It’s been about four months since workplaces first started navigating the uncharted waters of the Covid-19 pandemic. We are now entering a new phase of challenges which includes bringing back some employees who have been working remotely. This change will to be difficult for some employees so this is a good opportunity to review what is helpful to say (and …
Workplaces are entering uncharted waters as they try to figure out how to protect both the health of their employees and their businesses in response to a looming worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Company responses thus far have include halting non-essential business travel, cancelling professional conferences, having more employees work from home, forming task forces, dusting off emergency response plans, ordering increasingly …
The snow came early to New England this year, announcing the arrival of our darkest season. The diminished sunlight available over the next few months can present some well-documented challenges to your mood, sleep patterns and energy level so this might be a good time to review what you can do to avoid the worst of the winter blues. As …
I have been journaling for a few years now and it has turned out to be one of the best methods I have ever come across for reducing stress and achieving increased clarity and about goals, relationships and problems. I write longhand in a notebook trying to get onto the page whatever is on my mind at the moment but …
The project may be entirely ordinary like cleaning out the garage, or it may be critically significant like preparing a major presentation for work. The goal may be to start eating more healthy foods or to advance your career. Whatever the circumstances, one of the major obstacles facing any project or goal is the phenomenon of procrastination. And the digital …
Our digital devices, the screens connecting us to an infinitely wide world of information, pose a significant challenge because they are so compelling and distracting. They pull our focus away from being in the moment and compromise our ability to concentrate on the essential tasks of daily life: paying attention to our loved ones, solving our work challenges, and practicing …
Organizations implement rigorous strategic planning processes because they know they can’t pursue every possible goal. They have to make critical choices in order to focus their business on those objectives which provide the best opportunities for success. Similarly, if you want to be healthier and perform better at work, you should consider developing a strategic plan for improving your personal …
In January 2018, Stress.Health.Business published a post which anthologized ten of our most popular blogs on the effects of stress on employee health, engagement and productivity. That anthology turned out to be our most widely read post of 2018. We are continuing this successful tradition in 2019 by assembling the following selection of our most popular blogs documenting the multi-faceted …
Since its inception in 2012 stress.health.business has showcased numerous examples of companies making strategic choices which benefit both employees and profits. These companies do not view the workplace as a zero sum game where the needs of employers are competing with the needs of employees. Rather, they seek to achieve a competitive edge by identifying and promoting those factors that …
You don’t have to be poor to experience significant financial stress. Even people with good jobs and substantial salaries can find themselves in situations where their family finances become precarious, setting off a cascade of stressful complications. I grew up in a home where there was substantial financial stress and I know from personal experience exactly how disruptive this can …
Having medical insurance is no longer a guarantee that you can get the mental health services you require. A recent survey conducted by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation found that more than half of the adults who sought mental health or addiction treatment experienced significant difficulty in getting that care. The obstacles to receiving care were so …
I have just reviewed a very compelling new research report which concludes that companies who “embrace best practices for employing and supporting more persons with disabilities in their workforce have outperformed their peers.” The study, presented in a report from Accenture in partnership with Disability : In and the American Association of People with Disabilities, found that companies that championed …
Bad bosses are an unwelcome, but all too common, feature of the American workplace. Work environments have an abundance of stressors, but having a bad boss may be the worst. Consider the fact that approximately 50% of American workers have left their jobs in order to get away from a bad boss. Furthermore, according to Gallup’s 2017 State of the …
Has your family been trying to figure out some rules to govern screen time? If so, you are not alone. Finding the correct formula for limiting the use of electronic devices in order to improve the quality of personal interactions and communication has become a priority for many families. What’s at stake is the limited and precious resource of our …
