Happiness is being with people who aren’t crazy

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After a short blogging hiatus, I made it to Madison. I can’t tell you that my happiness levels have changed dramatically, but I’m optimistic. And, after decidedly UNhappy traveling with two young kids, I’m ready for a little normalcy, which for me is blogging at midnight…

A company fired someone via text message (thanks for the link, Tommie). A lot of bloggers have written about this event, and mostly people complain about the company and how bad it must be.

There is a saying that there is never one crazy person in a marriage. I have found this to be true — that it takes a crazy person to marry a crazy person and just because it LOOKS like one person is crazy doesn’t mean the other isn’t crazy in a more private way.

The same is true for companies. Who takes a job at a company that fires people via text message? And, if you do take a job at a company like that, if you are not crazy, you leave. If you have stayed long enough to be fired by text message you are as crazy as the person who sent the message.

5 replies
  1. Penelope Trunk
    Penelope Trunk says:

    Thanks for the suggestion since the only person I know in the city (as of today) is my real estate broker.

    The Madison-Girl-In-Paris has such good photos on her blog. I have to think about doing something like that…

  2. Dale Harris
    Dale Harris says:

    Penny,

    Your statements about working for a crazy company remind of the importance of corporate culture on work life quality and in determining a company’s public persona.
    Evidence of this is seen in the following incident.
    I was a hard core ProCare auto services customer. The people there were really helpful and honest, which is TOUGH to find in a repair shop.
    Well, all good things must come to an end; that company was recently bought out by Monro/Mr. Tire, and all the management staff were changed.
    On taking my car in for its next oil change, the new manager is agressively upselling everything, and offering “great deals” that were “better” than the coupons I had. Finally after we agree on a basic service, and I return, I find that my bill is padded with $17 of shop supplies, and that the $34 “special” did not apply to me because of the make of my car, which I stated from the onset. As I was told later, by someone in the business, it was an attempt to increase the cost of the bill, to maintain some company invoice benchmark.
    The change in the corporate persona/culture is the reason for this change in service style and quality.
    And this is the type of thing that blind-sides employees and customers, and adds to the crazy nature of life out there. Thanks for the incites on life and work.
    I hope you enjoy Madison.

    Dale

  3. Penelope Trunk
    Penelope Trunk says:

    Dale, that’s a great point about corporate culture — that it comes from the top. A crazy company has a crazy person at the top. Otherwise, the person would fix the company. So if you are sniffing around for signs of lunatic culture, Google the CEO.

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