Linked: Employer initiatives to increase staff wellbeing found to be ineffective
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Linked: Employer initiatives to increase staff wellbeing found to be ineffective

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

You do see the problem here, right? As an employee, great that there’s a webinar planned on stress management, but if I now have to work an hour later that day in order to attend the webinar, it’s not helping. Lots of HR departments are making tools available, but managers are still expecting the same amount of work, with the same crazy deadlines and expectations, from a likely short-staffed team, so who has time to use them?

So they don’t help. Not because they aren’t helpful, but because you’ve made self-care and wellbeing yet another thing for your employees to do.

Employee burnout does not exist solely because your employees haven’t figured out how to meditate. It’s systemic to our way of doing business. Unless that changes, we’re just rearranging deck chairs.

In Praise of Your Team’s Quiet, Steady Worker – R.I.P. Charlie Watts
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In Praise of Your Team’s Quiet, Steady Worker – R.I.P. Charlie Watts

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

That’s what Charlie Watts meant to me, the reminder that no matter how much flash you’ve got, someone needs to play the drums and be the steady backbeat that keeps the song going. Without it, you’re just making noise. We’d do well to remember that.

Rest in Peace Charlie.

Linked: Workers Left Behind By the “Great Resignation”
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Linked: Workers Left Behind By the “Great Resignation”

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

This raises some interesting questions about wealth distribution among many other things. What does happen in service jobs, to the people left behind without other options?

From reading these stories, it’s clear that there is not always an appreciation for people who don’t leave, just an expectation that they will be taking advantage of more by employers, and treated worse by customers.

This makes me consider a couple of things:

Linked: Wanted: Disgruntled Employees to Deploy Ransomware
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Linked: Wanted: Disgruntled Employees to Deploy Ransomware

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

Look, it makes sense at any time, but right now with companies varying sets of rules around a pandemic, forcing employees back to an office, mandating a vaccine if they do, closing offices, etc. there is bound to be at least one person who just isn’t very happy with whatever stance the company has taken.

Would the vast majority of them stoop to purposefully installing ransomware on the corporate network? Probably not, but the hacker doesn’t need the majority, they need 1. Just one person to be so angry, and also unethical, and they are in.

Linked: 16% of workers think their mental health is supported
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Linked: 16% of workers think their mental health is supported

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

Because if my value to my team is only a factor of productivity versus cost, and not as a human being, why should I put my own mental wellbeing at risk for you?

That makes no sense, and we are seeing more and more people recognize this fact. Either figure out how to support the human beings who work for you, or stop hiring them.

At least that way you aren’t actively harming anyone with your job.