Opioid overdose is now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50. This is a staggering statistic reflecting a national public health emergency. A study released this month by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported that construction workers, farmers and fisherman are particularly at risk with higher than average rates of overdose deaths. The opioid-related death rate for …
It is critically important for organizations to be certain that their employees fully understand the definition and risks of harassment in the workplace. A well-designed training program can have a positive impact on reducing the types of misunderstandings and confusion that, if left uncorrected, can lead to a disrespectful or hostile work environment. An ounce of prevention is truly worth …
On June 28th, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed House Bill 4640 which will create one of the country’s strongest family and medical leave programs. This new program will provide participating employees with the ability to take paid leave for up to 12 weeks a year to care for a family member or to bond with a new child, 20 weeks …
During a February presentation at the Harvard School of Public Health Angus Deaton, the Nobel Prize-winning economist spoke about the rise in preventable deaths by suicide, alcoholism and addiction calling them “deaths of despair.” Public Health researchers around the world have started to recognize that loneliness plays a significant role in these deaths of despair and, as a result, loneliness …
A report recently released by the CDC indicates that suicide rates have increased in almost every state from 1999 to 2016 with nearly 45,000 people taking their lives in 2016 alone. The recent deaths by suicide of Kate Spade followed by Anthony Bourdain have once again put this intensely complicated subject of suicide on the front pages of the media. …
Is your company prepared for a potential increase in the reporting of harassment due to the social momentum and heightened awareness generated by the #MeToo empowerment movement? There has never been a better time to review your organization’s training strategy in this critical area. You only have to look at the Wynn Corporations losing 18% of its value following sexual …
How do you like the idea of a diet that lets you eat as much as you want to and still realize a healthy weight loss? A diet which doesn’t require you to keep track of calories or points? If you like this idea read on, because not only is there such a diet, but a prestigious medical journal has …
A large study conducted by the Federal Occupational Health (FOH), the largest provider of occupational health services in the federal government has linked EAP use with improvement on measures of productivity, work and social relationships, perceived health status, attendance and tardiness, and global assessment of functioning. FOH used a five-item measure, the Work Outcome Suite (WOS), recognized as the industry …
“Twixt the optimist and the pessimist The difference is droll, The optimist sees the donut But the pessimist sees the hole” McLandburgh Wilson, 1915 Anyone who has ever tried to make healthy changes in the way that they eat, drink, exercise or smoke knows that you are not successful 100% of the time. We have many expressions for the all …
According to the Department of Labor, 61.1% of married-couple families in 2016 had both parents working. In my counseling work, and in my role as husband to a working wife, I bear witness daily to the power spouses have to support or undermine their partners. As I enter my 50th year of marriage, still working and still married to a …
We are all accustomed to receiving instructions for improving our health. We know these directions by heart: eat more fruits and vegetables, get 8 hours of sleep each night, consume less sugar, stay hydrated etc. Somehow these repeated commands fail to inspire many of us to change our behavior, even though we accept their scientific validity and know that we …
The most successful employers are always looking for a fully balanced “win-win” when it comes to achieving both higher productivity and healthier, happier, and more engaged employees. These organizations do not view the workplace as a zero sum game where the needs of employers are competing with the needs of employees. Rather, they seek to achieve a competitive edge by …
It’s not a shocker to learn that a blog with a name like stress.health.business. (inaugurated in 2012) has featured more posts about stress than any other topic. However, you may be surprised to see how many different dimensions there are to the stress/productivity/health relationship. So, as we commence our 6th year of the blog, I have anthologized a diverse sampling …
It’s not complicated. You already know that if you exercise regularly, eat healthier and get more sleep you will feel better, live longer and perform at a higher level. However, just because it’s not complicated doesn’t mean it’s easy to know where to begin. Here are 8 ideas for jump starting a healthier 2018. Improve your sleep hygiene. 60% of …
