Something to allow me to vent my creative side. I will most passionately be writing about all the most common aspects of anthropology I have never previously seen discussed (or at least, not discussed as I would like). I will also from time to time be giving my two cents with regards to sport, digital media, food, travel and music.
I’ve worked in offices all over the world, primarily in a
sales function, and the subject and importance of the job title of an
individual working in sales, seems to have a much more relevance than for any
other employee. I have had discussions with colleagues about what they are
labelling themselves as on their email signature. I have had discussions about
the ‘best title’ to introduce yourself as when cold calling. What’s going to
keep them on the phone and who are they going to place most of their trust in?
If you’re the Head of Design at your company then you’re called
the Head of Design. If you’re responsible for Human Resources then you’re the
Human Resources Manager. If you’re ultimate goal as an employee of your company
is the acquisition of new business then your job title could very well be a
whole host of things: Sales Executive, New Business Manager, Product
Consultant, Relationship Specialist et al.
I guess the question is, why? Maybe the answer is as simple
as the fact that the sales people are only few of the people in the company who
would find a significant positive in changing their job title. You could even
argue that the right job title for a salesperson, will be a factor for that
person hitting targets and bringing in new accounts. Why? Because different
decision makers at different companies, tend to have differing opinions with
regards to sales people in general. Some understand the value of a sales person
and realise that on a daily basis, someone, somewhere will attempt to sell their company something. Some hold a less than appreciative opinion towards salespeople and consider their practice to be part of a business approach, not focused on quality but more so towards selling, without sufficient delivery. An email or announcing your job
title as ‘Sales Executive for company ‘X’’ could easily be met with an immediate
rejection and negative demeanour.
Different industry sectors all tend to have a different
breed of sales person, with some being part of a cut-throat sector which
requires the utmost in perseverance and resilience and a never say die
attitude. Others have a simple consultative selling technique, where matching
needs and with attributes in a calm and informative fashion is the key.
Different types of personalities, I have noticed over the years, tend to work
well in certain roles over others, though there is no doctrinal recipe for who
makes a successful salesperson.
So if job titles really do matter, then the job title of
your companies sales persons is of great importance to how effective their
initial introductions will be. Think about a time in your professional career
when you have potentially acted differently when hearing that someone was from
a sales background. I would be very surprised if a distinct proportion of
people hadn’t reacted to the individuals title at times, and not what they had
to say.
On the other side of the argument, maybe a job title really
doesn’t matter, and the qualities that are conveyed are simply down to the knowledge
and ability of the person in question. But in the modern era of information
sharing and thorough analysis, I would really suspect that it does have quite
an impact when deciding whether to listen to someone or not!
I spoke to the managing director of an asset management firm
the other day, he mentioned that when consulting with certain individuals, he
will label himself a financial planner, so the primary attributes of his
experience and profession are clear to someone who may not be as adept to his
industry. He mentioned that, having been in the industry for a number of years,
he will casually flick between the two, knowing exactly when he should use one
title or the other.
So it is evident that this is a practice that potentially we
all take part in from time to time. But I’ll leave you with this, next time you
get a call or an email from someone, check out their job title, see if you find
some more intriguing than others. Does it make a difference at all? Maybe you
consider it to be of great importance, not only to your salespeople, but to
your business ethos too.
I stumbled across some photos the other day, from a holiday I went
on a couple of years ago. After a quick perusal, I realised that these photos
were never going to see the light of day... "Why!?" You say... Well, I'm
glad you asked. It's because, at a stretch, you have a window of about 3-6
months to upload photos to Facebook. Miss the window and you miss the chance of
sharing these photos with the people who comprise your Facebook friends. Upload
photos outside of this window and it would be like Jamie Carragher coming out
of international retirement for the England football team; Tactless,
incomprehensible, and ultimately, no one would give a s**t. In fact thinking
about it, the only other time you would be able to upload said photos, would be
about 10 years from when they were taken, to simply observe how hairstyles and fashion change so much (and also so little) and to share a little nostalgia. I soon
realised that I have heaps of photos which I never got round to uploading. I blame the eagerness of the types of people I recently witnessed at Coachella. There's this quirky little chill-out area where they had a few retro computers setup, like an intrevous drip back into the matrix. I don't think I've ever been so amused and saddened that at 10pm on Saturday night at the worlds most infamous festival there were people uploading pictures to facebook, desperately trying to express how much of a good time they were having to their digital brethren. Your not mate, I assure you, otherwise you'd be running around laughing your tits off with Molly, like everyone else...
