Workers of the world Unite!

Growing up in NYC where unions are the norm, I've come to generally have a distate for most of them.

In my view, there are no good unions left, their time has come and gone. The purist vision of a union was a great idea when they became relevant in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Over time though they became bloated and corrupt with mob influence directing their activities rather than the original mission statement, protecting their members.

But now........I think a union might not be a bad idea. Here's why..

The original intent of unions was to protect the single worker from the greed and mistreatment of the company he or she worked for. In the vein of that mission why isn't there a union being formed to protect the modern day cubicle dweller from the abuses of the global corporation? Since many of us aren't even employees of the company we work at these days, this idea actually should grow some roots.

Think about it, if a union was formed to promote, protect and lobby for workers that are at risk of being offshored, companies would be less inclined to make these waves of moves to off shore companies.

It can happen. An accounting union comprised of members that do AP, AR, ledger work etc forms nationally. Their membership can create pressures across multiple companies whenever a company reviews the possiblity of offshoring their functions. It's potentially a powerful lobby, with reach not only in the company that is considering the offshore move but other companies as well.

A national "sick out" happens when XYZ co in Denver starts talking to a Wipro about offshoring their IT staff. Productivity drops off all over the place, that's millons of lost time and effort.

Why not?

There was a time a union was needed to protect the little guy. The little guy was the average blue collar joe who toiled hard for himself and family.

Now I am seeing that the "little guy" can easily be a post graduate degreed white collar professional. Who would have thought?

I have to get back to work now, but I will explore this in the future.

What do you think?

So how do I differeniate myself from the rest

Jeez..

I thought I was original, I thought I was cool, but really I'm just a goofball, I'm just a fool...

I thought creating a blog about cubicle life was unique. So there are TONS of other cubicle dweller blogs.

So, okay, we're all pained to be stuck in a four foot by four foot square with pictures of our kids and Dilbert comics pinned onto some cheap green or gray felt walls.

I won't bitch about it, we're in a bad place.

I will think hard about building some brand awareness. Maybe a T-shirt from Cafe' Press, or some Myspace pages detailing the adventures of Cubicle Man...

Nah...I'm too lazy.

I think we should unite, we each have our own voice from within the cubes. Maybe we can build a super blog about Cubicle Dwelling and the pain and suffering that goes along with it.

Someday I will tell my wife about this crazy habit. For now, it is our little secret.

LinkedIn - I was cool before it became cool

I've used LinkedIn now for almost a year. For professionals it's the new Friendster.

I was badgered into entering a profile by my pal Rory, who saw the value of it way before I did.

Just recently, I was contacted for a spot through LinkedIn, which all of a sudden, Kaching! it's a real tool.

Check me out, I'm too cool for school.

View Michael King's profile

Holy Cow has it been a month already?

I'm totally a jackass for not keeping this up. I truthfully didn't know if how I want this blog to be structured, for the most part, I still don't. But........

I do know that I want to concentrate on issues within the workplace, with a somewhat serious, somewhat snarky flow.

I promise, I will do at least 3 posts per week.

On another front, one of my favorite blogs, Gawker, granted me commentator status. I will probably get axed within a month since I will probably become boring and reptetitive with nothing new to say.

We shall see...

I'm back!