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: Intentional connection in the digital office
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Linked: Intentional connection in the digital office

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 3 minutes

The only thing preventing most offices from being fully remote is simply a lack of know-how, or an unwillingness to commit to that change and design the workplace around it. Once you do that, what you’ll find is that rather than hoping for some magic collaboration, you decide who to invite to the table, and ask for their input, on purpose. Intentionally.

Linked: Companies hope new benefits will solve your mental health issues. Don’t fall for it.
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Linked: Companies hope new benefits will solve your mental health issues. Don’t fall for it.

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 1 minute

It’s cool if your company wants to provide an assistance program or pay for access to an app that will help with meditation, etc. Good for them. But, if the source of your mental health issues is the day-to-day stress of working in an understaffed, toxic, environment, for far less money than you’re worth, and they won’t address that? How much do they really care?

Fixing that is going to require a lot more, as the article below points out. How many organizations are willing to make those kinds of changes?

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.

Linked: Employers See Employee Mental Health as Major Concern
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Linked: Employers See Employee Mental Health as Major Concern

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 3 minutes

I’m glad to see companies seeing this as an issue for themselves, and not just an “outside of work” thing. On the other hand, when we talk about it in these terms, I think I can see part of the reason that there is still so much stigma attached to the idea of getting help for mental health issues.

How Work From Anywhere Could Help Repair a Broken Employer – Employee Relationship

How Work From Anywhere Could Help Repair a Broken Employer – Employee Relationship

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 4 minutes

So, I left, for a job I could do from anywhere. And, most of all, I appreciate the fact that I can do this job from anywhere, even if the pandemic has meant doing it from the same exact spot in my house for the last 15 months. Because, when the time comes, I can be where I need to be, and continue working. That matters. That shows that the company trusts me, and I want to continue to earn that trust by meeting deadlines and getting my work done.

That kind of relationship, or culture if you will, seems to be missing from many companies based on what I’m seeing other people talk about, online and off. Yet, every company out there like top brag about their top-notch “culture”.

Culture isn’t what you say you do, culture is what you do together. And if, together, you have no trust between employees and management, well that’s your culture, regardless of what your mission statements says.