I saw a story posted on BoingBoing this afternoon about how the Portland police department had posted mugshots of the people they arrested during Occupy Portland.

It really doesn’t matter where you stand on the actual goodness or badness of that part of the story, because the following line is what drove me to post this…

“As inadvisable police tactics around Occupy Wall Street go, this feels like it’s right up there with tear gassing people in wheelchairs”

Really? Posting a mugshot of someone who knowingly broke the law is on par with gassing people in wheelchairs?

That is the kind of ridiculous exaggeration that stops an entire conversation. In real life if someone said that, you just shake your head and walk away because you realize that they’re mentally compromised.

I saw an interesting post from my Twitter friend Alan Bleiweiss today. He recently became a big-wig at Click2Rank and wanted to implement a policy that would encourage people to get back home at a reasonable hour. He tweeted:

I really strive to foster a balanced life in my team. It’s why they’re no longer allowed to work past 7PM.

I am 100% on board with the idea of a life/work balance… for me.

My only concern is that everyone is different right?

It’s like working someplace that offers free coffee to employees - well so what, I don’t drink coffee, I drink a soda every morning. I’ve seen some workplaces offer a free massage - again, I don’t really want anyone touching me like that at work - so that doesn’t work for me.

What about the person who honestly loves their job. The idea of doing their work is what drives them out of bed every morning. They can’t wait to get to their desk. They love their customers! Why are you limiting them?

Are you limiting them because you don’t feel the same way? Because you need more “downtime” to recharge your batteries? Why not let people decide for themselves what that balance is?

I think for the vast majority of people, pushing them towards more time away from work is the right thing. I just don’t think you can do it across the board with no exceptions.

What do you think?

I saw a link to a News & Observer article in my Twitter stream this evening from Allison Campbell.

It was pointing to a story written by Andrew Kenney, a staff writer for the News & Observer in Raleigh, NC. What caught Allison’s eye was the opening line.

The most interesting part of the “… Triangle code monkeys…” line is, to us in the tech industry, we use it in a semi-disparaging way, so for someone who couldn’t even figure out how to add a hyperlink to the company name in the second paragraph, it’s border-line offensive.

How would Andy Kenney feel if someone wrote a story about him, and opened it like this:

Andy Kenney, a word monkey at the News & Observer, is trying to understand the new landscape for journalists.

I’m guessing he wouldn’t appreciate it.

Christmas photo shoot outside McClatchy Interactive

Finn after mass