Career

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    Linked: Work addiction is real – here’s how to kick the habit

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

    I think this article, while helpful, also hints at a larger societal problem that many of us have been thinking about and that is what role our work plays in our overall lives and our sense of work. Working all the time isn’t just something we sometimes do. It’s part and parcel of being “important” in our society. Let’s face it, when someone tells us they disconnect in the evenings and weekends, our first thought is not “Oh how healthy”, it is much more to be “Oh you must not be very important then”.

    Until that perception changes, I don’t know that we’ll make much progress, but it does need to change. Our work plays far too much of a role in our self-worth and therefore is it is far too easy to take advantage of employees.

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    Linked: Half of workers say they will only apply for hybrid or working from home jobs

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

    I think that makes sense, and it might fit for a lot of US workers too. I know in the eDiscovery industry we are seeing more desire for flexibility, and salaries going up pretty significantly. Though we aren’t seeing the same level of disinterest in looking for a new role. Does that suggest that fewer workers in our industry have found what they are looking for in terms of flexibility and money? Or do they see the reality of changing jobs for a 15-25% pay increase versus what they’d get by staying?

    That’s an interesting thing to think about. Do you know how your employees feel about that? Do you know what they want to stay? What will entice them to leave?

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    Linked: Does your remote team really need an in-person offsite?

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 4 minutes

    As the future of work settles in a bit, in the sense that we are now working remotely by choice more than by COVID requirement, we are seeing a large shift toward the desire to work remotely. I believe that shift is everyone listed above. For introverts, people with disabilities, people with adult or child care requirements, working remotely is bliss. (I did it even before COVID.) We can still do the other things that are important in our lives without being forced to a specific location, and we can do it without being forced to be in the same physical space as people we may or may not like.

    The problem is, and we see this clearly in the discussion below, doing things in-person is how we’ve always done things. The custom of having a quarterly or annual offsite was designed in a workplace that has always catered to extroverts and people who were available to be at the office for longer and longer hours. That culture has always excluded people. Think about the after-work drinks custom. How many moms got to attend instead of hurrying home to their kids, and how many men got to attend simply because somewhere there was a mom hurrying home to take care of the kids instead of them? How many introverted employees never showed up, or showed up out of a sense of guilt, quietly sipped their drink, and left as soon as it seemed polite to do so? And don’t even get me started on the number of employees in recovery who cannot, and should not, go out drinking with the group. 

    But, what did you hear about these events? They were great, we had a blast, we really got to bond with other folks from the team, etc. That feedback all comes from the minority that actually gets to go, and enjoys being in a group setting.

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    Linked: Our culture is great… But just don’t make any mistakes –

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

    You know, when I hear companies tout the performance level of their employees, I do have to wonder what sort of expectations they are setting. There isn’t a company out there, including the one I work for, that doesn’t brag about having A+ performers. So what happens when someone makes a mistake or has a C day?

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    Linked – Work burnout rises despite company investments in mental health

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Yeah, remember all that took about being flexible for single parents, the diversity and inclusion projects we talked about kicking off, the efforts we were going to make on remote work to help us be more inclusive? Turns out that required some hard work we weren’t really interested in doing. They see this, they know it, and they are going to look for a place that is better. They no longer trust you.

    Who will you be left with when everyone who wants better leaves for it?

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    Linked: When Workplace Mindfulness Training Is Worse Than Nothing

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

    We’ve seen the memes. The ones about the law firm offering a lunch hour yoga class to overworked, stressed, associates who haven’t had time to even take a lunch break in months. Or the “reward” for months of 70-80 hour work weeks is free pizza. It just makes people angry because it’s a token that does nothing to actually recognize the work involved, or correct the problems that created this mess to start with.

    Workplace stress, anxiety, and other mental health issues are not just something a little mindfulness can fix. Workers are waking up to the fact that it’s the company culture that is contributing to this. Offering a way for employees to help “fix” themselves might seem like a nice thing, and in many ways it is, but doing it while not making any effort to recognize the contributions managers and corporate culture make to the problem, along with a commitment to make changes, is the very definition of “too little”.