The Irrelevant Benefit II

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. What work benefit are you not taking advantage of? The most common is probably vacation. When I was employed I couldn't believe how many people had weeks of banked vacation to use up. I was always at the other extreme, looking for more.
Why do people make their vacation irrelevant? Maybe fear of leaving and coming back to even more work to do. Or not having a social life to make a vacation worthwhile. Or a perception that taking a vacation will result in the company collapse.
All these reasons are not good ones for not taking vacation. In fact, if you are indispensible, there is something seriously wrong with your company.
What can you do if your boss is saying this is a "bad time" to take vacation? Ask when a good time is. If that question is met with silence, then any time is a "good time" to make your vacation relevant.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Benefit

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. As I've mentioned before, I work part-time at a golf course. While it's good to get some pay, the main benefit is being allowed to play the golf course at certain times. I take advantage of it as often as I'm allowed. For me, the golf benefit is more important than the pay.
All the other staff have the same benefit, yet many do not play very often. For them, the benefit is irrelevant.
Why do they not take advantage of the benefit? I'm not sure. I've always thought working at a golf course means there's some interest in golf. However, that doesn't appear to be the case.
Would they be better off working somewhere else? Perhaps. I personally can't think of a better place, but I'm biased.
If you have benefits at your workplace, try to make them relevant.

Regards,
Steve

The Irrelevant Good Faith Agreement II

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. Should the RCGA be upset Davis Love III is not at the Canadian Open? In any other year, Love would be just one of the many top ranked players who wouldn't come here to play. However, he received a huge sum to redesign Angus Glen North. The RCGA probably assumed Love would play this year. That assumption was irrelevant.
If Love did show this year, his appearance would be irrelvant. And since there's no rule saying PGA Tour pros have to play certain events, Love was within his rights to no show.
Would I have done it? No. But the RCGA should've made Love's appearance in the Canadian Open a condition for him to do the redesign. And if he didn't show, for any reason, Love should've had to have paid back a portion of his fee. $500,000 maybe would've gotten his attention.
Good faith agreements are irrelevant on the PGA Tour these days. Next time, RCGA, get it in writing.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Good Faith Agreement

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. Yet another slap in the face for the Canadian Open, that most irrelevant of PGA Tour events.
Desperate to get players to come, and facing criticism for not having a player-friendly or PGA Tour-tough course, the RCGA hired Davis Love to come make modifications, and payed a handsome sum to do so.
Love has a good reputation for this type of work. Apparently he surveyed a few players, and got to work. I did not play the Angus Glen North Course prior to Love's modifications, so I can't say what he did improved it.
While doing these changes may have attracted more top players, they did not attract Love himself. He is skipping this week.
Why is Love not coming? Should the RCGA be upset? More tomorrow....

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Leaders II

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. Tiger is shown so often, even when he's not contending, because of ratings. Tiger brings the borderline golf fan to the TV. He's a marketer's dream, one player who can make even a dying event like the Canadian Open (which I hear is on this week) meaningful.
And the leaders? Irrelevant who they are. They just happen to be on the leaderboard ahead of Tiger, by fluke if you listen to the commentators.
Now don't get me wrong. I like Tiger Woods a lot. And I want to see him a lot if he's contending. But I don't want to see him walking up fairways, talking to his caddie or waiting to hit a shot, especially if he's not in contention. And I especially don't want to here commentary about Tiger that is subjective. If he's not playing well, say so.
Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia trying to end Europe's 8-year major drought. Andres Romero having 10 birdies in the final round trying to win back-to-back titles for Argentina. That should've been relevant for much longer than what is was. Unfortunately it wasn't because none were named Tiger.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Leaders

