Hi there,

Just wanted you to know that our sites have been down all week, because they were badly hacked.

Thanks to Vladimir, our highly skilled admin, everything is up and working.

Regular posts will resume tomorrow, with this week’s Ryan’s Journal.

Thank you all for your patience!

Hard to believe, but my first post was March 2, 2006.

10 years, more than 3000 posts, along with the 800+ written over seven years for b5 Media’s Leadership Turn.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since I started.

Now I’m trying to decide if I want to keep going.

I know from my analytics and subscriptions that I have readers.

Maybe not thousands, because I’m not social and don’t promote.

And I know they are busy people who don’t have a lot of time to comment.

But.

You would think that occasionally something I wrote would resonate enough, whether positive or not, that they would want to add/disagree/tell me I’m nuts/whatever.

But they don’t.

They are you.

So as part of my decision-making process, I’m asking you to take a minute or two and share your thoughts and opinions.

Does MAPping Company Success provide value to you?

Do the ads on the left and bottom annoy you?

Are there subjects you would like me to address?

What would make it better?

Or am I addressing an empty auditorium?

Flickr image credit: Dark Dwarf

Today is my birthday and I’m not working (I wrote this on Sunday).

From the time I was old enough to understand that my birthday was the day of MY birth, my special holiday, I refused to go to school on April 26.

No matter where I worked I’ve always taken my birthday off.

I never lied about it and even mentioned it during my interviews. I said I was happy to work weekends, Christmas, other holidays, but not on my birthday.

Surprisingly, they all agreed.

So it’s not surprising that when I started RampUp Solutions part of the culture was no one worked on their birthday; nor did they have to ‘make up’ the time off.

Over the years many executives have explained to me why giving people their birthdays off was a bad idea; here are their arguments and why they are wrong.

• Too expensive – not when viewed as a recruiting, productivity and retention tool. It was surprising how many people viewed having their birthday off as a deal-breaker when interviewing.
• Disrupts work flow – 95% of work can be scheduled to avoid a birthday and employees are the first to recognize the other 5%.
• Other employees would be jealous – these execs and mangers just didn’t get it. They saw this as a perk for “stars” or “professional staff,” as opposed to everybody, totally missing the point.

Think about it, it’s one of those little things with enormous ROI.

And while you’re thinking, please have a piece of cake and drink a birthday toast to me.

Happy Birthday to ME

(No, there are not enough candles, in case you are wondering:)

Fickr image credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zedbee/103147140/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/moonlightbulb/4871952762/

See all mY generation posts here.

Be sure to stop by Leadership Turn to see Miki’s birthday rhyme.