Are the crazies getting crazier?

When a family man in his 50s crashes his plane into an Austin building, we read his suicide note, label it a "rant" and determine he was crazy so that we can quickly move on to watching our reality shows or tune in to the latest concerning Tiger Woods.

When a professor shoots her colleagues, the media digs into her past and finds examples of behaviors that quickly and neatly explain why she did what she did this week at an Alabama university. Most folks conclude she must be crazy. The television news wraps up the story in 60 seconds and we switch over to the Jersey Shore to see what the "Situation" is up to. Talk about crazy.

We don't like to think about tragedies like these too much. We just want a tidy explanation to soothe our uneasiness. Simple labels and resolving sound bites on the evening news or home page to alleviate worries that the world might be going to hell. We want to be assured that these are just isolated incidents and not some affliction that is spreading throughout humankind like a virus.

Then there are the more common disturbances we witness and quickly classify before moving on to the next thing. Watch this video news report about a fight that occurred at a Chuck E. Cheese near Memphis. At first, it seems like a Saturday Night Live skit. Here's a sound bite: Stupid people do stupid things. Of course, the reasons behind this incident and the ignorance displayed during the interview, aren't as simple as that.

Let's face it, we're not a shining example of an enlightened species.

The universe probably looks down on us with a degree of disappointment. We run around brawling over parking spaces and shooting everything that moves, including some of the most beautiful creatures on Earth. We kick older people to the curb, like their wisdom or values can't possibly benefit us. We abuse drugs, alcohol and anything else that makes us feel good for a few moments. And the crazies get into fights at Chuck E. Cheese.

We were put on this planet for a reason. I don't know what the specific reason is, but I am guessing it has something to do with evolving to a higher state of consciousness. I think we're built with the potential to be more aware -- aware that tigers are nearly extinct, that education matters, that holding a door for an old lady is still a good thing -- so that we can move forward in our collective development. Are we living up to that potential or just becoming more crazy?

Anyone with an opinion about anything beyond the flavor of the day runs the risk of sounding like someone getting ready to fuel up the old Piper Cub. I guess I should be more careful not to "rant" about society's ills, even during a week where it seems rather obvious to me that there are growing stress fractures in the foundation of our society.

The storm after the storm

Most everyone is back to work and school this week after two enormous and unusual snowstorms battered the D.C. area last week. That's the good news.

The bad news is that in a metro region with the second-worst traffic in the country on a normal day, snow-covered lanes on the beltway, interstates and local roads are causing massive traffic jams. Plows used those lanes during the height of the storms to pile up snow from the other lanes. That wasn't a problem when hardly anyone was on the road, but now that the commuters are rolling again, people are getting trapped in gridlock. Perhaps in the aftermath of this winter more companies will begin to consider telecommuting options.

It appears this is the year of records in D.C., Virginia and Maryland. Record snowfall. Record-low average temperatures. Record unemployment. And now record traffic jams. It is taking some people two hours to go five miles. I saw a woman interviewed on the television news who was in her car on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown. She hadn't moved in over 30 minutes.

The snow isn't melting fast enough. Every other day is cloudy and cold. There were flurries two days ago and another dusting is expected today. Even when the sun is out it isn't getting above 35 degrees. The average temperature for this time of year is 48.

President Obama is providing federal emergency disaster relief funds for the area. Some of the money better go to bringing in mental health experts, because people are losing it. This isn't Fargo. This is a big metropolitan area that isn't use to this sort of weather or the hassles it brings. This is an area that needs to function.

In Loudoun County, Va., where I live, someone who was trying to help another motorist get out of a ditch was hit by a car. While other motorists waited patiently for this kind man to help the stranded driver, one impatient idiot decide he had had enough and zoomed out around the cars, striking the good samaritan. He was later arrested.

Meanwhile, a resident had his tires slashed for parking in a spot that he hadn't dug out himself. Apparently, a Sterling, Va., resident didn't like the fact that someone parked in "his spot." Of course, the spot was a public space. While it might be frustrating to lose the spot to another car, I am not sure slashing someone's tires is a good way of defending something that technically isn't yours to begin with. But this is very typical of people in the D.C. area. Not the kindest folks in the world.

And so it goes around the metro area this week.

The problem with big storms isn't the first or second day of the snow when everything is still and pretty. It's all the garbage that occurs when people try to resume their normal lives in an location that is prone to congestion, road rage and entitlement even on a mid-summer day.

The snow looks ugly, dirty and is piled high everywhere you go. But people are behaving in a manner that is even uglier this week. I feel the pain of those stuck in their cars for hours. I've been in those situations many times in my 16 years here. However, if people don't get a grip, things are going to get far worse.

