Busted.

[JD Cowles]

we're relaunching one of our web sites here at work, and one of the features of the relaunch is a forum like this for consumers. #a coworker asked "so, who has the time for these things? #don't people have to work?"

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[John Flynn]

I consult in this area for a living. So this is a hot button for me.

To use an overused term, I think the situation you describe illustrates a "paradigm shift" in the world of work. When we were in the industrial age, there was the "water cooler" and the telephone where people chatted, sometimes about the job, but often about everything else under the Sun. Now the internet is our new water cooler, our "new telephone." Studies show that our workforce is more productive than they ever have been, but they have less leisure time. With chat sites they can combine work and leisure in a small way. As long as they are getting more done, that is all management should care about. The "nose to the grindstone" paradigm hurts, rather than helps, productivity in the information age.

In addition, it continues to amaze me how computer-illiterate many people are even though they have had computers on thier desks for years. Management laments thier computer illiteracy on one hand, but then on the other hand wants to limit thier use of the computer for anything but "purely business" and doesn't want to pay for training. It doesn't work that way. Kids don't learn computers faster than adults because they are smarter. They learn faster because they get to have fun with computers before they have to use them to earn a living. The smart companies encourage computer use, up to a reasonable point, not discourage it.

[elenbrandt]

You notice we all have such guilty consciences -- 464 of us (at this time) just had to look to see what "busted" meant.....

[J. Mark Lane]

No, I just wondered if he needed a lawyer....

Mark

[mando bandage]

Uh.... I .... uh thought it meant that someone didn't have any money, right?

R

[John Craton]

Or maybe he was talking about a bowlback I bought recently that was turned into a flatback by UPS?

[elenbrandt]

Hey J. Mark..... did you forget the legal prohibitions against an attorney directly soliciting business?

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Mandobar]

isn't "busted" a song by slaid cleeves.........or did i dream that?http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

er..........no, i think it was called "broke down".......could be kinda the same thing http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[J. Mark Lane]

Of course not, Elen. I was going to refer him to you.

[JD Cowles]

yep, busted means broke i guess. #in this case, i meant i sorta got caught for spending so much time at work on the cafe and for knowing so much about chat rooms. jflynnstl, i hear ya. some are awful slow to accept change around here.

sorry mark, i don't need any counsel at this time (knocking wood)

mandobar, "busted" is a harlan howard tune best performed (IMHO) by ray charles. #here's the lyrics-

My bills are all due and the baby needs shoes and I'm busted
Cotton is down to a quarter a pound, but I'm busted
I got a cow that went dry and a hen that won't lay
A big stack of bills that gets bigger each day
The county's gonna haul my belongings away cause I'm busted.

I went to my brother to ask for a loan cause I was busted
I hate to beg like a dog without his bone, but I'm busted
My brother said there ain't a thing I can do,
My wife and my kids are all down with the flu,
And I was just thinking about calling on you 'cause I'm busted.

Well, I am no thief, but a man can go wrong when he's busted
The food that we canned last summer is gone and I'm busted
The fields are all bare and the cotton won't grow,
Me and my family got to pack up and go,
But I'll make a living, just where I don't know cause I'm busted.

I'm broke, no bread, I mean like nothing