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. Was anyone else wondering why we were seeing so much of Tiger Woods on the British Open telecast Sunday? Woods started the day at -1, 8 shots out of the lead. The lowest he ever got was -3. He finished at -2.
Woods was never in serious contention at any time in this event to win. He has never come back to win a major after being behind after 3 rounds, even when he has been only 1 back. While there were course record 64s shot on Saturday and Sunday, Woods had not shown this past week he was capable of putting together a round like that. In fact, he has never shot below 65 in a major.
So why was Tiger shown so often, especially when Harrington, Romero and Els were putting real pressure on Sergio Garcia? More tomorrow.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Name

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. FYI I got feedback the other day (thanks to K.O.). I was asked what my name is. All I can say is it's irrelevant.
To satisfy everyone's curiousity, I'm married, I have children, I was alive in the '60s, and I've never been famous. That's all I want to share at this time.
Does my name (or anyone else's) matter? It seems to in today's society. If Tom Cruise were writing this blog, it would probably give everyone a different perspective than an anonymous non-celebrity, especially if it was about post-partum depression.
Why should a name mean anything? After all, Jesus Christ was a carpenter. Einstein was a patent clerk. They were not the highest ranking members of their society. Yet their beliefs have achieved widespread attention.
The name is irrelevant. The content is relevant.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Availability III

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. Why do the irrelevant have to be more available? Because irrelevant people have to fit their schedules around relevant people. For example, if I say I can only golf Saturday afternoons, and I'm irrelevant, then relevant people won't golf with me if they are busy. Conversely, if a relevant person can only golf on Saturday afternoons, then all people, relevant and irrelevant, will adjust their schedules to accomodate the relevant person.
How do you know if you or someone you know is relevant? By how much effort you will make to accomodate another person, and how much effort other people will make to accomodate you. Once the perceived effort to get together for a golf game becomes more than the potential reward of the person's golf company, the person becomes irrelevant. This is true in all situations for both people and things.
If you are irrelevant, please try to be available to avoid loneliness.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Availability II

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. So why am I not getting any calls? Because I'm irrelevant. In the past, the expensive green fee was an alternative answer, a more polite one than irrelevancy.
Now some of you may be saying that I could be calling as well. And you're right. I called many people over the years to invite them to my club. This year I said I wasn't going to do it, just to see if anyone would.
Now I have played and will play with people I played with last year. It's been tough to arrange some games, though. What I've discovered during this process is the more irrelevant you are, the more available you have to be. Since I'm very irrelevant, I have to be available almost all the time.
Why is that true? More tomorrow.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Availability

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. Because I no longer belong to a private golf club, I've been available this year to play golf at other courses. I preferred to play my own course in the past because I had already prepaid for it, and my cost/round was triple digits. It didn't make sense to play other courses, so I minimized how often I did it.
There were quite a few people who wouldn't play with me at my home course because it was $100 green fee. I respected them for that, as I find it tough to justify that kind of money for a round. I told them about my new situation, that I can play at different courses now (14 so far, and I will set an all-time record for sure this year). I've also told them when I can play, which is a fair bit now because I work a part-time job.
Guess how many of them have called me? None. Why? More tomorrow.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Walk

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. Last night I saw the news. Conrad Black and Barbara Amiel were walking a Chicago street. When the cameras got to nose-hair proximity, Lord Black turned around and asked the camera folks to leave them alone. He stressed they were just walking, and that nothing newsworthy was going to happen. I believe him.
Unfortunately for this couple, everything they do between now and shortly after the jury verdict in the trail will be deemed newsworthy. Whether it is or not is irrelevant.
Why? Because all Canadian media outlets (and some elsewhere) have deemed this story a major one. Any glimpse of Black and/or Amiel doing anything is a photo op for now.
Should it be this way? No, and at one time it wasn't. But now media itself has changed to give us up to the second reports.
If Black and Amiel want privacy, they should stay in their hotel. Otherwise, all their actions, relevant and irrelevant, will be captured.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Greeting II

