Thought-provoking Things Worth Sharing - Issue #58
One of the lessons I learned early on in my career is that managers who demand a "butt in a seat" for 8 hours every day, between the hours of 8-5 and monitor that like a hawk will get exactly that, and nothing more. This week there are links in the newsletter about the increase of monitoring remote employees to ensure they are "online and working" during the work day, and the popularity of "quiet quitting", or doing the minimum for your job, and nothing else.
I do not think that is a coincidence. What do you think?
Workplace and Careers
Linked - Remote workers are feeling pressure to prove their productivity — www.mikemcbrideonline.com It's all the remote equivalent of sitting at your desk later than your coworkers to show you are hard-working. That never told anyone who was getting the most work done, but it rarely stopped bosses from using it as a proxy and rewarding people for looking like they worked hard. It's been an issue in the workplace for years, and remote work finally allowed us to get rid of it forever if we chose to. Or we can just keep doing it and never make any improvements.
Why Capable People Are Reluctant to Lead — hbr.org All too often, promising employees fail to step up when leadership opportunities arise. What is it that holds so many people back? The authors describe new research that sheds light on three of the most common perceived risks that are associated with leadership: the risk to your interpersonal relationships, the risk to your image, and the risk of being blamed for failure. They go on to suggest several tactical strategies for managers looking to nurture leadership at all levels, including going the extra mile to identify and support your most risk-sensitive employees, proactively addressing interpersonal disagreements before they escalate into uncomfortable conflicts, and finding low-stakes opportunities for people to try out leadership. Ultimately, empowering people to lead starts with acknowledging — and mitigating — the reasons they may be hesitant to step up.
How embracing a soft leadership style changes your ability to attract talent — mumbrella.com.au A few years ago, I engaged a leadership coach to carry out a workshop for my digital agency. The aim was to find ways to be more productive and efficient together. At the time, I didn’t realise how pivotal this would be to shaping my ability to attract talent today.My team and I were asked […]
Linked - What Quiet Quitting Really Means for Employees and Leaders — www.mikemcbrideonline.com Let's face it, what company in the tech or legal sector is not telling employees that the way to get ahead is to go "above and beyond" their job description? Or, as I also hear often, to get that promotion, you need to be doing part of the next job on your career path. I also know many people, especially younger people, who hear that and immediately ask why they should be doing a job that isn't the job they are getting paid to do. That's a fair question. Why should any of us stress ourselves to take on responsibilities that might allow us to get a promotion and eventually be paid for doing that work someday? Let's face it; many people have been doing that work and getting no promotions or salary adjustments for years. They see that and want no part of it. Why would we do that to ourselves? Maybe we all should figure out a better way to evaluate and promote people.
Quick Thought - Meeting Free Days Also Say Something About Your Workplace Culture — www.mikemcbrideonline.com Yes, I am on record as saying that the most important thing in a remote workplace is communication, in fact, I'm a fan of over-communicating. That doesn't have to mean more meetings though. It can, honestly, just mean making use of all of the communication tools we have, especially when the discussion does not need to be had in real-time. If you make Monday "meeting-free" but cram five days' worth of meetings into the other four days of the week, you're not helping the situation. You're just rearranging deck chairs. The real change comes in figuring out how to make do with less meeting time, by taking advantage of alternatives when that makes sense, and by learning how to have more efficient meetings. (Start by not scheduling every meeting for 1 hour, for example. A 10-minute conversation can be a 10-minute meeting. There is no law that says all meetings must be divisible into 30-minute increments just because your Outlook calendar defaults to that.)
The 7 Best Networking Strategies for Introverts — www.makeuseof.com If you are an introvert who wants to network confidently at an event, here are some strategies you can use.
Security and Privacy
I’m Done With My Data, Now What? | Taft Privacy & Data Security Insights — www.privacyanddatasecurityinsight.com The answer is simple; delete it (unless retention is required by law or contract)! Virtually every company processes personal data in some form or
Why MFA matters: These attackers cracked admin accounts then used Exchange to send spam | ZDNET — www.zdnet.com None of the accounts broken into had MFA enabled, which could have stopped the attack from progressing so fast.
EFF Urges FTC to Address Security and Privacy Problems in Daycare and Early Education Apps | Electronic Frontier Foundation — www.eff.org SAN FRANCISCO—The Federal Trade Commission must review the lack of privacy and security protections among daycare and early education apps, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged Wednesday in a letter to Chair Lina Khan.Daycare and preschool applications frequently include notifications of...
Training
Linked - Hybrid Work Is Just Work. Are We Doing It Wrong? — www.mikemcbrideonline.com People want to grow. They want to learn, and they want to develop the skills necessary to remain relevant in industries that are going through constant change. You can provide them with opportunities, or they will go somewhere else to do those things. Those are genuinely your only options. Change happens way too fast now for you to sit back and not help your people change with the times. Career stagnation is career death.
Social Learning in a Virtual World: Three Cs | ATD — www.td.org When incorporating social learning into your current framework, consider the three Cs: cohorts, communication, and collaboration.
eDiscovery and Legal Tech
What is the Data Explosion and Why Should Lawyers Care? | Relativity Blog | Relativity — www.relativity.com Information governance policies are not created only for your IT and information security departments. They offer benefits for your entire organization and should be relied upon by your legal department.
Defendant Found Slacking: Default Judgment Issued for Discovery Abuses, David Cohen — viewpoints.reedsmith.com Although default judgments are rarely issued for discovery abuses, a court found it appropriate to issue a default judgment in Red Wolf Energy Trading, ...
Mental Health
Time to address mental health issues in the workplace, UN agencies urge | | 1UN News — news.un.org With an estimated 12 billion workdays lost annually due to depression and anxiety, costing the global economy nearly $1 trillion, more action is needed to tackle mental health issues at work, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Wednesday. |