In my last post I summarized some alarming trends and statistics reflecting our country’s epidemic of opioid addiction. I also pointed out that while research supports the effectiveness of prescribing opioids for the treatment of acute trauma, before and after surgery, cancer pain and pain associated with end of life illness, “the evidence is limited for the use of chronic …
Last month a White House panel called our country’s epidemic of opioid addiction and overdose deaths a “national public health emergency.” It’s an ongoing and escalating disaster with an estimated 3.8 million Americans using opioids for non-medical reasons every month and 142 Americans dying every day from overdoses. Opioid overdose is now the leading cause of death for Americans under …
One of the more common misconceptions about counseling is that the primary purpose is to rehash troubling events from the past. This is a particularly harmful misconception because, if you believe it, you are likely to conceive of counseling as a painful and futile exercise since, obviously, no amount of conversation can ever change the past. Of course, counselors do …
If, like many employers, you have policies and procedures in place which mandate drug and alcohol testing following a workplace accident you should be aware that the rules governing such testing have changed in a significant way. The goal of the new rules, which became effective August 10, 2016, is to promote “accurate recording of work-related injuries and illnesses by …
One of the most irritating, and unfortunately too common, injustices of the contemporary workplace is seeing an individual with less competence and an inferior work ethic advance ahead of a more skilled and hard-working person simply because they are more adept at office politics. When the wrong people are getting promoted for the wrong reasons organizational productivity and morale eventually …
The United States won 121 medals out of a possible 306 at the 2016 Rio Olympics which just concluded in Brazil. You probably are not aware that Denmark defeated the United States 2-0 in Women’s Badminton (doubles) at the Rio Olympics. More importantly, you may not know how we compare to Denmark in the area of workplace happiness. Let’s start …
Many companies are beginning to change the way they operate in order to reduce employee stress. In doing so they are recognizing that excessive stress is not only bad for employee health and happiness but it’s also a drag on productivity and the bottom line. Some of the most promising initiatives in this area are focused on creating a workplace …
I’ve been thinking about getting our country a gift on her birthday this year. But what can I give a country that already has so much? What can I give that has value and significance? When I was about 5 years old, I remember my father telling me that the only two signers of the Declaration of Independence who went …
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” Stephen King Some companies like Zappos spare no expense when it comes to trying to keep their employees happy. They provide snacks, ping pong, nap rooms, video games, free lunch and a wide assortment of other perks designed to improve morale and productivity. …
I can’t imagine that anyone would ever feel inspired to write an article about the “Top Five Reasons for Taking 100% of Your Pay.” Nobody requires encouragement to accept their entire compensation. So why do 41% of Americans not use all of their available vacation time? Why are people not using an average of 9.2 days per year of their …
The Department of Labor (DOL) is preparing to introduce new rules governing overtime pay this summer. The new regulations, which represent an historical reversal of a 50 year old trend, are very good news for salaried employees making between $23,600 and $50,440 per year. You probably didn’t know that fifty years ago overtime pay was the norm for salaried employees, …
I can’t cite a source for the widely circulated statistic that “ten percent of conflicts are caused by a difference of opinion and 90% are caused by tone of voice” but my EAP consulting work supplies a steady stream of examples demonstrating the primacy of emotional tone in business communications. Whether a difference of opinion ends up leading to a …
A high-ranking source at OSHA has confirmed that the agency will require all managers and supervisors (from companies with more than 25 employees) to pass a licensing exam by the year 2020 demonstrating management competencies. The senior OSHA official, who wishes to remain anonymous until the agency officially promulgates the new regulations, declared: “Management induced stress is a plague on …
We spend a high percentage of our waking hours interacting with our work colleagues. Conventional wisdom has it that coworkers don’t have to like each other; they just need to do their jobs. According to some very interesting research coming out of Carnegie-Mellon and M.I.T. (not exactly epicenters of the “touchy-feely” school of business management) conventional wisdom, once again, turns …
