Tag: Office Culture

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News You Can Use: 1/30/2019

  • How Companies Secretly Boost Their Glassdoor Ratings

    In the Journal’s analysis, five-star ratings collectively made up 45% of reviews in the months where the number of reviews jumped, compared with 25% in the six months before and after. While it isn’t possible to determine from the data alone what caused each spike, a statistical test shows the likelihood that so many would skew positive by chance is highly improbable.

    Well-known names with large spikes included messaging-app developer Slack Technologies Inc., professional-networking site LinkedIn, health insurer Anthem Inc., household-products maker Clorox Co. and Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman Corp.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-manipulate-glassdoor-by-inflating-rankings-and-pressuring-employees-11548171977

  • It’s Now Clear None of the Supposed Benefits of Killing Net Neutrality Are Real

    In the months leading up to the FCC assault on net neutrality, big telecom and FCC boss Ajit Pai told anybody who’d listen that killing net neutrality would boost broadband industry investment, spark job creation, and drive broadband into underserved areas at an unprecedented rate.

    As it turns out, none of those promises were actually true.

    Despite the FCC voting to kill the popular consumer protections late last year, Comcast’s latest earnings report indicates that the cable giant’s capital expenditures (CAPEX) for 2018 actually decreased 3 percent. The revelation comes on the heels by similar statements by Verizon and Charter Spectrum that they’d also be seeing lower network investment numbers in 2018.

    https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gyab5m/its-now-clear-none-of-the-supposed-benefits-of-killing-net-neutrality-are-real

  • The experience economy is coming
  • Everyone hates open offices. Here’s why they still exist

    For as long as these floor plans have been in vogue, studies have debunked their benefits. Researchers have shown that people in open offices take nearly two-thirds more sick leave and report greater unhappiness, more stress, and less productivity than those with more privacy. A 2018 study by Harvard Business School found that open offices reduce face-to-face interaction by about 70% and increase email and messaging by roughly 50%, shattering the notion that they make workers collaborative. (They’re even subtly sexist.) And yet, the open plan persists–too symbolically powerful (and cheap) for many companies to abandon.

    This is about saving money, not about work culture:

    Of course, one of the main reasons that business leaders default to open plans is simply that they’re inexpensive. According to commercial real estate association CoreNet Global, the average space allotted to individual employees globally fell from 225 square feet in 2010 to 176 square feet in 2013, and is projected to keep decreasing. This adds up to hundreds of millions of dollars–or more–in savings per year at the country’s largest companies, according to calculations from Erik Rood, an analyst in Google’s human resources department who examines corporate financials on his personal blog, Data Interview Qs.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/90285582/everyone-hates-open-plan-offices-heres-why-they-still-exist

  • How to Declutter and Organize Your Personal Tech in a Few Simple Steps

    Pick somewhere in your home where your various wires will live, like a closet, cabinet or drawer. From there, categorize the wires and give them compartments. I separate my different types of wires — earbuds, phone chargers, miscellaneous USB cables and computer chargers — into Ziploc bags and label them with a label maker. All the bags live in a drawer in my TV stand.

    There are different approaches to organizing your power cables. Families with children could give each member a compartment. For example, put your son Joe’s iPhone charger, laptop charger and earbuds into one Ziploc bag and label it “Joe’s tech.”

    This step is a must. “If you don’t have a dedicated place for your items, then you’re wasting your time finding them,” said Keith Bartolomei, a professional organizer for Zen Habitat.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/technology/personaltech/declutter-organize-personal-tech-few-simple-steps.html

Photo by Artem Bali on Unsplash

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News You Can Use: 12/5/2018

  • There’s definitely reason to worry about Brexit, says Accel’s London team

    Though they reiterated that no one can know for certain what Brexit’s impact might be, Botteri raised a handful of things that have the firm worried, beginning with “immigration and hiring talent and the movement of talent,” which could be meaningfully hampered by Brexit. “Even companies that don’t move their headquarters to London will often at some point begin to build a team,” he noted, questioning whether that will continue to happen.

    There’s also the nontrivial issue of what happens to fintech companies, which have been thriving in London as a gateway between the U.S. and Europe and that have easily operated across all of Europe. Asked Botteri, “What about that?” post Brexit.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/30/yes-do-worry-about-brexit-says-accel/

  • Confessions of a procurement director: ‘We don’t want to overpay our agencies’

    It’s procurement’s fault to a degree that agencies have shifted their income model. That’s basically a result of forcing down margins. It shouldn’t be that way. The team I work in is more advertising and marketing-focused than others I’ve worked at, so we’re able to draw up contracts with partners that aren’t always trying to secure the cheapest price and are more about how we get value and better return on investment. We don’t want to overpay our agencies and ad tech vendors, but we really don’t want to do the opposite because we see them as partners and if those businesses aren’t profitable then they will not work with us.

    https://digiday.com/marketing/confessions-procurement-director-dont-want-overpay-agencies/

  • How super rich companies harm us all — and try to cover it up
  • Empower the Employees Who Will Build an Amazing Culture

    Empowerment is often interpreted as giving people control over daily details like what hours they work or what kinds of snacks they find in the break room. While those things certainly make day-to-day living more comfortable, they don’t give employees an overarching sense of ownership over the work they do.

