him.

Grade: -140 Kentucky Fried Demons in the Empty

[servaxo]

Tips for Building Successful Teams

Nearly every business depends on strong teams to perform at peak capability. And, business leaders employ several tactics to get their teams up to speed, including leveraging team-building gifts.

As psychologist Bruce Tuckman famously described back in 1965, teams commonly follow the model of “forming, storming, norming and performing.” It is the leader’s job to move the team through to the performing stage as quickly and as seamlessly as possible. But, how do you get there? And how are other organizations navigating this challenge?

In this Blue Paper, we take an in-depth look at team-building trends in the workplace, including original findings from a recent 4imprint® survey; the strategies and tactics organizations are using to support and grow strong, functional workplace teams; and tips on how you can encourage and build high-performing teams to meet your organizational goals.

Survey results shed light on team-building trends

A recent 4imprint survey conducted via online panel at the Association for Talent Development conference took a look at how organizations train their employees to work effectively in teams. The survey, conducted in mid-2017, shed light on how organizations support, fund and structure effective teams.

Here’s a look at what the survey found.

Successful teams create engaged and satisfied employees.

Teams are where it’s at. The majority of survey respondents, regardless of their industry or company size, said employees work frequently in teams within their organization. In total, 47.3 percent of respondents said their employees always work within teams, and another 47.8 percent said their employees sometimes work in teams.

Respondents from organizations of more than 1,000 employees reported the highest percentage of staff who work in teams, with 39 percent reporting they always work in teams, and 35 percent saying they sometimes work in teams.

Working as a team isn’t enough, though. The team has to work well together to truly be successful. Great teams pay dividends in several ways. Recent statistics show that companies with engaged employees earn up to 2.5 times more income than competitors with low employee engagement. Meanwhile, in a study by SalesForce®, respondents cited poor collaboration or communication as a primary cause of workplace failures. Team-building efforts positively affect results. What’s more, staff with high engagement levels are 87 percent less likely to leave a company than those who are only minimally engaged.

As you’re considering team-building strategies, consider team-building gifts as rewards for a job well done, incentives for innovations, or as tools to help teammates feel connected to a common mission.

Offer support and training opportunities to increase team effectiveness.

According to the survey results, 41 percent of companies with at least 1,000 employees train staff on teamwork skills. Meanwhile, at 21 percent of midsize organizations with 250-499 employees, teamwork training is most likely to be given to executives. And among smaller organizations with 100-249 employees, just 6 percent are likely to provide team-building skills only to their executive team.

What the survey shows is that companies have an opportunity to increase team performance by providing training in communication, effective listening and project management.  Why are these skills important? In an effective team culture, members fully understand how their teamwork feeds into the company’s strategic plan and ultimate success. The result: team members feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves, which is proven to increase employee engagement and work satisfaction.

Yet our survey found not all training is created equal. Of survey respondents, 62.4 percent said their company offered communication training, making it the most common type of teamwork training offered across all industries. Meanwhile, effective listening and project management were among the least common offerings.

The bottom line: organizations can greatly benefit from educating employees to be more effective team players. It can be challenging, especially when you’re bringing together staff with very different skill sets and personalities.

Building healthy work relationships can lead to increased job satisfaction. Here are some simple tips on how to forge winning relationships at work. Share these ideas with your employees and you could see big rewards.

Show gratitude. Remind employees to thank their coworkers. Receiving thanks is a proven way to boost optimism and an employee’s sense of self-worth.

Go the extra mile. Workers can boost the office mood by simply being thoughtful. Encourage them to contribute to the daily chores of the office, such as refilling the printer paper, making a pot of coffee or picking up treats for a morning meeting. Little things can make a big difference in the office atmosphere, especially if everyone contributes.

Kick drama to the curb. Encourage your employees to avoid participating in office gossip or complaint sessions. Focus on solutions to create a more positive atmosphere.

Be honest about bad habits. Have employees take a good, hard look at what they do that may be irritating to others, and then help them find a way to break those habits.

Create a culture of sharing. Everyone brings their own unique skills and qualities to the table. Create a sense of teamwork by encouraging everyone to contribute their knowledge and expertise. Then, consider rewarding those who regularly contribute with thoughtful team-building gifts.

Provide the resources your teams will need to achieve success.

Most companies are not only recognizing the value of teamwork, they are investing in it. More than 55 percent of survey respondents said they provide employees with technological tools, like project management and video conferencing technology, to help the team work together. The largest companies tend to offer several resources to encourage team building, our findings show. It’s important to note that respondents said in-person meetings are happening less often than they have historically, especially in small to mid-size organizations, which is just one reason why investing in technology pays off.

It may come as no surprise that challenges can derail even the best-laid plans when it comes to teamwork. According to a recent Gallup® poll, even if employees feel connected to their teammates, they risk losing their way if members don’t understand expectations, lack access to the right tools or aren’t able to contribute their skills toward the goal. The report says that instead of functioning like a well-run machine, team meetings may degrade into complaining sessions.

Companies can address issues head-on by establishing clear expectations, ensuring teams have the needed resources to achieve goals and making sure those with specialized skills are able to fully contribute.

Encourage team unity with team-building gifts.

According to our survey, team-building giveaways are a popular choice for creating strong teams. About 55 percent of survey respondents said in their experience, custom branded apparel is the most effective product for promoting team unity.

Bridget Kane, marketing coordinator for Fair-Rite Products Corp., knows first-hand the importance of building a sense of team with a remote workforce. About 45 distributors and reps who sell Fair-Rite electromagnetic components come together from around the world every three years for a sales conference at their factory in Wallkill, N.Y. They learn about the company’s emerging products, and the sales conference is the perfect time to promote team bonding.

“We want to build team morale because we don’t see them on an everyday basis,” Kane says. “I think with outside sales reps and distributors, it’s kind of important to bring them back in because they are a part of their own companies, but they are here to help our team in the end. Even though they may be affiliated with another company, they are also under our umbrella, and we appreciate them. They are a part of what makes Fair-Rite great.”

To show sales reps and distributors they are appreciated, and to help them feel like they’re part of the Fair-Rite team, Kane ordered a wide variety of team-building gifts. She selected the Big Lanyard – 7/8” – 36” – Snap with Metal Bulldog Clip and the useful Ruler Notebook with Flags and Pen. Women received the Pilbloc V-Neck Button Down Cardigan Sweater – Ladies’, while men received the Tipped Colorblock Wicking Polo – Men’s, and conference attendees could keep their new duds dry with the ShedRain® Super Mini 42” Umbrella.

“So really they left with a whole bunch of Fair-Rite gear, and they were happy about it. I was told by a majority of them that these were the best giveaways they ever received,” Kane says.

She adds that a conference is a valuable tool for the company’s long-term success. “It’s worth the investment of getting everybody together…in the end, they are motivated, and they feel appreciated, and it’s for the benefit of everybody. Fair-Rite helps them personally, and that helps the business, so I think that’s very important.”

If you’re looking for team-building gift ideas, knowing what works at other companies may help. Our survey results ranked logo’d apparel as the most popular promotional at 57.8 percent. Polos, sweatshirts, jackets and T-shirts were followed by custom printed pens, with 43 percent of respondents saying their organization sealed teamwork in ink. Branded drinkware was at 42.5 percent, and custom totes/bags were at nearly 39 percent to round out the most popular promotional products for encouraging team unity.

