Thought-provoking Things Worth Sharing - Issue #187
Wasting time with coworkers
I came across a post this week about the importance of “wasting time” with people as an important part of building a community.
I wrote a bit more about it here but this week was also an important reminder for me.
Sharing - If You Want to Build Community, You Have to “Waste Time” with People
Welcome to this week’s collection of thought-provoking things. For each issue, I will share information on careers and workplace culture, workplace mental health, talent development, and key insights into privacy, security, and legal technology.
You can learn more about me here: Mike McBride Online.
I work from home, so most of my time with other people is structured toward goals. I try not to make all of the time that way, though, and one of the nice things about this past week, as I made office visits to spend time with my team members, was the opportunity to take them to lunch and have a very unstructured conversation. Did we talk about work during part of that? Of course, but we also talked about our families, hobbies, the local area, etc.
Am I exhausted after visiting three offices in three cities in three days? Absolutely. Not just because of the travel, that’s also a lot of socializing for me. But it was worth taking some steps toward building community with my team.
What I come away from this week with is not that I should go back to working in an office. Afterall, I was also much less productive this week than I normally am at home. I know how I work best. I am thinking a lot about making my one-on-ones less structured, or finding ways to communicate in a way that is less task and goal focused at times. To give myself and my team an opportunity to waste a little time together.
How do you waste time with your team?
Careers and the Workplace
Worth Reading - If You Feel Behind in Your Career, Read This
The idea that you will start your career after college, work hard, and move up the career ladder is a complete fiction. That is not normal by any means. If you find yourself in your 30s or 40s switching jobs and not climbing the ladder the way you thought you would, welcome to the club. What you've been experiencing is normal. There's no ladder, it's the freaking monkey bars out here.
This is a very underrated career skill - How to express yourself clearly
Worth a bookmark - Self-Audit Your Career Edition
Artificial Intelligence
As always, the answer is it depends.
Somewhat related - AI Privilege and Waiver: What Courts Are Actually Saying (And What They’re Not)
Training and Development
This is a risk that many people might be taking -
Related- It’s tempting to offload your thinking to AI. Cognitive science shows why that’s a bad idea
Obviously, I would share this in the newsletter - Ditch Doomscrolling: How Newsletters Beat Social Media for Your Brain
Mental Health in the Workplace
How is the mental health of workers in 2026?
Do you see the trend? Many of us have gotten more comfortable talking about mental health with people we trust. We do not trust corporate leaders. And, why should we? How many people do you know who’ve been laid off in recent years, not because they weren’t meeting the requirements of the job, or the company was losing money, but because the stock price needed a nudge? It’s impossible for employees to trust that you care about their mental health when you’ve watched them cut staff and make it more difficult on those left behind over and over again.
Supporting your workers’ mental health requires them to feel a sense of safety. That no longer exists in most workplaces.
If this is a precursor for what’s to come, this is going to be very bad for big tech, and it’s very difficult to feel sorry for them. - Meta and YouTube ordered to pay $3 million to young woman in social media addiction trial.
Privacy, Security, and Legal Tech
This isn’t just a K-12 problem. Third-party breaches are not uncommon, and as tight as your security may be, you’ve also got to constantly be onguard against risks targeted at the companies you partner with who also have your confidential data. Yes, I’m looking at us, law firms.
This is frightening, and also correct - Targeted advertising is also targeting malware
New features and new eDiscovery questions:
That’s all, folks. If you found something interesting in this week’s newsletter, please share it with your friends. It’s the best way to help support the effort I put into sharing this with you each week.