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Whiny Wednesdays: Letting Your Workers Vent—Strategically
Once upon a time, employees were expected to put up and shut up, to fulfill their jobs with unquestioning obedience. If they had a problem—with the job, with the boss, with clients, with co-workers—well, that was their problem. They needed to fix it on their own, with no fuss, and if they couldn’t do that, […]
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Making Remote Work Work for you
When the pandemic started in early 2020, most employers and employees had no idea what working from home was all about. We knew about video calls, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Webex, but we had rarely used them. We had to learn as we went, a crash course in scheduling virtual meetings, turning cameras and microphones […]
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Limit Gossip in the Workplace to Improve Your Business Culture
We humans are a curious bunch and very social. Talking to the people we work with all day is natural and healthy. It’s great for camaraderie and team bonding and helps us feel engaged and connected. But when healthy conversation turns into gossip, it can have the opposite effect, distracting us from doing good work […]
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From Dining Room Workstations to Zoom Backgrounds: What Business Leaders Learned in 2020
I have seen the memes floating around social media about how March didn’t behave last year – do we really want it back? That made me think – WOW. It really has been a year since everything hit the fan. Everything being, of course, COVID-19. Remember when we thought everything would be back to normal […]
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Personal Devices and Work From Home
Co-written with: Lee Neagle of Certa Scientia, LLC & Kevin Baxter of Advanced Network Service, LLC One of the unintended consequences of working from home during the pandemic is that employees often use their own personal electronic devices—cell phones, laptops, tablets, and so on—for work. While using personal devices for work is convenient for both […]
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How to Reduce Fear in the Pandemic Workplace.
After months of zoom meetings and quarantine haircuts, employees are returning to the office, some with gratitude, some with fear, most with gratitude and fear. As business owners and managers, how can we make it easier on our employees? How can we reduce their fear and help them feel safer? (Hint: “reduce” and “safer” are […]
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Should I reinstitute my Work From Home Strategy?
I have seen posts, memes and received calls from frustrated employers who are struggling with keeping their businesses profitable and keeping their employees safe. Because several states are experience a resurgence in Coronavirus cases, I am encouraging my clients to revisit their working from home strategy. Many employees have “gotten into the groove” of working […]
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Is Burnout is the New Normal? Navigating What’s Next
The other day I went into the office for the first time in over two weeks. I had been picking up the mail every few days, but hadn’t spent more than five minutes there. Though my commute is an easy one, traffic was heavier than I expected. This made me uncharacteristically nervous. What were all […]
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Playing Catchup: What I’m Telling My Clients about Emergency Unemployment.
I filed for unemployment. I never thought I’d say those words again. The last time I did was during the mortgage industry collapse more than a decade ago, which put millions of us out of work. Those were desperate times, and I thought of unemployment as a resource to tide me over. We are facing […]
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Quarantine Day #????
Captain’s Log: Day—I have no idea—of quarantine. The people of Earth are secluded in their homes, coming out only at night wearing gloves and masks to scavenge for food or stretch their legs…. Okay, I’m getting a little punchy—not because I’ve got nothing to do like so many of my friends and family, but because […]
