Last week, I finished writing the newsletter so it could be delivered early Friday morning. That means I didn’t know about the events and fallout from LegalWeek that hit the Legal Tech social media scene on Friday. That morning, it was clear that this would dominate the conversation for a while, and rightfully so.
I wasn’t at LegalWeek. I didn’t know much about what happened. On the other hand, I’ve been around the industry long enough to “know” in the larger sense. I’ve had too many women tell me their stories to be surprised that something like this happened, but I was also heartened to see people talking about it openly for once.
Welcome to this week’s collection of thought-provoking things. Each week, I’ll share information about careers and workplace culture, mental health in the workplace, talent development, and important information about privacy, security, and legal tech.
You can find out all about me here - Mike McBride Online.
Given the fact that the stories of harassment and assault in the legal industry are not my stories to tell, I stayed quiet over the weekend aside from a couple of comments and “likes” on LinkedIn.
By the start of this week, I wanted to say something because while those stories are not mine to tell, I do know what it’s like to try and navigate spaces where you feel unsafe. I grew up in an unsafe home, and that experience taught me to be small and avoid being noticed. If any member of your team feels unsafe, they may be doing some of the same things I did:
I was beaten up and raped as a child. Everything I did at that age, and for years after, was to limit the amount of attention paid to me. I got straight As because I needed to avoid getting in trouble. I was extremely quiet and shy because I didn't want anyone to notice me. In the middle of summer, I wore jeans, a T-shirt, and an overtop flannel shirt daily to hide myself. I quit sports. I didn't sign up for any extra-curricular activities. When I was failing out of college, I didn't ask for help. I hid. I only desired to be left alone. At work, I didn't speak up for myself and my ideas. I tried not to have too many ideas. Outside of work, I tried to fit in and do what everyone else did.
That’s no way to navigate a career. Listen to the stories. They are uncomfortable. They are heavy. Do it anyway and learn from them. We all need to do better.
Doug Austin has collected many of the links and stories in this post. Read that, too.
Careers and the Workplace
In other bad news for women at work - Yet Another Annoying Study About Double Standards at Work Shows Social Climbing Works for Men but Backfires Spectacularly for Women
Have you considered the paycut you’re asking employees to take by coming back to the office? - Employees are spending the equivalent of a month's grocery bill on the return to the office–and growing more resentful than ever, new survey finds.
Communication is vital -
Training and Development
This month, this company is offering a free 30-day trial for OneDrive and Teams training. This could be useful if you or your coworkers haven’t looked at all the features and nuances. - https://leadershipthroughdata.com/free-trial/
What Leaders Can Learn From Watching the Super Bowl - including the importance of coaching.
Mental Health in the Workplace
Everyone does their job better when supported - Students do better, and schools are more stable when teachers get mental health support.
The mental health impacts of poor workplace culture should not be underestimate. - Emotional abuse at work is more significant than we think, and even harder to escape.
Privacy, Security, and Legal Tech
This list includes the complications from collaborative platforms, which was an obvious attention-getter for me. There’s more here - 5 Trends to Watch: 2024 eDiscovery and eRetention.
This is our future - Finance worker pays out $25 million after video call with deepfake ‘chief financial officer’
This will be a moving target for a while - More Ethics Guidance Arrives Amid Rapid Releases Of Legal AI.
The Importance of an Internal Privacy Policy
Curation is the last best hope of intelligent discourse. - Joan Westerberg argues that human curation is the counter to AI-generated junk:
In the Large Language Grift era, we need more visibility into source provenance and credibility signals. Creators’ personal sites provide this through clear origin stories and context. We know exactly who authored the narratives and can evaluate them accordingly. These individuals seed networks with reliable nodes by linking out from personal sites and syndicating via social channels. Their sites become operations bases and fortresses from generative excess - emitting only what they deem high signal based on careful consideration.
See also - What using RSS feeds feels like.
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 in each week to share this with you.