Mike McBride on Tech, eDiscovery and Mental Health - Issue #17
Happy Friday to you all. Lots of good links this week for you to enjoy! I hope you find some time to slow down and take care of you over this weekend before the holiday "busyness" kicks in!
Work and Culture
Linked: Does your remote team really need an in-person offsite? — www.mikemcbrideonline.com As the future of work settles in a bit, in the sense that we are now working remotely by choice more than by COVID requirement, we are seeing a large shift toward the desire to work remotely. I believe that shift is everyone listed above. For introverts, people with disabilities, people with adult or child care requirements, working remotely is bliss. (I did it even before COVID.) We can still do the other things that are important in our lives without being forced to a specific location, and we can do it without being forced to be in the same physical space as people we may or may not like. The problem is, and we see this clearly in the discussion below, doing things in-person is how we've always done things. The custom of having a quarterly or annual offsite was designed in a workplace that has always catered to extroverts and people who were available to be at the office for longer and longer hours. That culture has always excluded people. Think about the after-work drinks custom. How many moms got to attend instead of hurrying home to their kids, and how many men got to attend simply because somewhere there was a mom hurrying home to take care of the kids instead of them? How many introverted employees never showed up, or showed up out of a sense of guilt, quietly sipped their drink, and left as soon as it seemed polite to do so? And don't even get me started on the number of employees in recovery who cannot, and should not, go out drinking with the group. But, what did you hear about these events? They were great, we had a blast, we really got to bond with other folks from the team, etc. That feedback all comes from the minority that actually gets to go, and enjoys being in a group setting.
Linked: Half of workers say they will only apply for hybrid or working from home jobs — www.mikemcbrideonline.com I think that makes sense, and it might fit for a lot of US workers too. I know in the eDiscovery industry we are seeing more desire for flexibility, and salaries going up pretty significantly. Though we aren't seeing the same level of disinterest in looking for a new role. Does that suggest that fewer workers in our industry have found what they are looking for in terms of flexibility and money? Or do they see the reality of changing jobs for a 15-25% pay increase versus what they'd get by staying? That's an interesting thing to think about. Do you know how your employees feel about that? Do you know what they want to stay? What will entice them to leave?
Linked - How Training Keeps Your Customers Coming Back For More — www.mikemcbrideonline.com Given this, why do so many companies cut and/or just not offer training? "If your customer training game is on point, your customers are likely to repay
Linked - Emailing While You’re on Vacation Is a Quick Way to Ruin Company Culture — www.mikemcbrideonline.com Not unplugging sends the message that it's not OK for others to unplug, not to mention also telling your employees that you don't really trust them. So it
Hey Workplace, It's Not Me, It's You. — www.mikemcbrideonline.com I stumbled across a really interesting Harvard Business Review article the other day about burnout. The premise was that maybe we think about burnout,
Mental Health
Council Post: Five Ways To Destress And Improve Mental Well-Being In The Workplace — www.forbes.com Here are five stress-busting ideas that leaders can implement within the workplace context.
In the New Year, Give Work+Life Grace a Try | Relativity Blog | Relativity — www.relativity.com Embrace being invested in your personal and professional lives each day, and be comfortable with the compromises that come with that.
Employees give companies an F when it comes to supporting mental health - TechRepublic — www.techrepublic.com Workers say the option to use flexible working hours is the best way for companies to support well-being among employees.
Why Are We Lonely, It's Too Easy to Let Things Slide — www.childabusesurvivor.net This week, I'm taking some time away from work and visiting with family and friends but I wanted to share something on the blog. I had dinner the other
eDiscovery and CyberSecurity
Bosses are reluctant to spend money on cybersecurity. Then they get hacked | ZDNet — www.zdnet.com Preventing a cyberattack is more cost effective than reacting to one - but many boardrooms still aren't willing to free up budget.
Think Mobile Devices Aren’t Important During Discovery? This Case Shows You Why They Are - Forensic Discovery — forensicdiscovery.expert Learn more on why mobile devices are important during discovery. We have provided examples for this mobile forensic topic.
Looking back to look ahead: Anticipating the cybersecurity landscape in 2022 — www.cio.com Reviewing the challenges that CISOs had to address in 2021 can help us better plan for what lies ahead.
Social Media
I'd Quit Facebook But That's Where My Friends Are — www.mikemcbrideonline.com The title of this post is my attempt at paraphrasing a conversation I had with a friend last week. A friend I used to work with, who I no longer see on
Sharing - When Scrolling Through Social, Keep Your Mental Health in Mind — www.childabusesurvivor.net This is an older post from the Mental Health First Aid site, but I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and being much more purposeful in who I follow, and what kinds of things I want in my feeds. I think it’s something to consider, because using social media is not, in and of itself,...