Strategizing ways to help a remote workgroup stay engaged and feel connected is a necessity. Global Workforce Analytics reports that 63 million Americans worked remotely at least part of the time in 2016. Fostering strong teams with a virtual workforce can be challenging—and if you’re brainstorming ways to make that happen, you’re not alone. For more inspiration on how to keep those virtual staffers engaged and happy, team-building gifts may help.

Building strong teams: A secret of strong companies

Creating great teams takes time. So, if your organization is just beginning to build the foundation, you’re most certainly not alone. As our survey results indicate, teams benefit from having the right tools at their fingertips, appropriate direction and clear expectations, an equal mix of listening and sharing, and thoughtful team-building giveaways. With a strong foundation in place, your team’s productivity is likely to reach new levels, and members’ engagement and satisfaction are likely to rise as well. All of this leads to a positive effect on your organization’s bottom line. As a bonus, your staff will be proud to wear team-building gifts that bear your brand, knowing they’re a part of a winning team.

The post Tips for Building Successful Teams appeared first on 4imprint Learning Center.

Tips for Building Successful Teams published first on http://ift.tt/2vTEVjv

[viralhottopics]

‘Are You The One?’ Recap: Hi My Name Is Tyranny And Im An Alcoholic

Hello everyone. I would like to thank my loyal followers for questioning my whereabouts on Twitter. I was actually on vacation, because Im not poor. Sorry, but watching these morons was just not a fucking option. I was zen AF and I dont need Carolinas crocodile tears ruining it, k thx.

ANYWAYS, so onto the episode. It was kind of eh, Im going to be honest. If youre looking for another reason to be annoyed by Giannas existence though, then it def delivered.

AFTER THE MATCH CEREMONY

They are all pumped about getting four beams. In fact, if you took a shot for every time someone said four fucking beams youd need to get stomach pumped four fucking times.

Tyranny is like Ossssssssssssssssvaldo is my match. Honestly can we just cut the accent though? Hes from Chicago for gods sake, not Italy.

Oswaldo is not so sure. Hes like she could be my match! Or she isnt! Yeah, thats pretty much how life works, actually.

Also, can we acknowledge the giant-ass drink Tee has the whole time? That cup is actually my favorite cast member this season.

Carolina and Hayden start having a pillow fight because FOUR FUCKING BEAMS, AMIRIGHT?

Now Carolina is very suddenly into Hayden. Carolinas emotions give me whiplash. Betsy DeVos nomination was more certain than this bitch.

Gianna is like “OH NO. NOT TODAY. I DID NOT LEAVE THE SOUTHSIDE FOR THIS.” Shes like I’M GOING TO CONTINUE TO PURSUE THIS MAN WHO TREATS ME SO WELL. Even though they are a confirmed no match. Makes total sense.

So you unfriend-zoned him to cock block him? Seems v fair. So when you go to sleep, do you leave Haydens balls under your pillow or on your nightstand? Let me know.

*Starts Twitter Poll* Is Gianna hot? Yes or No?

Tyler apologizes to Taylor and is like “I have no excuse for being the ‘big bad wolf’ in this.” So youre eating peoples grandmas now? Very Hannibal Lecter-chic. Not sure Tyler understands that hes referencing a fairytale, but hes pretty so well overlook it.

Hes like these girls are all over me wah, life is hard.

TAYLOR: Im mad *looks at Tylers beautiful face* but Im not like, thatttt mad

Hes like Im not that guy, you know that! Shes like,

TYLER: I want to dump Shannon and date you

EVERYONE AT HOME:

Gianna goes to have a talk with Hayden, which she announces for everyone to know. Shes from the Midwest, okay? Shes not used to this whole having brains thing, cut her some slack!

GIANNA: HEY CAMERA GUY IM GOING TO HAVE A TALK WITH HAYDEN ALSO GIANNA: were very low-key shhhh

Little Mike is like this is bullshit, they are not a match, they need to stop and its like SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK.

GIANNA: I dont want to stop you from doing something but stop fucking doing it. (Im not even making that up, thats an exact quote) HAYDEN: But I need to play the game GIANNA: Did I fucking stutter

So Hayden has relocated from friendzone island to being a little bitch island. Need a house warming gift, Hayden? Ill get you crowbar so you can pull your head out of your ass. Youre welcome.

Gianna and Hayden have sex, giving life to the newest Trump supporter Im sure. Carolina sees all of this and is like wtffffff. Shes like, totally in love with Hayden! Like, they spoke for a whole 10 minutes. Didnt that mean anything to him?

Andre is like “IF THEY FUCK THIS UP IM GOING TO BE PISSED” and Im like do it. Get mad. You wont. No balls.

Honestly, Gianna could probs take Andre in a fight. That girl should be a fuckin prison warden.

THE CHALLENGE

The challenge this week is for the dudes. The guys have to spin themselves and then go through an obstacle course. Then they have to shoot a basketball into the hoop of the girl they want to date. The person who shoots the third basketball in the hoop wins the date.

challenges sound like the hazing the gay frats do. Its all v weak.

The guys start the game and are falling all over the place. *plays Ed Sheeran*

Hayden is like, fuck it. Fuck this game. Idfc anymore, Im here for Gianna.

HAYDEN:I love Gianna

ME:

He decides to help Oswaldo win a date with Tee. See heres the thingI like Hayden, but I also think hes being very dumb. Its a hard spot for me rn. Really struggling.

Tee being proud of Oswaldo for winning is like Trump being proud of winning president. We all know he couldnt have won without Hayden/Russia.

Derrick and Joey are trying to win Rush Boobss date. Derrick wants to win because fuck Joey. Theyre shooting for legit five minutes. Seriously, Ive seen better shots from . When is the last time you played basketball? Third grade? Derricks like I played division I basketball! which sounds like an alternative fact to me.

Joey wins. So its Osvaldo/Tee and Joey/Rush Boobs.

Ryan tells them they are going to trapeze and Tee is like Im black, I shouldnt be in the air. How did you get to the Dominican Republic? Drive? Horseback? I didnt know your skin color made you less aerodynamic. I just saw and honestly, Im a fucking scientist now.

BACK AT THE HOUSE

Lets all agree that Tee is low-key alcoholic. Shes constantly sipping from that big-ass cup and it seems like they have a good connection. Could that be her match?

Eddie is talking to Alicia about how he is poor and shes like “LOL not me, cant relate to you peasant.” Eddie, you need to get your ass over to Kam where you fucking belong. Know your fucking place. Do not fuck this up for me, Eddie.

Tyler is trying to break up with Shannon and it is a train fucking wreck. Hes like I need to do the right thing and leave you. He actually stole the whole speech from Gabriella in .

REAL PICTURE OF TYLER:

Shannon is like “I feel dumb.” And she should, because she just got played. I feel bad for Shannon. Her voice makes me want to take a waltz off a bridge, but I do feel things, kind of.

Tylers like I didnt realize girls have feelings and get mad when you treat them poorly. Thats like saying I didnt know when you light shit on fire, it gets hot.

