Help Wanted (the Serious Version)

My April 1st Help Wanted post generated a wide range of reactions. As many people figured out, the post was indeed an April Fools joke. ๐Ÿ™‚

I thought up this idea 3 weeks prior when I decided I should finally do an Aprils Fools post. This idea seemed like the perfect combination of various things I’d written about previously (wanting to build a staff, not having a regular job, domination and submission), enough to make it sound semi-plausible. I still thought it was pretty ridiculous and wondered if anyone would really buy into the idea that the poor state of the economy is a justification for enslaving people. I did my best to make it sound convincing though.

When I checked the forums, I saw that the early responders immediately recognized it as a joke — as one person noted, the fact that I included it in the Humor category was a dead giveaway. However, at least one person seemed to consider it possible, so I took the opportunity to make some forum posts to stir up more doubt and get people wondering. I probably overdid it because then I had lots of people asking questions, so it turned into an April Fools week. As I see it, I cashed in my credits from previous Aprils Fools oppportunities that I missed. ๐Ÿ™‚

I admit that I was intrigued by the discussion, wondering how something like this might actually work if we tried to do it for real, so I tried to fill in the gaps as if I’d had it all figured out. When people asked me something I couldn’t answer, I ignored them or gave them a dismissive joke reply. Eventually the thread swelled to 200+ replies, and I finally confessed it was a joke and let people know I’d post a serious version soon. I’ve never done an April Fools blog post before, so I hope you’ll forgive me for milking this one as much as I did.

Regarding Domination and Submission

I also wanted to poke a bit of fun at some people’s public perceptions of me, especially those who think that D/s is akin to actually enslaving someone. D/s is nothing but role-playing where the participants temporarily agree to play roles where one side has authority over the other. If you have issues with D/s, then you have issues with acting, movies, plays, etc. Was Michael Douglas really being sexually abused by Demi Moore in the movie Disclosure? Of course not. They were just playing characters. The actors probably enjoyed making the movie. I see nothing wrong with this as long as it’s consensual.

Is it so hard to imagine that people might actually enjoy playing roles where they get to be a slave, Master, etc? Millions of people willingly choose to play together like this because they enjoy it and because it helps them discover new insights about themselves and their partners. I would suggest that those who have issues with this sort of thing are probably being unconsciously triggered to project their own power struggles onto others. This often happens when people feel powerless. I can understand and empathize with that, so let me recommend that maybe it’s time to take a look at those feelings instead of lashing out at those who are engaging in conscious and deliberate explorations that are perfectly legal, entirely ethical, mutually consensual, deeply experiential, and yummy. ๐Ÿ™‚

Moreover, may I point out that my “slave” is a playwright and professional actress with a university degree in theater/drama?

I’m sorry to disappoint those who thought the April Fools joke was for real. Perhaps it could have been a fun social experiment if enough people were actually willing to do it, but in terms of staffing I’m heading in a different direction. I’m afraid the reality will seem a lot more vanilla in comparison.

I did receive several applications as a result of that post, but it seems that those people saw through the enslavement part as my being playful and addressed the serious prospect of potentially working together in some fashion. I’ll make sure they see this post first just to be sure. ๐Ÿ™‚

The Truth Behind the Joke

As you may have guessed, while the post was intended as a joke overall, there was a nugget of truth to it.

First let me clarify the joke parts. These include:

  • having a bunch of people move in with me
  • offering people free housing and food in exchange for their submission and obedience
  • requiring that everyone works for zero pay
  • all the D/s stuff, such as referring to people as slaves and requiring them to call me Master and act submissive
  • pretty much the whole post except for the general idea of wanting to build a staff

So the true part is that I’m ready to start building a staff.

There was also a not-so-subtle personal growth aspect to the post. I wanted to get you thinking about your current work situation and to consider what important elements may be missing. Do you feel enslaved? Are you well compensated for your work? Would free room and board in a nice house be an improvement over what you’re getting now? Do you have great social support and feel like you’re part of a team? Are you encouraged and appreciated for your contribution? Are you doing meaningful, purpose-driven work? Do you feel you’re making a difference? Do you feel that your employer cares about you?

Are you happy where you are?

So the post wasn’t entirely a ruse. There were multiple layers to it. Since I had to wait 3 weeks to post it, I had a lot of time to refine it. Looking back I wonder if I went a bit too far with it, but I think that overall it did more good than harm, as most people seemed to appreciate the playfulness of it. It also got people opening up and considering new possibilities for what they might want to experience in their working lives.

