Tag: culture

I Have a Big F***ing Problem With People Who Swear at Work

LAST SEPTEMBER, Fast Company published a story that intrigued me just as it should intrigue anyone who has navigated the day-to-day rants and mutterings of co-workers on the job. The title said it all: Do You Have a F*cking Problem With Swearing at Work? The article was filled with a boatload of statistics about how

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Don’t Forget That Clueless Management Never Goes Out of Style

IT’S LATE SUMMER, everybody out here in the People’s Republic of California seem to be on vacation, and Labor Day is still a couple of weeks away. So, it’s time for some old school clueless management from the good people over at Tronc. Don’t know what “Tronc” is? I’d be surprised if you did, but

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It’s Not Easy, But Here’s How to Deal With Passive-Aggressive Behavior

ALTHOUGH IT PAINS ME to say this I’m somewhat of an expert on passive-aggressive behavior. The good people at Wikipedia describe passive-aggressive behavior as follows: The indirect expression of hostility, such as through procrastination, stubbornness, sullen behavior, or deliberate or repeated failure to accomplish requested tasks for which one is (often explicitly) responsible. That’s a pretty

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You Are What Your Culture Says You Are, Like It or Not

WHY DO SO MANY people think that companies only focus on building strong, positive workplace cultures? The fact is, organizations are ALWAYS building their culture — whether they mean to or not. You know what I’m talking about: Those kinds of businesses where workers spend more time yakking about all the bad management and terrible decision making going on

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It’s High Time to Give Up the Ghost on Employee Engagement

AREN’T WE ALL SICK and tired of employee engagement? I know I am. I’ve been writing about it for years (here’s one from July 2010), and the story never changes. A great many consultants and companies have gotten involved in helping organizations get more engaged employees, and a great deal of time and money has been spent.

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Nobody Gets a Great Idea When They’re Being Chased by a Lion

I SUBSCRIBE TO THE OLD ADAGE that there’s nothing new under the sun. But once in awhile even I get gobsmacked (as the British like to say) by a new insight that’s so thoughtful and incisive that it makes up for all the crap that normally passes for management wisdom these days. The insight that grabbed me comes from

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Some Important Things You Need to Know About How Employees Quit

AS MUCH AS WE LIKE to focus on all the various ways we can improve upon the way we recruit and hire new employees, we also know that we should spend as much (if not more) time on how we can better retain the people that we already have on our staff. The problem is,

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I Was Fed Up With United Airlines’ Culture Even Before They Started Dragging People Off Planes

BELIEVE ME when I tell you this: I soured on the customer service practices of United Airlines long before they decided that dragging people off planes would enhance the flying experience. You’ve probably seen the video by now. You know the one — where the customer on the last flight of the night from Chicago to Louisville

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