Meanwhile, Tee is very much trying to date rape Osvaldo. Its creepy tbh. If a guy was doing that to a girl on this show I would be dialing 911 by now. Tee, knock it off, it’s super gross.

They go to the boom boom room and literally boom boom because they break something. Oswaldo, way to not hold your ground.

Kam is oiling Eddie up and being goofy. I needed this.

Shes like I know Alicia and Eddy have a good friendship, Im not getting territorial, because this is a game show. I LOVE YOU KAM, I AM STARTING YOUR FAN CLUB. Shes so rational. Everyone be like her please.

THE DATE

Oswaldo is like this date will take our relationship to the next level, even though it already has gone to the next level. *wink, wink* I remember when I lost my virginity. We get it, you had sex.

They go to the trapeze place and Oswaldo is like Hopefully I dont break my neck. Thats a pretty reasonable goal.

They all are like surprisingly good at this. Even Tee, whose blackness surprisingly does not hinder her capabilities. Its a miracle.

Oswaldo and Tee are like being lovey-dovey because they fucked that one time. Hes like shes not trying to rape me and I like this side of her. I too am a big fan of the people who dont try and sexually assault me. Weird.

THE TRUTH BOOTH

Ryan comes in hot and asks about the no matches, aka Gianna and Hayden, still hooking up.

Giannas like HOW IS THIS OUR FAULT??? Uh, youre a confirmed no match and youre hooking up. I feel like Im taking crazy pills. Leave the dumb shit to Rush Boobs, please god.

The house is like, “ugh we hate you, lets just get this shit over with.” Thats how I felt with pledges in my sorority.

Tyranny and Oswaldo go to the truth booth because duh.

OSWALDO: Im excited to learn if were a match and really connect on a deeper level. TEE: Im tryna fuck.

Im stressed because Tee will def die of alcohol poisoning tonight if this doesnt work out. And what do you know, NO MATCH.

Tee was like I was falling in love with him. Shes crying. Hes crying. This is depressing. Did I accidentally sit on the remote and turn on ?

Oswaldo starts boxing while Andre is talking him down and all the guys hug him. Wow, I love the bromance. What I love more is that eventually one of them will try and fight another. #Drama

After everything, Tyler and Shannon are still hanging out. Whats Tylers favorite thing about Shannon? She isnt Taylor. Hes got high standards, ya know? #FourFuckingBeams

Taylor is like youre fucked up. And hes like why, because Im having a conversation?

Ugh Taylor, this paaaaains me to say, because I usually automatically side with the hot girl, but hes low-key right. You need to chill out and move on. Hes not worth it, dude. Hes just not.

Andre asks Taylor wtf shes doing with Tyler and Im like YAS KEEP THIS UP.

Andre is like actually, we like each other, Taylor. And shes like wait, yeah we do. WTF is this Jedi mind control shit Andre has.

ANDRE: *swinging coin back and forth* you are getting very sleepy.. and youre going to fuck me TAYLOR: *eyes glazed* yes, master

He says that she should be a Victorias Secret Model and honestly she should marry him just for that. Like thats compliment of the goddam century.

THE MATCHUP CEREMONY

Its the boys pick tonight. Please note that last time they blacked out harder than Tee does on any given weeknight.

Little Mike gets the ball rollin the wrong way and picks Kam.

Mikes like following our heart doesnt work. Hes like we should venture off, and though thats noble, maaaaaaybe not at the match ceremony. Thats like Michael Phelps being like LOOK FREESTYLE JUST DOESNT WORK right before the 4×100 relay.

Ozzy picks Hannah.

Oswaldo is up next and hes like “I GOTTA DO ME.” He picks Taylor.

Ryan asks Taylor how she feels about Tyler and shes like whos Tyler? Andre and her give each other looks and Im like OKAY YES IM HERE FOR THIS SHIT.

Ryans like Andre, do you wish you were with her and hes like Im practicing my patience. Whatever the fuck that means.

Oswaldo is like standing next to her like, lol just fuck me, right?

Andre picks Casandra.

Eddy picks Alicia and is like this is my homie.

KAM: I AM NOT WORRIED. ARE YOU WORRIED, BECAUSE I AM NOT WORRIED!!! *twitches*

Joey picks Rush boobs.

Derrick picks Gianna. Weird.

Tylers up and fucking moseys up to the front. Goddam hes like a walking Shakespeare playtragically beautiful.

Hes like Ryan, let me speak and Ryans like I didnt even say anything, but ok.

Tyler goes off about how he was painted as the villain and how he is innocent and how all this Taylor shit is fake news and the failing lamestream media is spreading false rumors!!! Sad!

Ryan asks Tyler who he likes more, Shannon or Taylor and Tyler picks Shannon.

RYAN: Do you think Tyler is your match? SHANNON: IDK RYAN: Is Taylor his match? SHANNON: IDK RYAN: Is the world round? SHANNON: IDK

Tylers talking about his breakup with Taylor and is like it sucks because you cant delete people in the real world. This is the first thing that I agree with him on. Dont worry Tyler, Ive watched . Well get to that point someday.

Michael picks KARI. Is it Carrie or KAAAAAARI? I have been saying KAAAAARI. Please DM some confirmation.

Hayden is next. Hayden tells the group that him and Gianna are affecting the game and they are going to stop screwing everyone over.

Gianna is like “WTF. WHO TOLD HIM HE COULD SPEAK? WHO LET HIM OUT OF HIS CAGE?” He picks Carolina. Hehe.

Jaylen and Tee are last. Tee is really bummed about Oswaldo and Ryan is like, “bitch its week four.”

These couples are random AF but idk Im drunk and just here to shit talk. Dont give that much of a fuck.

No blackout, so thats good. They get four beams again. Cant wait to hear them talk about it incessantly.

Read more: http://betches.co/2kojpty

from ‘Are You The One?’ Recap: Hi My Name Is Tyranny And Im An Alcoholic

[nbafunnymeme]

'Are You The One?' Recap: Hi My Name Is Tyranny And Im An Alcoholic

Hello everyone. I would like to thank my loyal followers for questioning my whereabouts on Twitter. I was actually on vacation, because Im not poor. Sorry, but watching these morons was just not a fucking option. I was zen AF and I dont need Carolinas crocodile tears ruining it, k thx.

ANYWAYS, so onto the episode. It was kind of eh, Im going to be honest. If youre looking for another reason to be annoyed by Giannas existence though, then it def delivered.

AFTER THE MATCH CEREMONY

They are all pumped about getting four beams. In fact, if you took a shot for every time someone said four fucking beams youd need to get stomach pumped four fucking times.

Tyranny is like Ossssssssssssssssvaldo is my match. Honestly can we just cut the accent though? Hes from Chicago for gods sake, not Italy.

Oswaldo is not so sure. Hes like she could be my match! Or she isnt! Yeah, thats pretty much how life works, actually.

Also, can we acknowledge the giant-ass drink Tee has the whole time? That cup is actually my favorite cast member this season.

Carolina and Hayden start having a pillow fight because FOUR FUCKING BEAMS, AMIRIGHT?

Now Carolina is very suddenly into Hayden. Carolinas emotions give me whiplash. Betsy DeVos nomination was more certain than this bitch.