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. So if you get the same greeting from me at the golf course no matter what type of person you are, is there any incentive for you to be a "good" person? Yes, there is. That's one of the reasons "bad" people are bad. They feel if they do something bad, they get more recognition. If they see they'll get the same recognition no matter how they act, their behaviour becomes irrelevant.
As a result, subconsciously they will act the way someone they admire acts. And if they admire a "good" person, they too will become good. The observation that you'll be like your 5 closest friends is true. If you're surrounded by "good" people, and you're treated like a "good" person, odds are you will become a good person.
Keep treating people like "good" people, because whether they are "good" or not is irrelevant.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Greeting

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

I have to greet everyone at my job by saying "Good morning Mr/Mrs/Ms __________" no matter what I think of that person. As a result, this greeting is irrelevant.
Why? Because I hide my feelings when I use that greeting. I could think very little or very highly of a person, yet still greet them the same way.
Is this fair? Should someone who's a wonderful person receive the same greeting as the really terrible person? Absolutely.
Why? Because if a terrible person gets enough good greetings, they may start to become a good person themselves. And if that happens, the greeting is no longer irrelevant. It then has been a relevant greeting, because it made a positive change in a person.
Keep those positive greetings coming. They may become relevant eventually.

Regards,
Irrelevant

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. You'll notice the title of this article is blank. For some reason, I cannot click in it.
Is that relevant? Yes, because odds are a person will only read the body of this or any other article if the title is catchy. Maybe a blank title is catchy. We'll see.
So why is an article judged mostly by its title? Is the old phrase "you can't judge a book by its cover" untrue? Do you have to have a good title to read on?
If the title is the main factor in getting a reader to read an article, then most of the effort should be put into the title, and minimal into the article. Why? Because if the title is inferior, then the article is irrelevant.
Is that fair? Probably not. Of course it's the same with other things, such as a person's appearance.
Make the effort to read the articles irregardless of the title.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Process III

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. How can people start using an original process after it's become relevant again? The best way is for the people involved in the "workaround the process" to reinform the customers the original process is relevant.
In my example, if I was to call the golf course directly, they'd be best to say that now the head person, who is not available (and never should be) is the only one who can approve me playing the course. As a result, I have to go through the original process, which has been improved to handle my type of request.
So what should they do if I refuse? I should give them specific details of what when wrong (date, time, person on the call, specific request). Chances are I don't have all those details, because I thought them irrelevant at the time. In that case, I should have to retry the original process.
Making the original process relevant is the only way people and companies will have long-term success.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Process II

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. So what can be done to make a process relevant? Simply find out what the "workaround the process" has that the original process doesn't have, and incorporate it.
In yesterday's example, the "workaround the process" of me calling the golf course directly has the advantage over the original process of a person at the specific golf course knowing the situation days in advance. The original process only shows certain open times available to me. As a result, the original process cannot give me the entire situation, which makes it irrelevant.
If the original process could incorporate the entire situation, it would be the preferred choice, because only one number would have to be remembered by the customer, instead of searching through the entire listing for all the golf course numbers.
So let's say the original process is now identical to the "workaround the process", and has become relevant. Will people start to use the original process again, or stick with what's worked for them lately? More tomorrow.

Regards,
Irrelevant

The Irrelevant Process

This blog is written mostly tongue in cheek. Some points may be informative. Please provide your feedback.
If you suffer from self-irrelevancy, please seek professional advice.

Hello. My apologies for not writing yesterday. I was observing Canada Day.
There is a phone service we're supposed to use to book golf tee times. I finally got to book one last Sunday after months of trying.
Since I was near another course I really want to play that can be booked from the same service, I stopped in to ask them what I have to do to get on, since it seems to be so difficult using the phone service process. They said any day around the time I was looking for should be no problem.
At this point I have to ask why I've been banging my head on the wall using the phone service. It has proven itself to be irrelevant. Why use it when I can go directly to the golf course (or phone it directly) and get the time I want?
So what can be done to correct the existing problem? More tomorrow.

Regards,
Irrelevant