Planned Giving: Charities’ Cushion
Office Professionals: Control Your Destiny
Woodrow Wilson On George W. Bush
Corrections or additions?
These articles by Bart Jackson and Kathleen McGinn Spring were prepared for the April 23, 2003 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Know Your Computer
I will never understand women,” a typical Princeton
sophomore might exclaim. To which his roommate could respond, “Well,
do you understand computers?” The sophomore most probably would
admit that he does not. “So,” replies his roommate, “what’s
the problem?” Pervasive, unfathomable, and delightful in our lives,
that glowing box that now perches on desks everywhere, draining desk
space and patience, is only the ostensible tip of a vast iceberg that
affects all of us every day.
In the face of this expanding cyber intrusion, do we just treat computers
like the equally pervasive car: a useful enigma whose workings are
understood only by trained auto mechanics? Or might we approach computers
as we do the ladies in our lives, with whom a little understanding
rewards us with untold benefits? Those opting for the latter are no
doubt the audience for “What Should an Educated Person Know About
Computers?” on Thursday, April 24, at 8 p.m. at Sarnoff. Free
by reservation. Call 908-582-7086 or visit www.PrincetonACM.org.
Presented as a joint meeting of the Princeton Chapters of the Association
for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electric & Electronic
Engineers’ (IEEE) Computer Society, the event features Brian Kernighan,
a computer science professor at Princeton University. The lecture
is a summary version of Kernighan’s Princeton undergraduate course
“Computers in Our World,” which is specifically designed for
humanities and social science students as well as for engineering
majors.
Because of computers carburetors run more efficiently, scuba divers
get more bottom time, tumors are diagnosed early, phones can be answered
anywhere — and monitored — and business is globalizing at
breakneck speed.
“The computer/digital world, in fact all technology, is something
we ignore at our peril,” states Kernighan. Yet, he continues,
few people who use technology know much about it.
Kernighan, whose father was a chemical engineer, was born in Toronto.
He obtained his bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto in
engineering physics and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton
University. He then spent three decades at the Bell Labs Computer
Science Research Center. Now teaching at Princeton, he is the author
of several books, including The C Programming Language and The UNIX
Program Environment.
Kernighan says we should view the age of digital technology with “an
informed skepticism, rather than seeing it as evil incarnate or as
an all-solving panacea.” To gain this knowledge, we must learn
how computer hardware works; how it is built; its logical structure,
which has not changed much with time, and the physical structure,
which has changed enormously.
What computers can do. “Computers really do nothingmore than that little pocket calculator you hold in your hand,”says Kernighan. “They are able to do a whole lot of simple additionvery rapidly.” The problem is that most people misperceive howmany calculations computers can do, and how fast. The concept of billionsof individual calculations, completed within seconds, remains a toughone to grasp and is usually either underestimated or overestimated.Add enough of these calculations together and you can figure out thecourse of a light beam sent right to a Martian satellite. More arithmeticand you can figure in enough of the probable variables to keep thevideo picture beamed right back to Houston. Redirect the math andyou can present an image of a car and calculate each line’s perspectiveas it rotates in front of you. You can even set certain sound patternsto trigger responses and create a computerized psychiatric program— artificial intelligence that smacks of the real thing.What computers can not do. “Anything that can notbe reduced to simple arithmetic does not compute,” states Kernighanflatly. Computers are the ultimate quantifier with no eye — electricor otherwise — for judgment or quality.”They will never teach you truth, beauty, or the meaning of life,”Kernighan points out. A computer can not determine which object isbigger. It can tell you that this truck weighs 12 tons and the othertruck weighs 14, but you, or the programmer, must take the data andjudge which is heavier.While computers can not yet run for office, they have enormous power.When the calculations show that you need the larger truck to haulthe load, the crew in shipping is happy for this judgment call. Butwhen a human decides to program a computer to monitor your phone calls,you may be less pleased.Techno-privacy. Last year, while making the film “MinorityReport,” producer Steven Spielberg