Gianna is like “OH NO. NOT TODAY. I DID NOT LEAVE THE SOUTHSIDE FOR THIS.” Shes like I’M GOING TO CONTINUE TO PURSUE THIS MAN WHO TREATS ME SO WELL. Even though they are a confirmed no match. Makes total sense.

So you unfriend-zoned him to cock block him? Seems v fair. So when you go to sleep, do you leave Haydens balls under your pillow or on your nightstand? Let me know.

*Starts Twitter Poll* Is Gianna hot? Yes or No?

Tyler apologizes to Taylor and is like “I have no excuse for being the ‘big bad wolf’ in this.” So youre eating peoples grandmas now? Very Hannibal Lecter-chic. Not sure Tyler understands that hes referencing a fairytale, but hes pretty so well overlook it.

Hes like these girls are all over me wah, life is hard.

TAYLOR: Im mad *looks at Tylers beautiful face* but Im not like, thatttt mad

Hes like Im not that guy, you know that! Shes like,

TYLER: I want to dump Shannon and date you

EVERYONE AT HOME:

Gianna goes to have a talk with Hayden, which she announces for everyone to know. Shes from the Midwest, okay? Shes not used to this whole having brains thing, cut her some slack!

GIANNA: HEY CAMERA GUY IM GOING TO HAVE A TALK WITH HAYDEN ALSO GIANNA: were very low-key shhhh

Little Mike is like this is bullshit, they are not a match, they need to stop and its like SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK.

GIANNA: I dont want to stop you from doing something but stop fucking doing it. (Im not even making that up, thats an exact quote) HAYDEN: But I need to play the game GIANNA: Did I fucking stutter

So Hayden has relocated from friendzone island to being a little bitch island. Need a house warming gift, Hayden? Ill get you crowbar so you can pull your head out of your ass. Youre welcome.

Gianna and Hayden have sex, giving life to the newest Trump supporter Im sure. Carolina sees all of this and is like wtffffff. Shes like, totally in love with Hayden! Like, they spoke for a whole 10 minutes. Didnt that mean anything to him?

Andre is like “IF THEY FUCK THIS UP IM GOING TO BE PISSED” and Im like do it. Get mad. You wont. No balls.

Honestly, Gianna could probs take Andre in a fight. That girl should be a fuckin prison warden.

THE CHALLENGE

The challenge this week is for the dudes. The guys have to spin themselves and then go through an obstacle course. Then they have to shoot a basketball into the hoop of the girl they want to date. The person who shoots the third basketball in the hoop wins the date.

challenges sound like the hazing the gay frats do. Its all v weak.

The guys start the game and are falling all over the place. *plays Ed Sheeran*

Hayden is like, fuck it. Fuck this game. Idfc anymore, Im here for Gianna.

HAYDEN:I love Gianna

ME:

He decides to help Oswaldo win a date with Tee. See heres the thingI like Hayden, but I also think hes being very dumb. Its a hard spot for me rn. Really struggling.

Tee being proud of Oswaldo for winning is like Trump being proud of winning president. We all know he couldnt have won without Hayden/Russia.

Derrick and Joey are trying to win Rush Boobss date. Derrick wants to win because fuck Joey. Theyre shooting for legit five minutes. Seriously, Ive seen better shots from . When is the last time you played basketball? Third grade? Derricks like I played division I basketball! which sounds like an alternative fact to me.

Joey wins. So its Osvaldo/Tee and Joey/Rush Boobs.

Ryan tells them they are going to trapeze and Tee is like Im black, I shouldnt be in the air. How did you get to the Dominican Republic? Drive? Horseback? I didnt know your skin color made you less aerodynamic. I just saw and honestly, Im a fucking scientist now.

BACK AT THE HOUSE

Lets all agree that Tee is low-key alcoholic. Shes constantly sipping from that big-ass cup and it seems like they have a good connection. Could that be her match?

Eddie is talking to Alicia about how he is poor and shes like “LOL not me, cant relate to you peasant.” Eddie, you need to get your ass over to Kam where you fucking belong. Know your fucking place. Do not fuck this up for me, Eddie.

Tyler is trying to break up with Shannon and it is a train fucking wreck. Hes like I need to do the right thing and leave you. He actually stole the whole speech from Gabriella in .

REAL PICTURE OF TYLER:

Shannon is like “I feel dumb.” And she should, because she just got played. I feel bad for Shannon. Her voice makes me want to take a waltz off a bridge, but I do feel things, kind of.

Tylers like I didnt realize girls have feelings and get mad when you treat them poorly. Thats like saying I didnt know when you light shit on fire, it gets hot.

Meanwhile, Tee is very much trying to date rape Osvaldo. Its creepy tbh. If a guy was doing that to a girl on this show I would be dialing 911 by now. Tee, knock it off, it’s super gross.

They go to the boom boom room and literally boom boom because they break something. Oswaldo, way to not hold your ground.

Kam is oiling Eddie up and being goofy. I needed this.

Shes like I know Alicia and Eddy have a good friendship, Im not getting territorial, because this is a game show. I LOVE YOU KAM, I AM STARTING YOUR FAN CLUB. Shes so rational. Everyone be like her please.

THE DATE

Oswaldo is like this date will take our relationship to the next level, even though it already has gone to the next level. *wink, wink* I remember when I lost my virginity. We get it, you had sex.

They go to the trapeze place and Oswaldo is like Hopefully I dont break my neck. Thats a pretty reasonable goal.

They all are like surprisingly good at this. Even Tee, whose blackness surprisingly does not hinder her capabilities. Its a miracle.

Oswaldo and Tee are like being lovey-dovey because they fucked that one time. Hes like shes not trying to rape me and I like this side of her. I too am a big fan of the people who dont try and sexually assault me. Weird.

THE TRUTH BOOTH

Ryan comes in hot and asks about the no matches, aka Gianna and Hayden, still hooking up.

Giannas like HOW IS THIS OUR FAULT??? Uh, youre a confirmed no match and youre hooking up. I feel like Im taking crazy pills. Leave the dumb shit to Rush Boobs, please god.

The house is like, “ugh we hate you, lets just get this shit over with.” Thats how I felt with pledges in my sorority.

Tyranny and Oswaldo go to the truth booth because duh.

OSWALDO: Im excited to learn if were a match and really connect on a deeper level. TEE: Im tryna fuck.

Im stressed because Tee will def die of alcohol poisoning tonight if this doesnt work out. And what do you know, NO MATCH.

Tee was like I was falling in love with him. Shes crying. Hes crying. This is depressing. Did I accidentally sit on the remote and turn on ?

Oswaldo starts boxing while Andre is talking him down and all the guys hug him. Wow, I love the bromance. What I love more is that eventually one of them will try and fight another. #Drama

After everything, Tyler and Shannon are still hanging out. Whats Tylers favorite thing about Shannon? She isnt Taylor. Hes got high standards, ya know? #FourFuckingBeams

Taylor is like youre fucked up. And hes like why, because Im having a conversation?

Ugh Taylor, this paaaaains me to say, because I usually automatically side with the hot girl, but hes low-key right. You need to chill out and move on. Hes not worth it, dude. Hes just not.