Grieving has many different faces. Some of them are familiar and expected like sadness and despair. However, some of the effects of bereavement are more subtle such as experiencing an insidious decline in concentration and enthusiasm. This can be a problem for people returning to work after a bereavement leave. It has been a problem for me for almost …
A recent article in the New York Times detailing the arduous demands Amazon places on its employees has put a spotlight on the subject of working long hours. The authors contend that Amazon, an amazingly successful company well on its way to become the world’s first trillion dollar retailer, is conducting a Darwinian experiment in “how far it can push …
Many organizations try to boost employee productivity by using traditional analytic approaches which focus on strategic planning, goal setting and process efficiency measures. These methods reflect the belief that better systems, planning and processes lead to better employee performance. Other organizations emphasize improving employee benefits, perks, compensation, and schedules as a means to increase productivity. This approach reflects the belief …
Next time you start feeling the unwelcome onset of stress and all of it’s debilitating symptoms, take a couple of deep cleansing breaths and apply some of the life saving techniques that astronauts have developed for staying calm in crisis situations. Astronauts have the most stressful, and dangerous, of occupations and their training is the gold standard for successfully managing …
What happens when you have a winning product and/or business strategy but your managers have poor people skills? Lost opportunity is what happens. Failure to capitalize is what happens. Your business loses is what happens. Even the best business strategies do not implement themselves. They require communication, coordination, alignment, and efficiency. In other words, they require leaders with strong people …
A new research study from Stanford University and the Harvard Business School has named workplace stress as a contributor to at least 120,000 deaths a year and up to $190 billion in health care costs. 120,000 mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and coworkers who die prematurely, in part, due to work environments that are allowed to remain toxic. …
In our culture, which extols the merits of authenticity and transparency in everything from TED talks about leadership to advertisements for our food, it may seem a bit contrarian to make a case for the virtues of faking it. But I’d like to try. Suppose you are the manager of a busy gift store at the height of the …
We are forgetful creatures. I’m not referring to the “senior moment” variety of forgetfulness. I’m talking about the habitual forgetting that takes place in the midst of everyday life challenges and stresses, when we “forget” to make those choices that we know will keep our bodies, spirits and relationships healthy. We forget that change can only happen today and not …
Meetings are important. For better or worse, most organizational decisions are still made in groups. Meetings are a ubiquitous element of organizational life even as teams are now often geographically dispersed and collaborating online as well as in person. A productive meeting energizes, coordinates and galvanizes a team. Dysfunctional meetings, on the other hand, lead not only to bad decisions, …
Work environments have an abundance of stressors, but having a boss who behaves badly may be the worst. The experience of being treated unfairly or rudely is always unpleasant, but when it comes at the hands of someone who has significant power over your income and career it can be devastating. The problem is often compounded by the well-meaning, but …
People who have a persistent propensity to complain, find fault and judge others harshly can sap your energy and optimism if you are not careful. One of my EAP clients recently compared the effect of a colleague’s unrelenting negativity to a toxic cloud of second hand smoke: irritating, suffocating, and pervasive. It got me thinking about how challenging it can …
If someone foolishly launched into a litany of excuses and rationalizations around my former colleague Nancy, she loved to proclaim: “If wishes were dishes, the whole world would be a kitchen.” Invariably, she would follow up with an emphatic and melodic: “Woulda! Coulda! Shoulda!”. I was thinking about Nancy when I was assembling this short list of resolutions worth keeping …
You know the feeling. A dark cloud of procrastination sweeps in blocking the light of your enthusiasm, inspiration and creativity. Your project stalls. Momentum fizzles. Distraction and guilt follow. According to Dr. Joseph Ferrari, a leading researcher in the study of procrastination: “Everyone procrastinates, but not everyone is a procrastinator.” He estimates that 20% of adults in the United States …
Our hyper-connected, 24/7, ultra-competitive and globalized work environment is putting extraordinary stress on employees and their families. The health consequences to individuals and the financial costs to businesses add up to a problem of staggering proportions: Depression has become the leading cause of disability worldwide. Behavioral disability costs have increased more than 300% in the past decade and account for …
