Crucial to effective communication

Working with a manager in title lacking any definitive verbal or written communication skills, I ask myself “what fool promoted this guy?" 

An incompetent manager reflects poorly on the whole organisation, they can't respond with the old line of not having enough competent personnel, it is really an old boy's club despite the fact it is dominated by women. Internally, the term is the purple circle, it is unfortunately true for an organisation that is performing so poorly.

Leadership is sought at middle to upper management levels; yet at many organisations leadership is so sadly lacking that the term leadership is met with howls of laughter and derision.

Dropped off

I had the recent situation where the boat dropped the dive guide and myself in the water continuing on to a nearby island to drop the passengers off before returning to pick us up at the end of the dive. Whilst it didn't concern me at the time, I did think this was a somewhat unusual diving practice and prone to both abuse and possibly tragic outcomes.

The boat had at least a 20 minute steam to the island, the time taken unloading of passengers and return trip to our position. We were going to be an hour underwater, the current was mild but a storm was approaching. This was my second day diving with this resort so they had seen me dive previously, they knew I was comfortable underwater and was an experienced diver.

Had the vessel broken down, our dive ended abruptly, a passenger has an issue or accident or they were detained on the island for any reason - we may have had an issue. The vessel had a number of engine issues so that may have contributed to a delayed return, the engine broke down on the first day and was very noisy in the valve train.

My questions are related to what if; I am mid-40s, reasonably fit but well down on my personal standards, I have a number of medical issues but currently free of any real (or at least serious) medical problems. They, of course know none of this as they never asked me, so this tends to indicate this is normal practice and this could be a real problem.

A panic, a sting, bite or medical problem on the surface or underwater could have ended in devastating circumstances. Likewise, a stronger than anticipated current could have swept us well away from the site and pick up zone. This is poor practice and one feels this operation is an accident waiting to happen, was it just me or is this normal practice?

Is the travellers cheque history?

Once upon a time, everyone who went on holiday went down their local bank to pre-order their travellers cheques, no need to bother with this archaic ritual anymore. 

These days you can just pay by credit card nearly everywhere you go, you can also go to just about every automatic teller machine and withdraw local currency. No longer are you at the mercy of local merchants and dodgy exchange rates and commissions, nor do you need to worry about losing your travellers cheques. There is naturally the issue of losing your credit card or even credit card fraud or having your credit suspended, regardless, getting credit card fraud sorted out these days is relatively simple. I've ditched the travellers cheques in favour of electronic banking.    

Cafe Havana

My favourite bar in Manila is Cafe Havana in the Greenbelt 3 entertainment complex. I travel to the Philippines on a fairly regular basis; such is my love of the scuba diving this wonderful country offers.

I depart Perth at 1.10 am on a Friday morning for Singapore, arriving about 6.30 am, I have my connection to Manila at 12.15 pm and arrive at about 3.30 pm - it's always the same flights so I know the routine well. But the time I travel to my hotel after clearing immigration and the horrible Manila traffic - it's Friday evening and I'm ready for some fun.

On a Friday and Sunday night, a long running band playing an entertaining mix of Cuban and salsa music - this is really a great evening out. I just love the set list, the Salsa and Latino sounds are great Friday night entertainment although I must admit, I can't recall hanging out too many times on a Sunday night. I have walked past plenty of times though and just listen to the band play, yet I can't remember their name.

I generally travel to the Philippines three times a year for two weeks at a time, that accounts for three attendances at Cafe Havana on a Friday night per trip and nine happy experiences per year, that's more boozy outlandish Friday nights that I can care to remember for the decade I have been diving and holidaying in the Philippines.

Deep bounce dives on a single cylinder

I am recalling a story told to me by a friend whom I have dived with many times, she is a very competent recreational diver. She has not been trained for deep or decompression diving, she is a pretty good divemaster by all accounts, I have seen her in action on many occasions and can attest to her diving ability in a recreational setting. So where did it all go wrong?

First it started with trust, her buddy was an instructor with 5000+ dives experience who had worked in Thailand and Turkey among other destinations, that is high profile European and South East Asian destinations. With that many dives in high traffic dive resort destinations, he could be considered a full-time professional diver.