So, I
shall be following my own instructions like doctrine and waiting the obligatory
10 years before uploading them... Can't wait...
I am currently watching the Cricket test match between
England and New Zealand and a lot of the build up has been focused on the
rivalry between the two. There has also been a key element of note looking
towards the Ashes in July of this year. I started thinking about how these
rivalries wouldn't be as enjoyable for everyone involved if there weren't the
historical and resulting, social similarities between the cultures. I also
thought about how very few Canadians and Americans are going to know what the Ashes
actually are... Having just returned from a season of snowboarding in
beautiful Whistler, British Columbia, I had the privilege of meeting many
different nationalities, but the majority of tourists and workers in Whistler
were from the primary English speaking countries around the world; Brits,
Aussies, Kiwis, Americans and obviously Canucks. So, whilst it's fresh on my
mind, I wanted to attempt to detail some of the cultural differences and
similarities between the two, focusing predominantly on the aspects that
comprise the modern 21st century westerner...
We speak the same
language but might as well be from different planets:
Ah accents, my
favourite subject. Regional dialects and they way in which they've come about
have always been something that has fascinated me. Now, I've done a bit of traveling
in my time, but before I went to Whistler I had never been to a place where you had SO many different accents in one place. In any given
day, you could hear a plethora of accents whilst taking a simple walk through the village. Yet one of the first things I noticed myself is how relatively bland a
neutral English accent is and easily subjected to mimicking. I consider neutral English to geographically circumvent London and go up as far as the Midlands (excluding Birmingham, I
said bland, not suicidal). When a West Coast North American, Ozzie or Kiwi
expresses a mood of excitement, it just didn't sound weird to me. But an
English person expresses that same level of enthusisasm and there always
appeared to be an obligatory amount of reluctance attached to it. On an almost
daily basis, the joyous demeanour of an English accent would soon be drowned
out by a puerile but accurate rendition of what the movie 'Forgetting Sarah
Marshall' thinks an English accent is, cue Kristen Bell:
If you're from North America, Australia or New Zealand, this
is how you do an English accent, so I guess, in an over-exaggerated caricature
kind of a way, this is how we must sound... This is without fail as well. If
you don't believe me, find an English speaking person from one of these places
and ask them to do an English accent, it's ALWAYS the same.
I think this is why Brits tend to instinctively stick to a dry and sarcastic sense of humour. It's obviously the highest form of wit and clearly bodes very well with our personalities.
At the same time though, there is a much more diverse range
of accents in the UK and the majority (Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Northern
English, Cockney) sound so much more intriguing, to everyone around the world. This
isn't the view from Americans towards Canadians, or Australians towards New
Zealanders though... It's always seemed to me to be quite belittling. The way
in which Kiwis pronounce all their 'E's' as 'I's' and 'U's' as 'E's' or the way
in which Canadians pronounce words with 'ou' in them as 'oo' (but categorically
deny ever doing so; like people are just making this s**t up!? Honestly, the
next Canadian you speak to, ask them, "why do you lot say 'aboot' instead
of 'about?" Your accusation will be met with nothing but contempt and a
pertinacious demeanour... They must know they do it?!) is a constant source of
ridicule utilised by their closest neighbour.
But if truth be told, the average person, English speaking
or not, can never tell where someone is from after initially hearing their
accent. Funnily enough as well I am sure that there is a disproportionately
high number of incorrect guesses from any random person when asking this
question...:
"You're English?", "F*** no, C***, I'm
Ozzie!"
"You're Canadian?", "I'm terribly sorry to
have to correct you madam but I am actually English"
"You're a Kiwi?", "What!? What even is
that...?" - Correct, this one is an American...
Our lives are focused
entirely on having a good time:
Until I lived in Whistler, I don't think I
have ever thought to myself on so many occasions, 'that is nothing but a first
world problem'. Which, thanks to the social media which surrounds us and
controls our lives daily, I had even abbreviated (in my own head) to a simple
#1stworldproblems... Let me give you a few examples:
"FFS, I'm at the peak of the mountain and I completely forgot to wax my
board" #1stworldproblems
"My boots are so obviously last season, the laces are
ripped to shreds and everything" #1stworldproblems
I could go on but I think you get the idea...
