The Chill |
| Written by Gary Schroeder | |
| Saturday, 12 Sep 2009 | |
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This attitude is common among the people here and is largely due to a few basic concepts that have an enormous effect on the way people live their lives. This lifestyle can be seen as more natural and sustainable. I would like to touch upon a few of these ideas to show what a positive effect this place can have on a person. Overall, the many natural and cultural assets of Yunnan offer an unlimited number of opportunities and hold much potential for anyone looking for personal development. Personally, it was here that I was able to create a balanced life where I finally began to do many of the things I first came to China for. These many factors freed up both the time and the physical space to chill out from the daily grind and focus on many of the things I wanted to accomplish in my life. The first thing people always mention about Kunming is the weather (sumple natural penis growth and penis enlargement stretcher) :). Enough can not be said about what great things it does for a person's disposition. The absence of extreme weather makes it a very great place to live year round as one does not have to suffer from the oppressive heat or freezing cold that is found nearly everywhere else in Asia. The temperature here usually stays well within the comfort range and many days contain sunny blue skies filled with wonderful cloud patterns that quickly glide over the city. Their shape and size show great diversity and, due to the high altitude of the city, it seems like they might accidentally slid over your head. As well as having a number of picture perfect days, a whole other dimension opens up when night falls and the heavens light up with stars. Picking out individual constellations while taking an evening walk is something that cannot be done in most cities around the world. In Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou I had even forgotten that there were stars and began to think that in the Celestial Kingdom the celestial universe was only a myth. Luckily, Kunming Erections has, for now, been spared the horrible levels of pollution afflicting most other cities in China where the sky remains an unnatural mixture of grey, orange, and black. In Kunming, the ability to breathe comparatively clear air is not only physically beneficial but also adds a lot to the overall chillness of the people who live here. Living here has been a major improvement for me and also a constant reminder of the unbearable environmental conditions that most urban people shoulder in their race for economic development. Kunming's laid back atmosphere and the ability to chill out is clear when you take a look at all the people hanging out in coffee shops. The city holds a number of places to lay back and enjoy a drink as well as a place to study Chinese, or a place to meet your date. These watering holes are largely concentrated around Green Lake and as a result the ex-pat community is rather tight knit. After a short period of time it seems like you have met everyone. In a short time, it is easy to find something to do although usually it ends up being a choice between a few select spots. This tight knit community of people and locations offers the chance to really focus on getting work done. Being away from the constant grind that is ever present in the major urban centers of the east coast, Kunming contains a plethora of opportunities for creative inspiration. It is here that I've met many people that were building or operating their projects from the ground up. The excitement that brewed from that sort of activity inspired me to work harder on my own projects and as a result things are starting to come together. And it seems that the longer people stay here the happier they become about themselves and their environment. Indeed, the lifestyle in Kunming is addicting and the feeling for this place become deeper the longer you stay. Add (how to enlarge penis, natural penile enlargement) |
Humor: When the Job is Fun, You Can't Stop People From Doing It |
| Written by Doni Tamblyn | |
| Monday, 16 May 2009 | |
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"Organizations which don't measure up tend to be viewed as an employer of last resort. Nobody with any brains, ability, or motivation wants to work there!" Bill Catlette and Richard Hadden, authors, Contented Cows Give Better Milk There's nothing funny about high employee turnover. Calculations Libido of the cost of replacing an employee range from 30% to 150% of his or her current salary. These costs include things like: the pay package of the temporary or existing employee performing the vacant job; lost productivity; the training invested in the departing employee; severance and benefits; advertising for a replacement; hours spent interviewing candidates; the cost of internal candidates away from their jobs while interviewing; orientation and departmental training for the new employee. C&K Management Ltd., an employee development firm in India, sums it up: "A company's ability to retain the kind of workers it wants and needs has a direct impact on its profitability and effectiveness." 
