Don't Be an Every Minute Manager

Don't Manage Every Minute
Too many bosses seek to control their employees' every nanosecond at work. But it only kills motivation and stresses everyone. by Liz Ryan, BusinessWeek Online.

Set the goal, help sort out priorities, take down barriers and then let them run.
With micromanagement of professionals, you will own the work, not them.

The only time constraints I put in place was defining smoke breaks in our 8 to 5 work day to:
before 8:00am, 10:00am (5-10 minutes), lunch, 2:30pm (5-10 minutes), after 5:00pm.
I had to implement this in the Spring when we had such a string of nice weather, 2 of my guys were taking a smoke break every hour for about 20 minutes a shot. I told them management and hourly production workers had complained to me and they deserved better press than to get labeled as slackers.

Car Driving Economics

Want to End Traffic Jams? Raise the Prices
The way we operate our roads violates a basic lesson of economics: If you underprice something relative to its true cost, people will use too much of it. by Charles Wheelan, Ph. D., The Naked Economist

There are some good ideas in this article, but for every invention of this type, there are people that will try to figure a way around it, ie. people commuting in High Occupancy Lanes with a car full of mannequins.

HOT Lanes
more HOT Lanes

Baptist vs. Catholic - A Child's View

A little boy was walking down a dirt road after church one Sunday afternoon
when he came to a crossroads where he met a little girl coming from the
other direction.
"Hello," said the little boy.
"Hi," replied the little girl.
"Where are you going?" asked the little boy.
"I've been to church this morning and I'm on my way home," answered the little girl.
"Me too," replied the little boy. "I'm also on my way home from church.
Which church do you go to?" asked the little boy.
"I go to the Baptist church back down the road," replied the little girl.
What about you?"
"I go to the Catholic church back at the top of the hill," replied the
little boy.

They discover that they are both going the same way so they decided that
they'd walk together. They came to a low spot in the road where spring rains had partially flooded the road so there was no way that they could get across to the other side without getting wet.

"If I get my new Sunday dress wet my Mom's going to skin me alive," said the little girl.
"My Mom'll tan my hide too if I get my new Sunday suit wet," replied the
little boy.
"I tell you what I think I'll do," said the little girl. "I'm gonna pull off all my clothes and hold them over my head and wade across."
"That's a good idea," replied the little boy. "I'm going to do the same
thing with my suit."

So they both undressed and waded across to the other side without getting
their clothes wet. They were standing there in the sun waiting to drip dry
before putting their clothes back on when the little boy finally remarked,
"You know, I never did realize before just how much difference there really is between a Baptist and a Catholic."

WHAT GOES TO HEAVEN FIRST?

The nun teaching Sunday School was speaking to her class one morning and she asked the question, "When you die and go to Heaven...which part of your body goes first?"

Suzy raised her hand and said, "I think it's your hands."
Why do you think it's your hands, Suzy?"
Suzy replied, "Because when you pray, you hold your hands together in front
of you and God just takes your hands first."
What a wonderful answer!" the nun said.

Little Johnny raised his hand and said, "Sister, I think it's your feet."
The nun looked at him with the strangest look on her face.? "Now, Little
Johnny, why do you think it would be your feet?"
Little Johnny said, "Well, I walked into Mommy and Daddy's room the other
night. Mommy had her legs straight up in the air and she was saying, "Oh God, I'm coming!" "If Dad hadn't pinned her down, we'd have lost her."