I was reading another ./ post under Abused IT Workers Ready To Quit where a poster thought that 70% of managers were poor, I would suggest the number might actually higher than that.

Rather than just hearing about bad bosses, what would be more helpful to all is what if anything we could do to avoid not only bad companies, but poor managers within those companies. Obviously networking and knowing someone that works at a company would be ideal, however what if you are not that fortunate. What websites and other resources have you found helpful, will you share them with the rest of us please?

As important would be to avoid a poor manager in a decent company! After all who wants to work for someone who manages to the Least Common Denominator anyway?

Lets face facts, usually we do not know what a company is like until we work there. It is even harder to know what an individual manager is like within that same company. I believe there are many obvious reasons for so many poor managers beyond the most obvious of people wanting to be managers for the wrong reasons (ego or higher pay instead of a desire to actually manage people). I would suggest that a better reason to become a Manager or Director is to help other people realize their goals and dreams in their careers while realizing the goals and objectives of the company. Those should not be opposing goals and objectives.

Perhaps a person became a manager for the right reasons, however the company does not give them enough time to effectively manage. Perhaps it is obvious from the job posting, perhaps not. After all how can someone effectively manage others if too large a percentage of their time is hands on coding, testing, technical, etc... in addition to managing? One thing is for sure, they are not going to pay you two salaries, one for being the manager and a second for coding, so you better make sure they pay good bonuses each and every year or that job's stress just might not be worth it. Unrealistic expectations on the company or managers part would be another reason to avoid a company....again how would one know? What questions should we be asking?

What websites and on line resources have you found to be helpful in your individual job search? (For instance while Monster has not been around as long as Dice it certainly is a good resource. What other websites have the searching capability similar or superior to that of Dice.com? (The advance search allows you to randomly select and deselected specific key words, in addition to company name, job title, city, state, and even the number of miles from a specific zip code?) Perhaps there is a site that just seems to be better for your city, state or area of the country, share it with the rest of us?

If you are in Human Resources for a company, do you monitor your company's employee turnover rate down to each individual manager? If you do what action does your company take when a problem is uncovered with a specific manager?

Does your company train up, coach and work with managers to help them be a better manager? For many that would be a positive sign that your company may be superior to another, how would a job seeker know this? What should a job candidate look for to determine that one company might be better than another? What if any questions in the area of management styles could a candidate ask that would not jeopardize their chances of being considered and hopefully selected?

Per the wikipedia entry above, the cost of employee turnover to for-profit organizations has been estimated to be up to 150% of the employees' remuneration package (Schlesinger and Heskett, 1991). I would suggest that it costs more than 150%!

We constantly hear that it costs a company $X thousands of dollars just to hire an individual, so there should be obvious incentive not just to monitor turnover, but to help the manager to improve and minimize it. What if the manager has reached their individual peter principle ), have you ever helped them move out of management and to a more suitable position for them. An obvious win - win - win, especially since the manager should be happier away from their peter principle and back to a more successful role for them. Is there any way that a person outside the company could possibly know this? Are there any questions that a job candidate could even ask?

Take the World's Smallest Political Quiz!

So you believe you are a Democrat or a Republican , but are you really?

Would you be surprised to find out that you are neither? I was and you will be too.

Don't be surprised when you discover that the label you have placed on yourself is not truly what you are!

Less then 10% are truly Conservative, a label worn proudly by Republicans .

Less then 20% are truly Liberal, a label thrust upon Democrats , worn proudly by many.

Most of us are neither Republican nor Democrat. I am not suggesting that our vote be useless this year by voting for someone who cannot win. There is simply not enough time to educate enough people to reality based on past experience with both parties. However eventually enough of us must do exactly this to force the Democrats and Republicans to change their ways! To prevent our vote from being useless, start educating people now in preparation of the 2012 election. Eventually we must start voting for someone, anyone other then a Democrat or Republican if anything is ever to change for the better for all of us.

True change must come from somewhere other then either the Democratic or Republican parties. They are both just more of the same! This they have proved, not by their words, but by their actions and deeds. We MUST remember!

