The other day I saw a guy leaving the office of a financial services firm carrying a messenger bag with a Dickies logo. That really got me thinking about the nature of work.

When I left engineering school I worked in a couple of different factories in Denver. The best clothes for these jobs was made by Dickies, and they were nothing you would have associated with an office place. Twill pants, denim shirts, ideal for the factory floor. And that is the context in which I understand the Dickies brand.

To see the Dickies brand in the workplace makes me wonder why the financial services guy identifies with it. I believe the answer is in the difference between the factory floor or construction site and the cubicle. The factory floor is very satisfying. The work hours are regular, the work product is tangible, and it is easy to see what you have done, if it is of high quality or not, and whether you have achieved your production quota.

The cubicle generally doesn’t offer these benefits. The hours, while regular, tend to stretch. The work product is never tangible - would you rather heft the machine part that you made or a spreadsheet? Quality is hard to define, much less achieve. And in most environments there are few good expectations set about whether you have succeeded in your work.

Identifying with the Dickies brand is a way to connect with work when it was more satisfying, and engaging. While this is not intended to be a paean to the industrial age, we should remember what worked then and why.

Education Partners, Inc. Uses Web Application to Manage Nationwide Staff

(Denver, Colo. –August 3, 2006) Denver-based PositiveWare, a Web-based project and resource management tool, has announced a new addition to its client list – Education Partners, Inc., creators of world-class training and performance improvement strategies. Education Partners, Inc. is a privately held company based in Golden, Colorado with a team of ten consultants and staff.

“At Education Partners, we help other organizations develop and retain their most valuable resource – people,” notes Michelle Kelly, President. “PositiveWare will assist us to increase the performance of our own team and lead by example.”

Charles Von Thun, president of PositiveWare, stated: “Education Partners deploys numerous trainers and consultants in remote locations across the country. Our software and web interface gives the trainers and their managers a real-time, centralized repository of project information.”

Founded in November, 2003, PositiveWare was named the 2005 Colorado Software and Internet Association’s Rookie of the Year. Education Partners, Inc. joins a client list that includes Avaya, Kozo Keikaku Engineering (Tokyo), Center Reach Communications and Decisioneering, Inc.

About Education Partners, Inc.
Education Partners, Inc. is a Golden-based training and consulting firm dedicated to enabling organizations to develop and retain their most valuable resource…people. Founded in 2002, the organization brings a fresh perspective to learning in the new millennium through technology, innovation and a commitment to results. For more information visit www.aboutepi.com

About PositiveWare
PositiveWare is a Web-based project and resource management tool that allows organizations to more effectively execute assignments. Built to help Denver-based companies better manage tasks within time and budget constraints, this comprehensive software solution replaces disjointed manual processes and aggregates project information into a real-time, centralized repository easily accessible to both in-house and remote users. Managers can quickly analyze project status using the automated reporting feature, and provide clients with itemized billing instantly. By improving efficiencies, small to midsize businesses are able to increase workload while still delivering projects on time and within budget. For more information, visit www.positiveware.com or call 303-293-2200.