Image via Wikipedia

Apart from the suicide jockeys, who are really just stupid, not tools, until today I hadn’t considered that any real tools lived in Vietnam.
Of course, I’d forgotten about the ex-pats.

I received an email today from a local cricket team who shall remain nameless. It’s purpose was to get the boys revved up for the new season about to start – there’ll be a gathering soon. For some reason it initiated a spate of replies from the yobbos who play in this team, all demanding their spot in the sun for all the wrong reasons.

It started with a simple, yet effective “NO WOMEN!” suggestion. How “Lords” like I thought, but perhaps it was just a very poorly structured joke.  Then I read the rest of the replies. It seems that the vocal members of this club are not only sexist, but boorish and offensive.  Comments ranged from the mildly clever, yet pointedly sexist, to the bluntly disgusting with the addition of an unsuitable photo to go with it. The club in question would seem to be rooted in the seventies, and I want no part of it.

Once I had scrolled to the very end of this long discourse from those possessing nothing but dinosaur testosterone, I got to the part which inspired me to resurrect The Toolbox briefly. The final comment came from none other than the C.O.O. of a rather prominent international bank based in Vietnam. Further investigation revealed more representatives of high-profile companies.

My guess is that if anyone important participated in this type of behaviour back at home they’d be very quickly publicly embarrassed. I’d certainly be forwarding the email to the papers for their enjoyment.  I won’t be doing that here, as burning bridges is not a good idea in the relatively small ex-pat world within Vietnam.

Over here I guess the world of sex equality is still a pipedream, and many male ex-pats revel in the old ways.  I’ve already met more than my fair share of “men” who tell me that over here you have to treat the women like sh*t because the rules of relationships back home just don’t apply and women will accept whatever you throw at them. What a bunch of disgusting pigs is my reaction on the inside. Why do something disrespectful just because you can?

So, without naming any names or showing any faces, I slap the Toolbox paintbrush on those ex-pats in Vietnam deserving of said brush.

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Mark Bregman is the CTO of Symantec – a data security and management company. At a Sydney conference this week he stated “Facebook is becoming a critical business tool”. Read the report and see if you can find any actual examples of how. All I can see is the usual rubbish about how employees “expect to use” and “are inclined to”. Neither of these phrases can be used to begin a sentence indicating critical business use, but in fact illustrate the ongoing challenge of how to manage your employees (read, make them work for their salary).

Mark, you are the perfect example of why those of us in the engine room don’t often respect those of you who sit up on the top deck smoking cigars and hypothesizing.

The Age – Symantec execs encourage using Facebook at work

Image courtesy UK Daily Mail

Don’t you think the answer to this is obvious?  Of course I shall give any of you that have not heard of Facebook the benefit of the doubt, but seriously, if you are reading this blog you will have heard of Facebook.  And if you’ve heard of it you should know that it’s the most common social networking service in the Western world today.

The reason I am blogging today about Facebook is that there is an increasingly large number of tools out there making noises about how Facebook should be allowed in the workplace.  Guess which of those in the picture above are tools?

Having used Facebook extensively for nearly a year I can categorically state that there is absolutely no business benefit in it’s current incarnation.  The only reason people want it at work is because they believe they have a right to socialise whilst at work.  And they can’t imagine missing out on what their friends might be up to for 5 minutes!  Thank goodness Twittr hasn’t yet caught on in Australia!!!

Yes, you have a right to socialise during the day – but not on work time or using work resources.  You may be ALLOWED to do so, but you do not have a right, and nor should you be even asking for that right.

Some companies will allow you these benefits because they trust you, and want you to feel that they are a modern and open organisation – read “a great place to work”, but the reality is that if you are the kind of employee who needs to be permanently in touch with all your friends, then do you really think you have what it takes to be a valuable employee within the typical workplace?  If you do, you are a tool.  I wouldn’t employ a tool unless I was hammering a nail.  Would you?