    Empowered employees are given the opportunity to do work they value or work that fuels their growth. Anything less feels like lip service, and companies that want to keep their employees genuinely empowered — and engaged — have to keep this mind. Empowerment isn’t necessarily about making work more enjoyable; it’s about making it more meaningful.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/323575

  • How to Become the Best of the Best

    You can be the best at something, but if no one knows, no one cares. Work on making friends in your field, especially with people more successful than you. That means having people skills, introducing yourself at parties, going to events, and throwing out favors.

    It kind of sucks that just being extremely good isn’t enough, but a lot of skills don’t have a “best of” category. An athlete may consistently win, thus establishing themselves as the best, but most of us do stuff that is much harder to measure. That’s why who you know (and who likes you) matters so much.

    https://lifehacker.com/how-to-become-the-best-of-the-best-1830571441

Photo by Mantas Hesthaven on Unsplash

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News You Can Use: 9/26/2018

The Source: Staying nonpartisan

  • Google CEO Warns Staff: Stay Nonpartisan

    In a staff memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Pichai told employees, known as “Googlers,” that the company has strict policies against letting political views influence the products they create.

    “We do not bias our products to favor any political agenda,” Mr. Pichai said. “The trust our users place in us is our greatest asset and we must always protect it. If any Googler ever undermines that trust, we will hold them accountable.”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-ceo-warns-staff-stay-nonpartisan-1537580004?ns=prod/accounts-wsj

  • Amazon Is a Giant. But Bigness Isn’t a Crime.

    Many in the field point to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion in the 2004 case of Verizon v. Trinko. It examined the question of whether Verizon was required, under antitrust law, to provide competitors wholesale access to its telephone network.

    “The mere possession of monopoly power, and the concomitant charging of monopoly prices is not only not unlawful; it is an important element of the free market system,” Justice Scalia wrote.

    In this view, there is no crime in being monopolist; the crime is in abusing that power. According to Justice Scalia, a healthy monopoly “induces risk taking that produces innovation and economic growth.”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-is-a-giant-but-bigness-isnt-a-crime-1537534900?ns=prod/accounts-wsj

  • An astronaut’s guide to risk taking | Chris Hadfield
  • How to Successfully Delegate Work to Someone Else

    Even if you don’t have a specific “deadline” for a delegated task, come up with an arbitrary one that you give someone the first time you pass a responsibility their way. A reasonable deadline can make sure the task doesn’t get forgotten and can give you a good idea of when you can expect the work to be completed.

    https://lifehacker.com/how-to-successfully-delegate-work-to-someone-else-1829254908

  • Hate your cubicle? Thank medieval monks

    But medieval monks may have been the first to use cubicles–or a scriptorium, as it was called–as they worked on manuscripts. These writing rooms were also used by lay scribes and illuminators.

    Botticelli’s painting of St. Augustine in his cell depicts a small three-walled alcove with a curtain, further suggesting that such work in Renaissance times was done in secluded spaces to maximize focus. Coincidentally, this painting hangs in the Uffizi Gallery, which was originally the central administrative building of the Medici empire.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/90236769/hate-your-cubicle-thank-medieval-monks

Photo by Angelo Pantazis on Unsplash

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News You Can Use: 8/29/2018

The Source: Gig Economy

  • It’s Not Technology That’s Disrupting Our Jobs

    Over these four decades we have seen an increase in the use of day laborers, office temps, management consultants, contract assemblers, adjunct professors, Blackwater mercenaries and every other kind of worker filing an I.R.S. form 1099. These jobs span the income ranks, but they share what all work seems to have in common in the post-1970s economy: They are temporary and insecure.

    In the last 10 years, 94 percent of net new jobs have appeared outside of traditional employment. Already approximately one-third of workers, and half of young workers, participate in this alternative world of work, either as a primary or a supplementary source of income.

    Internet technologies have certainly intensified this development (even though most freelancers remain offline). But services like Uber and online freelance markets like TaskRabbit were created to take advantage of an already independent work force; they are not creating it. Their technology is solving the business and consumer problems of an already insecure work world. Uber is a symptom, not a cause.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/opinion/technology/technology-gig-economy.html

  • Big ‘Epic Fails’ Can Feel Like a Punch in the Gut. What Should You Do After?