gathered an assortment of expertfuturists to help him depict life in 2054. One of the very few thingsthey unanimously agreed upon was that privacy, as we know it, wouldbe gone. Of this prophecy, Kernighan says “while common sensesays yes, hope says no.” His hope is that while computers certainlyare able to accumulate vast aggregates of information about us, theability to halt the dissemination of this data throughout the governmentand into the private sector will remain very much with us.But Kernighan acknowledges that the total deletion of data, for instancefiles or E-mail, “is becoming increasingly hard.” By use ofa cookie, a file fragment left behind on websites surfers visit, anygood hacker can recover the entire file, and, if not the entire E-mail,at least a correspondence log.Such information, when purchased by businesses, gives rise to unwelcometarget advertising. If given to the FBI or to an employer, it couldreveal information most people would prefer to keep private. Armedwith the knowledge of how such invasions occur, individuals and businessescan not only assess security protection systems; they can push forrational legal protections.Copyright obsolesce. Napster will never die. On AprilFool’s Day, 2003, a Princeton University undergraduate was arrestedfor running a file-sharing service, primarily for copyrighted musicdownloads. The music industry, worried about lost royalties and copyrightinfringement, has turned to law enforcement and to legislatures forhelp in stamping out what is sees as music piracy.The proposed Consumer Broadband TV/Digital Protection Act would haveplaced a government-approval mechanism on every copyrighted pieceof material that would destroy the unit and report the criminal. Thebill seemed to be gaining support in Congress until its full implicationsbecame apparent. Under the act, for example, a baby’s monitoring unitplaying “Happy Birthday to You” in his crib, could triggera visit from the police. Faced with such scenarios, lawmakers gaveup on the act — at least for now.Fearing the Napster hydra growing new heads in every home office,a host of such proposals have been making the rounds. At this stagethey may be overkill. “Most home systems operate with only 56kilobyte modems, which can’t possibly compress sound in the way needed,”explains Kernighan. “College students have access to the ethernetwith higher bandwidth and 10 megabyte modems.”The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act aimed at expanding copyrightprotection internationally by member-nation agreement. However, it”prevents the circumvention of technical measures used to protectcopyright” and “prevents tampering with the integrity of copyrightmanagement.” In essence, Kernighan points out, the bill preventseven the study of prevention devices and labels those who talk aboutthem as traffickers in illegal entities.”Somewhere, we have to strike a balance between copyright andfair use,” says Kernighan. “We have to gain some accuraterealizations on privacy expectations in view of new technologies.”We also have to gain a better understanding of the technology thatis changing so many facets of our lives. Of the 535 legislators inthe House and Senate, only eight have any technical or engineeringbackground. True, it is their job to seek out and listen to the expertadvice. But it remains incumbent on us to learn enough to guide andjudge their decisions. Managing technology, like participating ina democracy, strongly favors the most informed.— Bart JacksonTop Of PagePlanned Giving: Charities’ CushionWith the stock market down some 3,000 points from thehighs it reached several years ago, and lay-off announcements stillin the news, it is hardly surprising that charitable donations aredown. Lynn Malzone-Ierardi, president of the Gift Planning Councilof New Jersey, says some non-profits react by focusing solely on thedollars they need to keep going. Stressed by immediate needs, theyspend little time on cultivating planned giving. But, she points out,it is the fruits of planned giving campaigns that can keep a charitygoing — in any economy.Malzone-Ierardi speaks on “Gift Annuities: Uncommonly Good Options”at the Eighth Annual Planned Giving Conference of the Gift PlanningCouncil of New Jersey, on Thursday, April 24, at 8 a.m. at the MerrillLynch Training Center. Among the many other speakers at the day-longevent are Ron Brown, director of planned giving at PrincetonUniversity, on “Beginning with Bequests;” Alina Vitone,director of prospect research at Rutgers University, who speaks on”Using the Information Highway;” Michael Breton, associatevice president for research and sponsored programs at Rutgers University,on “Gifts of Intellectual Property;” and Diane Nixa,vice president of development for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center,on “How to Work with Board Members.” Call 609-333-1437 formore information.Ierardi