Managers take note. A friend once told me having a good human resource manager/director is the equivalent of finding a good dentist. This actually made great sense to me. No one ever wants to see the dentist.  You certainly don’t visit a dentist unless you have to, and you never think about your dentist until that critical moment when you really need him.

So you just got a new job. It's your first day and you want to make a good impression. Shake things up. Drive change. Make your mark. In short, you have just chosen suicide. Although I am not one to preach by parables, let me tell you a story I tell any new hire who joins a company.

"When do I get my life back?" yelled the manager as he completed his sixth straight week of more than 60 hours in the office. "You get your life back when I get mine," answered the director who has a cot in his office because sometimes it’s too dangerous to drive home on California freeways while exhausted.

In the 1960's everybody smoked. It was everywhere. It was constant. It was sexy. Cigarettes had the best commercials, the finest jingles, the hottest ad girls. Every time I look back at the old 8mm movies of my childhood, I am stunned to find an ashtray with a thin trail of smoke rising from it in every picture.