Workaholics aren't good for business

I saw a job ad today titled "Workaholic wanted." I am seeing more of these types of ads where the demands of the job are rudely spelled out. I guess in a depressed job market employers don't feel they have to sugarcoat anything. The ads have a take-it-or-leave-it tone that border on threatening. And most of the employers who take this macho approach won't even bother to respond to your application if you don't sound willing to take a blood oath to work until you drop.

When the economy turns around, I wonder whether anyone will ever want to work for these places that treated people so badly during the tough times of this recession?

I think certain employers, who are sounding more like Southern plantation owners than modern-day business leaders, are shooting themselves in the foot with their total disrespect for the majority of people seeking employment. Advertising for a "workaholic" is like placing a help-wanted ad seeking emotionally unstable people. Anything with "aholic" tacked on to the end of the word is a sign of a potentially unbalanced human being who should not be in the workplace, let alone put at the top of the list of prized job candidates.

The person who placed this ad that I saw today should be removed from his or her job. It's that stupid, trite and shortsighted. There are plenty of better ways to state work-ethic requirements. If using the word workaholic is the best this ad-placer could come up, they shouldn't be involved in recruiting or any form of strategic thinking.

Employers who believe it's cute or effective to demand such traits in applicants will most likely end up with burned out employees in a very short period of time, or ones who move to the next job rather quickly. Ultimately, it does the bottom line little good to have a workforce filled with workaholics and high turnover. It doesn't spark innovation. It douses creativity. It causes illnesses (and lots of sick days) and eventually will eat away at the core of businesses. Look no further than the failing newspaper industry to see where buildings filled with underpaid workaholics lead.

There is a better way.

Instead of seeking workaholics, businesses (including newspapers) should hire smart, responsible folks with relatively healthy minds and grounded lives. People who can keep life, including work, in perspective. Spending 16 hours a day in a cubicle isn't a sign of a good employee. In fact, it's often a sign of someone who is either inefficient with their time or doesn't have the talent to work at a reasonable pace. It could also mean that that person is not functioning well in other areas of life, which can really come back to haunt an employer or colleagues of the workaholic.

Of course, there are times when long days are necessary. Emergency workers often have to push themselves to the brink for a greater good. But that shouldn't be the norm. I don't want a surgeon operating on me who has been working 18 hours straight. I don't want my pilot pulling a double shift.

Any business owner who thinks he or she has found gold in a workaholic is living in an antiquated world. They will create a business environment that produces results contrary to what they thought workaholics would bring to the table. Workaholics are often broken people with limited range and identity issues. It might look good to have a room filled with folks burning the midnight oil, but does it really produce positive results over the long run? Do these overworked employees have time to think, plan or form strategies that will improve business? I am a huge proponent of solid work ethics and living up to one's responsibilities, but I don't support the concept of a proving worth and character via the overtime sheets.

Google does it right. They don't advertise for workaholics. They are more enlightened than your average plantation owner from the 1800s and are a good model for the next decade. They don't go to the whip or find honor in burning out employees. They hire people based on the correct criteria and give them breathing room. That space and life-work balance helps inspire some pretty neat products. Those ideas and products keep the profits flowing and put certain companies, that keep trying to find workaholics, out of business.

Every empire eventually falls

Boy, what a mess Toyota is in. But history teaches us that being No. 1 often leads to disastrous results. Empires don't last forever.

In business, there are countless examples of how companies reach the top then fall from grace, often because of self-inflicted wounds. In certain cases, a top company can recover from turning out a bad product. Look at Microsoft. The Windows Vista operating system was a horrible product. It appears Windows 7 has fixed many of the glitches that Vista harbored, but how the heck did the faulty Vista ever make it to market? And don't people who bought Vista deserve a price break when purchasing Windows 7? Apparently not, according to Microsoft.

I worked for USA Today back in the glory days, when we worked ourselves into the No. 1 slot in terms of daily-newspaper circulation. But as soon as we got to be No. 1, things began to splinter. I first noticed it in the hiring. We weren't going after the best of the best anymore. As a result, the journalism got sloppy. Weak links began breaking. Some well-publicized scandals arose. Eventually, when the recession hit, the page-count went down. Then buyouts forced some of the best talent to leave. The company was further gutted by two rounds of layoffs. I was included in one of those rounds. The parent company, Gannett, got itself into deep debt by making some questionable decisions. When that happens, heads will roll and quality control will fall. Unfortunately, those heads are usually in the lower and middle ranks.

Now when I pick up USA Today, it doesn't resemble the product of 10 years ago. It's thinner. There are mistakes. It's also more expensive. It essentially has become the Toyota of newspapers. Not bad, but there are problems. And the reasons behind that can't all be attributed to the changing industry or the economic downturn. Like Toyota, it might be big enough to survive, but will it ever return to what it was in newsprint, online or some other form?