is the principal in Gift Planning Advisor (www.giftplanningadvisor.com),a Plainsboro-based consulting company. She earned her J.D. at Fordham,where she met her husband, Mark Ierardi, who works for Amper Politziner& Mattia. The couple have two daughters, Katie, 10, and Kristen, 7,both of whom are students at St. Paul’s School in Princeton.Ierardi came to New Jersey to accept a job as a trust and estatesattorney with Smith & Stratton. She then worked raised money throughplanned giving for the American Heart Association before opting forthe flexibility and challenge of her own consulting firm. She advisesnon-profits of all sizes and with all kinds of missions, finding theconstant variety one of the key advantages of consulting. Among herclients are Trinity Church in Princeton, NJN Public Television, andthe Liberty Science Center.Planned giving is especially important right now, in Ierardi’s opinion.Annual giving involves income, she points out, while planned givinginvolves assets. Annual contributions tend to fall when the economyis not doing well, but the income charities derive from planned giving— through bequests, trusts, or annuities — continues to rollin. Therefore, planned giving can be an important source of incomefor a charity, especially during a recession, and attracting it neednot be difficult, time consuming, or expensive.”I always advise charities to begin with bequests,” says Ierardi.Bequests are gifts made in a will. “In this country, the majorityof people don’t have a will,” says Ierardi. So, she advises clients,a good way to attract bequests is to raise awareness of the importanceof drafting a will. In doing so, a charity might suggest itself asa beneficiary, talking about the good it could do with the bequest.”This can be done in a newsletter,” says Ierardi. It requiresno state approvals, no special expertise, and only a minimum investmentof time.The next step is obtaining state approval to run a program of charitablegift annuities. Ierardi explains that a charitable gift annuity isa gift to a non-profit on which the non-profit pays an annuity —generally in the form of a check issued four times a year — tothe donor, or the donor and his spouse, or to another person designatedby the donor. The payments continue for the life of the designatedperson “even if he lives to be 120,” says Ierardi.Payments are calculated based on age; the older the person, the largerthe payment. The rationale being that an older person will be aroundto collect for fewer years than will a younger person.Charitable gift annuities are attractive to donors right now, saysIerardi. Payments compare favorably with the miserable little amountsCDs are earning and stack up extremely well next to the negative returnsmany equities have been generating. Another attraction is that charitablegift annuities are within reach of a great many people. Most charitiesaccept gift annuities in amounts as low as $5,000, and a few majorcharities go even lower than that. By way of contrast, it is generallynecessary to make a six-figure gift to be eligible to set up a charitabletrust.Making a charitable gift annuity can even be addictive. Once the checksstart rolling in, a number of people find that they like the ideaof this form of philanthropy even more than they thought they would,says Ierardi. Many also enjoy the recognition that often comes alongwith their gift, and as they read the newsletters their chosen charitysends them, they learn more and more about the good that it does.Additional gifts often follow.Ierardi says charities can become creative in the ways that they marketcharitable gift annuities. Often thought of as a giving tool for theelderly, the giving vehicle can be attractive to younger philanthropistsas well.A 45-year-old, for example, could make use of a deferred charitablegift annuity as a retirement planning tool, electing not to beginto receive payments until he is substantially older. To take the guessworkout of choosing the date, the IRS recently approved flexible deferredcharitable annuities. Ierardi explains that this allows younger giverslatitude in deciding when to start accepting the payments. “Somepeople want to retire at 55 if the market comes back,” she givesas an example, “but know they will put retirement off if it doesn’tcome back.”While individuals often can play around with retirement dates, continuingto work until their nest eggs plump up again, charities faced witha bum economy have no such options. They need to continue to feedthe hungry, shelter the homeless, put on plays for school children,fund cancer research, and help families through disasters. An activeplanned giving program, bringing in income no matter what the economy,could provide the cushion to make all of this possible.Top Of PageGo South, Wise ManMyth: You have to be crazy to take a chance on investingsouth of the border. Fact: A