The Elephant in the Room

It's time to comment on the state of the elections, especially for my non-American readers. People outside the U.S. must be shaking their heads in disbelief that the U.S. presidential race is so close. George Bush, in addition to being an unpopular president abroad, is wildly unpopular at home--71% disapprove of his performance in office, a record in U.S. history. The American economy and job losses are the worst since the Great Depression in the 1930's. The budget surplus of the Clinton years has long since disappeared--and the deficit will keep on ballooning with the latest bailout proposal, a byproduct of the un-fiscal policies of the last eight years. America is borrowing from China to wage a war in Iraq against a fictitious enemy, while the Iraqi government runs a $80 billion budget surplus. All but the wealthiest of Americans, asked the question "are you better off today than you were eight years ago" would have to answer no---even those who have avoided personal debt and invested wisely are only treading water because of the ballooning debt and eroded value of the dollar. In my life, I cannot remember a worse time--and I remember Richard Nixon.

Historically, such a scenario would have resulted in a Democratic landslide. Witness what happened to Herbert Hoover in 1932, to Gerald Ford in 1976, and to a lesser extent Clinton's victory over Bush I in 1992 (even with the added complication of Ross Perot running as an Independent). Yet, despite the sorry state of affairs we find ourselves in, many Americans who have felt the brunt of the Bush years in their personal and professional lives firsthand, and who stand to suffer even more in the future if things continue as is, are either still on the fence or siding with the Republican ticket. Are these Americans just crazy, or is something else going on here?

The rational person, including a person outside the U.S. who cannot vote but will be affected by our choice here, would look at the past eight years, review John McCain's voting record in Congress and his hot temper under pressure , look at his choice of a running mate (e.g. I can see Russia from my backyard, so that means I am qualified in foreign policy matters), and easily conclude that things under a new Republican administration will at best be the same, and possibly worse. Even a mediocre candidate from the Democratic party should be a shoo-in this year, shouldn't they? And with a smart, resourceful, inspiring, and hopeful guy like Obama, who maybe comes along once in a generation, who has pulled millions of people of all creeds and colors back into believing in the ability to effect positive change and who actually makes sense when he talks (in grammatical sentences no less)-- it should be a total blowout. Why isn't it?


It's not for one simple reason: common sense and rationality are not on center stage here. Unfortunately, a fair percentage of Americans, perhaps even more than in years past, make important decisions based on single or a few criteria divorced from the issues at hand. This is true of people who typically vote solely based on a candidate's stand on abortion, or gay rights, or gun control--all visceral issues. But it goes beyond that, and I think it's more pervasive this year. Example: a woman who went from being undecided to supporting McCain/Palin was quoted in the Detroit News the other day, saying that her decision was based on her belief that Palin "is a hockey mom like me." If this sounds like a crazy reason to pick a candidate for the highest office in the land. especially such a complicated and screwed-up land, you might ask if this woman would hire a doctor, a lawyer, or other professional on the same basis? The answer is, sad to say--quite likely she would. Because this is America, so even if her choice worked out badly, she could sue for malpractice and probably walk away with a few hundred thousand dollars or even more. Sadly, too many Americans have grown used to blaming others for their own decisions, so there is little incentive to be rational and think through even important life choices. We are simply seeing the effects of this mentality magnified in the presidential election.

But we also have something else going on that, like an elephant, is a huge but mostly silent presence in this election. In the last thirty or forty years, ethnic prejudice has gone underground in America-- but most people would agree that it has far from disappeared.

In fairness, as a country, America is a vastly different place from even 30 years ago--when it was still legal, for example, to try to disqualify me from a government job by stating openly that a woman could not be successful in a management position in Japan (I got the job, and was successful). As a testament to the fact that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama--not to mention Sarah Palin--got as far as they did, many people genuinely are more accepting of women, Jews, gays, and people who are non-Caucasian assuming leadership roles. But, for those who are still unable to trust anyone in a position of authority who is of another religion, sexual persuasian, or ethnicity--and this is no small number of my countrymen and women--the issue has merely gone below the surface, like the larger part of an iceberg. It is not politically correct to be "anti-diversity", so people remain silent, or even lie about where they stand--at least in public. When they talk to a pollster or even to a friend, they may or may not be honest--or they may encode their choice with the "values" pitch--so and so's "values" are like mine, so that's why I'm for them. . But when they go into a voting booth, with its complete privacy, they are far more likely to be true to their own beliefs.