If we seriously tried to do something like what I wrote in that post, it might be a fascinating growth experience for all involved, but I can just as easily imagine it becoming a mess. The core idea of getting a bunch of growth-oriented, committed people working in the same location is sound. As I think about it though, I wonder if it might actually work better with such strongly defined roles as opposed to giving it a looser structure.

Now I’ll share a more realistic (yet still evolving) vision of what I’d like to do in terms of creative staffing. I invite your feedback on this to let me know what you think, especially if working together in some fashion appeals to you.

The Idea in a Nutshell

The idea is too big to fit in a nutshell, but I’ll do my best to give you an overview.

The main reason I want to build a staff is that I see lots of opportunities to do a better job of fulfilling this business’ purpose of helping people grow, but it’s too much for me to handle by myself. I’ve already pressed down the time management road, dumping things like cable TV and Facebook, but it’s obvious that no amount of personal time management can help me complete several person-years worth of projects all at once. I’m sleeping biphasically now, so I have more time each day, but even if I try to devote it all to doing extra work, I still see that hard limit of not having enough time to get things done as quickly as I’d like.

There are many options for staffing up the business. I could hire a virtual staff. I could get an office and build a co-located staff. I could enlist the help of interns. I could combine any or all of these things. Intuitively I feel it’s best to focus on finding good people first and then evolve a structure over time that suits the emerging group’s dynamics.

I also have people practically begging me to let them do certain things for me because they’d really like to help. For example, people have sent me detailed mock-ups of new web designs for my site. Most are a lot nicer looking than what I have now — and probably more user-friendly too. They typically offer to give my site a facelift for free, as a way of saying thanks for the value they’ve already received. Several programmers have been eager to work with me to create some personal development software apps, especially for the iPad, iPhone, and Android platforms. Other people would love to help produce more original content for my site, like doing creative videos. But when I have dozens of offers like that for different types of improvements, it becomes overwhelming to look at it and sort through it, and I see it as this gigantic blog of “too much”. I’m always having to triage and pick the best opportunities to pursue, which means saying no to lots of good and even great opportunities. I can’t personally manage all of that and keep up with doing what I do best.

Another factor is that I enjoy working with people face-to-face on a daily basis. It’s rewarding to work with creative, talented people, and I miss having that in my life from my game development days. Doing live workshops last year gave me a taste of what that might look like for this type of work, since we had a small staff for each event. I can’t deliver good workshops all by myself — it’s very much a team effort. With a good team in place, we could be holding workshops in other cities and doing them more frequently, and there’s a clear demand for that.

There’s also a very personal factor. I turn 40 on April 14, so naturally I’ve been giving some thought to what I’d like to do with the next decade of my life.

How to Compensate People

I’m open to a variety of different compensation methods here. While I said I don’t want to hire employees in the April Fools post, that part was on the joke side. I’m already set up to handle payroll and such because I do it for myself. I’m also open to working with independent contractors, interns, or other creative arrangements.

Let’s explore some possibilities.

Working for Free

I think it’s important to take advantage of free help when it’s practical to do so. Free help keeps costs low, it’s less risky (sometimes), and it makes it possible to get more done. It gives more people a foot in the door who might not otherwise get in. Then these people have the opportunity to gain real-world experience, to learn useful skills, to learn teamwork, and/or to prove themselves and make it easier to offer them a paid position.

Does this mean that everyone who wants to work for free gets an automatic yes? Of course not. There are still significant costs in terms of time and energy with bringing anyone new on board. Training and management require good focus. But if there’s no direct compensation, it greatly leans the risk factors in favor of saying yes. I would think this is mostly common sense.

With free help you also have to watch for “you get what you pay for” situations. Erin recently had an unpaid intern, and after working together well for a few months, the intern just up and left Erin hanging… stopped returning emails and phone calls with no explanation. Maybe she felt that since she wasn’t getting paid, it didn’t matter if she was irresponsible in how she chose to end her internship.

I have to be especially careful with this too. At past workshops we’ve had a staff of mostly volunteers to help us facilitate them, but I limit this to people that who’ve already convinced me they’re trustworthy and dependable. We can’t be doing workshops and have flaky people on staff who might not show up. So when someone I didn’t know offered to volunteer at a CGW, I felt it was too risky to say yes to that. I’d have to get to know you first.