powerful, multi-national, multi-billiondollar banking network devoted strictly to beneficial developmentin the Western Hemisphere awaits your firm’s expertise, business,and investment.All of the details are available at “How to Bid on Projects ofthe Inter-American Development Bank,” on Thursday, April 24, at4:30 p.m. at Middlesex County Community College. Cost: $60. Call 732-906-2512.The event is sponsored by the college’s International Education Centerand is hosted by Virgil Blanco, director of international educationat the college. Representatives from the World Bank and the Societyof Foreign Consuls are among the presenters.One discussion will focus on the Inter-American Development Bank’sfunctions, bidding methods, and upcoming projects, and an exhibithall showcasing specific projects.Founded in l959 with 19 member nations, the Inter-American DevelopmentBank is dedicated to “accelerating economic and social developmentin Latin America, using the area’s own resources.” This is accomplishedby providing loans that carry low interest rates, and yet are secureenough to maintain the bank’s AAA ratings on the New York, Paris,and Tokyo markets.It has worked. Today the bank and its 47 membernations are major catalysts in mobilizing resources and providingsound investments throughout this hemisphere.The Inter-American Development Bank loans over $8 billion on over10,000 contracts each year. Projects range from the very concrete,such as improving a city’s infrastructure or telecommunications systems,to the more complex enhancement of tourism or business managementsystems. Typically bidder businesses provide commodities, expertise,and services. Labor and staff are local. Virtually every nation inSouth America, Central America, and the Caribbean acts as both loanerand borrower. Strictly loaning nations include the United States,major European powers, Japan, Slovenia, Croatia, and Israel. But theprogram has not caught on in the Northeast.”The Northeast companies, whether from ignorance of the bank orjust general trepidations, have always shied away from South Americanbusiness,” says Blanco. It is a problem he has wrestled with sincehe founded Middlesex County College’s International Education Centerin l975.As a boy, Blanco emigrated to the United States with his parents fromCuba. At the University of Miami, he gained degrees in foreign languagesand international business. Then, as he puts it, a lovely young girllured him to New Jersey, where he turned his attention to promotingInter-American business. He is a member of the New Jersey World Bankand the New Jersey World Trade Organization.While the U.S. flirts with recession, South America has pulled outof its slump and boasts an economy expanding at a solid 1.6 percent.Blanco sees plentiful opportunities for New Jersey companies to expandinto South America, which has an increasing need for business managementknowledge, telecommunications, environmental experts, educationalfirms, medical service providers, small pharmaceutical firms, andconstruction management.Some of the opportunities are outlined below. New Jersey companieswith a variety of specialities could bid to do part of the work onany of them, or on an enormous number of other projects. A comprehensivelist can be found on the Inter-American Development Bank’s website,www.IADB.comBrazil tourism. The Inter-American Development Bank hasjust loaned $240 million to support sustainable tourism in Brazil.The project will include the establishment of ecotourism sites aswell as tourism offices in the cities. This effort will benefit 1.3million Brazilian nationals.So who wants to visit Brazil? Tourists by the millions are flying(and boating) down to Rio these days, doubling tourism in the past6 years.Ecuador flood protection. The $40 million loaned to Ecuadorwill establish a system of intervention zones as flood and mudslidebarriers to protect the water and sanitation system of the capitolcity of Quito. Engineering, construction, and commodities bids arewelcomed. Those aching to burst free from the bonds of city life maywant to move out to Ecuador’s Amazon frontier where a $10 millionloan will improve the life of indigenous farming communities.Paraguay small business. Some $10 million has been loanedto help “productivity and efficiency of small and mid-size businessmanagement technology.” Business consultants of all types areneeded.Ongoing projects. The Educational Testing Service hasbeen part of large plan to establish video and other school aids inrural southern Mexico, where televisions showing educational programsare set up in remote villages. “One of the largest benefits isto teach these people Spanish, in addition to local native dialectsin use,” notes Blanco. “Surprisingly,” he adds, “Mexicohas over 20 million residents who do not speak the necessary nationallanguage of Spanish.”Japan, whose fishing boats are banned from inside the 200-mile limitof most South American coasts, has invested heavily in expanding localfleets and purchasing the fish. The United States has heartily supportedMexican infrastructure improvement projects that allow regional oilto flow northward. The bank’s goal of accelerating economic and socialdevelopment still stands, yet this is not a charitable giveaway. Eachof these enterprises is undertaken for sound business reasons.Profits have always gone to those willing to venture into new territories.With so many business arenas so cold, crowded, and static at home,it may be time to cast consider the warmer climate fostered by investmentfrom the Inter-American Development Bank.