Category: Opinions and Thoughts

Posted in Opinions and Thoughts

A Plea for Some Male Sartorial Sense

Posted on by M Garcia

Once upon a time, women wore their pants on their waists and men wore their pants on their hips. In recent years, however, the craze for low-rise pants struck both women and men. Women’s fashion now includes pants and skirts that sit on one’s hips as well as styles that sit on one’s waist.

Since men’s pants already sit on the hips, there really was no place for the low-rise craze to go. Or so one might think.

Not to be outdone by the women’s sinking waistband, males began wearing their pants lower on the hips. And even lower. And now, you’ll see boys (I deliberately use “boys” here because I don’t think that any man in his right mind would dress like this) who wear their pants below their butt cheeks so that their boxer shorts are visible.

The “style” has gone from super-baggy pants to slim-fit pants but the results remain the same – ridiculous. It is made even more ridiculous when the visible boxer shorts don’t match the shirt. And even more ridiculous that that is if the boy is wearing a belt with that pair of pants. What’s the purpose of that belt? To keep the pants cinched underneath those boxer-covered butt cheeks?

What makes these boys think that anyone wants to see their underwear? And if they really think that someone wants to see their underwear, then why bother wearing pants that just cover their legs? Why not just go out in their boxer shorts and tube socks? I suppose one positive of this “style” is that these boys need to make sure they have clean underwear. I hope so, at any rate!

I can’t even go into how this silly “style” affects one’s stride and gait. This “style” certainly makes it easier for police to win foot chases. Although I’ve noticed that this silly “style” is gaining traction in work pants as well as dress pants.

It really can’t be comfortable for the boys who wear their pants this way. I can’t imagine that constantly adjusting and tugging on the pants to make sure that they don’t just fall off completely would be a comfortable way to spend the day.

So here’s my plea – please, please, please, boys, pull your pants back up to your hips. At least. I don’t want to see your underwear. No one but your mother and your significant other wants to see your underwear or your butt cheeks (boxer-covered or not). There’s an appropriate place and time for that and in public is not that place and time.

I’d like to take my plea one step further and ask for long-sleeve button-down shirts with ties (very sexy, in my opinion) but I know that’s too much to expect. So for now, please just pull your pants up, boys!

The thought processor churns on . . .

Posted in Opinions and Thoughts, Work

Volunteer or “Voluntold”

Posted on by M Garcia

Volunteering is an interesting concept. It’s doing a task or a job for a company or an organization willingly and without getting paid.

Volunteering – both time and money – seems to be a uniquely American concept. When disaster strikes around the world, Americans are first in line to go to the disaster site to provide whatever help is needed and generally first to start donation drives for money and items to send. That’s not to say that other nations don’t volunteer but it seems that Americans are front and center in any discussion on volunteerism.

In recent years, volunteering has become more woven into the fabric of our lives as Americans. Is it because we are becoming a more altruistic society? Is it because we feel an obligation as one of the more developed nations in the world? Is it because we want to polish what may be a tarnished image in the world?

The simple answer is that in the last decade or so, high schools and colleges began to require that students perform a certain number of community service hours in order to graduate. And now there are companies that are strongly encouraging their employees to perform community service. In some companies, the encouragement is simply a message from senior management. In other companies, the encouragement comes in the form of an evaluation category on performance evaluations.

This raises the question – if it’s required, is it still volunteering?

The company I work for is one of those that has an evaluation category on our annual performance evaluation forms. It doesn’t ask about general volunteerism, it asks about volunteering for the university specifically. When I fill out this evaluation for my employees, my answer is rather passive aggressive because I don’t believe that it’s an appropriate category for an employee evaluation. It’s self-serving and frankly, irrelevant. It calls into question the employee’s loyalty to the company. That would be fine if we rewarded employees for their loyalty. But we don’t. There have been no raises for four years – no cost-of-living adjustments and certainly no merit raises. I feel uncomfortable evaluating an employee’s loyalty when I know that the company isn’t rewarding that loyalty.

If it’s required, is it still volunteering?

