What I hear you saying is...

I'm a big fan of Alton Brown's show, Good Eats. I don't get a lot of time to cook, but there's enough food-science, history and trivia in each of his shows to keep even the dilettante cook in me interested for a half-an-hour.

One gem I've picked up from watching his show is a shared distaste for "the uni-tasker". The uni-tasker is an irritating kitchen utensil that seems like a great concept when you see it on the shelves at Williams-Sonoma, but when you get it home you never end up using it. Why? First of all, it's only good for some obscure function that you can't possibly use on a regular basis. So it gets jettisoned to the back of the lower corner cabinet, the garage, or the dreaded junk drawer. Second, there is usually a more generic tool that you already own that will get the job done faster and with more precision.

The Apple-corer is the quintessential example of the uni-tasker. Even if I peeled apples every day, I'd never use this thing. It takes up way too much space, and takes longer to center-mount the apple on the damn rotary-fork doohickey thing than it would take me to peel and core 3 apples with a paring knife. Worst of all, even when the apple is finally mounted correctly, it doesn't work well -- even with a suction-cup foot, the torque from twisting the apple will rock it off center and you'll lose 20% of the apple as peel. It's a complete catastrophe.

Now, there are some exceptions. For example, I cherish my mini-blowtorch, even though I only fire it up occasionally to crisp up some creme brulee, or finish off the skin on some broiled fish. But the mini-blowtorch is nice little tool, and it hides discretely in a side cupboard, behind the 28cm Le Creuset and next a bottle of home-made cherry liqueur. It feels good in the hand, like a Makita power drill. And no tool can possibly match it in performing the function it was designed for. It knows where it stands.

But these are rare. It's hard managing a kitchen full of uni-taskers. Most just need to go away.

And it's hard managing an company full of uni-taskers, too. :-)

These days, I'm fortunate to work with some very sharp folks at a small start-up where the staff are like Aritsugu chef knives. It's a lean, efficient shop with nary a turkey-fryer in sight. But I've also worked in a lot of larger companies where avocado peelers and corn-cob forks lurk in the back-office cubes, collecting dust and dreading the next lay-off: They know that they are candidates for the next car-load to Goodwill.

How could they avoid becoming uni-taskers? By acquiring new skills and adding noticeable value. (Whoops, I just stepped in the barf of my inner-Tony-Robbins.) But seriously, though one might function as a wedding-anniversary fondue-set today, with a little imagination they might find that they could also do shallow pan-frying better than an iron-skillet. Or they might be that slightly rusty meat tenderizer that hasn't seen a chicken breast in years, but is just the right tool for banging the residue off the charcoal grill out back. Sometimes slightly different packaging and perspective will reveal unconventional but compelling uses.

But most will never think to see themselves in this way. After all, they have jobs to do. They were given an 8x11 sheet of paper from HR when they joined that outlined their responsiblities. They were given an annual review that re-inforced the walls of the career box they live in -- the tasks they are to complete.

Job descriptions are evil. Though they serve a purpose in the grand scheme and organizational hierarchy of large companies, in the end they harm the long term growth of the employee. They are debilitating because they train us to focus on coloring within the lines, and never ask us to look outside for ways in which we can add value. We are trained to just multi-task on the job, but never multi-task our jobs.

To riff on Thoreau - We are constantly invited to uni-task.

So fight the power, fight the man, and rid your life of uni-taskers. Starting today, go to your junk drawer and empty the fat bastard straight into the trash can. Get rid of all the crap you keep in your garage that you haven't used for 6 months. And while you're at it, take a peek in the kitchen cupboards of your career.

If you see an apple-corer in there, it's time to do some re-thinking.