I recently received a query to see if I, as a ghostwriter, could help with some freelance work. Here’s how the query read (I’ve made minor edits to conceal the requester’s identity): Is this a ghostwriter? No. I’ve spent quite a lot of time this year with ghostwriters. Ghostwriters’ primary job is, of course, writing….
Will your future employer treat you like a slave with no personal time? If William Vanderbloemen is recruiting you, that might be a clue. According to Business Insider, Vanderbloemen has devised a few little tests before and after job interviews to see how candidates behave: Vanderbloemen’s company uses the text-message test [sending candidates a text…
The design elegance of Tesla cars exceeds that of any other vehicle. Tesla’s iPhone-like design aesthetic starts with the sleek exterior design (putting aside the horrifying CyberTruck, of course) and continues with the touchscreen-based center display, which elegantly integrates every function from navigation to climate control. That design aesthetic may have contributed to the death…
In the wake of continuing safety issues with Boeing aircraft, the company announced it was changing the incentives for how people are paid in its commercial aircraft division. Now, 60% of the bonuses will be based on quality and safety metrics. Previously, 75% of the bonuses were based on financial metrics. I’ve watched incentives and…
After an extended outage on February 22 that left around 50 million mobile customers (including me) without service for many hours, AT&T is crediting some people’s accounts by $5. Is that the right compensation? What went wrong AT&T says the cause of the problem was an error in installing software — and there is no…
If an employee of a company told you something wrong that cost you money, you could sue the company for damages. It’s the same with a chatbot. Here’s what happened. Air Canada features a customer service chatbot on its website. You’ve probably interacted with service chatbots like these on other companies’ sites — I researched…
Writers may at any time get called on to write anything from social media posts to instructions to research reports. The more versatile you are, the more valuable you are. I’ll illustrate this with examples from my own career. While it included a lot more than writing, you could easily describe many of my jobs…
Could you use triage make more customers happier? Based on my recent experience with urgent health care, maybe you could. My visit to Urgent Care This weekend, while attempting to open some stubborn product packaging with a scissors, I stupidly managed to gouge a half-inch cut in the palm of my left hand. Being a…
Imagine your retirement. What are you doing? Traveling around and hanging out with grandchildren? Sounds boring to me. Sure, after the end of a frenetic work life, it sounds attractive to have few actual responsibilities. You can think of it as a longer vacation. But people who are active workers, thinkers, and problem-solvers aren’t likely…