Latest Posts
Office Politics
I wnet to a speech from a new CEO today. One of the things he said, when asked his goals for the new role was that he was determined to root out politics. “If anyone starts playing politics, they are out the door, no matter how senior they are”. ItContinue Reading
Letting clients discriminate
Back in the late 90s early 2000s, I did a lot of consulting work for Asian clients. Mostly from Australia, but occasionally I would fly up for a week or so to do a job. I gradually learned just how culturally different all the Asian countries are from each other.Continue Reading
Jury Duty
I managed this week to avoid jury duty, mainly by politely begging them to give me an exemption because it was end-of-financial year (which is one of the three or four busiest weeks for me at work). I do feel somewhat guilty about it. The jury system is a vitalContinue Reading
Fertility Panics
Last month, when releasing the census with great fanfare, Peter Costello once again took credit for the recent slight rise in the birth rate. For the record, Australia’s fertility rate increased to 1.81 births per woman in 2005, up from 1.77 the year before. The replacement rate (the average number ofContinue Reading
Access all areas
This week I renewed my annual Sydney public transport ticket. Because of where I live, I catch all three possible forms of government owned public transport – trains, buses and ferries (and the two private ones too – monorail and light rail, but that’s a story for another post). BecauseContinue Reading
Low cost housing
There have been quite a few articles recently (all behind subscription walls, alas) about low cost housing in Australia. The Sydney Morning Herald (in the Good Weekend last week) had an article about the fabulous Department of Housing apartments that still exist in Sydney’s Rocks area. Some with magnificent HarbourContinue Reading
Recruiting and race
It’s graduate recruitment season, and I’ve been talking to lots of people about how to get the best graduates I can find into my team (I recruit about two a year, depending on how good the candidates are). I’ve been unpleasantly surprised at how often the conversation turns to race.Continue Reading
Water politics
Last week, after a week of sustained rain (and fortunately not too much more flooding), Sydney’s dam levels got to 50%. The last time they were that high was May 2004*. For the past three years, Sydney has had ever increasing levels of worry about our water crisis. People haveContinue Reading
Rehearsal
I had a to make a speech at work today to six hundred odd people – a new record for me. I’ve got better at speeches over the years, but they still have about the level of excitement of going to the dentist. The person managing the event (I was oneContinue Reading
Flood insurance
The recent horrendous floods in the Hunter Valley have reminded me (again) of another example of insurance market failure – flood insurance. It hasn’t hit the headlines yet, but it will. In the Australian insurance market, it is pretty close to impossible to buy insurance against flood. Wordings vary, butContinue Reading