I think it was more prevalent for me because of the opulence
of my surroundings. Whistler is probably one of the most expensive places on
earth (OK, so I just Googled it and it's not on any lists, but it is a very
small place...). A tuna sandwich you can get from Wall-Mart for $1 will cost
you $6.99 at the local Whistler market. Your average meal at a pub/bar is gonna
be in the region of $20. And this is a country mile short of gourmet. Mass
produced greasy fries and a handful of breaded scraps of chicken are items sold as luxury on the mountain.
So it's an expensive place, but more so, skiing/snowboarding
is a very expensive hobby. When we first got there and were buying new
equipment, I remember being in the main village and looking around at people
and thinking that with all the apparel; skis, boots, bindings, poles, goggles,
gloves and the fact that a mountain pass is $100 a day, each of the 25,000
people that holiday in Whistler on a busy weekend are spending roughly $1,000
each before they have even set foot on the mountain.
But we're all there doing it, we all love it, it is the
pinnacle of western civilisation and everyone's having a great time. When it
comes down to it, the problems that we, as English speaking westerners are
experiencing on a daily basis, aren't really problems at all. But it's all
relative I guess. My point being that living in Leicester and living in
Whistler are two places massively set apart on the lavishness scale. But living
in somewhere like Whistler really makes you realise that there is a whole other
end to the spectrum; where the cost of a pair of Oakley goggles could feed and
shelter a family in Laos for a month...
(Yes I am actually going to end this section on this unnecessarily
morbid notion, you greedy western b***ards)
As much as we get on,
we are the nationality we are and it's difficult to ignore that:
As we grow up, we are moulded by the social interactions of
the world around us. If you consider yourself an international citizen, which not many of
us are, then you presumably mould well with many different nationalities. But
ultimately, you will find it easiest to get on with people who have the same
sense of type of personality and sense of humour as yourself. Finding that through international boundaries is a
pretty great thing, but usually, and I'm only saying this from experience, nationalities'
tend to default to their own. We love venturing into the unknown, experiencing
different opinions, philosophical viewpoints and cultural trends but when it
comes down to it, the social interactions that sculpted you to the person you
are, are ultimately difficult to ignore.
To try to put this indecipherable nonsense into context. I'd
have to give Australians as the prime example. Australia, as a relatively new
country, has grown over the last 50 years as a relatively recession free
economy with beautiful weather and beaches which has breed a somewhat independent
ethos and a culture of (amongst much of the youth anyway) 'social
independence'. Especially amongst younger guys, I found from my time in Sydney and in
Whistler that Aussie lads tend to more easily default to what they know than
other nationalities. I assure you, that not for one second am I suggesting that
there aren't hundreds and thousands of people of that ethos from the UK and
America etc. but I just think that Aussies tend to have a bit of a bubble for
themselves in today's society. Anyone who
has been to Bali in the last 10 years (who isn't Australian) will be able to
tell you that Aussie lads create a sense of being in Australia, outside of
Australia in the same way that Brits do for places like Magaluf and Malia. Both sets of nationalities are probably equally as proud of it, which is really quite depressing...
But in more neutral places for English speaking travellers, like South America or South East
Asia for example, where the geographical divide isn't as significant, the
relationships between these English speakers couldn't be stronger. Because although
we have grown up on different sides of the planet and thousands of miles away,
through the media, ease of travel and a vast array of cultural similarities, we
share the same ideals, dreams,* and ambitions which instantly draw us together. This results in even stronger bonds being created as this is part of the beauty of travel, meeting new people who live continents away from where you come from who think in the same way you do.
* - 'Who gives a f**k about an Oxford comma?'
So on that sentiment of utopia and taking into consideration
the fact that I am a week overdue with blog post number two, I will sign off. I
will leave you with knowledge that the tardiness of my second post can be put
down to nothing other than having an almighty fantastic time at Twickenham on
Saturday. A day which was highlighted by a group of lads from Leicester wearing
full wigs and beards in commemoration of the last game of a true Italian/Argentinean
rugby legend. My beard didn't quite fit me though and I had no pockets in which
to stash all my cash, these were my biggest issues of the day.
#1stworldproblems
Everyone has that friend
who has just never really matured, gastronomically... That friend who never
seems to indulge in anything more than chicken and chips. That friend whose
most exotic culinary experience was accidentally purchasing a bottle of Heinz Tomato
Ketchup blended with sweet chilli. A bottle of ketchup that was experienced
only once, in a fish finger sandwich, discarded in disgust, then left to
languish at the back of the cupboard until its expiry date came to fruition.
