• ANOTHER REMINDER THAT EMPLOYEE RETENTION IS ABOUT LEADERSHIP, even more so these days than compensation. Key factors that employees deem primary involve: (1) Challenging projects with opportunities to improve their skills; (2) Being aware of the business goals and how they fit in; (3) Planning their own work versus having the ‘process’ dictated; (4) Receiving regular feedback on performance, with some level of appreciation for their commitment; (5) Having a realistic workload to maintain reasonable life balance and avoid ‘burnout’; (6) Being spoken to respectfully from leaders who don’t use them as objects to vent stress at.  DCG are expert at developing optimal personnel Culture without adversely impacting productivity & profitability. Call us for courtesy consult.
  • ANDROID PHONE USERS NOTE: when Bluetooth is turned on phones are particularly susceptible to malware which turns them into a surveillance device. While automatic reconnection is convenient, once paired with speakers, auto systems, computers, etc., Bluetooth signals can be detected by other devices in range – especially in public areas like airports & transportation/ shopping centers/ restaurants/ large retailers which track shoppers to ‘enhance customer experience – without user’s permission. So, FCC advises turn-off when not in use or needed.  [SLASHGEAR – 7/21/22]
  • A PUSH FOR PARTISAN VOTER REGISTRATION HAS FULLY BEGUN.  With 2020 election success from “widespread and coordinated efforts by Democrat activists and donors to run ‘Get Out The Vote’ operations from inside state & local government election offices (predominantly in areas of swing states),” and despite specific banning of bureaucrats and bureaucracies in election activities for over eight decades (the Hatch Act), an Executive Order by President Biden now directs all 600 federal agencies to “interact with the public and with third-party organizations” to expand Voter Registration.” So far, federal employees are doing so within Public Housing Authorities (HUD), 2,300 American Job Centers (Dep’t of Labor), Community Health Centers (Medicare/Medicaid), universities allocating Federal Work Study funds (Dep’t of Education), Child Nutrition programs (Dep’t of Agriculture), and Local Voting Boards (Dep’t of Commerce).  Requests by House Committees regarding monies spent by statutory authorities to justify election activities and a lawsuit by Foundation for Government Accountability have been stonewalled.  [FEDERALIST – 7/15/22]
  • S. LEADERSHIP HAS BECOMD A GERONTOCRACY – a society governed by old people: Biden 80, Pelosi 82, McConnell 80, Hoyer 83. If an age limit of 70 years were applied to Congress, 71% of lawmakers would be forced to retire. Once upon a time “there used to be an agreed-on body of wisdom, which both Left and Right, Republicans and Democrats, generally accepted. Heated arguments and invective centered on implementations and methods of solving what at least both sides agreed were problems. Both ideologies accepted a common core of wisdom, despite their radical differences in interpreting it.” A discouraging analysis of today’s battle by Victor Davis Hanson:  https://amgreatness.com/2022/07/17/biden-and-the-destruction-of-wisdom/
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

“Disinformation on steroids” is the potential risk of DALL-E, perhaps the most advanced imaging system in the world, which utilizes over 650 million images, with “understanding of the human brain programmed into algorithms which create 3D art… The capacity for fabricated images of any element of human imagination (war/ natural disasters/ harmful stereotypes/ violent content/ anything to influence political process/ etc.) is now surreal.” Check out: https://www.npr.org/2022/07/20/1112331013/dall-e-ai-art-beta-test

“The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”  – Ronald Reagan