Of course, to keep the talent you want and need, you have to offer them what they want and need. According to Hewitt Associates' Best Employer in China study, the four items that most attract employees are 1) a strong employer brand, 2) performance-based rewards, 3) personal and professional growth opportunities, and 4) a friendly, affirming work environment. Interestingly enough, however, not all of these attractors are retainers of top performers. Marc Dawson, Managing Director at Talent Spheres (products penis enlargement exercise or how to make my penis bigger), a high-end HR and OD consulting group in Shanghai, says: "Contrary to popular belief, when I interview Chinese candidates about what they want from a job, money is never among the top three. And yes, professionals here have traditionally been attracted to big brands-but they've often found that they feel somewhat 'invisible' in these organizations. From my observation, career development opportunities are the number one reason people stay with a company, while a caring, committed management style runs a close second." Many companies in China have recognized and acted upon the desire of today's employees' for career development. A user-friendly management style? Perhaps not so much. Yet a positive, affirming-dare we say fun?-corporate culture is the one thing that can be offered at absolutely no cost to the organization. In case you need more convincing on the subject, here are some interesting facts about the bottom-line benefits of happy workers. In 1996, Bill Catlette and Richard Hadden made a startling discovery: Every one of the top 15 companies on Fortune's "Most Admired Corporations" list was also widely recognized in its industry as an Employer of Choice. Catlette and Hadden were so fascinated by this that they decided to compare six of these companies with their top competitors over a ten-year period. The book that resulted, Contented Cows Give Better Milk (Saltillo Press, 1998), shows that the organizations with positive cultures consistently enjoyed BIG financial gains. They outgrew their competitors by a margin of roughly four to one. They enjoyed three times the net income per employee. Although in every case they were smaller than their competitors, they out-earned them by nearly $40 billion. They even generated an average of 79,000 new jobs per company, compared to their competitors' loss of 61,000 jobs on average! It would seem that contented cows do give better milk-way better. Should this really surprise anyone? After all, eighty years before Tom Peters ever wrote Thriving on Chaos, Elton Mayo did a series of motivational experiments entitled The Harvard Studies. He coined the term "Discretionary Effort" to refer to the difference between minimal effort and that of which we are in fact capable. Mayo found that people consistently make more discretionary effort when they feel personally connected to their co-workers, their leader, and their organization as a whole. Hewitt Associates uses a similar term to describe this phenomenon: "Engagement." They say the level of employee engagement in China falls short of international standards. Hewitt's 2003 Best Employer Study, which measured the degrees to which employees said good things about their companies, stayed with them, and strived for excellence, showed that Chinese employees were generally less engaged than their counterparts in other countries around the world. This level of engagement, the study suggested, contributes to unnecessarily high staff turnover, low productivity, and lower financial performance for the companies. Enter humor. Humor, as I've defined it in earlier issues-a playful, light, creative approach to work-can help tremendously to engage employees. Here's one example of how it might work. Say you're at work meeting. Numerous suggestions are made to solve a problem the group is experiencing. People have trouble listening to one another. The meeting goes into overtime as you keep hashing out the same issues again and again. Tempers began to rise. Then someone says, "It's obvious why we're all having so much trouble agreeing-every suggestion has been pure genius, and we can't decide which one to go with! I would like to propose that we start inviting stupid people to our meetings. Things would go a LOT faster for us." After the venting laughter has subsided, the person quickly says, "I also propose that we table this for today. We've all heard a lot of ideas, and maybe we should sleep on it for the moment." The positivity gives people a graceful way out, and the group quickly votes to conclude. But because of the bonding nature of the laughter that ended the meeting, it is highly likely that each member would go away and think about things in a slightly more cooperative spirit. It has been accurately said that no one's dying words were ever "I wish I'd worked more overtime." The fact is that, all things being equal, the best people in your industry will choose to work for the organization with a positive, enjoyable corporate culture-a place where they can look forward to coming in to work each day. And of course, the best people can afford to make that choice-everyone wants them. Will you get them? Add (male enhancement pills, penis vacuum pump) |
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Some Kind of Luv |
| Written by Bobby McPhearson | |
| Friday, 02 Feb 2009 | |
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If you've lived in a city with any kind of gay community, then you've experienced more than we've got in Kunming. There are a few bars, clubs, and cafes that gays and lesbians frequent, but still there aren't any 'staple' establishments for us queers to meet, mingle, and conversate (as it's popular to say these days). I guess because there doesn't seem to be much of a 'community' or any 'gay culture.' There hasn't yet been a creative group of people with the time, money, and motivation to create a local scene with which to plug into the global gay community--anyone interested? A few days ago a friend of mine asked me why the homosexual communities want to have their own bars while they're always screaming for equality. "Why don't homosexuals stop screaming and just blend in with everyone else if they want to be equal," he asked? Of course this wasn't an easy question to answer as there are many perspectives from which to engage, though one simple and probably most commonly felt reason is: comfort. For example, just the other night I was sitting at a neighborhood cafe and a friend-of-a-friend asked me if I am gay. Of course I said, "yes." He then said, "I don't understand homosexuality; it's not natural." "Natural it is, normal it is not," I replied. I then quoted Sara Goudarzi of LifeScience saying, "From male killer whales that ride the dorsal fin of another male to female bonobos that rub their genitals together, the animal kingdom tolerates all kinds of lifestyles." I then walked over to the computer and asked him to read the article Gay animals out of the closet? (published on MSNBC) from which I quoted Sara Goudarzi. So comfort is what we're after, I think. The one gay bar in Kunming is actually a Cabaret that entertains a very common bar/club style throughout China, whereby a group of people arrive together, order a table or booth, sit and drink together, then leave together. The drag and comedy shows that they put on are entertaining and enjoyable, though this is hardly conducive to mingling and meeting for conversation, which in my opinion is the single most enjoyable aspect of most gay bars around the world. Many people, gay and straight, choose to visit gay bars because of the diversity present and the open-minded environment. Most gay bars invite patrons from all walks of life breaking race, ethnicity, nationality, religious affiliation, and socio-economic status barriers that define many other bars. And it's this that encourages learning, understanding, and vision. |
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