In the news and on the 'net

There have been a bunch of articles that have caught my eye in the past few days.

First... a hilarious (because it's true) link from Fark.com to a "Girlspeak to English" translation aid. I particularly love the translation of "I don't want to talk about it." in Girlspeak to the English "Go away, I'm still building up evidence against you." and "We need to talk" in Girlspeak to "I need to complain." I must admit I'm guilty!

Next, an interesting article on CNN that discusses the heinous debt that most college students face when they graduate; debt that forces them into job and life choices that they might not otherwise choose. As someone with about $60k of school debt from grad school and undergrad - I feel the pain. I don't know whether having this much debt has made me choose a different life path - but I have also been fortunate enough to have married someone whose job allows me to lead the lifestyle I want and pay my debts. Of course, some might see that as a life choice in and of itself; that I married DH so I could have the lifestyle I wanted despite my enormous debt burden.

Actually, being married to DH added to my debt now that I think about it. If it weren't for the security he provided I might not have gone to grad school and added about $48k to my debt load. He's responsible! It's all his fault.

Finally, an article in the Washington Post talks about the impending doom that the retirement of the baby boomers means for the Federal Government. They are apparently going to try a whole bunch of advertising campaigns to attract younger workers to the Federal workforce and whatnot. I think they are putting the cart before the horse a bit here though. First you have to fix the arduous hiring systems - with the impossible to complete KSAs and months long process for applying and interviewing. Younger generations have too much competition out there to wait around for a government job.

Another thing that needs to be fixed is the abysmal state of government managers. Most managers are there because they are well versed on policy matters, not because they are good at managing people. People apply for jobs because of the description, but they leave/stay at jobs long term when they are well managed. This is a real weak link in the government right now, and the massive retirement of the baby boomer middle management ranks without some kind of strucutred approach to training people to manage (or developing two career ladders - one for policy experts and one for people experts) is going to frustrate any attempts to bring younger generations on board for the long term.

Lots of good stuff out there for those of us who have the time to read it.