Mike McBride on Tech, eDiscovery and Mental Health - Issue #10
Careers and the Workplace
How to be an ally in the workplace: 13 ways to do it | — ideas.ted.com Intervening when you see microaggressions is a great way to support people who are marginalized; another way is through microaffirmations. Diversity, equity and inclusion advocate Melinda Briana Epler explains what they are and how to practice them.
Linked: Women in the Workplace — www.mikemcbrideonline.com This is an acute problem for many of us, who want to participate in doing the work of promoting diversity and inclusion but are still getting measured by everything other than that. And, as the survey points out, it is oftentimes women who take on this work, in an effort to help other women and minorities achieve. But, as much as the C-Level folks talk about the importance of this work, it is not a part of the job performance, nor is time and effort really allocated for it. How many of you volunteer to take on this work, running an employee resource group, putting together presentations, leading group discussions, often at the behest of top management, and then when it comes times for performance reviews, the only thing that matters is time spent on bringing in revenue? The message seems to really be, "It's great that you want to do this work for us, but make sure you do it on your time because your productivity will be measured against the people who don't spend any time at all doing this work"
Busting the career ladder myth | Zapier — zapier.com See what happens when we free ourselves from trying to reach the top of the ladder and instead carve our own paths as a career river flowing toward our ultimate objective: the ocean.
Linked: You Don’t Need to Meet Every Qualification to Apply for a Job — www.mikemcbrideonline.com I see this often, in young people just starting out, and plenty of people who've been around a bit longer and should know better. They look at a job
eDiscovery and LegalTech
How Psychology Can Save Your Cybersecurity Awareness Training Program — www.darkreading.com Understanding human psychology, how it works, and how to introduce its concepts into cybersecurity awareness training can make a huge difference to your organization.
E-Discovery in Crisis Mode: Collaboration is Key During Incident Response and Recovery | EDRM — edrm.net The e-discovery profession has evolved tremendously over the past two decades, and the rate of change is accelerating rapidly. Just as the scope of ESI we now must navigate has expanded, so has our role expanded beyond traditional document review for litigations and regulatory investigations. E-discovery practitioners today are required to conduct complex search and analysis relating to data privacy issues, investigate IP theft, uncover key facts relating to a data breach and so much more. For many, the unofficial job description now includes crisis response.
You Can't Secure What You Don't Know Exists — www.mikemcbrideonline.com If you've paid much attention to the eDiscovery space over the last months, you may have noticed the same trend that I have. It seems that every other
Internet
Phishing Infographic — www.mikemcbrideonline.com Picked this up from Digital Guardian, and really there's a lot of good things to remind people about, whether it be email, phone calls, or social media
Linked: Crowd-Sourced Suspicion Apps Are Out of Control — www.mikemcbrideonline.com I've been thinking about this a lot over the last couple of years. We tend to think of the "Big Tech" apps and social networks as being the problem in the digital world, but really it's all these little places too, because, as they describe, they don't just keep us informed of actual events in our neighborhoods, they keep us informed of every single instance of something that someone finds suspicious. This, in turn, makes us go from living in a relatively calm neighborhood to believing we are just one or two days away from the Purge.
Linked: 81 Percent Of U.S. Adults Do Not Regularly Use Twitter The numbers in the post below are important to remember, whether you're a business owner trying to decide where to spend your marketing budget, or anyone
Mental Health
Linked: Should employers provide mental health training for management? — www.mikemcbrideonline.com
The one that gives me pause is the last bullet, but not because leaders shouldn't have that knowledge, but more because human nature tells me that is the one most likely to be misused and create really uncomfortable situations. There's a very fine line between being aware of signs of someone struggling and diagnosis. I absolutely do not want anyone in the workplace diagnosing people. Watch out for signs of stress and ways you can support the folks who work for you proactively? Sure. Decide for yourself that they have depression, or should be referred to an Employee Assistance Program? Not so much. But, here's the thing I will fully admit when saying this. Avoiding this type of behavior is absolutely something that solid mental health training should be a part of. I've heard far too many instances lately where organizations are reading a lot about mental health, and burnout, in the workplace and then dispatch their managers to have conversations with their teams about it, and zero training. Those conversations are dangerous. You have to enable your leaders to go into those conversations with some education and expertise on the subject Just telling them to go and have the conversations without getting them up to speed on how to do so, creates a situation that is likely to end up with some very alienated employees.