Business around the Northwest

Portland rolls out its Infill Design Toolkit, Portland Daily Journal of Commerce

State economist projects four quarters of decline in 2009, Idaho Business Review

Unemployment claims set new records, Tacoma Business Examiner blog

► On the record

“There’s only one bone, but there’s a whole lot more dogs trying to fight over that bone.”

- Steve Lilly, Vancouver-based Union Corner Construction

Reporter's Notebook

Turn off the computer?

I’m a subscriber to Tim Clark and Mark Cunningham’s Soul Shelter blog, which attempts to, as they put it, “protect the soul against the deadening effects of techno-culture.”

My response to this blog is almost always the same: “Yes! Let’s turn off our computers and web phones already! Let’s forget about email for a while.” Because when I do those things, it’s often a relief. It helps increase productivity, or at least clarity of mind.

But, of course, I read the blog on a computer and you are reading these words online. I am a reporter on the technology beat. I am a nature-lover. I am enamored of my new laptop. But I often have more fun when it’s turned off. I am torn.

“How we interact with machines and technology in many ways defines who we are,” writes local anthropologist Amber Case. She posits that that communication technology such as cell phones and Internet devices help people connect with “community in an increasingly isolated urban environment.”

But does it also contribute to that isolation?

Communication technology has helped business take leaps and bounds in many ways. Deals are made via video conference calls. Employees can work and communicate from home, from the road, in a park. Businesses save on printing costs, and information is distributed faster than ever. But in keeping us connected continually, does that same technology slow us down?

How does communication technology affect you? Does it enhance your life and work, or does it get in the way?

--Charity Thompson can be reached at cthompson@vbjusa.com

Business around the Northwest

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 records its biggest year ever, Eastside Business Journal

Community college stumbles to a start, Idaho Business Review

‘Life Beyond Boeing’ weighs the company’s importance in the economy, Snohomish County Business Journal

► On the record

“When work is hard to come by, it’s tempting to cut corners and bid low on projects. Don’t kid yourself. This is never the answer.”

- Larry Schlecht, president and chief executive officer of Schlecht Construction

Reporter's Notebook

Just say no

In researching the prevalence of substance abuse in the workplace, I came across some alarming statistics, but I also became aware of the alarming lengths some workers go to get away with drug use.

Even if a workplace has drug testing in its policy, there are more than 1,300 drug masking agents easily available online – and they work, said Terry Johnson, president of the Vancouver franchise of AccuDiagnostics drug, alcohol and background screening.

The good news, he told me, is that testing labs are quick about finding ways to detect adulterants.

However, workers can be even craftier. Products like the Whizzinator – a prosthetic genital device for men and women worn as a belt to pump out clean urine kept at the right temperature by hand warmers – keeps testers who are at times required to watch workers do their business on their toes.

Other workers have been known to self-catheterize or inject clean urine into the walls of their bladders with syringes.

Which leads me to question – wouldn’t it just be easier not to do drugs?

-Megan Patrick-Vaughn can be reached at mpatrick@vbjusa.com

Business around the Northwest

Whidbey Island becomes a wine destination, Northwest Business Monthly

Ron Paul targets Multnomah County property for Portland Public Market, Portland Daily Journal of Commerce

Healthy New Year options for stressed-out entrepreneurs and employees, Coast River Business Journal