That is why, despite all evidence that the country is on a dangerously wrong track and needs new leadership, Barack Obama's lineage is the silent elephant in this election. A few weeks ago, a union leader spoke frankly to his troops in a white, blue collar area near Detroit that in recent years has voted heavily Republican. "I know you don't like Obama because he's black, and you can't see yourself voting for a black man for president ," said the leader. "I have three words for you--get over it."


McCain's traditional Republican supporters aside, it remains to be seen if those who are undecided because of the Democratic contender's racial background, or those who have traditionally voted Democratic but are switching over because of it, "get over it" on or before Election Day. For love of country, I'm hoping--and praying- that if they can't, these people at least recognize themselves, and have the decency to sit out the election rather than cast a vote that would almost surely contribute to increasing the velocity of our present downward spiral--both at home and in the world.

The World We Can't See

This is a post off topic, though perhaps a journey through the unknown territory of a major life change produces the need to be philosophical at times. During the digital photography class on Star Island, the instructor did a module on light. Light is, of course, a very important element of good photography, as in any art. But the slide he showed and the discussion took me off in a whole different direction.

Here is the light spectrum, more correctly, the electomagnetic spectrum. The part that is visible to the human eye is a fraction of the known spectrum (I say known because the known spectrum is scientifically proven, but there may be elements at either end that have not yet been discovered). Of course, this is basic science taught in middle school. We know that our microwave and radio operate on invisible (to us) waves---invisible light is all around us. The camera's digital eye sees an even more limited range of light than we do---hence the need to adjust for it to produce photographs that are balanced in a way that is pleasing to the human viewer.

If we extend the example of light to another sense, hearing, we know that animals are able to hear a different range of vibrations from humans---dogs and cats both hear better than we do which probably explains why cats can hear the can opener on a tin of tuna fish from three rooms away. The same is true of the remaining three senses-- there has been recent publicity about dogs' ability to "smell" cancer or illness, as well as a nursing home cat who routinely entered patient rooms and camped out nearby hours before the patient died. The other night Junior bounded up from the bed and focused her attention on the ceiling, her eyes following something around the room. It woke me up, but I didn't see--or hear--a thing.

This train of thought gave me a renewed appreciation for how little we actually take in through our five senses--in the scheme of things, pretty crude instruments with which to ascertain our world. Our brains may have the capacity of 3-10 terabytes, as some scientists have posited, but to the degree that we filter through our senses, it's no wonder that we use a fraction of the brain's capacity. When I contemplate the small and distorted perspective from which I'm seeing things, it brings renewed meaning to that great line from Hamlet: "there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Isles of Shoals

Marty and I went to a digital photography workshop on the Isles of Shoals, off the coast of New Hampshire and Maine (half of the isles are in New Hampshire, and half in Maine). This is my last vacation for a while...with the coming of fall, I feel like a squirrel who has to gather my acorns for the long winter ahead--lots to do including, of course, the job search. But this past week was a glorious trip into late summer, with spectacular sunrises and sunsets every day we were there, and clear, unobstructed views of the constellations at night without the distraction of city lights.

I learned a lot in the course. Some of it was review, some was putting logic and reason to things that I was doing intuitively, and the rest was just great new information--like the loss of pixels that occurs every time you "save as" a jpg file, as well as some new tips with Adobe Photoshop Elements and some websites I hadn't heard about before. There was another learning about light that got me thinking on a whole new track beyond photography--more on that in another post.