This weekend was commencement. When I first started working at the university, there was never a problem getting enough volunteers to staff the event. This could be because our commencement ceremonies were simpler in those early years. But I think it’s also because people felt more valued in those early years, they felt like they had more of an impact in the daily workings of the university, and they wanted to see the results of their work – commencement.

About four years ago they began to have problems getting volunteers to staff the event. They made do that year but the next year, they resorted to strongly encouraging management employees to volunteer for the event. The following year, all management employees were contacted by their managers to volunteer for the event. This year, the pressure intensified with HR providing lists of management employees to the event organizers who in turn provided senior management with lists of management employees who had volunteered and who had not yet signed up to volunteer for the event.

If you’re coerced, is it still volunteering?

In the current employment environment, that kind of pressure can be likened to coercion. People are afraid to lose their jobs and so they will do what they need to do in order to keep their jobs. Knowing that they will be evaluated on their spirit of volunteerism, they sign up to volunteer for commencement. It was so bad this year that we coined the term “voluntold” in that we were told to volunteer.

Volunteering is doing work willingly and without the expectation or anticipation of getting paid. I do quite a bit of volunteer work in my hours away from work. I enjoy volunteering. But I want to choose who I give my time to away from work. The organizations that I volunteer with appreciate my time and my skills and I know that I’m helping them further their mission.

When we require high school students to work a certain number of community service hours as a prerequisite to graduate from high school, when we require college students to work a certain number of community service hours as a prerequisite to graduate from college, when we evaluate employees on the basis of volunteering either for the company or outside of the company, it takes away the spirit of volunteering.

The thought processor churns on . . .

Posted in Opinions and Thoughts, Running

To Cheer or Not to Cheer – There Is No Question

Posted on by M Garcia

When running on an out-and-back race course, unless you’re the Road Runner running from Wile E. Coyote or a Kenyan, you will meet the leader and the lead pack. Do you cheer for them? Or do you worry about conserving your energy, your breath, and your strength so do not cheer?

When I first started racing, I didn’t cheer. Part of me thought that they wouldn’t even hear me cheering either because they were in the zone or because they were going so fast that they wouldn’t be able to hear. The other part of me worried about conserving my energy, my breath, and my strength. I had such a hard time breathing that I honestly felt that yelling, “Way to go!” would make it impossible for me to finish.

Over time, I realized that cheering for the lead pack had no negative impact on my ability to finish the race or to set a PR. And I noticed that runners in the lead pack would smile when they heard someone cheer. That made me realize that these runners were just like me, that they appreciated encouragement especially as they were getting close to the finish of their race.

I started with baby steps, first just clapping for the lead pack and making eye contact and smiling. Eventually I was able to shout, “Way to go!” and “Woohoo!” and “Good job!” as the lead pack passed by me. And I always get extra noisy when the first woman makes her appearance along with the rest of the women in the women’s lead pack.

The Wahine Half Marathon last week was an out-and-back course and the slower runners did get an opportunity to see the lead pack. And despite being hot, discouraged, and tired (see my race report for the explanation), I cheered for the leaders. I clapped and yelled, hooted and hollered until the lead pack passed while I continued slogging away. The interesting thing is that I was the only one out of the other back-of-the-middle-of-the-packers who was cheering. I’m not exaggerating, either. It took some time before some other people started even clapping with me for the lead pack.

I do understand why other people weren’t cheering. It was hot. It was miserable. We were in a section of the course where there were no water stations. I’m sure we were all jealous of these women who were headed to the finish line where shade and refreshment were available. And I know that there were a lot of runners running their first half-marathon so they may have been unsure what the protocol was.

Here’s my advice – it’s always okay to cheer. Cheer for the lead pack when you see them. Clap if you can’t shout. Make eye contact and smile if you can’t clap. It will give the leaders a boost. But more importantly, it will make you feel good, too, because you will know that you’ve given someone else the encouragement they need to push to the finish. You’ll find that rather than detracting from your race, cheering for the leaders will put a spring in your step and give you a surge of adrenalin.

And when you’ve finished your race, go back to the finish line and cheer for some of the people finishing after you. That will really make you feel good.

Happy Running!