I am thankful for a family that loves me even though I am so reliably imperfect. I am thankful for a profession which allows me to share meaningful moments in the lives of others. I am thankful for the hopeful and excited smile I receive from my granddaughter each time she greets me. I am thankful …
Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) provide organizations and their employees an array of counseling and supportive services to address the negative effects of workplace stress. This is an extremely important mission, and EAPs are uniquely positioned to deliver on it, but I think we should be doing even more. We should be going beyond simply repairing the damage caused by organizational …
Advances in brain imaging technologies are extending the reach of scientific comprehension into the complex and fascinating recesses of human motivation. By studying detailed pictures of the brain’s responses to different situations neuroscientists are changing our understanding of why people act the way they do. Business leaders have an opportunity to translate these discoveries about human motivation into organizational cultures …
Last week the Boston Globe published a chart which details the current costs, in dollars and in time, of providing care for an older family member (It is worth noting that the chart appears in the business section because the astounding numbers illustrate just how significant this issue is for many employees and for the organizations that employ them) …
If you take the pleasure of getting things done at work and multiply that by the pleasure of getting better at what you do, the result is improved job satisfaction, higher motivation and diminished levels of stress. It’s a simple formula: we come to work to get something done and when we do our level of well-being and engagement increase. …
Some days it feels that way. You’re a manager with an ever lengthening task list and rapidly approaching deadlines and you worry that your blood pressure and stress level may be reaching new heights. Then one of your employees, let’s call him Ted, walks in the office and asks: “Have you got a minute to talk?” Freeze frame. You are …
Of all the employee personal issues that managers and HR professionals are called upon to address none is more complicated, hidden and stressful than domestic violence. A new Massachusetts law, signed by Governor Deval Patrick on August 8, 2014, has now codified specific employer responsibilities to employees who are victims of domestic violence. Under the new law, employers with at …
According to a recent survey of senior executives the success rate for major change initiatives is only 54%. Why do so many organizational change initiatives fail? Organizations are certainly aware that their success depends on the ability to change and adapt to rapidly evolving conditions effecting markets, customers, suppliers and competitors. They assign their top management talent, often reinforced with …
Today, as Spaceship Earth orbits the sun at the unimaginable speed of 67,000 miles per hour, a new passenger has come aboard. He is my first grandson, Isaiah Kenneth Sagor, and the story of how he came into being is, like all births, a historical miracle defying comprehension. Isaiah’s great-grandmother, Sylvia age 91, found her passage into this world only …
The current Market Basket saga features product and customer shortages but there certainly is no lack of compelling story lines and business lessons here. The intricate melodrama of the Demoulas’ family feud, the emergence of a rank and file army supporting a fired CEO and the suspense concerning how and when all the complicated elements will be resolved have captured, …
It was about an hour before I was supposed to “run” my first therapy group. The clients, ranging in age from 20 to 60, were in various stages of recovery from heroin addiction. I was 26 years old, had never run a group by myself, and was suddenly feeling a little panicky about the assignment. Among them, the group members …
Employers doing business in states which have legalized marijuana should make sure that their employment policies are keeping up with a rapidly evolving, and often contradictory, legal environment. Their employment policies need to reconcile the new state laws, permitting the medical use of marijuana, with the reality that marijuana is still classified as a Schedule I drug by the federal …
The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 6.7% of the U.S. adult population has a major depressive disorder in any given 12 month period. The number goes up to 16.5% when looking at how many people have depression over the course of their lifetime. Depression is a devastating condition that can rob you of the precious ability to enjoy …
Today is my birthday. My mother enjoys telling me that I stood at the gate of our backyard inspecting the presents from guests to my second birthday party. She has pictures to prove it. Along with conveying my apologies for all past episodes of rampant birthday greed, I would like to share a few birthday wishes today. I wish …