— Bart JacksonTop Of PageGo Fish!Winter, war, and overwork woes loom large as springcontinues to play coy. The new Conference Center at Mercer is holdingout relief in the form of a Fish! conference. As even those who assiduouslyavoid books shelved under the heading of “business inspiration”know, Fish! is a wildly successful motivation philosophy built aroundthe frolicsome approach to work of a group of fishmongers at Seattle’sPike Place Fish Market. By injecting some circus into the businessto carving up and selling fish, the fishmongers made their companyfamous, and inspired a series of books and lectures centered on simplelessons drawn from their approach to work.Harry Paul is a co-author of the Fish! books, which now numberthree with the recent addition of Fish! Sticks. He speaks at Mercer’sconference, “Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and ImproveResults,” on Thursday, April 24, at 8 a.m. The full-day eventalso features workshops on, among other things, “Setting the Boundaries,””Choosing Your Attitude,” and “Making Their Day.”Workshop leaders include Robert Rose, president, Mercer CountyCommunity College; Nunzio Cernero, assistant dean, the Centerfor Training and Development at Mercer County Community College; VanessaWilson, director of human resources, Mercer County Community College;Judith Lindenberger, principal, the Lindenberger Group; FayElliott Moore, principal, Fully Awake Inc.; and Primrose Reeves,customer service consultant. Price: $195. Call 609-586-4800, ext.3856.Paul, a professional speaker associated with Nelson Motivation inSan Diego, writes about the origins of the Fish! movement in an articlefor Executive Update. Here is an excerpt from the article:Now, fish mongering is not a glamorous job. No one wanted togrow up and become a fishmonger. But these people who work at themarket love their jobs and have made it world famous. Not only becauseof their trademark — throwing fish across the market and shoutingout and repeating everyone’s order — but because they bring anattitude, a passion, an energy to their work that is infectious. Theyshow us that no matter what you do you can enjoy your work and besuccessful as well. People from all over the world want to learn howthe Pike Place “Fish Team” does it.It’s about doing things differently. Lou Platt, former CEO of HewlettPackard, said, “Whatever made you successful in the past, won’tin the future.” The fishmongers know this well. Once a month theyget together to talk about what is working and what needs to be donedifferently. It’s about being fast and flexible, fresh and different.They look at their culture and ask, “How can we make it better?”Their culture is what made them world famous. Theirs is a culturethat allows them all to be who they are, with passion, energy, andlight heartedness.Creating that culture has rewards beyond being world famous. Ten yearsago, the market was striving to be no better than its competition(there are several other fish markets at Pike Place alone). With “businessas usual” these people almost went out of business. That’s whenone of the younger fishmongers challenged them to do things differently.He challenged them to become world famous, to act like they had somethingspecial — and to do so every day — which caused them to becomeboth world famous and successful.What once was a good week in sales revenue now represents a bad morning.What changed? The market is the same; ownership is the same; a lotof the employees are the same; and, obviously, everyone still sellsthe same types of fish. What changed was the culture. As that cultureevolved, it became a philosophy and then a passion, one that allowedthe fish market to thrive, not just survive. The philosophy has fourparts: Choose your attitude; play; be there; and, make their day.Choose your attitude. Think about what you’re doing ina different way, no matter what your work is. Are you washing windowsor providing clear vision? Are you washing dishes or providing peoplewith a germ-free environment from which to consume food? When youlook at work this way, your choice of attitude is clear and simple.Choose to be magnificent.Play. It’s time to loosen up. We were all told the samethings growing up: Work and play are separate