If you’re paid by the hour, get ready to gloat. If you’re a salaried employee like me, you should probably be weeping instead of leaping for joy. Nobody likes starting their Monday out with bad news, but I have to break it to you: Since February 29th – better known as Leap Day – only occurs once every four years, it’s usually not factored into yearly salary calculations. So, salaried employees, if you’re sitting at your desk today, you may be working for free! Unless you’re in Anthony, Texas today, in which case, you’re
Read more →Blog
It’s Thursday evening, and time for me to produce another Thought for the Weekend, but I have to confess – I’m distracted. My alma mater, Providence College, plays Seton Hall in basketball tonight. With March Madness right around the corner, I can’t help but give the game more attention than my computer screen. When it comes to any pursuit that requires focus, sometimes finding the motivation to give it your all can be hard. After a long day at work, gathering up your moxie to make it to the gym, practice an instrument, or
Read more →Is your Monday morning already going a mile a minute? How about two hundred miles a minute? Grab your coffee and hold on for a quick spin ’round the Mary Monday track: In the spirit of our collective need for speed, today we’re celebrating the anniversary of the first ever Daytona 500 race, held on this date in 1959. The track, famously located in Daytona, Florida, is a two and a half mile oval, requiring 200 laps for a 500-mile race. While NASCAR sometimes gets a bad rap as a sport for rednecks (see
Read more →Today, February 19th, marks a monumental day in American history. Do you know what it is? I’ll give you a few hints: …There’s a Marine Corps monument in its honor… ….at least two major motion pictures have been made about it in the past ten years… …and in many ways, it produced one of the first ‘viral’ images! Give up? Today is the anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Iwo Jima, one of the major decisive battles of World War II. Called Operation Detachment, the five-week battle was one of the
Read more →No matter what side of the aisle you sit on, or who the president is, we the people spend a lot of time complaining about American politics. When it comes to our favorite presidents, we tend to reach back to the sort you’d see on Mount Rushmore, or at least, in the Hall of Presidents at Disneyworld. I’m an Honest Abe gal, myself. Did they truly make ’em better back then? Or is that just the fuzzy goggles of nostalgia? Rose-white-and-blue colored glasses, if you will, making America’s past politicians seem better than our
Read more →With just two days until Valentine’s Day, this is your official warning to make plans for your sweetheart! Romantic gestures require planning, especially if you’re one of the approximately six million Americans who will pop the big question this Valentine’s Day. For example, twenty years ago when I proposed to my wife on Christmas Day, I didn’t just pull a ring box out of my pocket on Christmas morning. I wrapped a large box in gold paper and put it under the tree as soon as it went up. All month long, she picked
Read more →What a game, right? Or at least, I hope it was. Don’t worry- if you’ve somehow recorded the game, stayed far away from Facebook, and moved under a rock to avoid hearing who won, I won’t be spoiling it for you. I couldn’t if I wanted to! As you’re reading this on Monday morning, I’m quite certainly in bed, antacids at hand, recovering from a night of hot wings and loud cheering. Regular readers will know by now that I like to take time off for special holidays. And this Super Bowl certainly qualified.
Read more →With a full month of the New Year behind us, I’m proud to say the entire Matchmaker Logistics team has succeeded in implementing some new habits in 2016: For years, we have started every work day with a virtual team huddle. Our entire team has a 5-10 minute check-in call via video conference to discuss our goals and top priorities for the day. This year, we decided to add one more quick “minute” to our daily routine – The Motivational Minute. Legendary author, salesman, and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar said: “People often say that motivation
Read more →The word ‘Surprise!’ always does funny things to my guts. Sometimes ‘Surprise!’ can be a wonderful thing, like when I recently drove from Alabama to North Carolina to see my mom for her birthday. And sometimes, surprise can be a terrible thing, like when I was waiting for her at the restaurant and discovered my debit card had been charged $174.03 without my knowing! I immediately went into logistics mode, making calls to determine where and when these charges were made. The charges had been made that very same day! When I should have
Read more →Remember when we were kids, how we used to wish for snow? For children, snow days are magical and exciting. Sure, your parents might make you do a little shoveling, but who cares? School’s out, you get to break out your sleds and snowsuits, and it’s a free day devoted to fun and play. Winter storm Jonas reminded us that once we’re adults, the magic of snow kind of wears off. Even if your workplace shuts down, just like the snow, the work doesn’t stop piling up. In fact, inclement weather creates its own
Read more →
