Thought-provoking Things Worth Sharing - Issue #75
Thought-provoking Things Worth Sharing - Issue #75
Let's Talk About Layoffs
It’s all over the news, so let’s talk about the elephant in the room.
Let’s also talk about some of these big tech layoffs especially.
Do Layoffs Fix Anything, or Do We Have Them Because Everyone Else is Doing It?
Take a hard look at what leaders are saying about layoffs and what they focus on. Do they seem personally hurt and concerned for the people leaving? Do they have honest and transparent explanations for why they made these decisions? Or do they repeat platitudes about "recession," costs, and other bits of financial jargon to explain away something so painful to the same people they were calling part of the family a week ago?
Ed Zitron argues that Google CEO Sundar Pichai should be fired. - He makes similar points about it being the BigTech CEO who screwed up, but it's not them paying the price.
Layoff Brain, where Anne Helen Petersen claims that it’s not really about cost-savings:
After more than a decade of hiring sprees and bidding wars for talent, these actions have been labeled a sort of natural, totally expected “course correction.” And some of that argument makes sense. But it’s also a very convenient way of (re)instilling fear in the workforce.
What do you think? Are these Big Tech layoffs about course corrections, recession, or an excuse to get rid of staff and pressure the remaining staff under cover of everyone else doing it too?
Training and Career Development
Great Leaders Are Facilitators: They Know How to Design Collaboration and Innovation
When you think of effective leadership styles, what words come to mind? "Facilitation" is probably not a word you would associate with leadership, yet successful leaders are skilled facilitators. They know how to draw out the ideas and thoughts of others, integrating diverse perspectives.
15 research-backed benefits of employee training - There are many good reasons to invest in your people.
Is Your Training Contributing to Quiet and Quick Quitting?
Yikes:
“Our new hire cohort started with 12 but after two weeks and 78 hours of self-based video onboarding, only three of us were left.” — Bonnie, Utilization Review Nurse
“After three months of hearing the mantra, ‘It’s a crazy time’ and countless promises that I’d get the training I needed soon, I just couldn’t hang in there any longer.” — Alex, Customer Support Representative
One mentor isn’t enough. Here’s how I built a network of mentors - We can certainly learn more by learning from more people.
Management
Quick Thought - Your Employees Are Individuals not Statistics - Surveys might suggest that some hybrid workplace is the most popular choice. Still, a significant percentage of respondents didn’t agree. Do you know where the individuals who work for you fall?
Also, please create meeting agendas and pass them out ahead of time!
Mental Health in the Workplace
You can’t ignore mental health at work.
That stigma is very dangerous and it often stops folks from asking for the help they need.
Leading by Example: The Importance of Role Modeling for Lawyer Mental Health
Why do we get Stressed About Replying Quickly? - how many times in a given week are you apologizing to friends and family because you couldn’t get back to them right away?
Legal Tech and eDiscovery
Pennsylvania on the ethics of using smartphones for client data storage - This might not be a great idea, lawyers.
The Importance of Data that Doesn’t Exist – Part Two (Missing Data Sources)
In some cases it can be tempting to take the view that, if it isn’t there, then you don’t need to collect or review it. Taking such an approach can leave you open to questions from the other side further down the line about why the data was not found and reviewed – worse, the data might actually be present, it just is not where it was expected to be.
Good tech can be a great equalizer - How technology supports the pursuit of justice by enabling small law firms to work at scale.