Ward Cleaver was an exemplary Dad, calm and wise and always available to talk with his kids and guide them. His wife June was an iconic nurturing at-home Mom. The Cleavers made a great team and their children adored and respected them. The men of Ward’s era were not expected to be present for their children’s births and did not …
“When one aged Zen master was asked to relate his biography, he exclaimed, “Just one mistake after another!” from Awakening the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das. The experience of each day changes us, even those routine days that seem to be nudging us toward nothing in particular. Like water smoothing a stone, the accumulation of daily experiences and choices …
Stress is a modern plague responsible for 75% to 90% of all doctor’s office visits. OSHA has declared it a workplace hazard costing American business $300 billion annually. Conventional wisdom blames work, and its toxic stew of constant deadlines, excessive workloads, 24/7 connectivity and globalization, as the primary stressor in contemporary life. However, new research, recently published in the Journal …
There is nothing better than an impending disaster to clarify the distinction between the essential and the trivial. When total annihilation is on the horizon no one is wasting any time worrying about whether it’s going to rain this weekend. The standard formula for disaster movies builds upon the stark choices offered by the threat of total calamity. In response …
When I started working in the employee assistance profession, EAPs did not offer legal consultation services. If a distressed employee called us about a legal issue we could be sympathetic listeners and try to help them manage their anxiety about the problem, but we could not give them what they needed most which was immediate legal advice. I remember one …
We launched Comprehensive EAP’s blog on June 6, 2012 with an expression of hope for what it would become: ………a place where we can think about the psychology of behavior, health and productivity in the workplace. What makes us more productive and more fulfilled? What gets in our way and impairs health, safety and productivity? What …
“Anger impedes our ability to be happy, because anger and happiness are incompatible” -Unknown Anger is a combustible emotion which leaves a trail of regret in its wake. The inappropriate expression of anger can destroy a marriage or a career. Unexpressed anger, on the other hand, leads to a different, but equally toxic, set of problems. It can fester and …
The most persuasive evidence for the value of an Employee Assistance program (EAP) depends on who is making the decision. If you are a human resources professional, or you are a front line manager, your value equation probably includes how the EAP helps you get your work done and makes your life less stressful. You assign a tangible value to …
I met Steve Mellor in the mid-1980’s when he was a young HR professional and I was a green EAP consultant. We bonded immediately as allies and comrades learning to make a place for ourselves in the corporate world. Along the way, we also took time to compare notes on the joys and challenges of being husbands and dads. Later …
Let’s begin with the iconic image of Tom Hanks as the exasperated coach of a woman’s baseball team in the movie A League of Their Own, declaring “There’s no crying in baseball!” This image resonates for so many men because, let’s be honest here, some of us are flummoxed by tears and uncertain about how to respond to a person …
Organizations are on a quest to identify the essential elements of employee engagement. They dream of building cultures and work environments that will capture every last ounce of employee discretionary effort. They want employees who arrive at work every day with all the optimism, ambition and enthusiasm that they brought on their first day believing that happy people create more …
The intensive search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 entered its second month yesterday. Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are very experienced with helping individuals and organizations in times of crisis, but the unprecedented scope and circumstances of the Malaysian Air disaster, and the continuing uncertainty about the plane’s fate, have created unique challenges for the EAP professionals working to support the …
Joan Venocchi wrote an op-ed piece in the Boston Globe last week about the curious case of Kelly Greenberg, the embattled head coach of the Boston University woman’s basketball team. It seems that her players just can’t agree on the question of whether she is a bully. Ms. Greenberg has been accused of driving four players to quit this year’s …
For the past 25 years the Families & Work Institute has been tracking the benefits practices, policies and programs of U.S. employers. Their findings have documented the many ways that employers and employees benefit from flexible and family friendly workplaces. The data demonstrates that in return for providing a more supportive workplace to employees, employers benefit by having “more engaged employees, …