Andre asks Taylor wtf shes doing with Tyler and Im like YAS KEEP THIS UP.

Andre is like actually, we like each other, Taylor. And shes like wait, yeah we do. WTF is this Jedi mind control shit Andre has.

ANDRE: *swinging coin back and forth* you are getting very sleepy.. and youre going to fuck me TAYLOR: *eyes glazed* yes, master

He says that she should be a Victorias Secret Model and honestly she should marry him just for that. Like thats compliment of the goddam century.

THE MATCHUP CEREMONY

Its the boys pick tonight. Please note that last time they blacked out harder than Tee does on any given weeknight.

Little Mike gets the ball rollin the wrong way and picks Kam.

Mikes like following our heart doesnt work. Hes like we should venture off, and though thats noble, maaaaaaybe not at the match ceremony. Thats like Michael Phelps being like LOOK FREESTYLE JUST DOESNT WORK right before the 4×100 relay.

Ozzy picks Hannah.

Oswaldo is up next and hes like “I GOTTA DO ME.” He picks Taylor.

Ryan asks Taylor how she feels about Tyler and shes like whos Tyler? Andre and her give each other looks and Im like OKAY YES IM HERE FOR THIS SHIT.

Ryans like Andre, do you wish you were with her and hes like Im practicing my patience. Whatever the fuck that means.

Oswaldo is like standing next to her like, lol just fuck me, right?

Andre picks Casandra.

Eddy picks Alicia and is like this is my homie.

KAM: I AM NOT WORRIED. ARE YOU WORRIED, BECAUSE I AM NOT WORRIED!!! *twitches*

Joey picks Rush boobs.

Derrick picks Gianna. Weird.

Tylers up and fucking moseys up to the front. Goddam hes like a walking Shakespeare playtragically beautiful.

Hes like Ryan, let me speak and Ryans like I didnt even say anything, but ok.

Tyler goes off about how he was painted as the villain and how he is innocent and how all this Taylor shit is fake news and the failing lamestream media is spreading false rumors!!! Sad!

Ryan asks Tyler who he likes more, Shannon or Taylor and Tyler picks Shannon.

RYAN: Do you think Tyler is your match? SHANNON: IDK RYAN: Is Taylor his match? SHANNON: IDK RYAN: Is the world round? SHANNON: IDK

Tylers talking about his breakup with Taylor and is like it sucks because you cant delete people in the real world. This is the first thing that I agree with him on. Dont worry Tyler, Ive watched . Well get to that point someday.

Michael picks KARI. Is it Carrie or KAAAAAARI? I have been saying KAAAAARI. Please DM some confirmation.

Hayden is next. Hayden tells the group that him and Gianna are affecting the game and they are going to stop screwing everyone over.

Gianna is like “WTF. WHO TOLD HIM HE COULD SPEAK? WHO LET HIM OUT OF HIS CAGE?” He picks Carolina. Hehe.

Jaylen and Tee are last. Tee is really bummed about Oswaldo and Ryan is like, “bitch its week four.”

These couples are random AF but idk Im drunk and just here to shit talk. Dont give that much of a fuck.

No blackout, so thats good. They get four beams again. Cant wait to hear them talk about it incessantly.

Read more: http://www.betches.com/are-you-the-one-season-5-episode-4-recap

http://nbafunnymeme.com/nba-news-and-higlights/are-you-the-one-recap-hi-my-name-is-tyranny-and-im-an-alcoholic

[servaxo]

Tips for Building Successful Teams

Nearly every business depends on strong teams to perform at peak capability. And, business leaders employ several tactics to get their teams up to speed, including leveraging team-building gifts.

As psychologist Bruce Tuckman famously described back in 1965, teams commonly follow the model of “forming, storming, norming and performing.” It is the leader’s job to move the team through to the performing stage as quickly and as seamlessly as possible. But, how do you get there? And how are other organizations navigating this challenge?

In this Blue Paper, we take an in-depth look at team-building trends in the workplace, including original findings from a recent 4imprint® survey; the strategies and tactics organizations are using to support and grow strong, functional workplace teams; and tips on how you can encourage and build high-performing teams to meet your organizational goals.

Survey results shed light on team-building trends

A recent 4imprint survey conducted via online panel at the Association for Talent Development conference took a look at how organizations train their employees to work effectively in teams. The survey, conducted in mid-2017, shed light on how organizations support, fund and structure effective teams.

Here’s a look at what the survey found.

Successful teams create engaged and satisfied employees.

Teams are where it’s at. The majority of survey respondents, regardless of their industry or company size, said employees work frequently in teams within their organization. In total, 47.3 percent of respondents said their employees always work within teams, and another 47.8 percent said their employees sometimes work in teams.

Respondents from organizations of more than 1,000 employees reported the highest percentage of staff who work in teams, with 39 percent reporting they always work in teams, and 35 percent saying they sometimes work in teams.

Working as a team isn’t enough, though. The team has to work well together to truly be successful. Great teams pay dividends in several ways. Recent statistics show that companies with engaged employees earn up to 2.5 times more income than competitors with low employee engagement. Meanwhile, in a study by SalesForce®, respondents cited poor collaboration or communication as a primary cause of workplace failures. Team-building efforts positively affect results. What’s more, staff with high engagement levels are 87 percent less likely to leave a company than those who are only minimally engaged.

As you’re considering team-building strategies, consider team-building gifts as rewards for a job well done, incentives for innovations, or as tools to help teammates feel connected to a common mission.

Offer support and training opportunities to increase team effectiveness.

According to the survey results, 41 percent of companies with at least 1,000 employees train staff on teamwork skills. Meanwhile, at 21 percent of midsize organizations with 250-499 employees, teamwork training is most likely to be given to executives. And among smaller organizations with 100-249 employees, just 6 percent are likely to provide team-building skills only to their executive team.

What the survey shows is that companies have an opportunity to increase team performance by providing training in communication, effective listening and project management.  Why are these skills important? In an effective team culture, members fully understand how their teamwork feeds into the company’s strategic plan and ultimate success. The result: team members feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves, which is proven to increase employee engagement and work satisfaction.

Yet our survey found not all training is created equal. Of survey respondents, 62.4 percent said their company offered communication training, making it the most common type of teamwork training offered across all industries. Meanwhile, effective listening and project management were among the least common offerings.

The bottom line: organizations can greatly benefit from educating employees to be more effective team players. It can be challenging, especially when you’re bringing together staff with very different skill sets and personalities.

Building healthy work relationships can lead to increased job satisfaction. Here are some simple tips on how to forge winning relationships at work. Share these ideas with your employees and you could see big rewards.

Show gratitude. Remind employees to thank their coworkers. Receiving thanks is a proven way to boost optimism and an employee’s sense of self-worth.

Go the extra mile. Workers can boost the office mood by simply being thoughtful. Encourage them to contribute to the daily chores of the office, such as refilling the printer paper, making a pot of coffee or picking up treats for a morning meeting. Little things can make a big difference in the office atmosphere, especially if everyone contributes.

Kick drama to the curb. Encourage your employees to avoid participating in office gossip or complaint sessions. Focus on solutions to create a more positive atmosphere.