For practical reasons, the no-direct-pay situation would likely be temporary for most people who go that route. If you do it for a while and love it and want to make it a more permanent arrangement, and we’re able to find ways that you can keep contributing to good effect, then we may be able to turn it into a paid position down the road. I don’t want to promise this up front for anyone though because it depends on so many factors — what skills you bring to the table, how much money the business is bringing in, who else wants to shift from free to paid work, and how dependable you are and how quickly you learn. Rest assured that I recognize the practical consideration that most people need to generate an income in the long run.

Short-term free help is usually no big deal for most people. It’s not a huge sacrifice to help facilitate a workshop for a weekend, especially since you get to attend the workshop yourself and hang out with all the attendees for free. I don’t expect I’ll ever have difficulty finding people to fill those roles.

What about free help that lasts much longer though, like some kind of apprenticeship for a few months? The apprentice learns about a real business, and I get some extra help without having to take too big of a risk. Personally I think this kind of education is potentially a lot more valuable than taking classes at a university, but in this case you only pay for the education with time, not with time and money. I’m open to this kind of arrangement with the right people, but I haven’t given it much thought yet. It really depends on the person and what they can bring to the table. We’d need to make sure it’s going to be a win for both of us.

For the long-term stability of the business, it’s more attractive to bring on free people that seem like they could be around for the long-term and upgrade to paid positions. High turnover might be okay for a turnkey business with lots of repetitive work, like a fast food franchise, but my business relies more heavily on creative work and long-term consistency. It doesn’t do the business as much good to invest time and effort bringing someone up to speed if they’ll only be around for a short while. I’m not saying we can’t find a place for those people, but I don’t think that’s the best situation. If someone just wants to help out for a couple weeks, and they’re largely unskilled and would have to be trained to do useful tasks, then I don’t see that as being worth the effort. I’d prefer to work with people who are seeking a 90-day commitment or longer. Otherwise I can’t justify the effort involved.

In my own life I’ve done a lot of work for free, and I see it as a good thing. It’s certainly not a form of capitalistic exploitation, especially since it’s completely voluntary. When I worked in the software field, I served as Vice President and then President of the Association of Shareware Professionals (now renamed the Association of Software Professionals). For two years I devoted many hours to the organization and was never paid a dime for it. I also wrote many articles and had them published in the ASP newsletter, also without pay. Much of the work was behind the scenes and thankless. I’m glad I did it though. I learned so much from the experience, and it’s nice to know that I was able to make a positive difference in some people’s lives.

I know from personal experience that investing time and energy in a cause you believe in, even for no direct pay, can still provide many benefits. If someone else had offered a free internship in this kind of business when I was younger, and it seemed practical for me financially, I could easily see myself wanting to jump on it.

Whether or not you think this is the right option for you depends on where you are on your career path. Do you have strong skills that are in high demand? Is it easy for you to get fulfilling paid work already? If so, then I wouldn’t recommend this option. But if you’re fairly young, passionate about personal growth, don’t need an income from this, think you’d gain a lot from the experience, and feel like you’re leaning towards working in this field, then I’d say it’s a good option to consider.

Virtual Contractors

Another possibility, especially if you don’t live in Las Vegas and don’t want to move here, is to work from your current location via the Internet. This could be done for free or for direct compensation, depending on your skills and the nature of the work.

A redesign of my website is a task that could be done anywhere, and if the work is of high quality and makes the website meaningfully better afterwards, then it could certainly be justifiable to pay for it.

There are lots of ways to work out the pay here. It could be done with a flat fee for each job, a series of payments based on milestones, or an hourly rate, for instance. It’s usually less risky to know how much a project will cost in advance, but I know that isn’t always possible for creative work.

For certain tasks I could use existing websites to find contractors, but as long as the costs are reasonable, I’d rather work with people who are already familiar with my content. I would think they’d have more motivation to see that the work is done well because they’re a part of the community that’s served by it, not an outsider who may not care as much.

My personal preference is to favor working with people that I can meet face to face, at least occasionally. I don’t like working with people via the Internet as much unless I’ve already met them in person and have gotten to know them. If I can never meet someone face to face and we can only connect via phones or the Internet, I’d be less inclined to work with them if there’s a local alternative. At the very least, I’d probably want to talk to each person via video Skype before considering working with them. If you’re a contractor who’s very private and prefers to remain shielded behind email, then I don’t think we’d be a good match for working together, even if you’re extremely talented. Tone of voice and body language are a significant part of communication when it comes to things like scoping out how a person feels about a particular task or idea. I’d like to avoid situations where someone says yes to an idea while their body language suggests they have serious doubts about it.