We stayed at a century old hotel (pictured above) that was basic but lovely. Since water for the island comes from a small desalination plant and cisterns, showers were limited to twice a week. There were no electrical outlets in our room (though we had three overhead light bulbs), but fortunately we were next to the newsroom which had several. Food was decent but basic. You could get cell phone reception at the end of the porch facing the shore seven miles away, but no internet (in a way that was a relief--I realized that I spend altogether too much time on the computer lately....)

One day we went for a nature walk and I learned the fascinating history of Queen Anne's lace (right) which was brought to the island by colonists in the early 1600s. The lace was so named because the queen challenged her ladies in waiting to a crochet contest--who could create the most beautiful replica of the wild plant that grew all around them? The answer was obvious.....but what was news to me is that daucus carota, as it's known in Latin, is the forerunner of the cultivated carrot--the root of Queen Anne's lace being the wild version.

The hotel had a marvelous front porch and boardwalk to the adjacent cottages with a liberal number of cane rocking chairs. The chairs are maintained by volunteers from the shore (pictured left) who come in during the day to recane them--the salt air and wind is hard on them. One day early in our stay, I heard a woman sitting next to me proclaim with obvious satisfaction as she sat sipping a cup of tea and talking to her friend, "rocking chairs and porches are good for the soul." Amen.

Waterbury, VT

Waterbury, Vermont is small, unassuming town about two hours from our home in Keene. Yesterday Marty and I took a drive up there, through the beautiful Green Mountains that are just beginning to show fall colors here and there. Despite its size, Waterbury is home to three similar and enterprising businesses that are favorites of the green and socially responsible set: Ben and Jerry's, Green Mountain Coffee, and Cabot Cheese. Ben and Jerry's is world famous, and Green Mountain is giving Starbucks a run for its money, especially in New England. And Cabot just makes the most divine cheese you can imagine--especially the 3 year old cheddar and horseradish varieties....

Ben and Jerry's got a lot of publicity several years ago for advertising for a new CEO. They made a marketing campaign out of it and got something like 20,000 applications--ranging from schoolchildren to even family pets sponsored by their owners. Now, the company is owned by Unilever, but the brand identity and involvement in the local community remains.

Amazing that a single small town could produce such giants as these, and still retain its character.

Tales from the Front

I've met a lot of people in the past few weeks. Some of them, like me, are also looking for employment. Today, I heard a story for the third time in less than a couple of months--the job that vanishes. This is where someone is offered a position, may even have a contract or a start date, and then at the last minute the company decides not to proceed.

One person was asked to start work on specific day, told that the contract was "in the mail" and then got a call from the organization's headquarters that same afternoon that they would not be offering the job after all! Another person was told the day before he was to start work that the company had decided not to fill the opening. And a person I talked to today had two offers about the same time, and accepted the one he thought was the more stable, secure company. A few days before he was to begin work, the company asked to delay the start date by a month. Then, when that date came, he was told that the board had decided to delay again--it could be September. Meanwhile, the other position he had turned down was, of course, no longer available.

There are enough of these stories floating around that the common wisdom is not to stop networking, going on interviews, and talking to recruiters about your availability, until you have actually started at the new position and are officially on their rolls. It's kind of the reverse of the phenomena I wrote about in India ("No Shows")--where candidates may not turn up for work despite having a signed offer because something better has come along. Where executive recruiters are used, the company would still be on the hook to pay the recruiter, since a lot of work goes into identifying, vetting, and presenting candidates. But unless there's a sudden and serious downturn in the company's business that couldn't have been foreseen, it seems like especially bad behavior. And the worst part is that in none of the cases I've mentioned could the person have reasonably predicted that the rug would be pulled out from under them at the last minute--the organizations seemed solid and reputable--else the person wouldn't have been interested in joining in the first place.

Well, at least forewarned is forearmed....and meditation helps, too.....