“A skilled [feedback] giver is great, but mostly our lives are populated by everyone else, folks who aren’t so skilled, have their own issues, or are too busy to really give us the time we need. If you’re going to take charge of your own learning you’ve got to get good at learning from these people too. A skillful and …
The next time I present a training program for supervisors about using the EAP to help manage performance, I will be referencing a news story that was reported a couple of weeks ago in the Detroit area media. The story focuses on a letter Carolyn Moceri, the City Treasurer of Warren, Michigan wrote to the Director of Human Resources requesting …
“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ….get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.” Abraham Joshua Heschel Harold Ramis died last week. He cowrote and directed Groundhog Day, a …
You know that jittery feeling you get before you have to make a presentation? Most people believe that trying to “calm down” is the best way to handle this kind of pre-performance anxiety. It turns out that most people have it wrong. A recent study, by Alison Wood Brooks at the Harvard Business School, investigated this problem and her findings …
Of all the complicated personal problems that employees bring to the workplace, none is more difficult for organizations to manage than drug and alcohol issues. Employee drug and alcohol problems pose uniquely troublesome challenges because the risks they pose to safety, health and quality are often obscured by employee deception and denial. Employees who are missing work or making errors …
Last October, I had an opportunity to ask 25,000 strangers five questions concerning their attitudes and feelings about work. Today’s post reviews some of the responses I received to one of those questions: “What are your strategies for balancing the demands of work with those of your personal life?” As you might expect, there is great variability in how people …
The year was 1971, my first as a school psychologist in Michigan’s Willow Run School District. On April 3, the eve of the third anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the Willow Run School Board met to consider its options for honoring the life and work of Dr. King. Dr. R. Wiley Brownlee, the high school principal, …
Ethel Weiss is the primary (and sole) investigator for the longest running research project in the country on the subject of happiness and job satisfaction. When I tell you that the study is being conducted in Massachusetts you might reasonably suspect that the Harvard Business School or M.I.T. have something to do with it, but they don’t. Ethel’s extraordinary research …
I usually write about the experience of working. Today I want to write about the experience of not working and the plight of the unemployed. HBO’s heart wrenching documentary, American Winter, offers a compelling primer on the life-changing consequences of being without a job in America. The film documents the daily personal struggles of 8 families in Portland, Oregon …
What a joy it is to recycle stuff that has been gathering dust. It’s not just the space it opens up, although that’s pretty satisfying. The best part of repurposing things is that you also silence their nagging challenge: “I have value. Why aren’t you using me?” So it was with pleasure that I cleaned out the area below my …
One of my best management experiences was coaching my son’s Little League baseball team. I may not be able to remember the name of the movie with what’s-his-name in it that I saw last week but I can tell you the name of each kid on the team and what position they played. That group played hard and had a …
“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” More than ninety heads of state, and tens of thousands of South Africans, met in a Soweto soccer stadium today to celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela. What accounts for the deep reverence we …
“Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same.” Franz Peter Schubert Today’s post is the third in a series. Part 1 explained how I won the Listserve lottery and earned the prize of polling 25,000 strangers about their feelings about work. Part 2 looked at some of the answers I received …
I am thankful for a family that loves me even though I am so reliably imperfect. I am thankful for a profession which allows me to share meaningful moments in the lives of my clients. I am thankful for the hopeful and excited smile I receive from my granddaughter each time she greets me. I am thankful for public libraries …
Organizations face daunting challenges when it comes to effectively managing employees whose personal problems begin to interfere with their work performance. Just ask the city of Toronto. The headlines concerning Rob Ford, Toronto’s embattled mayor, have progressed from sensational to almost unprintable in just a matter of days. We have been deluged by a steady media stream of Mr. Ford’s …
Of the 21.5 million veterans in the United States, 9.1 million are currently in the workforce. According to government estimates, one million service members will be leaving active duty over the next five years. Last year on Veterans Day I posted a piece on the special value and skills veterans bring to civilian work. I would like to observe this …