My friend Lisa Nichols (from the movie The Secret) has a virtual staff of people in different cities, but periodically she flies everyone to the same location for a weekend, so they can have an in-person pow-wow about upcoming projects. I think that would be too expensive for me at this time — I haven’t been on Oprah like Lisa has — but I like the idea in general. This wouldn’t make as much sense for short-term contractors, but if you have a virtual staff of team members that have been working together for years, I think it’s a good idea to get everyone to meet in the same location from time to time.

I can see virtual outsourcing being useful for some tasks, but I’m not looking to outsource everything overseas so I can check out from the business and do something else with my time. I’d rather bring people together and be actively involved in projects as opposed to distancing myself from them.

If you see yourself wanting to do something along these lines, I’d have to approach it fairly cautiously. I understand the benefits of outsourcing, but I’m not as drawn to grow a business that has the core people spread all over the planet where we can never get together face to face.

Revenue Splits

A revenue-split arrangement makes sense for projects that are associated with a measurable revenue stream where contributors share a stake in the financial results.

For instance, I’d consider a revenue split deal if someone creates a quality piece of software that would be a good fit for my readers. I have such an arrangement with the developer of The Journal. We met many years ago when I was a game developer, and since I’d been using his software since 2002 (and still do), I got in touch and suggested a joint-venture deal whereby I’d personally review his software on my website, and we’d split the sales revenue that came from that. This way it generates new incomes stream for us both. And to make it a better deal for my readers, I created custom journaling templates for the program, included as a bonus for no extra cost. We did that deal a few years ago, and it still generates monthly income for both of our businesses.

A quality journaling program is a very good fit for my website, and I could easily recommend it because I was a fan of the program long before I started blogging. I had also met the developer, and I knew that he was passionate about journaling, not the kind of person to crank out fluff just to try to make a buck. So this made the deal fairly easy to do.

Such deals can be tricky though, so I approach them cautiously. It’s actually more important to avoid bad deals than it is to find good ones. I don’t have time to wade through lots of different software, and there’s so much low-quality and very derivative stuff out there.

I give careful consideration to people behind the product or service. If I get approached for this kind of thing by someone I don’t know, I immediately see it as 10x riskier, and I’ll put a lot more onus on the developer to reduce that risk. I’d have to see something that looks like a super-strong fit for my readers, it can’t be a fluffy program where there are already much better offerings on the market, it had better not be something that I could see myself coding up in a weekend. And this should be a talented developer with a provably solid track record. Otherwise there are just too many unknowns, and I simply can’t touch it.

I’ve also done revenue splits for info products a number of times. That worked out well revenue-wise and has been my business’ #1 income generator since I started blogging.

The downside to opening the door to too many revenue splits is that when enough Internet marketers become aware that you’re doing them, you get hounded endlessly. People have sent me hundreds of products in the mail unsolicited, and they often follow up to try to get me to pitch them on my website in exchange for a cut of sales. They usually don’t care if I even look at the products. I won’t recommend something I haven’t thoroughly checked out though. So in the end, I feel it’s a bit too time-consuming for me to do these kinds of deals relative to how much value they provide to my readers. I think I’m better off shifting this time to my own product development.

Unless all the factors line up beautifully and a near perfect match comes along, I’m inclined to say no to most revenue split offers from people I’ve never met. Even for people I have met, I usually say no. But everyone once in a while, a really good match does come along. I learned about one this past weekend that looks rather promising.

Obviously this is a much looser arrangement than other forms of staffing, but I wanted to mention it because it’s something I already have a lot of experience with. The nice thing about revenue splits is that they’re fairly low risk. You have to invest some time, but you don’t have to pay out any money except as a function of sales. So if you do a deal like this and it bombs, it’s a disappointment but not a disaster.

Employees

For certain positions we can go the employee route. This is a bigger commitment both financially and legally, so I need to have a compelling reason to add someone to the payroll. Suffice it to say that I’ll be very selective.

Right now the business is financially sustainable. It’s been that way since it launched in 2004. I want to keep it that way.