activities. “Whenyou finish your homework, you can go play. When you’re done with yourchores, you can go play.” No wonder we think work and play can’t gohand-in-hand. Yes, work can be fun, no matter what you do.Be there. Being constantly present is one of the foundationsof the Fish! philosophy. It’s not just about paying attention, lookingpeople in the eyes, and listening. It’s about understanding your culture,your values, and your mission and how you live them on a day-to-daybasis. It’s about being part of the team. Being there comes from theheart and from making a difference in people’s lives.Make their day. Making someone’s day is about making himsay “Wow! That felt good.” It’s about the experience peoplehave when they do business with you. What will the customer rememberabout doing business with you?The Fish! philosophy starts with an attitude — that simplechoice of whether you want to make a difference and feel good aboutwhat you are doing, regardless of the job. Take yourself seriouslyand your work less seriously.Top Of PageOffice Professionals: Control Your Destinyd>Fay Elliott Moore, a self-employed HR consultant,put herself through college and graduate school part time, a processthat took 15 years. She worked a number of jobs to meet her tuitionbills. Among them was secretary, where she drew a boss for whom noone else would work. A perfectionist back in the days before computersmade typewriter ribbons and carbon paper obsolete, he demanded thatthe letters going out over his signature contain no mistakes —none at all. Moore, who had failed typing in college, soon developeda crick in her neck from bending tensely over the keys, typing thesame letter over and over until it was flawless.She also developed an attitude that endeared her to the proverbial”boss from hell.””I was a business major, so I wanted to learn all about his business,”she recalls. She got to know her boss’s clients, and their issues.”I became an integral part of his business,” she says. Beforelong, the formerly-imperious boss was eager to become her mentor.Moore had found a way to take control of her job, and she took theskill with her when she moved on. “You don’t have control unlessyou take control,” she says.Moore, principal in the Lawrenceville-based Fully Awake Inc.,leads a workshop on achieving work/life balance at “Take Chargeof Your Success!,” a day-long event beginning at 9 a.m. on Friday,April 25 at the Conference Center at Mercer, which is located on theWest Windsor campus of Mercer County Community College. Also speakingare Judith Lindenberger, principal in the Titusville-based HRconsulting firm the Lindenberger Group; Connie O. Hughes, thekeynote speaker, who is deputy commissioner of the New Jersey Departmentof Labor; Constance Herrstrom, president of Princeton-basedPremier Financial Planning; and nutritionist Vindi Kaur. Cost:$129. Call 609-586-9446.In preparing for the conference, Moore conducted an informal surveyof administrative professionals she knows to determine what issuesare most important to them. “They don’t have control over theirtime,” she found. A common scenario involves the boss who saysa report needs to be on his desk tomorrow, and then comes back laterin the day and piles on more work, which also is due tomorrow. “Managersare not clear in communicating their needs,” she says. “Theydon’t tell them (their administrative assistants) where they’re going.”This leaves the administrative professionals outside of the communicationsloop, and floundering with multiple assignments and no sense of theboss’s priorities.The situation becomes more complicated, a number of administrativeprofessionals reported, because they often need to field assignmentsfrom multiple bosses.Moore empathizes. She has been there, and not only during her yearsas a secretary. A native of New York City, and a graduate of MaristCollege (Class of 1977), she holds an MBA in organizational behaviorfrom Rutgers, has worked for PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Merrill Lynch,and has spent a number of years working as a consultant. At one point,she was in a consulting firm with three partners. “One wantedme to be in San Francisco; one wanted me to be in Chicago,” shesays of a common tug of war. The way to get out from the middle, shesays, is to throw the issue back on the partners or bosses, and makethem decide among themselves which assignment needs to be the priority.Here are more suggestions of her suggestions for taming work and achievingwork/life balance.Write it down. The famous study following Harvard graduatesand tracking their health and progress for decades turned up an amazingfactoid. “Two percent of the men put their goals in writing,”says Moore. “Those two percent have earned 80 percent of all ofthe money earned by the group.”Moore has seen the power of putting goals in writing in her own life.When she was in college, a representative