Vignettes from the Big Apple

My networking adventure took me to New York City this past week, where in addition to meeting some business contacts I caught up with a couple of old friends (one of whom I hadn't seen in 26 years....) Manhattan is not for everyone, though I think the city gets a bad rap for being unfriendly--people really are quite nice and helpful for the most part. A lot of the fun is just in watching the scene--as I walked from where my sister-in-law lives on the upper west side to midtown (roughly 4 miles), I probably heard close to ten different languages. Some vignettes:

• New York is a city for walkers of all kinds, but especially for dog walkers. It is highly entertaining to see the improbable combinations of human and canine--ranging from fat old ladies walking tiny chihuahuas dressed in sequins and (yes) tiny booties to anorexically thin young women dressed to the nines in platform heels dragging along old and tired sheepdogs. And, of course, there are the paid dog walkers with pooches of various breeding and vintages--the logistics of picking up the poop alone worth the viewing.
  

• I don't see how Starbucks makes any money in New York, despite having a cafe on every other corner. At each one I stopped at, there were several people camped in with latte and laptop--some of whom were clearly there for the duration. Apparently Starbucks now charges for wifi in some places, but one helpful counter attendant told me that if you sit by the window you can pick up a connection for free....

• The day I left, I took the subway to Penn Station to catch the Amtrak train to Albany, where I'd left my car. On the platform where I got on the #2 train, an enterprising--though probably impoverished--violinist was playing classical music with his instrument case open for contributions. By the time I arrived, around 8:30 a.m., he already had several dollars. The thundering approach of the train sometimes drowned him out, but the strains of Madame Butterfly's "Un Bel Dia" were a peaceful contrast to the stress and bustle of the morning commute--people smiling and nodding, taking pictures or just listening with eyes closed to the beautiful music.

Networking --a Work in Progress

So far I've been networking around getting a new position for about six weeks. I've joined a couple of formal networking groups, like Gray Hair Management (even though my hair is red, they let me in) and Execunet. I've had phone conversations, email notes, and meetings with people I'd never met before, and wouldn't have met otherwise, which is a lot of fun.

I'm starting to make some observations and see patterns about the process. It was good that I did Vipassana, which teaches you simply to observe--not to react or get emotional. People are generally very friendly and helpful. Those at the networking groups who have been around longer are full of suggestions and contacts. Technology plays a part, too. Sites like LinkedIn and Facebook are the best for organizing and adding to contacts. I also have developed an Excel spreadsheet where I keep track of people I've met or plan to meet, or to whom I've talked on the phone. I haven't gotten to all the people I've listed that I know, much less the referrals that have been given to me, though I'm making progress.

Early on I sent an email blast to about 200 recruiters, some from the big name houses and other boutique places. (One thing that is amazing to me is how many recruiters there are out there. I don't know how they all make a living--though I guess with the average commission at 1/3 of the first year's salary, it doesn't take too many hits.) Although I was told by the outplacement firm that this is more of a box to tick and not to expect too much, I was pleasantly surprised to hear from a few of them, some by phone and others by email. Three or four called me ---one of them talked at me for the entire time it took to drive from Detroit to Ann Arbor. When I tried to get a word in edgewise, he interrupted me. Another called with a good job, just not the kind of job I am looking for.

Since then, I've seen a few postings by recruiters of some jobs that sound interesting. Understanding that they send these listings to networking groups in the hope of attracting qualified candidates, there is a very interesting psychology at work. I've talked to fellow networkers about this and found a similar experience: if you respond directly to such a listing with your background or a resume, you never hear from them--it doesn't matter whether you are spot on for the job in terms of background/experience, or whether you call or email. But if you have someone else call and say they know of a good candidate--you--most times you do hear from the recruiter. Since statistically (as noted in my last blog) most jobs are not filled by headhunters, I'm not focusing much of my attention here. Plus, you have to figure that in this economy, there are a lot more resumes chasing publicized jobs than the other way around.

I've heard some fascinating networking tales of the strange connections that got people employment. Perhaps the most interesting was a person I talked to early on--he was the connection of a connection--who got a job one time through an audio-visual technician at a networking meeting he attended. The technician had a friend who was the assistant to an executive in this man's field at a nearby company, and offered to put him in touch. That company did not have a job, but the assistant's boss, who talked to the man, had a friend at another company which was hiring, and the man interviewed there and got the job. All because of a helpful audiovisual technician!