That is in the most extreme
of cases of course, in reality though, almost everyone has foods which
displease their taste buds. I say almost, because I don't believe myself to be
someone that fits into this category. I mean, if I had to get picky, I don't
really like raw carrots I guess... Though thinking about it I would gladly eat
one with a nice hummus. I guess I have never really been a big fan of white
wine as well as far as drinks go... But then again, if it was the only drink in
the fridge and there was drinking to do... No, no, I must say that there is
very little in this world that I wouldn't at least try. Which brings me nicely
onto the reason of why I wanted to discuss this topic. Whilst the love of good
food and drink is an art in its purist form, over my life I have noticed a
number of foods which increasingly seem to popup on everyone's dislike list.
Much to my dismay, I have attempted to argue that some of these foods are part
of a mature palate, a palate which is only developed with age. From time to
time I have also suggested that the more of these foods you dislike, the less
likely you are to want to indulge in the world around you. As your maturity and
appreciation for the cultural world intensifies, your culinary repertoire is
greatly diversified. I say suggested because my accusations are usually met
with contempt, because as I stated, most people will not like one or more of
the foods on this list...:
1) Mushrooms - Now like a
lot of the foods I will be detailing here, I didn't like them myself when I was
a youth. The Mushroom; rubbery texture, not a lot of flavour, the thought of
eating one was enough to send shivers down my spine (I actually don't remember
getting shivers down my spine but can only presume that it's this kind of
sensation that occurs when someone doesn't like the thought of a type of food).
I can't think of too many other foods in such desperate need of company when
served either as I am yet to meet the person who routinely feasts on a bowl of
mushrooms... Or individual ones saying that. But as I got older I found that I
couldn't get enough of the little basidiomycota (Google it, I did). The
perfect accoutrement to almost anything...
2) Gherkins (or pickles to
our North American friends) - I don't believe the non-pickled variety, to be a
food item of contempt. But this vinegary, geriatric edition certainly makes my
list. The gherkin holds a fascinating place in modern cuisine. Or fast food I
should say. Because at some point in the last 100 years, the people at
McDonald's decided a staple addition to the cheeseburger would be a few thin
slices of watery gherkin. So since my guilt ridden trips to the golden arches
began, I have had to watch whilst these fantastic pickled treats be
unemotionally discarded at will by the undeserving consumer. Such feelings of
ambivalence overwhelm me when someone in my dining party (whose eating habits
I'm not sure of) orders the perpetual cheeseburger. Torn, I am, torn between
the joyous fact that I will be able to consume the discarded gherkins from my
neighbours plate and the fact that they were abandoned by their previous owner
in the first place. I scorn at the individual for having bestowed upon me this
feeling of hesitance... Then my taste buds salivate as I grab the vinegar
doused veg from its former proprietor... (this happens, a lot)
Bottom line - I love
gherkins, not everyone does...
3) Olives - I have found
myself of late ordering many a Martini, not just because of the
opportunity that arises to bellow out a little Roger Moore or Sean Connery to
the bartender (I have never done this), but because the traditional
blend of vermouth and gin/vodka is typically accompanied by one of
the most disliked foods around the world today. Again, often pickled (I am
starting to see a bit of a trend here) or generously seasoned amongst the oil
which they produce, the olive has adorned the lists of the most
disliked foods for years.
I love them... at a dinner
party, as an entree, with a bottle of red, with a little feta cheese, black
ones, green ones, the look-a-little-brown ones. They are a fantastically
healthy fruit which bleeds a mono-saturated oil proven to reduce
cholesterol (which is why the Mediterranean people live so long, cheers Olivio).
They even contain a substance which, not only gives them their flavour, but is
also thought to ward off cancer and act as an anti-inflammatory...
Natures ibuprofen...
Yet they are still one of
the most disliked foods ever. Google 'top ten hated foods' and you are sure to
see them. A point I really wanted to raise here as well is that I don't believe
that hating a certain food means you won't like it forever. Part of a maturing
food palate is the maturing ethos that you will actually just try new things.
It's not just about forcing something you dislike down your throat. It's about
appreciating how significant a food can be to a region or nationality of
people. How certain foods can compliment others and drink alike. It's about
being culturally adventurous and challenging your senses.
In the USA, olives are
routinely served in Bloody Mary's, you'll also often find them in the
Canadian variant too, called the Caesar (check out the
Caesar recipe here). North American kids genuinely love this stuff and will
regularly be seen drinking this understated cocktail (I even saw them being
drunk by them toffs from Made In Chelsea last night and they just won a BAFTA (!),
so...), it just doesn't seem to be as much of a British thing to drink savoury
cocktails... Jaeger Bombs and Sex on the Beach is about as good as it gets.
