Personal Outsourcing

5 Things You Can Outsource In Life

It seems that we are all too often uttering the phrase "there are not enough hours in the day." From the time you get up in the morning to the time you go to bed there is something important that you could not get to because there was not enough time. While most of us sleep 6-8 hours during the night and work at least 8-10 hours a day, it is hard to find time to either enjoy yourself or work on something productive. Well, it is time to outsource parts of your life. Outsourcing in the business world is when companies transfer portions of work to outside suppliers rather than completing it internally. So why can't your outsource certain aspects of your life? Read on as we give you tips to free up your time.

• Hire a Cleaning ServiceDo you find that you don't have enough time to clean your house the way it should be cleaned? Well hire a cleaning service to take care of it for you. Most people tend to think that a "maid" is expensive. This cannot be further from the truth. Most cleaning services charge you based on the size of your house or apartment. They also do different levels of cleaning. Some will clean all the rooms, including all woodwork and pictures. They clean bathrooms from top to bottom and even wash dishes and clean all kitchen countertops and appliances. Some of the extra services they provide are packing and unpacking after trips, full "spring cleaning" and even window washing. Before you hire a maid service make sure that they are bonded and insured. That way if they trip over your XBox 360 controller and break a leg, you are not held liable for their injuries. Also, they will ask you many questions about your lifestyle and about pets which will give them an opportunity to provide you with a accurate quote. It is always better to hire a cleaning service instead of an individual maid. Individual maids will require you to consider them a "Household Employee" and therefore you are responsible for their taxes and workers compensation. Not to mention, an individual maid is much more expensive

• Get Clothes Laundered or Dry Cleaned and DeliveredWe all know it is a pain to do laundry. Not to mention that if you don't hang some clothing immediately after the dryer stops your clothes will get very wrinkled. Even some clothing that is considered "wrinkle free" can become wrinkled if it sits at the bottom of a laundry basket. Also, if you have tough stains then it will require you a little extra time to treat with a third party solution (you should invest in clothing with stain defender also). Well, in steps your local dry cleaner! Not only do most dry cleaners provide dry cleaning services, but they launder clothes too. Most will charge you a dollar amount by the pound and they will wash, dry and fold or hang your clothing for you. And if you have tough stains then they can easily remove them. Well, how does this save you time? You still have to pick the clothes up, even drop them off, right? Not true. Most will come and pick up your clothes for you and deliver them back to you in a few days. They can even deliver to your office if needed.

• Lawn ServiceUnless you are one of the few people that love mowing the lawn on a 90 degree summer day, then you know the amount of hard work that goes into managing your yard. Not to mention that you need to apply certain treatments during certain months. Taking care of the lawn is no longer something that you do in the summer, it can be an 8 month process. If you don't care if your lawn looks like Snoop's from the G-Thang video, then this does not apply to you. There are lawn care services that will take care of all this for you. Companies such as Scott's or Chemlawn will come out on a schedule and apply treatments that will kill weeds and feed your grass what it needs to make it very healthy and green. There are companies (or small businesses) that will even mow your lawn for you. They will come to the house and give you a quote based on what you want and the size of the yard. They will give you a program based on what you want to accomplish. This will allow you more time to stay in the air condition and play XBox 360! I personally recommend Scott's Lawncare Service.

• Pre-Made MealsThis is quickly catching on with a lot of families that are very busy. This will allow busy couples to take it easy when they get home, only having to make the effort of warming the dish that they want to eat. It's a simple solution. You attend a place or company where you get an opportunity to sample every dish that they provide. You decide what items and sides you want to have included in your meal. They provide you with a family size portion of the items for you to take home and put in your freezer. And when you are ready to eat them, simply warm them up. No prepping and cooking needed! Guys, this is really good also because you can provide your lady with a gourmet meal with little prep time! Check in your area for companies that provide pre-made meals.

• House Calls From the BarberYou know the routine. You try to get up early in the morning to get a good spot at the barbershop, but you still have a long wait once you are in the shop. And while most barbers take appointments, they can still not be done with a previous customer when you arrive. And I am all for the environment of the barbershop but I still can go without Hustle Man coming into the shop trying to sell me bootleg movies and incense. Most barbers now make house calls. Even though they may charge you a little more you get the convenience of having a one on one session with your barber. They can provide the same services that they do at the shop such as steam towels, cuts and shaves and "VIP" treatments. Once you feel comfortable with your barber see if they provide this service. If possible make a few appointments ahead of time especially if you travel a lot, you can get hooked up before you catch your flight. This will allow you to cut down on sitting in the shop and waiting for a chair to open up.
  
• Posting Coutesy of Donte Morrisette of 2 Guys 2Cities

IT Pet Peeves

Regardless of the IT department, many of the irritants tend to remain the same. Becky Roberts lists her top 10 persistent peeves.



We all work in different environments, in different industries, with different departmental structures, different installed bases, and different users. But as support techs, we share the common goal of helping people and computers live in harmony. Over the years, I've worked in a variety of industries, from commercial aircraft manufacturing to management consulting, from a chemical plant to a ceramics factory. And although the hardware, software, and people have changed, the irritants have had an alarming tendency to remain the same. So here, in no particular order, are my top 10 persistent peeves.

