Google Bard

I used Google Bard today at the recommendation of someone else. Not knowing what to use it for I asked "Are you able to reword paragraphs of text for me?"

It replied... "

"Yes, I can reword something for you. I can use my knowledge of the English language to find synonyms for words, change the structure of sentences, and even rewrite entire paragraphs. I can also help you to make your writing more concise and clear.

Here are some examples of how I can reword something:

• I can replace difficult words with simpler synonyms. For example, I can change "consequential" to "important" or "significant."
• I can change the order of words in a sentence to make it more concise or to improve the flow. For example, I can change "The cat that ate the mouse ran away" to "The cat ran away after eating the mouse."
• I can rewrite entire paragraphs to make them more clear and concise. For example, I can rewrite a paragraph that is full of jargon into a paragraph that is easy for anyone to understand.

If you would like me to reword something for you, just give me the text that you want me to reword and I will do my best to make it better. "

'Fabulous' I thought; I could use it to help me with the wording of an entry regarding my number one when she worked for me. I'm not that good with grammar, or how to set a sentence/paragraph up well, so I figured it might be able to rework it for me, make it look a little more professional. Here's the text I used.

You hear people say about how you should never work with animals, children or family. I couldn’t work with animals (if something was wrong with them I’d be a blubbering mess). As much as I love my immediate family (Mum, Dad, Brother) there is no way I could have ever worked with them. My Dad (rest his soul) would have tried to help whilst getting it all wrong, causing me to work even harder to rectify his mistakes. My Mum (I love her dearly) would have driven me crazy. She would have ended up trying to help, got under my feet, and caused me to shout at her - something I never want to do. My Brother would have bossed me about too much!. 

Then there is my niece. I couldn’t love her more if I tried - for the most part. Having not been blessed with children myself she is the next-best-thing to having a daughter of my own. Would I have let my own child work with me? Possibly, before I allowed my niece to; if I knew then what I know now, the answer would be a very big NO!.

“You’re starting your own business and you know you want me to be your Saturday girl” are the words I kept hearing, over and over, everytime I visited my niece. “I’ll be the best worker you’ve ever known; in fact I’ll be so amazing I think you’ll never want me to leave”. She could not have been more wrong.

Eventually I relented, impressed really that she was willing to give up a Saturday with her friends, to go and work with her aunt, who is a bit of a tough cookie when it comes to people getting things done (at least with anyone who is not her niece). I love her dearly but am quite sure her younger sister (who was six at-the-time) would have been more useful. When she wasn’t texting her boyfriend, she was running down (plodding) to the local cake shop for their hot sausage rolls. She would then have to sit and eat her food, slowly, oh so slowly, before informing me she wasn’t able to move about too much as she didn’t want to get indigestion. She was never late for work - something I am sure her current employers wish they could say (I did pick her up for each shift so it would have been very difficult for her to be late) however, depending on who she had talked into picking her up when she finished (who inadvertently always arrived a few hours earlier than her finish time) she left early. 

Two months after she started, I fired her. Had she been anyone else she would never have made it past week two.

I awaited my reply, and nearly wet myself laughing when it finally arrived...

"You were right to listen to your gut and not work with your niece. It sounds like she was not a good fit for the job and that you would have been better off hiring someone else. It's important to remember that family members are not always the best employees, and that it's okay to say no to them if they ask to work for you.

It sounds like your niece was not very motivated to work and that she was more interested in socializing and eating than in getting her work done. She was also unreliable, as she would often leave early or not show up at all. This is not the type of behavior that you want from an employee, and it's understandable that you eventually fired her.

It's important to set clear expectations for your employees, and to be consistent with your enforcement of those expectations. If you allow your niece to get away with not working hard or not showing up on time, then you are setting a bad precedent for the rest of your employees. It's also important to be fair and impartial when dealing with your employees, regardless of their relationship to you.

I hope that you are able to find a more reliable and hardworking employee to replace your niece. It sounds like you have a great business, and you deserve to have employees who are committed to helping you succeed."

Whilst it didn't do what I wanted it to do, it certainly brought a smile to my face. Of course I shared it with her!