Are We There Yet?

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", so mused the unhinged Jack Torrance, [Jack Nicholson], in Stanley Kubrick’s cinematic masterpiece of modern horror, "The Shining" 1980.

In a world where advances in technology is supposed to deliver us from work, we are constantly reminded, as we adopt new technologies, just how much more complex our lives have become. With ever increasing demands on our time, you can’t help but wonder when the promised social dividend of more time for recreation and learning will arrive. It’s like Lasseter’s reef - it’s said to be out there but no one knows quite how to find it. Does anyone remember "Knowledge Nation", and the difficulty its’ author, Labor’s MHR Barry Jones had in explaining it? Unfairly pilloried by political commentators as "noodle notion" because of the spaghetti like diagram that was supposed to explain it, it did serve to highlight the point - information overload can make our internal CPU crash - "Here’s Johnny"!

Confucius says ..."people juggling their life goals have effectively five balls representing spirituality, health, work, family and friends. Despite all the focus many individuals place on work-this is the only "ball" that bounces. The others are made of crystal and if you drop them they break".

So step back, take stock, smell the roses and remind yourself of those things that really matter to you - spirituality, love, family and friends, good health, fun, laughter, music and the arts - and celebrate all those other things that differentiate us from the rest of the animal kingdom and makes the human experience worthy of a good time because, as we are all so consciously aware, it’s certainly not for a long time. Are we there yet? - life is not supposed to be a race and there’s certainly no prizes for getting to the end first.

We are taking a break from researching and writing our "featured article" this week and instead, invite you to take part in our first on-line poll. It’s just a bit of fun this week, and your responses will assist us to carry out some testing and analysis of results. It shouldn’t take you more than two minutes to complete and we will reveal the results in our next issue.

In this issue we launch StatusPoll as well as profile our new "Employee Hot Prospects" and, most importantly, advise the results of our Round 6 Footy Tipping Competition.

We are very excited by the development of our new on-line polling feature, which will provide subscribers to Status e News with the opportunity to have direct input into issues that are of vital importance to them as employers and business owners. This will also help us to tailor future articles to suit our readership and hopefully, to improve the quality of information provided. We welcome your involvement and feedback.

Each week we will ask you to have your say on a variety of issues and in the following edition of Status e News we will reveal the results. Unfortunately, we will need to limit our polls to closed questions that solicit yes/no answers. Voting is anonymous and you will be restricted to one vote per question. To vote, click on the yes or no radio button for each question and when you have completed answering all of the questions, submit your responses by clicking the "Vote Now" button. So now to the inaugural questions, and remember, this is supposed to be a bit of fun.

1.	I am female.	Yes	No
2.	I am a Crows supporter.	Yes	No
3.	I am a Power supporter.	Yes	No
4.	I hate football.	Yes	No
5.	I enjoy reading Status e News.	Yes	No
6.	I find the featured articles interesting/useful.	Yes	No
7.	I’d like to run away with a multi-millionaire/ss and retire to a life of hedonistic luxury.	Yes	No
8.	I booked into the free independent contractors seminar and/or the Business SA WorkChoices assistance program featured in the last issue of Status e News.	Yes	No
9.	I think the "Employee Hot Prospect" is a great concept and would refer to it if/when employing staff.	Yes	No
10.	I went to the Sexpo last weekend.	Yes	No
11.	I wanted to go to the Sexpo but was too embarrassed to be seen there.	Yes	No
12.	Bugger, I must be working too hard, I didn’t even know the Sexpo was on.	Yes	No

Emma Hunter, left - Manager Modbury
with Michael Marinos