The 250 Square Foot View

As I stay in on a Friday night watching Yankees-Tigers Game 1 Karate Kid Part II to get mentally prepared for my half marathon tomorrow morning, I have a built in excuse to blog for the first time in almost two weeks. Here goes.

When I studied abroad in England in the fall of 2002, I expected to make tons of friends and future pen pals with some native Brits. Instead, though, our group of friends–American students from New York, Florida, Connecticut, and Massachusetts–spent every day and night hanging out together and seldom interacting with the English. Granted, we had a great time, but I no longer speak to any of them and I regret it a little that I didn’t do a better job immersing myself in European culture. And speaking of European culture…

Jersey Shore
When I first heard Jersey Shore was doing a season in Italy, I thought, “Wow, that Sallyann Salsano has done it again!” The gang brings their shenanigans to Italy and mix it up with the locals? Awesome, right?

Turns out, not that awesome.

Apart from Deena’s mini hook-up with a waiter named Ellis (and seriously, an Italian-born Italian named Ellis?), the roommates have pretty much kept to themselves. Even Situation’s situation finds him caught up with an American blonde stalker named Brittany.

The failure to assimilate themselves into Italian culture came to a head last night when Snooki declared it a Karma night in the house, where everyone would dress up, drink and dance like they were back in Jersey, with Pauly D supplying the music because he brought his DJ equipment (i.e his laptop). I guess I set my expectations for this season a little high. I’ll need to re-calibrate them for the home stretch.

Undercover Boss
I caught my first episode of Undercover Boss last night (I was still reeling from Jersey Shore, but UB broke my fall). I am way late on this one, since it apparently premiered in February 2010. But I’m hooked.

Is UB a little gimmicky? Sure. Is it basically free advertising and completely self-serving for the companies whose bosses go undercover? Sure. But it’s actually pretty watchable. (This is a massive understatement. I said, “I love this show!” to my girlfriend at least five times during the hour-long episode. Eyes were rolled.)

In this particular episode, the CEO of 7-Eleven goes undercover for a week: he works clerk shifts at three store locations across the country; he helps make donuts in a factory; and he rides shotgun with a delivery truck driver. He sees lots of good stuff (friendly, generous, and dedicated employees) and some bad (employees throwing out tons of unsold food that’s supposed to be earmarked for food banks), and takes his learnings back to HQ in Dallas, summoning his “bosses” from the previous week to Texas for the big reveal: the man they knew as a curious new employee was actually their boss!!! OH SNAP.

At this point, it got a little Wizard of Oz-ish. So enriched by his experiences, the CEO rewards his employees based on their needs: the older female store manager on dialysis gets an organ donation awareness program set up in her name; the young Pakistani store manager/criminal justice student is offered a call-me-any-time offer for mentorship from the CEO; the happy truck driver gets a resort vacation with his wife who he never spends time with because of his graveyard shifts; and the donut-maker (who’s also an amateur artist) gets hooked up with 7-Eleven’s marketing department to do some freelance artwork.

Bottom line: When I’m a boss some day, you can bet I will find some way to go undercover. Hopefully the show is still on the air at that point.

The Kindle Might Be Worth It After All
A while back I wrote that I didn’t think the Kindle was worth its price tag, and a big part of my reasoning was that ebooks at my public library weren’t compatible with the Kindle. Well, now they are.

Today I successfully and easily downloaded my first library ebook from the New York Public Library, The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk. I’m very excited to read it.

As demand for ebooks starts to outpace libraries’ supply, we’ll likely see the same backlog many now have for print books. But I trust the 14 to 23 people who read my blog will keep this our little secret, at least for the time being.

Zappos Pays Employees 3 Grand–to Quit
Apparently this policy has been in place for a few years, but I just became aware of it this week after listening to a Freakonomics podcast. In an effort to weed out employees who are “only in it for the paycheck,” Zappos offers its new hires increasing monetary incentives to walk away from the company.

There are plenty of reasons why this won’t work at many (or most) companies, but Zappos’ approach is progressive, and it reminds me of a scene from one of my all-time favorite movies, A Bronx Tale.

Teenager Cologero is chasing a guy who owes him $20. Sonny, his role model and neighborhood mafia boss, stops him and explains:

“You don’t even like him. There’s your answer right there. Look at it this way, it cost you twenty dollars to get rid of him. Right? He’s never gonna bother you again. He’s never gonna ask you for money again. He’s out of your life for 20 dollars. You got off cheap. Fughgeddaboutit.”

Zappos isn’t getting off quite as cheap as Cologero did, but for a relatively small sum (to them), they can say fughgeddaboutit to any jerk who’s just working there for a paycheck–I mean, the nerve!