Be honest about bad habits. Have employees take a good, hard look at what they do that may be irritating to others, and then help them find a way to break those habits.

Create a culture of sharing. Everyone brings their own unique skills and qualities to the table. Create a sense of teamwork by encouraging everyone to contribute their knowledge and expertise. Then, consider rewarding those who regularly contribute with thoughtful team-building gifts.

Provide the resources your teams will need to achieve success.

Most companies are not only recognizing the value of teamwork, they are investing in it. More than 55 percent of survey respondents said they provide employees with technological tools, like project management and video conferencing technology, to help the team work together. The largest companies tend to offer several resources to encourage team building, our findings show. It’s important to note that respondents said in-person meetings are happening less often than they have historically, especially in small to mid-size organizations, which is just one reason why investing in technology pays off.

It may come as no surprise that challenges can derail even the best-laid plans when it comes to teamwork. According to a recent Gallup® poll, even if employees feel connected to their teammates, they risk losing their way if members don’t understand expectations, lack access to the right tools or aren’t able to contribute their skills toward the goal. The report says that instead of functioning like a well-run machine, team meetings may degrade into complaining sessions.

Companies can address issues head-on by establishing clear expectations, ensuring teams have the needed resources to achieve goals and making sure those with specialized skills are able to fully contribute.

Encourage team unity with team-building gifts.

According to our survey, team-building giveaways are a popular choice for creating strong teams. About 55 percent of survey respondents said in their experience, custom branded apparel is the most effective product for promoting team unity.

Bridget Kane, marketing coordinator for Fair-Rite Products Corp., knows first-hand the importance of building a sense of team with a remote workforce. About 45 distributors and reps who sell Fair-Rite electromagnetic components come together from around the world every three years for a sales conference at their factory in Wallkill, N.Y. They learn about the company’s emerging products, and the sales conference is the perfect time to promote team bonding.

“We want to build team morale because we don’t see them on an everyday basis,” Kane says. “I think with outside sales reps and distributors, it’s kind of important to bring them back in because they are a part of their own companies, but they are here to help our team in the end. Even though they may be affiliated with another company, they are also under our umbrella, and we appreciate them. They are a part of what makes Fair-Rite great.”

To show sales reps and distributors they are appreciated, and to help them feel like they’re part of the Fair-Rite team, Kane ordered a wide variety of team-building gifts. She selected the Big Lanyard – 7/8” – 36” – Snap with Metal Bulldog Clip and the useful Ruler Notebook with Flags and Pen. Women received the Pilbloc V-Neck Button Down Cardigan Sweater – Ladies’, while men received the Tipped Colorblock Wicking Polo – Men’s, and conference attendees could keep their new duds dry with the ShedRain® Super Mini 42” Umbrella.

“So really they left with a whole bunch of Fair-Rite gear, and they were happy about it. I was told by a majority of them that these were the best giveaways they ever received,” Kane says.

She adds that a conference is a valuable tool for the company’s long-term success. “It’s worth the investment of getting everybody together…in the end, they are motivated, and they feel appreciated, and it’s for the benefit of everybody. Fair-Rite helps them personally, and that helps the business, so I think that’s very important.”

If you’re looking for team-building gift ideas, knowing what works at other companies may help. Our survey results ranked logo’d apparel as the most popular promotional at 57.8 percent. Polos, sweatshirts, jackets and T-shirts were followed by custom printed pens, with 43 percent of respondents saying their organization sealed teamwork in ink. Branded drinkware was at 42.5 percent, and custom totes/bags were at nearly 39 percent to round out the most popular promotional products for encouraging team unity.

Strategizing ways to help a remote workgroup stay engaged and feel connected is a necessity. Global Workforce Analytics reports that 63 million Americans worked remotely at least part of the time in 2016. Fostering strong teams with a virtual workforce can be challenging—and if you’re brainstorming ways to make that happen, you’re not alone. For more inspiration on how to keep those virtual staffers engaged and happy, team-building gifts may help.

Building strong teams: A secret of strong companies

Creating great teams takes time. So, if your organization is just beginning to build the foundation, you’re most certainly not alone. As our survey results indicate, teams benefit from having the right tools at their fingertips, appropriate direction and clear expectations, an equal mix of listening and sharing, and thoughtful team-building giveaways. With a strong foundation in place, your team’s productivity is likely to reach new levels, and members’ engagement and satisfaction are likely to rise as well. All of this leads to a positive effect on your organization’s bottom line. As a bonus, your staff will be proud to wear team-building gifts that bear your brand, knowing they’re a part of a winning team.

The post Tips for Building Successful Teams appeared first on 4imprint Learning Center.

Tips for Building Successful Teams published first on http://ift.tt/2vTEVjv

[servaxo]

Tips for Building Successful Teams

Nearly every business depends on strong teams to perform at peak capability. And, business leaders employ several tactics to get their teams up to speed, including leveraging team-building gifts.

As psychologist Bruce Tuckman famously described back in 1965, teams commonly follow the model of “forming, storming, norming and performing.” It is the leader’s job to move the team through to the performing stage as quickly and as seamlessly as possible. But, how do you get there? And how are other organizations navigating this challenge?

In this Blue Paper, we take an in-depth look at team-building trends in the workplace, including original findings from a recent 4imprint® survey; the strategies and tactics organizations are using to support and grow strong, functional workplace teams; and tips on how you can encourage and build high-performing teams to meet your organizational goals.

Survey results shed light on team-building trends

A recent 4imprint survey conducted via online panel at the Association for Talent Development conference took a look at how organizations train their employees to work effectively in teams. The survey, conducted in mid-2017, shed light on how organizations support, fund and structure effective teams.

Here’s a look at what the survey found.

Successful teams create engaged and satisfied employees.

Teams are where it’s at. The majority of survey respondents, regardless of their industry or company size, said employees work frequently in teams within their organization. In total, 47.3 percent of respondents said their employees always work within teams, and another 47.8 percent said their employees sometimes work in teams.

Respondents from organizations of more than 1,000 employees reported the highest percentage of staff who work in teams, with 39 percent reporting they always work in teams, and 35 percent saying they sometimes work in teams.

Working as a team isn’t enough, though. The team has to work well together to truly be successful. Great teams pay dividends in several ways. Recent statistics show that companies with engaged employees earn up to 2.5 times more income than competitors with low employee engagement. Meanwhile, in a study by SalesForce®, respondents cited poor collaboration or communication as a primary cause of workplace failures. Team-building efforts positively affect results. What’s more, staff with high engagement levels are 87 percent less likely to leave a company than those who are only minimally engaged.

As you’re considering team-building strategies, consider team-building gifts as rewards for a job well done, incentives for innovations, or as tools to help teammates feel connected to a common mission.

Offer support and training opportunities to increase team effectiveness.

According to the survey results, 41 percent of companies with at least 1,000 employees train staff on teamwork skills. Meanwhile, at 21 percent of midsize organizations with 250-499 employees, teamwork training is most likely to be given to executives. And among smaller organizations with 100-249 employees, just 6 percent are likely to provide team-building skills only to their executive team.

