Once More For the People In the Back – Do Not Give Out Any Information To Someone Who Calls You

Once More For the People In the Back – Do Not Give Out Any Information To Someone Who Calls You

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

And so, I repeat. Do not give out any information to someone who calls you. Hang up, and call your bank directly.

Go read the whole thing for more of the details on these services, and how they work. It’s interesting. But if you remember nothing else, remember that when anyone calls and says they are calling about your account, a legal issue, etc. Hang up, and call the place they say they are calling from directly. That’s not how any legitimate business works anymore, so the second someone calls you and starts asking you to verify who you are, be suspicious and hang up.

Linked: Why publishers say opening up remote hiring has grown and greatly improved the applicant pool
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Linked: Why publishers say opening up remote hiring has grown and greatly improved the applicant pool

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

Still, I think it’s clear that opening up the hiring process to people who don’t live in the immediate area creates a more diverse pool of talent to choose from. That we have to go out of our way to tell people that makes me question what companies are doing, or really care about, when they talk about being diverse.

Linked: Ransomware shame: More than half of business owners conceal cyber-breach
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Linked: Ransomware shame: More than half of business owners conceal cyber-breach

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 1 minute

I’ve been saying it for a little while now, but I think this really cements it for me, your data has already been breached somewhere. Whether you know your personal information was involved in a public breach, or you’ve somehow managed to avoid that thus far, there is still a whole bunch of ransomware and other breaches that we don’t know anything about:

Shared Links (weekly) Sept. 26. 2021

Shared Links (weekly) Sept. 26. 2021

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 1 minute
Linked: These 7 productivity “rules” are harmful, anti-scientific myths
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Linked: These 7 productivity “rules” are harmful, anti-scientific myths

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

But notice what is missing from all of this advice? Any actual science. Or, for that matter, any interviews with the thousands of people who actually do the same thing, and aren’t nearly as successful. Sure, maybe Jeff Bezos gets up every day at 5 AM, goes for a run, then schedules some deep-think time, all before he even checks email. Do you really think it you or I did that, that would make us as successful as Jeff Bezos? I guarantee you, his sleep schedule and morning routine is similar to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people around the world, who do not have lives that we would want to emulate. But we don’t read those stories, because no one cares.

On the other hand, in order for a lot of these productivity hacks to have ant scientific fact behind them, we would have to look at those people and see how maybe it’s not the morning routine that makes Bezos worth a gazillion dollars, it was something else entirely.

But then, those articles are much harder to write and would involve a lot more work, and even admit that you can’t hack your way to a billion dollars in success. We wouldn’t want to do anything like that, would we?

Linked: Should employers provide mental health training for management?
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Linked: Should employers provide mental health training for management?

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

The one that gives me pause is the last bullet, but not because leaders shouldn’t have that knowledge, but more because human nature tells me that is the one most likely to be misused and create really uncomfortable situations. There’s a very fine line between being aware of signs of someone struggling and diagnosis. I absolutely do not want anyone in the workplace diagnosing people. Watch out for signs of stress and ways you can support the folks who work for you proactively? Sure. Decide for yourself that they have depression, or should be referred to an Employee Assistance Program? Not so much.

But, here’s the thing I will fully admit when saying this. Avoiding this type of behavior is absolutely something that solid mental health training should be a part of. I’ve heard far too many instances lately where organizations are reading a lot about mental health, and burnout, in the workplace and then dispatch their managers to have conversations with their teams about it, and zero training.

Those conversations are dangerous. You have to enable your leaders to go into those conversations with some education and expertise on the subject Just telling them to go and have the conversations without getting them up to speed on how to do so, creates a situation that is likely to end up with some very alienated employees.