Read this article by Reuters if you want to learn more about the Toyota situation. It speaks of something called "big-company disease." I believe certain companies that make it to No. 1 begin doing things counter to what got them to the top. Maybe it's human nature to rest on one's laurels or to become corrupt with power. Look at the fall of the Roman Empire. History certainly raises enough red flags. Yet, businesses continue to falter soon after making it to the mountain top. Some fallen companies blame failure on the recession. But when you examine their businesses practices leading up to the recession, you begin to see a pattern of greed and self-destructive behaviors.

The big three automakers in Detroit were on top of the world, producing the best cars, feeding the local economy and wowing people at annual auto shows. Then they got complacent. Bonuses to executives were being handed out like candy. Leaner, more innovative companies came along, ones that placed a higher priority on reliability and fuel efficiency. Meanwhile, customer satisfaction with Detroit was hitting new lows. And to some degree, that continues today. If you go back and read my post from December about Chrysler/Jeep, well, that situation has still not been resolved despite receiving promises from the automaker. It's this type of thing that will steer me, and probably thousands of others, away from Chrysler for the rest of my life.

Then there are the AIGs and Enrons of the world. They take arrogance to a whole other level. Once on top, and nearing monopoly status, these companies not only bring themselves down, but they wreck entire economies, not to mention the financial lives of innocent people. The sense of entitlement at the the top in these types of companies should be, and in some cases is, criminal. Without strict oversight, these abuses will continue.

AOL was one of the most successful start-ups in Internet history. Many people got rich at AOL back in the day. It was a relatively small company that got the lion's share of the Internet-provider market. Then AOL decided to merge with Time-Warner, a media giant. From that day on, AOL started on a path of being a nominal player. They fell behind on broadband and other technologies. Once an innovator, they soon became stuck in a corporate muck. They went from being nimble to being trapped in bureaucracy. Now that they've recently freed themselves up from the corporate beast, it will be interesting to see if they can have a resurgence.

NASA, the premier space agency in the world, put men on the moon. But when pressured to push the envelope and produce more frequent space shuttle missions, the agency literally crashed and burned -- twice. The fault for the first space shuttle disaster was mechanically blamed on bad o-rings. But the real culprit for the disaster was the unreasonably ambitious pressure from above and the agency's desire to keep those who were trying to raise concerns from speaking out. The quest to silence those who were perceived to be obstructionists proved to be a fatal mistake that NASA has never truly recovered from.

If you've ever worked for a big company you might know what it's like to go against the grain. Just because you're in the right doesn't mean you'll be heard. In many places, in fact, you'll be punished for raising red flags. That's another strain of "big-company disease" and it too has a tangible cost.

If your company is No. 2 or 3, or maybe not even a major competitor yet, don't feel bad. It's likely that the work you're doing will be more appreciated. There probably will be more pride in your office and less bashing of those who refuse to stick their heads in the sand. Your company will probably be better situated to recover from this awful recession if it avoided the debt trap.

Avis car rentals had a slogan when they were No. 2. "We try harder," was catchy. I think I rather do business with folks trying harder and doing things correctly than companies who are living off their own fat or who act like they don't need my business.

Sorry, Toyota. You got too drunk on your successes and future ambitions. You cut corners to get to a place where there are no shortcuts. And then you didn't easily fess up to problems that cost lives. You aren't alone in acting badly, but you sure have a lot of work to do to restore your image.

Click here to read more about Toyota, Starbucks and other companies that go astray after reaching the top.

An Olympic blunder

The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics featured the aboriginal peoples of Canada as well as a number of well-known and not-so-well-known entertainers. Yet, the most famous Canadian (in my humble opinion) was nowhere to be seen. That's right, singer/songwriter Neil Young got no love in Vancouver. Oh sure, there is going to be some sort of goofy tribute concert to the rock legend in the city on Thursday. Other bands (not Neil) will play Mr. Young's music. Too little, too late.

There are plenty of ballads and appropriate songs Neil could have played at the opening ceremony, similar to how he performed at the concert for 9/11. Instead, we got Sarah McLachlan. Nothing against McLachlan or any of the entertainers, but have any of them written even one-tenth of the songs Neil Young has or sold the number of albums and CDs he has? C'mon, Canada. How did an omission like this occur? Is Neil not Canadian enough because he resides in California?

I suspect that the slight to Mr. Young has put the whammy on the weather in Vancouver and left the ski slopes bare and the temperatures well above freezing. Maybe the failure of the indoor Olympic cauldron to fully expand and ignite was the rock gods' karmic revenge for leaving old Neil out of the cultural part of the ceremony.

I will say that the flying acrobat's interpretation of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" was the highlight of the opening ceremonies for me. I truly enjoyed that. Very artful.

As for the competition, well, I can't say the Olympics are lighting my fire. The skating is nice to watch for a few minutes here and there, and if the U.S. hockey team makes it to a medal round maybe I will tune in. But the round-the-clock coverage really doesn't have much appeal to me. It's somewhat surprising that NBC can make money off of these two weeks in Vancouver.