What the survey shows is that companies have an opportunity to increase team performance by providing training in communication, effective listening and project management.  Why are these skills important? In an effective team culture, members fully understand how their teamwork feeds into the company’s strategic plan and ultimate success. The result: team members feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves, which is proven to increase employee engagement and work satisfaction.

Yet our survey found not all training is created equal. Of survey respondents, 62.4 percent said their company offered communication training, making it the most common type of teamwork training offered across all industries. Meanwhile, effective listening and project management were among the least common offerings.

The bottom line: organizations can greatly benefit from educating employees to be more effective team players. It can be challenging, especially when you’re bringing together staff with very different skill sets and personalities.

Building healthy work relationships can lead to increased job satisfaction. Here are some simple tips on how to forge winning relationships at work. Share these ideas with your employees and you could see big rewards.

Show gratitude. Remind employees to thank their coworkers. Receiving thanks is a proven way to boost optimism and an employee’s sense of self-worth.

Go the extra mile. Workers can boost the office mood by simply being thoughtful. Encourage them to contribute to the daily chores of the office, such as refilling the printer paper, making a pot of coffee or picking up treats for a morning meeting. Little things can make a big difference in the office atmosphere, especially if everyone contributes.

Kick drama to the curb. Encourage your employees to avoid participating in office gossip or complaint sessions. Focus on solutions to create a more positive atmosphere.

Be honest about bad habits. Have employees take a good, hard look at what they do that may be irritating to others, and then help them find a way to break those habits.

Create a culture of sharing. Everyone brings their own unique skills and qualities to the table. Create a sense of teamwork by encouraging everyone to contribute their knowledge and expertise. Then, consider rewarding those who regularly contribute with thoughtful team-building gifts.

Provide the resources your teams will need to achieve success.

Most companies are not only recognizing the value of teamwork, they are investing in it. More than 55 percent of survey respondents said they provide employees with technological tools, like project management and video conferencing technology, to help the team work together. The largest companies tend to offer several resources to encourage team building, our findings show. It’s important to note that respondents said in-person meetings are happening less often than they have historically, especially in small to mid-size organizations, which is just one reason why investing in technology pays off.

It may come as no surprise that challenges can derail even the best-laid plans when it comes to teamwork. According to a recent Gallup® poll, even if employees feel connected to their teammates, they risk losing their way if members don’t understand expectations, lack access to the right tools or aren’t able to contribute their skills toward the goal. The report says that instead of functioning like a well-run machine, team meetings may degrade into complaining sessions.

Companies can address issues head-on by establishing clear expectations, ensuring teams have the needed resources to achieve goals and making sure those with specialized skills are able to fully contribute.

Encourage team unity with team-building gifts.

According to our survey, team-building giveaways are a popular choice for creating strong teams. About 55 percent of survey respondents said in their experience, custom branded apparel is the most effective product for promoting team unity.

Bridget Kane, marketing coordinator for Fair-Rite Products Corp., knows first-hand the importance of building a sense of team with a remote workforce. About 45 distributors and reps who sell Fair-Rite electromagnetic components come together from around the world every three years for a sales conference at their factory in Wallkill, N.Y. They learn about the company’s emerging products, and the sales conference is the perfect time to promote team bonding.

“We want to build team morale because we don’t see them on an everyday basis,” Kane says. “I think with outside sales reps and distributors, it’s kind of important to bring them back in because they are a part of their own companies, but they are here to help our team in the end. Even though they may be affiliated with another company, they are also under our umbrella, and we appreciate them. They are a part of what makes Fair-Rite great.”

To show sales reps and distributors they are appreciated, and to help them feel like they’re part of the Fair-Rite team, Kane ordered a wide variety of team-building gifts. She selected the Big Lanyard – 7/8” – 36” – Snap with Metal Bulldog Clip and the useful Ruler Notebook with Flags and Pen. Women received the Pilbloc V-Neck Button Down Cardigan Sweater – Ladies’, while men received the Tipped Colorblock Wicking Polo – Men’s, and conference attendees could keep their new duds dry with the ShedRain® Super Mini 42” Umbrella.

“So really they left with a whole bunch of Fair-Rite gear, and they were happy about it. I was told by a majority of them that these were the best giveaways they ever received,” Kane says.

She adds that a conference is a valuable tool for the company’s long-term success. “It’s worth the investment of getting everybody together…in the end, they are motivated, and they feel appreciated, and it’s for the benefit of everybody. Fair-Rite helps them personally, and that helps the business, so I think that’s very important.”

If you’re looking for team-building gift ideas, knowing what works at other companies may help. Our survey results ranked logo’d apparel as the most popular promotional at 57.8 percent. Polos, sweatshirts, jackets and T-shirts were followed by custom printed pens, with 43 percent of respondents saying their organization sealed teamwork in ink. Branded drinkware was at 42.5 percent, and custom totes/bags were at nearly 39 percent to round out the most popular promotional products for encouraging team unity.

Strategizing ways to help a remote workgroup stay engaged and feel connected is a necessity. Global Workforce Analytics reports that 63 million Americans worked remotely at least part of the time in 2016. Fostering strong teams with a virtual workforce can be challenging—and if you’re brainstorming ways to make that happen, you’re not alone. For more inspiration on how to keep those virtual staffers engaged and happy, team-building gifts may help.

Building strong teams: A secret of strong companies

Creating great teams takes time. So, if your organization is just beginning to build the foundation, you’re most certainly not alone. As our survey results indicate, teams benefit from having the right tools at their fingertips, appropriate direction and clear expectations, an equal mix of listening and sharing, and thoughtful team-building giveaways. With a strong foundation in place, your team’s productivity is likely to reach new levels, and members’ engagement and satisfaction are likely to rise as well. All of this leads to a positive effect on your organization’s bottom line. As a bonus, your staff will be proud to wear team-building gifts that bear your brand, knowing they’re a part of a winning team.

The post Tips for Building Successful Teams appeared first on 4imprint Learning Center.

Tips for Building Successful Teams published first on http://ift.tt/2vTEVjv

[servaxo]

Tips for Building Successful Teams

Nearly every business depends on strong teams to perform at peak capability. And, business leaders employ several tactics to get their teams up to speed, including leveraging team-building gifts.

As psychologist Bruce Tuckman famously described back in 1965, teams commonly follow the model of “forming, storming, norming and performing.” It is the leader’s job to move the team through to the performing stage as quickly and as seamlessly as possible. But, how do you get there? And how are other organizations navigating this challenge?

In this Blue Paper, we take an in-depth look at team-building trends in the workplace, including original findings from a recent 4imprint® survey; the strategies and tactics organizations are using to support and grow strong, functional workplace teams; and tips on how you can encourage and build high-performing teams to meet your organizational goals.

Survey results shed light on team-building trends

A recent 4imprint survey conducted via online panel at the Association for Talent Development conference took a look at how organizations train their employees to work effectively in teams. The survey, conducted in mid-2017, shed light on how organizations support, fund and structure effective teams.

Here’s a look at what the survey found.

Successful teams create engaged and satisfied employees.

Teams are where it’s at. The majority of survey respondents, regardless of their industry or company size, said employees work frequently in teams within their organization. In total, 47.3 percent of respondents said their employees always work within teams, and another 47.8 percent said their employees sometimes work in teams.