#1 Users who insist on giving you their diagnosis of a problem rather than a neutral description of the symptoms.
A classic example of this is the VP who constantly tells me that the T1 is down whenever he can't browse the Web or log into SAP. Instead of describing the symptoms, the VP tells me, "The T1 is down; fix it." This type of behavior is doubly annoying. Not only does it complicate the troubleshooting process, but it is also often difficult to disabuse the user of his misconception, leaving him, in this instance, with a false impression of an unreliable T1.

#2 Users who hover around asking questions while you're troubleshooting—and worse, making suggestions.
As much as I like to share my knowledge and educate users, I don’t want to do so while I’m struggling to figure out exactly why Ethel can’t print. This is particularly irritating when dealing with an apparently insoluble problem, as the user’s probing questions, which I can’t answer, are a reminder of my incompetence.

#3 Users who deny having done anything that may have caused the problem.
This is the "What? Doom is installed on my computer? I have absolutely no idea how that could’ve happened" phenomenon. In one instance, a summer intern from the local university MBA program called the help desk to complain that he couldn’t access the network. A quick survey of his computer revealed that it no longer contained any files beginning with the letter n. The intern vehemently denied having deleted any files whatsoever but eventually confessed that he didn’t have anything to do so thought he’d delete all the files he didn’t recognize. Why he started with the letter n remains a mystery.

#4 Being treated like a user by tech support from another company.
I dread problems that result in a call to the manufacturer’s tech support department. I will experiment, read manuals, Google the error message, and sacrifice chickens on the keyboard before I will call a tech support number for a problem I can’t resolve. My pride simply can’t handle answering the most basic questions: Have you checked that the printer is in fact plugged in and turned on? ARRRGGGH. Get me out of here. Please, please, please, put me straight through to your highest support level because I can guarantee that I have tried everything you are going to suggest at least three times. Oh wait, never mind, the power strip was turned off….

#5 Purchasing departments that change purchase requests.
I understand and appreciate that part of the role of the purchasing department is to find the best possible price, but I do not appreciate it when they substitute what they consider to be an equivalent item because it is cheaper. One particularly irritating instance of this was an order I submitted for Kingston RAM for a Lexmark printer. When the RAM arrived, I failed to notice that it was Golden RAM instead of Kingston. It simply didn’t work. A quick check of the Lexmark documentation confirmed that Golden RAM was not acceptable, but as the RAM was now “used” it could not be returned. The purchasing clerk had made the substitution on the advice of our VAR, as there was a special on the Golden RAM that made it a third of the cost of the Kingston RAM. This proved to be a very expensive attempt at cost savings.

#6 Internal junk mail.
We go to great lengths to minimize the junk mail being sent into the organization, but there seems to be little we can do to eliminate the jokes, photos, and movies being shared internally. Policies preventing or in some way restricting personal mail are of limited use unless mail is manually screened or spot checks are made. Merely using the corporate e-mail system for sending the occasional personal message is not a big deal, but when people start liberally using “Everyone” or create folders for “Recipes,” “Baseball,” and “Boy Scouts,” I tend to get a little annoyed.

#7 Users who think part of my job is to spend my lunch break telling them how to fix their home computers.
During one particular job interview, my prospective new boss announced that he would hire only people who “eat, breath, sleep, and think computers 24/7.” I stood up, shook his hand, and told him I was wasting his time and wished him luck. Not that there’s anything wrong with being computer-obsessed; it just so happens that I’m not. If I were, I would probably welcome having my peanut butter sandwich interrupted by, “Uh, every time I try to access the Internet, this message pops up and then the mouse freezes. What’s the deal?” I’m more than happy to help people out. I just resent being asked at work where I’m a captive audience.

#8 Users who complain about not being able to use a new application, when they “didn’t have time” to attend training or read the documentation you painstakingly prepared.
I find this situation especially irritating because in most cases, the user really didn’t have time to attend training or read the documentation—so it wouldn’t be fair of me to vent my frustration on the user. This is a symptom of the far bigger problem of expecting too much of too few employees. Instead of being irritated at these people, I find that they have my deepest sympathy, as they are usually the most overworked and pressured people in the organization.

#9 Being summoned to a user’s office to resolve an urgent computer problem, only to be kept waiting.
This is extra annoying when the person in question is on a personal phone call with her husband to discuss plans for the weekend. I never know how long to wait. Leaving instantly would seem churlish, but once I have waited beyond a certain length of time, leaving and having to return a few minutes later simply increases the total time wasted. Fortunately, in all but the most intractable cases, treating the user as a used car salesperson by starting to walk away usually elicits a cooperative response.

#10 The positioning of the IT department in the organization.
During the course of my career, I have reported to an office manager who reported to a regional office VP; to an IT manager who reported to the CFO; to an IT manager who reported to another IT manager who reported to the CFO; to an IT manager who reported to a committee; and to a department head who wasn’t sure who he reported to. Whereas most departments know where they are positioned within a company, no one seems to quite know what to do with IT. All too often, the IT department is made into a subdivision of some other department, which then has unfair control over the IT resources. In other instances, each department or division has its own IT function, which may or may not have a well-defined relationship with corporate IT.