JONTILLMAN.COM | part of the problem since 1976

In 2005,Valerie A. Ramey and Neville Francis authored a paper entitled A Century of Work and Leisure. In it, they look at work and leisure trends in the twentieth century. They conclude that some 70 percent of the decline in hours worked has been offset by an increase in hours spent in school. Further, contrary [...]

There has been, since the mid 90’s, a trend towards companies offering more and more on-site amenities. From day care to car washing, coffee bars to game rooms and massage therapists, companies, especially IT firms, are falling all over themselves to provide these types of things “to attract the best talent”.
Have you ever stopped to [...]

This seems like a stupid question, doesn’t it. We work because we must, because we have to “earn a living”. Right? The economic truth of life is harsh and brutal, and only hard work and sacrifice will provide us with any measure of security or leaisure, right? From a young age we are indoctrinated with the Puritan idea that suffering is required to redeem our “original sin” as human beings and that “hard work” was not only our curse because of this “original sin”, but that hard work is both the main factor in producing material wealth and that it is character building and morally good.

Multitasking is a very popular idea, a buzzword with wide acceptance, and one of the best ways to waste your time and raise your stress level, both at work and at home.
University of Michigan psychologists demonstrated in a detailed five-year study that multitasking actually makes people less effective at their jobs. Because the human brain [...]

In deciding what work to undertake in life, a man should first endeavor to share his soul, by becoming an artist, poet or musician. If he finds his soul unfit for sharing, then he should choose to share his mind by becoming a teacher, philosopher or writer. If he finds no thoughts in his mind, [...]

Fortune magazine is running an article called Cubicles: The great mistake. It’s as if I am playing tee-ball here with Unnecessary Things…
Highlights of the article include the inventor of the cubicle, Robert Propst, calling them a “monolithic insanity”, the history of the cubicle from Hermann Miller to now, and the hilarious observation that
It is the [...]

At Work

Refer to “we” when you mean “me”.
Brag constantly about how many hours you work, or how late you were at the office last night.
Only refer to people by their names when you are upset with them, as if you were a nanny.
With employee A, talk about your misgivings about employees B, C and D. [...]