If the rest of us banded together, we would control between 50% - 75% of the vote, the real majority! Not some fake minority, but the actual real majority! Start educating now, perhaps in 2012, after whoever gets elected this year fails to honestly improve things for the better.

Considering that things have been getting worse steadily for all of us since before Clinton, that is already more then 4 years under both the Democrats and the Republicans; should Barack win this year, that would be 8 or more years under each political party since Clinton...enough is enough!

Don't waste your vote this year, rather begin educating your friends and family to the truth, get them to take the World's Smallest Political Quiz, then in future years...

You should not have to educate anyone to the reality of how the current two party system does not work or is broken, rather have them explain to you how their party has reached across the isle and worked with the other party! They have not, they can't, they would rather be career politicians and play politics rather then work for us as they were elected to do!

When enough of us know the truth and are willing to stand up in mass and vote for the truth, the Democrats and Republicans will no longer have a choice or a snowballs chance in ... of screwing things up for the rest of us.

They get away with this only because we allow them to, by not remembering, by not holding them responsible. Remember, don't forget, hold them responsible.

Are you better off today then you were four years ago? If you are, congratulations, most of us are not.

Do you have a better standard of living then your parents did? Most of us do not.

Be honest, just look at the American Dream of home ownership. Back in the 70s and early 80s a young married couple could afford a starter home ($60,000 - $120,000, 800 sq ft - 2000 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 2 bath). Today a starter home of equivalent size and square footage would cost a heck of allot more then $300,000. Has your salary kept place? Then you are NOT better off! Add in the increase of food, gas, and everything since gas is required to deliver merchandise, then how can you say you are better off! You can't change anything for the better if you can't be honest with yourself!

If they refuse to work together, in all of our best interest, someone needs to give them some incentive to work together! Your memory cannot be short, this is what they expect and count on! Remember and hold your representative's feet to the fire, force them to work for you or vote them out of office! Note: both parties are guilty of putting 'lame' amendments into legislation in order to prevent the other side from voting on it, this is NOT working together! Neither party can claim innocents as this is how they play politics at our expense. If they say otherwise, they are lying to you.

Are you going to keep letting them lie to your face? Remember, hold them responsible!

Remember neither party, Democrat or Republican is what they were in the beginning. Take a look at this chart showing the History of Political Parties in the United States to see how they have flipped, flopped and changed positions over time.

Neither party is now as they once were based on their own documented and stated political platforms.

Both parties will say whatever they think we want to hear in order to get elected. The one thing working in our favor is in order to get elected they must speak out of both sides of their mouth and make promises that are impossible to keep. Shame on us for buying in to it, we can only blame ourselves for allowing them to do this and get away with it!

I think we can do better, perhaps not this year, but by 2012, stick to our guns and grow to more for 2016. It's time to adopt a long term view, do it for all of our children! What do you think? One person can make a difference by voting, Florida proved that to us in the last election!

We were meant to be a Republic, not a Democracy!

In fact the term Democracy was considered derogatory, when the founders were doing one of the greatest things ever, creating the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights! While I do not have the links in front of me (guess I will find out if ./ will let me edit my journal later), there are numerous writings from our founding fathers on this very topic. (It would not surprise me to find a couple of the founders who thought a democracy was preferred to a republic, just not the majority.)

I listened to a woman reading from the personal writings of one of the founders on the radio one day, I am sure he was not alone about this... I will search the documents and put links here later them here later.

One of the nasty things about a democracy, which we are experiencing first hand today, which the founders most definitely understood based on their writings for our country's future, is that once the people (think democracy) learn that they can vote themselves benefits and the elected officials start 'buying' their votes by granting benefits for those votes, then the Republic will cease to exist.

No political party is immune to this, wake up, though I admit one party seems to pander more then the other, however both our very guilty!)

Two movies that teach valuable civic lessons are Mr. Smith goes to Washington 1939 and Dave 1993. "...I forgot why I was here...", "...maybe I don't deserve to be here anymore...". Check them out!

Politics were never meant to be a permanent job. Our founding fathers expected citizens, when called to go, serve and then return home to their jobs. Too many forget that they are there to serve others and they honestly do not belong there any more!