Workplace conflict

Being a baby boomer born and breed to adhere to the letter of the law, I’m disappointed by the increasing workplace trend to openly ridicule decision makers. No matter who’s around.

Yes, it is important to listen to what others have to say but a final decision has to be made, with the responsible members knowing full well they will be held accountable. Something the dissenters will experience for themselves when the time comes.

Having witnessed and experienced this first hand, I am at a loss to explain this type of behaviour, other than to think things are not what they used to be due to the generation gap.

Another alarming trend is where the same few dissenters make frivolous complaints to management, in what appears to be an attempt to further undermine, if not destroy, the career paths of those who have served for so long and suffered much, including their families.

Where have the days gone when people used to work things out face to face on the quiet to reach an understanding that cements a successful working partnership? Yes I know, they’re still around, but they’re few and far between.

Have you experienced workplace conflict and how did you resolve it?

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Open Source Social Networking Widget

The reliance on social networking to communicate can be confusing for others when you’re a member of multiple social networking websites.

To get around this many exhibit a social networking widget. Social networking widgets however, in these days of Google’s need for speed, will slow down your blog.

This post will reveal to you how you can get around this by making your own social networking widget, by way of HTML tables. Below is the code you need to get started.

<div> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="228"><tbody> <tr> <td height="15" valign="left" width="25"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/peter.mccartney" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_tpq91pcqIw8/TDN79dPS1XI/AAAAAAAAH_w/_OXzVRnC5Po/facebook.jpg" width="15" height="15" /></a></td> <td height="15" width="82" align="left"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/peter.mccartney" target="_blank"><strong>Facebook</strong></a></td> <td height="15" width="24"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/peterjjmccartney" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_tpq91pcqIw8/TDOd8WqSOyI/AAAAAAAAIAQ/euJr5O6cnbw/linkedin.jpg" width="15" height="15" /></a></td> <td height="15" width="95"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/peterjjmccartney" target="_blank"><strong>Linkedin</strong></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="15" valign="left" width="25"><a href="http://twitter.com/pjjmccartney" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_tpq91pcqIw8/TDOdbqjZJUI/AAAAAAAAIAM/S_FXn_KCUzk/twitter.jpg" width="15" height="15" /></a></td> <td height="15" width="82" align="left"><a href="http://twitter.com/pjjmccartney" target="_blank"><strong>Twitter</strong></a></td> <td height="15" width="24"><a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/maccasenior/" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_tpq91pcqIw8/TDOeztIL3bI/AAAAAAAAIAg/XHpl-zi-uig/stumbleupon.jpg" width="15" height="15" /></a></td> <td height="15" width="95"><a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/maccasenior/" target="_blank"><strong>StumbleUpon</strong></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="15" valign="left" width="25"><a href="http://www.google.com/profiles/peterjjmccartney" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_tpq91pcqIw8/TDOh9zv9NYI/AAAAAAAAIA0/e5qJq6KYb5c/google_buzz.jpg" width="15" height="15" /></a></td> <td height="15" width="82" align="left"><a href="http://www.google.com/profiles/peterjjmccartney" target="_blank"><strong>Buzz</strong></a></td> <td height="15" width="24"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_tpq91pcqIw8/S9ncoOC5RjI/AAAAAAAAG1U/cyvlM2ug56E/ctk.jpg" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_tpq91pcqIw8/TDOksLh2HnI/AAAAAAAAIBg/PbbPV910hts/gmail.jpg" width="15" height="15" /></a></td> <td height="15" width="95"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_tpq91pcqIw8/S9ncoOC5RjI/AAAAAAAAG1U/cyvlM2ug56E/ctk.jpg" target="_blank"><strong>Address</strong></a></td> </tr> </tbody></table> </div>

The end result will look like this. All that you need to do, is to click on any of the icons or names to be directed to the social media network of your choice.

Open Source Social Networking Widget

How do I customise my gadget?
1. Copy & paste the code into Windows Live Writer or the HTML/JavaScript gadget.
2. Change the code in blue to your icon http address.
3. Change the code in red to your social networking address.
4. Change to code in green to the name of your networking site.
5. Place the widget where it will best fit.  

Tips:
1. Icon - about 390 bytes & 15 X 15 pixels.
2. Attempt this in your test blog first.
3. Any problems contact me.
4. I’ll do it for you if you hit the wall. 

News from the home front:
1. Part one of the home renovations are almost complete.
2. Our son, Stephen, is getting married soon.
3. I’m looking for partners for my other two sons.
4. I’ve got the poops as I just painted the walls above the cupboards the wrong colour.

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Google’s need for speed: Part II

This is an update to Google’s need for speed, where I explained how I lowered my average page loading speed from 15 to 4.3 seconds.

Since then, further fine tuning has again lowered my average page speed, according to Google webmaster tools experimental labs feature, site performance – to 2.1 seconds; faster than 67% of sites.

To further embellish that, Firebug gives my homepage a speed of 1.61 seconds, with Page Speed 1.8 Analyzer giving it a score of 93/100, up from 87 and YSlow boosting my previous grade B to A.

Google's Webmaster site performance graph for St Vincent's Hospital Darlinghurst - Male Nurses Blog

How did I lower up my average page speed even further?

1. Sidebar Images made even smaller – on average 5500 bytes (5.5kb).
2. Post images average 50,000 bytes (50kb) if not lower.
3. Maintaining one (1) post per page.
4. Linkwithin Widget removed and replaced with my own creation: Howzat
5. Relying on Google Webmaster and Google Analytics after removing Site Meter.
6. Maintaining no homepage icons for friend’s blogs.
7. Maintaining no widgets in sidebars. 

As I said to a friend recently, the hardest thing about speeding up any blog is deciding on what window dressing you want to sacrifice or downgrade. If you’re happy with your blogs look, you may not wish to change anything.

Further tips for speeding up your blog:

1. For images, give width and height to their http address. The details below are for the image above:

“http://lh6.ggpht.com/_tpq91pcqIw8/TCvehd1ZLWI/AAAAAAAAH3g/5gQGggLhMKI/Google_Page_Speed.png" width="490" height="98"

2. Resize your image to the desired width and height before uploading to your host. The above image in its original form is exactly, 490 x 98.

One last thing, considering what I have done recently to my site, especially the content, can you give me any feedback on the impact it has made? Good or bad, I’d like to here from you.

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