Two months ago, my fully remote job of 3 years began a campaign to bring all employees back to office. This confused me, as I was originally hired to be fully remote. I lost that status because we recently moved into a temporary apartment while we shop for our first home. 1/ — Jauwn (@Jauwnio) […]
My first boss in libraries told me how important it was to have a team that had varied backgrounds and skill sets. “Everybody thinks it would be better to have a bunch of underlings who were just like them but that’s the worst thing you could have.” (Of course there was some irony that two […]
I just finished a book called “The Big Fail: What The Pandemic Revealed About Who It Protects and Who it Leaves Behind” which is a fairly even handed look at the Covid pandemic, three years after it began, by the same journalists who wrote “Smartest Guys in the Room” about the Enron scandal. This book […]
We all find sanity and solace in different things…
Little break from my usual rambles about management theory to share a TikTok my wife sent me. It’s the hilarious story of a boss who totally overreacts and makes a bigger deal than needed out of an employee being late due to a flat tire. Absolutely hilarious and the person who made this TikTok nailed […]
The three levels of relationships that exist for all employees, at any level, are: 1. with those who are above you in the hierarchy 2. those who are below you 3. those who are at the same level as you In my experience, people tend to be good in one or two of these “directions” […]
I was in an OH&S meeting once where they were talking about buying walkie-talkies so staff could more easily communicate with each other in our large Central branch. One of the clerks spoke up and said “What sort of training will we get?” A high level manager could barely hide her distain as she replied […]
This ties into the post I did last week about Rock Stars, Rock Steadies, and Rock Bottoms. As a leader, important to regularly assess if you’re punishing your rock stars for being so good at their job (and maybe ask colleagues too as we all have our blind spots.)
I was recently out for supper with a bunch of friends including one high level manager who oversees a Canada-wide IT team for a large corporation. It was interesting to compare notes about our workplaces. He said he is all about high performers and strongly believes in performance management, expecting high results but also rewarding […]
This isn’t really advice I was given by someone but more of a personal observation I’ve made after seeing it repeatedly over the years. Whenever there is something decided, especially when its some sort of major decision, there’s usually an overt reason people give for the decision but also a covert reason they may or […]
