Tag: workplace

The Best Leaders Know That Letting People Fail Can Help Them to Grow and Improve

RAISING CHILDREN, and leading people, isn’t easy. In many ways, leadership is similar to raising a child. The goal is to have people who are self-reliant and self-sufficient, but the trick is knowing just how much help to give along the way  — and when you might actually be giving too much. Although it seems to

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No Matter What You Call It, Taking Time Off Between Jobs Is a Good Idea

I LOVE IT WHEN a long-time workplace practice suddenly gets re-defined and is referred to by some silly new terminology. Yes, I was excited when I discovered what The New York Times is now calling that time you get off in-between jobs. Although I have a lot of problems with America’s Newspaper of Record – it’s

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A Business Truism: You Learn a Lot More From a Bad Boss Than a Good One

HERE’S A MANAGEMENT TRUISM you can’t avoid: You learn more from a bad boss than you do from a good one. I was struck by this when I came across an old Corner Office” column in The New York Times. It was a Q&A with Dawn Lepore, the now-former chairwoman and CEO of Drugstore.com, and

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Starbucks Training Day Was More About Changing Culture Than Anything Else

HERE’S THE BOTTON LINE on the recent anti-racial bias training at Starbucks, and it was captured perfectly in the headline on The New York Times story about the big event. It said: Starbucks’s Tall Order: Tackle Systemic Racism in 4 Hours Yup, the NYT is right; it’s unlikely that Starbucks, or any other company, is going to make much

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Queen Elizabeth Should Be Proud: Her TV Counterpart Is Finally Getting Paid Properly

LIKE SO MANY PEOPLE, one of my very favorite shows on TV today is the Netflix original The Crown. I love it for the same reason’s I loved Mad Men — it brought me up to speed on an era I was too young to fully appreciate but just old enough to vaguely remember. But,

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I Saw a Good Woman Dump a Bad and Clueless Boss During the Rose Bowl

ON NEW YEAR’S DAY as I was watching the Rose Bowl, I saw a hard-working woman who was mistreated by a self-centered boss who didn’t appreciate her. So, she quit and left the clueless jerk to go work for herself. Who knew? It’s amazing what can happen in 30 seconds during a big college football

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It’s Finally Time to Kiss the Office Christmas Party Goodbye

THE HEADLINE ON A STORY in a recent issue of The Wall Street Journal pretty much said it all: Welcome to the Post-Weinstein Holiday Party. What followed was 1,400 depressing words that basically said, without actually saying it, something that you probably already know — the company Christmas/holiday party as we know it is officially dead and gone.

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Fake News or Pure BS? Why You Should Be Skeptical of Generation-Bashing Surveys

WHY ARE SO MANY people today so into generation bashing? For years, I’ve heard people gripe about the shortcomings of the Millennial generation, as if Gen X and the Baby Boomers (of which I am one) are somehow perfect and didn’t have their own challenges. I’ve written this before, but I’m sick and tired of

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Sometimes, It’s About Hiring Someone Who Knows Exactly What NOT to Do

HERE’S A NEW ONE when it comes to hiring: Could it be that the best person to hire is the one who knows what not to do? I have hired many people with many skill sets over the years, but believe me, this is not something I have ever screened for. And, that’s why I was intrigued

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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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