In order to create the capacity for adding more employees, we’ll need to add more revenue streams. I’m not at the point where I can justify hiring too many people just yet except for fairly basic positions. The least risky positions to fill are those that help bring in revenue directly, that support and enhance existing revenue streams, or that save me time so I can do more revenue-generating activities.

For example, hiring an employee to handle the logistics for delivering more workshops, such as finding and booking venues, coordinating the room setup with the venue, getting badges printed, managing the registration table, coordinating with the audio tech, etc. would be reasonable. If we can schedule more workshops, we can start selling tickets right away (as soon as the venue is booked), and this should create a revenue stream to more than cover the salary and costs for that position. This would free me to focus on creating and delivering the content of the workshops.

One simple position I’d like to fill would be to hire a personal assistant, someone who’s local to me and who has a car, so they could run errands and handle a variety of simple tasks, freeing me up to focus on other things. It wouldn’t be like The Devil Wears Prada though.

Since I plan to bootstrap the business as we go, I have to pay a lot of attention to resource and risk management. I don’t want to add people and then have to lay them off a few months later. So for any paid positions, I’m going to be careful in scaling up gradually and building a sufficient cash reserve, so we don’t get ahead of ourselves by being overly aggressive.

I don’t have an assembly-line type of business, so for employees I’m going to look for flexibility and adaptability. Is this someone who can only perform a few types of tasks, or is this a quick learner who can wear a variety of different hats? Can this person perform multiple roles as needed, like an audio engineer that can edit and master our audio programs, help produce new podcasts, record interviews, and serve as the audio tech for our live workshops? The more flexible and adaptable someone can be, the more I’d want to hire them.

Employee positions are likely to be the most competitive, especially in this economy where there are a lot of people looking for work.

Fortunately this business has some awesome advantages. Having a consistent flow of web traffic means we don’t have to worry as much about marketing expenses. To date I’ve never spent a dime on marketing or promotion, not even for my book or workshops. I simply leveraged existing resources to get the word out. As long as we’re careful about it, it shouldn’t be a problem for this business to sustain and grow a paid staff.

Other Possibilities

There are other possibilities too, so if you want to suggest something different than what I’ve mentioned above, feel free.

My main concern is the cost-benefit aspect. What kind of value is being contributed, and how much risk does the business have to assume? Are people doing quality work, and can the business safely sustain them financially?

As far as rules and structure are concerned, I think it’s impossible to plan all of that in advance for this kind of business. We’ll have to see what’s needed as we go. When people work together in the same location and there’s a heavy amount of communication involved, then I think we’ll need a good bit of structure to keep things flowing smoothly.

How to Apply

In lieu of spelling out what specific positions I need to fill at this time, I think it makes more sense to invite people who might already have some ideas about how they see us working together to share their interest. This is a flexible and creative business, and I’m open to letting people define what kind of contribution they’d love to make. Then we can see if it’s realistic and workable.

The reason I’m doing this is that I think it’s more important to find great people to work with and then find a way to work with them, as opposed to defining fixed positions and looking to fill them. Ultimately I expect I’ll need to do both, but for now I have the liberty of remaining open to creative possibilities without needing to be so rigid.

It’s reasonable to expect that there will probably be a lot more people interested in working together than I can say yes to. So from the perspective of people who might apply, this is likely to be highly competitive. If you don’t think you have much to offer and you’re just looking for any sort of job, don’t bother. It’s pretty much a certainty that someone more qualified and/or more willing will apply. I value enthusiasm and motivation, but I also place a high value on talent and skill. I wouldn’t hire someone just because they’re really enthusiastic about working together.

Consequently, I want to discourage casual “what the hell, I might as well” applications. So for starters, I’m not going to accept any applications via email. I don’t want to check my inbox and find hundreds of resumes from people who have no business applying.

Also, I’m not going to accept any generic applications that look like they could have been sent to someone else. If I receive something that looks like it isn’t personally directed to me, I’ll simply toss it in the recycle bin. I don’t feel I need to consider someone who’s just fishing for a job.

If you want to apply, please do the following:

  1. Write a personal letter telling me about your interest. You can say whatever you feel is important to share. What are you interested in doing? How do you envision us working together? Why does this appeal to you?
  2. Include a link to a resume/CV that lists your work history and education.
  3. Include other resources you feel are relevant (optional).
  4. Be sure to include your email address, so I can follow up, and the URL of your website if you have one.
  5. Send it to me via my contact page.