of a Big Eight accountingfirm visited her school, and she decided on the spot that she wantedto work for such a firm. She knew her goal was not realistic. “Theydon’t hire from obscure schools,” she explains. Nevertheless,she wrote down the goal, and “put it on a shelf.” Eleven yearslater she was hired by PriceWaterhouseCoopers into what she says washer dream job, one she would still have if the traveling hadn’t eventuallygotten to her.Slice it up. In her workshop, Moore plans to have participantsdraw a pie chart of their lives. How much time is devoted to career?to family? to health? to personal development? to making money? tosocial and community activities?Each person has just so many “packets of energy,” Moore says.It is easy to say that family comes first, or that nothing is moreimportant than good health, or that reaching toward a better job isa top priority. But a look at how those energy packets are spent maytell a different story. “If all of your energy goes into yourjob, there is nothing left over,” she says. Take the time to sketchout where the hours of the day are spent and the conflict betweenstated priorities and real priorities may be stark.Make a choice. Decide to give attention to running aneight-minute mile, re-connecting with far-flung cousins, or earningan advanced degree and there is a good chance that goal will becomea reality.The alternative for so many time-stressed employees is to surrenderto others’ priorities and to just float along. But, says Moore, “evenif you think you’re not choosing, you are.” Hanging around inan office spending the better part of each day complaining about “thatcrazy boss” is a choice, and an especially draining one at that.Learn to negotiate. Assertiveness skills are especiallyimportant for administrative professionals. Moore says she has a sensethat Gen Xers are better at asserting themselves than were their mothers.This is good, but she says that the art, while essential, needs tobe practiced carefully to avoid any appearance of whining.”Pick your battles,” is her advice. She says that sufferingsilently erodes any respect superiors might have, but that a constantunwillingness to take on extra work can kill a career. If the issue,for instance, is a request to work late, she suggests that administrativeprofessionals pitch in cheerfully on some occasions. Having done so,they have won the right to say a firm and confident “no” tolate nights on other occasions.Be willing to leave. Moore had one boss for whom the occasionallate night was not enough. “I was commuting four hours a day;I was working my butt off,” she says. It wasn’t enough, and shewas smart enough to know it. That boss would never be happy withoutenormous quantities of face time, so she transferred away from him.Putting in the same hours for a new boss, she won rave reviews. Sherealizes that staying with the first boss would have seriously hurther desire for a life outside the office, and, furthermore, wouldhave damaged her career.While Moore ditched that overly-demanding boss, she remainsfriendly with the “boss from hell” for whom she worked asa student. The key in both cases, she says, is “don’t play.”Life is too short to waste complaining about a bad boss. Learn towork with him (or, of course, her) in a way that furthers your professionaland personal goals, or move on.Top Of PageWoodrow Wilson On George W. BushThe Woodrow Wilson School puts the presidency of GeorgeW. Bush under a magnifying glass on Friday and Saturday, April 25and 26. “The George W. Bush Presidency: An Early Assessment”begins at 9 a.m. on the 25th and runs through noon on the 26th. Itis free and open to the public. A full schedule is on the school’swebsite at www.wws.princeton.edu.Sponsored by the Program in Leadership Studies, the Center for theStudy of Democratic Politics, the Center of International Studies,and the Woodrow Wilson School, the conference consists of a numberof seminars and workshops. Discussing “George W. Bush: Man andPresident” are Fred Greenstein of Princeton University;Hugh Heclo of George Mason University; Karen Hult of VirginiaPolytechnic Institute; and John DiIulio of the University ofPennsylvania.Speaking on “The Politics of the Bush Administration” areAllen Schick of the University of Maryland, who dissects Bush’sBudget Problem; Charles Jones of the University of Mississippi,who looks at “Partisan Patterns and Congress in a 50-50 Government;”and Ivo Daalder and James Lindsay, who take on “TheBush Revolution: The Remaking of America’s Foreign Policy.”Journalists who cover Bush discuss the president in a roundtable.Participants include Dan Balz of the Washington Post; CarlCannon of the National Journal; Jeanne Cummings of the WallStreet Journal; Mike McCurry, who served as Bill Clinton’s presssecretary from 1995 to 1998; and Todd Purdum of the New YorkTimes.Corrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