    Whether it’s a client, a boss or your team, don’t wait to reach out. The key is to learn all of the facts first. Together with your team, iterate a heart-felt and honest response before the end of the day via email or in preparation for a live conversation. It is important not to let more than a few hours pass so that your client and your team can see that you place a heightened yet thoughtful sense of urgency. Blame does not matter and there is no room to take a tit-for-tat approach, nor to overly explain the reasons for the perceived or qualified failure. Instead, take personal accountability for the negative experiences and/or outcomes expressed by your client. Thoughtfully respond with words that explicitly reflect the examples of failure relayed by your clients. Reiterate your company’s mission and your personal commitment to ensuring customer delight. If it makes sense, offer to refund a portion of the costs.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/316096

  • The death of America’s middle class: Sky-high rent, second jobs, and 1% TV
  • Sorry, Pal, I Don’t Want to Talk: The Other Reason People Wear AirPods

    Dave Luis, 44, head of marketing for a hospitality startup in Dubai, heard a friend complain about insouciant colleagues wearing AirPods during business meetings.

    “She found it incredibly rude and offensive,” Mr. Luis said. “I’d recently bought mine. Every time we met, she’d actually make a point of asking me to remove these from my ears.”

    Mr. Luis posted a poll on his Facebook page asking for opinions about wearing the devices during meetings. He said he was surprised to find that only 9% of his 80-plus friends found it acceptable.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/sorry-pal-i-dont-want-to-talk-the-other-reason-people-wear-airpods-1534949793

  • The secret to getting work done in an open office

    Where people sit is another consideration. “You can’t mix sales, which is naturally a loud process, with developers, designers, or writers,” says Fried. “They go at a different pace. Different jobs require different environments. People who need to make noises are special; we’ve made focus the primary default.”

    By making choices and implementing strategies, Basecamp employees can be focused and undistracted even though spaces are all out in the open. “You don’t have to feel like you have to hide to find quiet; quiet is the default here,” says Fried. “Noise is the exception, and it’s in isolated spaces.”

    https://www.fastcompany.com/90218546/the-secret-to-getting-work-done-in-an-open-office

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News You Can Use: 7/25/2018

The Source: Joey Lombardi: Raise negotiating

  • The do’s and don’ts of raise negotiating

    If you feel a raise is in order, the first step is to track your accomplishments on a regular basis in an achievements journal, where you note major projects and successes, or an itemized spreadsheet or calendar, says Elaine Varelas, managing partner at Keystone Partners.

    “At the beginning or end of each week, review the meetings, appointments and projects you were involved in, and summarize them in two or three concise, resume-style bullets,” Varelas says. “These documents will serve you well at review time, as you review your annual goals, and will also help you make sure you are moving your agenda forward.”

    https://www.cio.com/article/2438603/careers-staffing/careers-staffing-10-mistakes-to-avoid-when-negotiating-a-raise.html

  • Why There Is No Substitute for the Annual ‘Offsite’ With Your Team

    With the context for the last year in place, you can talk about goals and objectives for the year to come with questions about what can be improved, both interpersonally (relationships that need repair or better maintenance) or in regards to team dynamics. There’s also a chance to look at financial numbers, hires or even to do a bit of a brand audit. If you’ve created enough of an element of trust by giving people a safe space to share ideas, you’ll also hear about things that simply have not been given an outlet to be discussed previously. An annual offsite can provide you with that catch-all opportunity for quiet conversations about topics of real, but not necessarily obvious, importance.

    There’s a fair amount of ridicule around exercises like trust falls — this shouldn’t be used to create a false social dynamic that doesn’t already exist, but to build on what already does. The last thing you want is for feuding employees to be given the opportunity to shoot each other in an airsoft competition or drive each other off the track in a go-kart race. The activities you choose should celebrate collaboration and team thinking, not individual showmanship.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/316338

  • What America gets wrong about China and the rest of Asia
  • New York-London in 3½ Hours? Supersonic Travel May Be Back

    Backers include Boeing Co. , Lockheed Martin Corp, and closely held Colorado startup Boom Technology Inc., which aims to start flying a reduced-size demonstration craft late next year. An initial goal for Boom’s proposed airliner is to slash the time for transcontinental trips by more than half. Round trips between the U.S. West Coast and Asia could be completed within the same day, for business travelers—the plush cabins would offer only premium seats—in a real hurry.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-london-in-3-hours-supersonic-travel-may-be-back-1531906323?ns=prod/accounts-wsj

  • How to use Slack to onboard new hires

    Start by launching a new hire or welcome channel (we call ours #yay), and encourage new employees to introduce themselves. You can then urge others to create a welcoming environment by responding to these messages–whether through text or emoji.

    Another idea is to use Donut, an app that randomly pairs up teammates and invites them to meet over coffee, donuts, lunch, or what have you. Simply create a dedicated channel for Donut (like #newbie-donuts), and employees can opt into and out of the program by joining and leaving the channel as they wish.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/90201350/how-to-use-slack-to-onboard-new-hires

Photo by Andre Mouton on Unsplash