Please skip the “Dear Mr. Pavlina” formalities. Just write to me as your normal self. Assume we’re already good friends, and go from there. Don’t be concerned that you might scare me off if you express too much emotion or that you might seem cold if you express too little. Allow yourself to express whatever comes through for you.

I might be opening Pandora’s Box here, so I’ll do my best to follow up with each person who applies, but I can’t predict in advance how many people that will be. So if you don’t hear back right away, don’t panic. I recognize that everyone would like a timely follow-up, but since I’ve never done this before and since I don’t have an HR department, I can’t guarantee much except to say that I’ll look at what you send, and if it excites me and I think we can do something together, I’ll follow up, and then we can discuss it further. Does this mean that if you don’t hear back within say, 30 days, that you should assume the worst? Probably.

Consider this an open invite with no deadline. Once I see how things are shaping up and go a bit further down this path, I may add a jobs section to the website and lock things down a bit more… or better yet, I may have someone do that for me. ๐Ÿ™‚

But for now I’m using the Ready-Fire-Aim approach.

If you’re in a rush for employment and you need a job yesterday, this isn’t the right opportunity for you. It would be unreasonable for me to even suggest that I can provide a speedy turnaround. This is not a situation where I already have well-defined positions in urgent need of filling.

Rachelle and I are leaving for another road trip in a few days to celebrate my 40th b’day (we’re going to Napa Valley, Mammoth Lakes, and L.A.), so I won’t even be in town to look at anyone’s applications till late April at the earliest anyway.

There are some key factors I’ll be looking for in anyone I work with. Originally I had listed them out in this post, but I decided it was best not to share it because I don’t want people to try and game me. I need to find people who truly possess those qualities, not actors who can pretend they do. I hope you can understand that.

Consequently, I don’t recommend that you try to tell me what you think I want to hear. You could just as easily guess wrong and unnecessarily rule yourself out. Just focus on sharing who you are and what you want, and then we’ll see if we’re a good match. It’s not going to do either of us much good if we have to part ways after just a few days of working together.

Being Playful at Work

Incidentally, there’s another reason I wrote the joke post first. I wanted to make sure that anyone who applies for real has a compatible sense of humor and can handle a bit of joking around. This is a serious business that can deeply impact people’s lives, but against the backdrop of that responsibility, I think it’s important that we all enjoy working together. I’m certainly not known for my excessive reverence. I need people who can share in that same spirit of playfulness and still get things done, such as when we had a day of CGW where people wore Halloween costumes. I had a blast doing the workshop dressed as “Master” Obi-wan Kenobi, and the costumed workshop really raised the energy of the room and gave everyone reasons to socialize a lot more. This isn’t about foolishly messing around for no good reason.

If you have issues with this kind of playfulness in the workplace or if the whole D/s role-playing thing rubbed you the wrong way and you thought less of me for even suggesting it, then let’s accept that we’re incompatible and wouldn’t enjoy working together.

I’d rather work in a place where people jokingly call me Master or Captain or Your Highness instead of Boss or Sir. In my games business one guy used to refer to me as the Evil Overlord. And if you can’t handle being addressed as Slave, Minion, Number One, Third of Five, etc. then you probably wouldn’t enjoy working with me because I honestly love that kind of stuff. Just ask Rachelle how often I call her by her actual name. More often it’s Tasty Treat, Squish Bunny, Crazy Canuck, etc. I ran a game development business for 10 years, so I still have some appreciation for the importance of lightheartedness and play. That said, I’m totally against interactions that are truly degrading to people and that create a hostile work environment. That doesn’t serve anyone. But I don’t think we need to be so paranoid to the point of turning the business into a funeral parlor. Suffice it to say that if you do enter into this environment, and you truly find some aspect of the playfulness uncomfortable or excessive, just tell me about it, and we’ll take steps to fix it. Fair enough, Ensign?

Style and proficiency are two different things. I don’t see them as being in conflict with each other. I think a healthy sense of humor and lighthearted playfulness in our interactions will make for a much better workplace than expecting people to leave their souls at home. It fosters better bonding and teamwork and makes it more fun to come to work each day.

The reality of my staffing situation may seem a lot more mundane than the dramatic April Fools version, but I’m still excited about it. Let’s work together to create a more socially just, environmentally responsible, spiritually aware, emotionally honest, and mentally intelligent world to live in.

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. ๐Ÿ˜‰