The dive plan was vague, she was to follow him down the line to an unspecified depth and follow computer decompression requirements back to the surface. Their equipment; standard recreational scuba arrangement - single 11 litre aluminum cylinder, standard K-valve, jacket type BCD, a single wrist mounted dive computer and standard recreational regulator with alternate air source.

The conditions - strong current, no surface wave chop, sunny day and a light wind blowing. She followed him down the line, he was descending quickly and she was encountering difficulty keeping up to that rate of descent. She was able to grab him at 40 metres, signalling to him that everything is not ok; he signaled back that everything was ok and continued the descent at the same rate.

She encountered severe nitrogen narcosis as the descent continued and stopped, at this point she decided to ascend alone, depth unknown as she was unable to read or comprehend her dive computer display instead using her exhaled bubbles as a guide. Apparently, the ascent rate alarm did not sound during her blue-water ascent. Her instructor continued his descent unaware of her difficulties nor did he seem to care about the person he was diving with.

After some time, her buddy did notice her missing and began his ascent, he had gained a decompression obligation greater than her due to his greater depth and longer exposure at depth. He did not manage to catch up up with her during her (and his) hang time. Due to her distress and anxiety, she had consumed a fair amount of gas in her single cylinder and was running dangerously low with still time remaining on her shallow 3 metre decompression stop.

There was no decompression hang tank in the water, but what did it matter anyway? She didn't make it back underneath the boat at any rate. She had to perform her in-water stops without the aid of a lift bag and reel as she did not own such equipment instead trying to maintain depth without any aids. Hence, the maintenance of depth was pretty poor with notable depth changes during the decompression phase.

Upon arriving at the surface, she wanted to know what the hell happened, she was not experienced at that depth and the nitrogen narcosis was almost debilitating. She had plenty of time to think about it during her surface swim back to the dive boat, she was pretty upset. When he arrived back at the boat some time later, his attitude was nonchalant, this angered her as she felt real fear for her well-being.

As she had consumed a significant amount of gas at depth, had she not turned and ascended, she would have emptied her cylinder at depth, not just on the hang. As no turn pressures had been discussed let alone rule of thirds, it was just luck she began her descent when she did. Naturally, they had not done any gas planning, nor contingency planning for that matter. The wash up - at what point did this do go wrong? How could have things been different?

Discussing profit

As profit is defined as revenue minus costs, sometimes described as profit identity; in a perfectly competitive market, normal profit may be sufficient to maintain business operations for a period of time, or just barely covering financial costs, accounting profit doesn't consider opportunity cost.

A business generally makes decisions based on opportunity costs; mission, vision and values statements dominate current management thinking. I learned the hard way, neglect the values statement on even a government management job application and pay the penalty.

Previously, I worked in a tourism and retail business, where our retail sales were dominated by the actions of wholesalers. Perfect competition may be described, among other things as a market large enough to not be dominated by individual, if only.

Wholesalers dictate terms to retailers, withhold supply by refusing to open accounts in an attempt to force new competition out of business to maximise their profits. When securing supply by other means, running a loss leader to generate increased revenue also increases future bargaining power and negotiation leverage.

Wholesalers offer better terms to clients with greater purchasing power, increased volumes result in reduced prices so the longer term opportunity generated by short term profit declines builds a client base.

In our case, such loss leaders (we actually generated slight profits) on certain products generated additional revenue by attracting clients who purchased higher profit items once they become a client.

Winter in Perth

We are now mid way through June and it is cold, grey and miserable, I am looking forward to my next overseas tropical dive holiday - I am counting the days down. 

The clouds are massing and the rain sets in; the nights are cold and the days are short - I absolutely hate winter. Winter has just begun and I am wishing it was summer again, what makes me more miserable is I know it is summer in the northern hemisphere. I was able to escape the 2014 Perth winter, unfortunately wintertime 2015 is real for me - ouch. 

In some instances, I am not concerned as study obligations require me to spend time indoors, if the days are miserable, I don't mind wasting the days inside during winter so instead I can maximise my summer days instead. Roll on summer.