They put beef jerky and celery sticks into their Bloody Mary's too. You just
can't put a stick of celery in a Jaeger Bomb. The glass is no way big enough
and to be honest, a tall stick of celery is probably too long and would
seriously test the equilibrium when balanced in a shot glass in a tumbler...
4) Liver - I can't imagine
there are too many people reading this who still wouldn't wince in disgust at
the thought of eating a bit of lambs liver. But I have to question the validity
of the reason for that dislike. I'm gonna say that 99 times out of 100, it's
because the individual in question was fully aware that the liver is an organ
in the body, before they first tried it (or have never even tried it). Not
because it doesn't taste great (what could compliment onions, mash and gravy
better...?) but because the thought of eating some things really stretch the
realms of comfort.
A close family member of
mine has a certain predilection when it comes to food which I find
slightly irritating. That is the practice of ordering a steak 'well-done'.
Having your beautiful cut of beef burnt to a crisp shouldn't even be an option
in my opinion. Like going to a curry house and ordering a Korma. It should be
banned. She has to have it well done because she doesn't want to see any blood
in it and be reminded that it was once an animal... Sweetheart, I love you, but
that was, until very recently, a beautiful cow, cruising the English pastures,
eating grass, watching out for tipping pranksters, generally having a ruddy
good time. Now your teeth are tearing through its adolescent flesh and if you
can't come to terms with that, I strongly suggest vegetarianism.
That's your sliding scale
of adventurousness with regards to indulging in seafood. Let's be honest, Tuna
isn't really seafood is it. Neither are those tiny little frozen Prawns you can
get in bulk from the supermarket. I remember the first time I tried Lobster
thinking that I had never tasted anything so amazing before in my life. On a
beautiful beach in Thailand, constantly gobsmacked at how cheap everything was.
Ordering more Lobster than we could manage and a drifter who we'd accumulated
on our travels wouldn't indulge. "Why won't you at least try it?" I
asked, "You've travelled round the world, surely it's a prime opportunity
to try new things...?" "Because it looks disgusting" was her
response. What a grade A moron... She really was too, this was the same girl
who during a game of pool, went to assist my friend and said, "Yeah, I
think I've got this worked out actually, see if you hit the white ball and aim
to the left of the red ball, the red ball will then actually go to the
right...". She was being dead serious, gods honest truth. What an idiot...
So the moral of the story being, eat seafood, because if you don't, you're
probably a moron like that girl (or have a potentially debilitating and life threatening allergy...).
6) (Proper) Cheese - If
you know what proper cheese is then you probably already like it. In case you
haven't seen a running theme here yet, then your mild Cheddars and your Red
Leicesters are simply not real cheese. They're just like the Tuna of the
seafood world I'm afraid. Sure they definitely taste good, but you're not
experiencing all that cheese has to offer. I remember not enjoying stilton when
I was a kid. But when I became a nubile young man I tried and started to
appreciate the fuller and more aromatic flavours that cheese had to offer. Probably
the most dynamic single food in the world, the varieties are endless! Like
seafood, you start with a cheese that is a small step up from processed cheese
(being at the bottom end of the scale) and work your way from there (I strongly
suggest a cranberry with Wensleydale). Soon you'll be enjoying the kind of 4
cheese fondue I recently had the joy of experiencing in Las Vegas... Bellissimo!
No matter where I have
been in the world, there has always been someone who at some lunch or dinner
has grimaced at the thought of trying something. I'd say 50% of the time I
later find out that this person has never even tried that food before. How can
you dislike something you haven't tried? (Sex with Wayne Rooney?) OK, apart
from sex with Wayne Rooney.
I have friends who have
tried things and gradually, over time, began to enjoy food and drinks that they
once were sure they detested. Your taste buds are not an on/off switch. There
are no nice foods and bad foods. There are easy foods and more mature foods and
with a bit of bravery and adventure you can diversify your palate in no time.
This applies to a lot of other things too, come to think of it. But if you heed
my words then I'm sure you'll find in no time that experience and enlightenment
come hand in hand.
Something to allow me to vent my creative side. I will most passionately be writing about all the most common aspects of anthropology I have never previously seen discussed (or at least, not discussed as I would like). I will also from time to time be giving my two cents with regards to sport, digital media, food, travel and music.
