If you have an identity crisis, I'll now help you define yourself. That is, if you are a participant in our web poll.
What web poll? The one whose results are in that colorful chart just below this column. It's from our primary website, rubbernews.com, where we run the news of the day, features, archives of anything we've printed since 1995 and all kinds of other amusing things.
We pose a different question every other week. This is a completely unscientific poll, since anyone can vote, and if you move to a different computer or disable the cookies, you could vote repeatedly. Why you would want to do that is your problem.
In the spirit of “amusing” and “unscientific,” I've studied the results of the last three years of this poll and arrived at a profile of à well, you.
The questions typically are job-related or designed to elicit your opinion about something going on in the rubber industry or business in general.
We've yet to ask if you are a gifted, attractive, highly respected and successful person, so I'll assume you are. All our readers are, of course.
We don't have to ask if you're intelligent, if education can be a ruler to measure smarts. More than 85 percent of the respondents to one of our polls said they have college degrees, and 29 percent hold post-grad degrees.
I won't say you're old, but let us describe you as “experienced.” More than 80 percent of you have worked in the rubber business at least 10 years, and 60 percent 20 years or more. That said, 58 percent of you don't expect to retire for at least another 10 years, and 23 percent said “NEVER!”
Forty-four percent of you have worked at the same company at least 15 years and you're a damn fine employee. Almost 80 percent are proud of the job they do, and 88 percent are willing to take a pay cut to help keep the company afloat, despite the fact 51 percent feel overwhelmed with work and 74 percent haven't had a promotion in more than three years.
A full 67 percent of you devoted people said you work even when you are sick. Maybe that's a bit skewed, since 17 percent said your company frowns on people who take time off for illness, or any other reason.
Job satisfaction? About 64 recent of you are pretty happy with your job, and only 8 percent hate the place. That said, more than half of you would be “somewhat interested” if a job recruiter called. Hmmmm.
And finally, I doubt you spend much time social networking at work since 75 percent said Facebook, Twitter and the like have little value in the business world. Oh, and 19 percent hate golf. I only voted once on that one.
This all goes to show that we need to ask the question, “What good are Internet polls?”
Noga is the editor of Rubber & Plastics News.