Respondents from organizations of more than 1,000 employees reported the highest percentage of staff who work in teams, with 39 percent reporting they always work in teams, and 35 percent saying they sometimes work in teams.

Working as a team isn’t enough, though. The team has to work well together to truly be successful. Great teams pay dividends in several ways. Recent statistics show that companies with engaged employees earn up to 2.5 times more income than competitors with low employee engagement. Meanwhile, in a study by SalesForce®, respondents cited poor collaboration or communication as a primary cause of workplace failures. Team-building efforts positively affect results. What’s more, staff with high engagement levels are 87 percent less likely to leave a company than those who are only minimally engaged.

As you’re considering team-building strategies, consider team-building gifts as rewards for a job well done, incentives for innovations, or as tools to help teammates feel connected to a common mission.

Offer support and training opportunities to increase team effectiveness.

According to the survey results, 41 percent of companies with at least 1,000 employees train staff on teamwork skills. Meanwhile, at 21 percent of midsize organizations with 250-499 employees, teamwork training is most likely to be given to executives. And among smaller organizations with 100-249 employees, just 6 percent are likely to provide team-building skills only to their executive team.

What the survey shows is that companies have an opportunity to increase team performance by providing training in communication, effective listening and project management.  Why are these skills important? In an effective team culture, members fully understand how their teamwork feeds into the company’s strategic plan and ultimate success. The result: team members feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves, which is proven to increase employee engagement and work satisfaction.

Yet our survey found not all training is created equal. Of survey respondents, 62.4 percent said their company offered communication training, making it the most common type of teamwork training offered across all industries. Meanwhile, effective listening and project management were among the least common offerings.

The bottom line: organizations can greatly benefit from educating employees to be more effective team players. It can be challenging, especially when you’re bringing together staff with very different skill sets and personalities.

Building healthy work relationships can lead to increased job satisfaction. Here are some simple tips on how to forge winning relationships at work. Share these ideas with your employees and you could see big rewards.

Show gratitude. Remind employees to thank their coworkers. Receiving thanks is a proven way to boost optimism and an employee’s sense of self-worth.

Go the extra mile. Workers can boost the office mood by simply being thoughtful. Encourage them to contribute to the daily chores of the office, such as refilling the printer paper, making a pot of coffee or picking up treats for a morning meeting. Little things can make a big difference in the office atmosphere, especially if everyone contributes.

Kick drama to the curb. Encourage your employees to avoid participating in office gossip or complaint sessions. Focus on solutions to create a more positive atmosphere.

Be honest about bad habits. Have employees take a good, hard look at what they do that may be irritating to others, and then help them find a way to break those habits.

Create a culture of sharing. Everyone brings their own unique skills and qualities to the table. Create a sense of teamwork by encouraging everyone to contribute their knowledge and expertise. Then, consider rewarding those who regularly contribute with thoughtful team-building gifts.

Provide the resources your teams will need to achieve success.

Most companies are not only recognizing the value of teamwork, they are investing in it. More than 55 percent of survey respondents said they provide employees with technological tools, like project management and video conferencing technology, to help the team work together. The largest companies tend to offer several resources to encourage team building, our findings show. It’s important to note that respondents said in-person meetings are happening less often than they have historically, especially in small to mid-size organizations, which is just one reason why investing in technology pays off.

It may come as no surprise that challenges can derail even the best-laid plans when it comes to teamwork. According to a recent Gallup® poll, even if employees feel connected to their teammates, they risk losing their way if members don’t understand expectations, lack access to the right tools or aren’t able to contribute their skills toward the goal. The report says that instead of functioning like a well-run machine, team meetings may degrade into complaining sessions.

Companies can address issues head-on by establishing clear expectations, ensuring teams have the needed resources to achieve goals and making sure those with specialized skills are able to fully contribute.

Encourage team unity with team-building gifts.

According to our survey, team-building giveaways are a popular choice for creating strong teams. About 55 percent of survey respondents said in their experience, custom branded apparel is the most effective product for promoting team unity.

Bridget Kane, marketing coordinator for Fair-Rite Products Corp., knows first-hand the importance of building a sense of team with a remote workforce. About 45 distributors and reps who sell Fair-Rite electromagnetic components come together from around the world every three years for a sales conference at their factory in Wallkill, N.Y. They learn about the company’s emerging products, and the sales conference is the perfect time to promote team bonding.

“We want to build team morale because we don’t see them on an everyday basis,” Kane says. “I think with outside sales reps and distributors, it’s kind of important to bring them back in because they are a part of their own companies, but they are here to help our team in the end. Even though they may be affiliated with another company, they are also under our umbrella, and we appreciate them. They are a part of what makes Fair-Rite great.”

To show sales reps and distributors they are appreciated, and to help them feel like they’re part of the Fair-Rite team, Kane ordered a wide variety of team-building gifts. She selected the Big Lanyard – 7/8” – 36” – Snap with Metal Bulldog Clip and the useful Ruler Notebook with Flags and Pen. Women received the Pilbloc V-Neck Button Down Cardigan Sweater – Ladies’, while men received the Tipped Colorblock Wicking Polo – Men’s, and conference attendees could keep their new duds dry with the ShedRain® Super Mini 42” Umbrella.

“So really they left with a whole bunch of Fair-Rite gear, and they were happy about it. I was told by a majority of them that these were the best giveaways they ever received,” Kane says.

She adds that a conference is a valuable tool for the company’s long-term success. “It’s worth the investment of getting everybody together…in the end, they are motivated, and they feel appreciated, and it’s for the benefit of everybody. Fair-Rite helps them personally, and that helps the business, so I think that’s very important.”

If you’re looking for team-building gift ideas, knowing what works at other companies may help. Our survey results ranked logo’d apparel as the most popular promotional at 57.8 percent. Polos, sweatshirts, jackets and T-shirts were followed by custom printed pens, with 43 percent of respondents saying their organization sealed teamwork in ink. Branded drinkware was at 42.5 percent, and custom totes/bags were at nearly 39 percent to round out the most popular promotional products for encouraging team unity.

Strategizing ways to help a remote workgroup stay engaged and feel connected is a necessity. Global Workforce Analytics reports that 63 million Americans worked remotely at least part of the time in 2016. Fostering strong teams with a virtual workforce can be challenging—and if you’re brainstorming ways to make that happen, you’re not alone. For more inspiration on how to keep those virtual staffers engaged and happy, team-building gifts may help.

Building strong teams: A secret of strong companies

Creating great teams takes time. So, if your organization is just beginning to build the foundation, you’re most certainly not alone. As our survey results indicate, teams benefit from having the right tools at their fingertips, appropriate direction and clear expectations, an equal mix of listening and sharing, and thoughtful team-building giveaways. With a strong foundation in place, your team’s productivity is likely to reach new levels, and members’ engagement and satisfaction are likely to rise as well. All of this leads to a positive effect on your organization’s bottom line. As a bonus, your staff will be proud to wear team-building gifts that bear your brand, knowing they’re a part of a winning team.

The post Tips for Building Successful Teams appeared first on 4imprint Learning Center.

Tips for Building Successful Teams published first on http://ift.tt/2vTEVjv