As a kid, I had a farm job. Among the tasks was cleaning out stalls and spreading manure. One of the less experienced, but know-it-alls among the summer help jumped on the tractor after I hooked it up, but not before I disengaged the spreader. The rest of us just stood there watching as he went down the driveway, spreading manure on the road, splattering the barns and everything else, enroute to where he was supposed to spread the load.
That’s the idea behind a website called You Had One Job; spreading workplace detritus around the world. In pictures — lots of them — it tells the story of workplace errors great and small. From the “oops” kind to the “what are you, an idiot” kind. If only I had a video of that manure spreader.
The New 1%
In almost all ways, I’m part of America’s 99%. (I really would rather be in the 1%, and get my picture on the cover of Forbes.) At least now, LinkedIn, bless them, tells me I’m in their 1%.
Like around 2 million others, I got one of those emails telling me my profile was among LinkedIn’s top 1% most viewed. LinkedIn also sent out notes to the top 5% and 10%, which means that in all, 20 million of us got these notes.
So what you say! That was my reaction too. But there are those who saw opportunity in those notes. I have to hand it to Jeff Zelaya, who issued a press release announcing he was “personally thanked for being part of the LinkedIn community and in the top echelon of it’s LinkedIn members.”
Even I, a born and raised New Yorker, have to give him credit for his chutzpah. His PR announces his 1% status, then notes that Zelaya ” blogged about the negative side of being one of LinkedIn’s Most Viewed Profiles.”
I hope LinkedIn gave an iPad4 to whoever thought to send out those little awards. They first made an appearance in 2011, but this year, the whole program got all sorts of global attention.