We are in the age of “politically correct ” (PC) language. Not “Blacks” but”African Americans”, not “man hours” but “person hours”, not “sex” but “gender” and the list goes on.
“Politically correct language is humourous in its seriousness” says Walter E. Williams, Professor of Economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
There is no doubt that we must be sensitive in the use of language such that it does not offend any one. However, are we in the process making language more tedious? Does a “dishonest” person feel better at being called “ethically disoriented”? Is a “fat “person any less fat by being referred to as being, “circumferencially privileged”? Would a “clumsy” person become more adept by being described as “uniquely co-ordinated”? Is a short person “vertically challenged”? Should the 33rd President of the United States, have been called Harry S. Trueperson?
On July 20, 1969 on landing on the moon, Neil Armstong said some thing which has become immortal” A small step for man, a giant step for mankind”. As an article I read somewhere said: ” Would he, if he were to do the same thing again, today say:” One small step for a person, one giant movement for all persons regardless of age, sex, religion, creed, national origin, physical limitatation or lifestyle preference”(edited to remove offensive content)?
Filed under: Communication
Email is second only to the telephone in terms of the number of worldwide users. You and I are sending more emails than ever before. Ever wonderered how many emails are sent every day all over the world? VeriSign’s estimate indicated that email queries alone are about 2.25 billion per day. However, due to caching, email queries may be only a fraction of the number of emails sent.
In 2001, International Data Corporation (IDC) predicted the number of emails sent each day would exceed 36 billion by 2005. We probably sent more emails than they thought because in 2003, they said we had already reached 31 billion emails per day!! IDC expected this figure to double by 2006. While one can’t be too sure, ( the figure is perhaps lower than higher) we probably send 62 billion emails the world over per day.
Although huge amounts of business get done over email, many errors continue to be committed. These reflect poorly on the sender as well the sender’s organisation. Here are a few of the more common errors.
I recently received a mail with so many abbreviations that I couldn’t understand half of what was written. It was sprinkled with ?4Us, IACs, IMHOs, apart from the rash of Smileys and ended with a cheerful BFN. The young person who wrote that mail saw no difference between business email and chat.
By way of feedback, which was asked for, I steered the person to an article in About Management which says that business email is not a teenage chat room.
Filed under: Communication
“What you do every day should contribute to giving your life meaning. If it doesn’t, why are you doing it?” – Don Hutcheson
When did you last set for yourself-learning goals? Many of us have become complacent with success that we forget that we need to constantly learn to remain current and competitive.
Ask yourself: What did I learn new today? What did I learn new last week? What did I learn new last month? What did I learn new last quarter?
If the answer is nothing, you are as good as dead. Not literally, of course, but swamped in a fiercely competitive environment which has no time or place for mediocrity.
Learnings need not be restricted to your field of specialization or expertise. Indeed it is a good idea to have learning goals in related areas. For example, it makes eminent sense for a Project/Program Manager to learn more about business and profitability apart from the essentials of Project/Program Management.
As the American author, Napoleon Hill tells us” Procrastination is the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday”.
Don’t procrastinate on this one!
Filed under: Careers , Learning Goals, self-development
