Tag: Office Life

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News You Can Use: 1/29/2020


Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

  • Away C.E.O. Is Back, Just Weeks After Stepping Down

    “Frankly, we let some inaccurate reporting influence the timeline of a transition plan that we had,” Ms. Korey said in an interview last week. With some time and perspective, she said, the company’s board members decided to reverse themselves. “All of us said, ‘It’s not right.’”

    The members of Away’s board say they feel as if they fell victim to management by Twitter mob.

    The company now says it disputes The Verge’s reporting and has hired Elizabeth M. Locke, the lawyer who successfully brought a defamation case against Rolling Stone magazine for a story about a supposed gang rape at the University of Virginia. It is unclear whether Away plans to bring a lawsuit.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/13/business/steph-korey-away.html

    Who is Steph Korey?

  • Worker burnout is real. Here’s how to spot it.

    Burnout isn’t necessarily due to a heavy workload or long hours; hard workers can be happy workers in the right conditions. And occasional short-term burnout is normal for humans, a sign we need a break. But in the case of chronic, pervasive burnout, Beckstrand says, the primary cause is usually a “negative workplace culture” with deficiencies in six areas: purpose, opportunity, success, appreciation, well-being and connection. To combat employee burnout, says Beckstrand, employers should make a regular practice of acknowledging workers for their unique contributions as individuals, and helping them feel connected to a larger purpose.

    But it’s not all on management to prevent burnout. Beckstrand recommends that workers take burnout as a sign to seek meaningful contact from supervisors and peers — not just to complain or vent, but to admit when they’re stuck, ask for input and seek a broader perspective on how their work supports the overall mission.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/01/16/worker-burnout-is-real-heres-how-spot-it/

  • The changing nature of work is changing our workspaces too

    But according to Macgadie, companies are becoming more sophisticated with how they think about that data. Rather than simply looking at real estate utilisation and the number of bodies that can be safely be squeezed into a certain square footage, they’re increasingly attempting to tie use of space to more tangible business outcomes and metrics.

    “It’s becoming less about efficiency and more about effectiveness. It’s not about density, it’s about whether a space performing a certain task really well. If the output from that space can be quantified and is exceedingly high then that space is really effective,” Macgadie says.

    https://digiday.com/media/office-space-changing-nature-work-quickly-changing-spaces-work/

  • Goodbye, Back Pain? This Office Chair Was Designed by a Trauma Surgeon

    Kneeling chairs emerged in the late-70s, claiming to reduce lower back pain. A few years later, everyone was taking conference calls on exercise balls, the bobbing blobs said to build core strength and zap calories. Various wobbly stools touted similar benefits.

    Then we heard sitting was problematic, so we stood. Contrary evidence emerged: One 2017 study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, followed more than 7,300 workers for 12 years and discovered those who stood for long periods had a twofold increase in heart disease risk.

    When Dr. Turner Osler transitioned from the operating room to an office job where he sat 60 hours a week conducting biostatistics research, the trendy chairs he tried left him achy and unsatisfied. So he decided to adapt the best parts of each for his own design, an active stool dubbed the QOR360 (from $350, qor360.com).

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/goodbye-back-pain-this-office-chair-was-designed-by-a-trauma-surgeon-11579282420

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News You Can Use: 4/10/2019

  • The anti-competitive forces that foil speedy, affordable broadband

    Big players such as AT&T routinely issue press releases touting new deployments. But on closer examination, many of those touch only a few homes or businesses in an entire census tract, thus inflating the actual scope of the deployment, says Joanne Hovis, the president of CTC Technology & Energy, the company that prepared the broadband report for San Francisco. “The FCC’s data is very flawed,” she says.

    What’s more, roughly half of the new fiber deployments cited recently by the FCC were mandated as a condition for approval of AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV, says Ernesto Falcon, legislative counsel with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. And deployments have slowed because the major players have already cherry-picked the neighborhoods that offer the best prospects for high-paying customers, he says.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/90319916/the-anti-competitive-forces-that-foil-speedy-affordable-broadband

  • In a WeWork World, Finding an Office Buddy Is a Social Minefield

    Co-working requires a special set of social skills. Nisha Garigarn was visiting the Wing, a women-focused work and community space in New York, when an acquaintance from an event at another venue three years earlier approached her.

    “She kind of inserted herself into the conversation I was having with my co-working friends,” said the 28-year-old co-founder of the co-working app Croissant. “It was really awkward.” Unable to extricate herself, Ms. Garigarn pulled out her laptop and pretended to read her email. Another friend got up to use the bathroom. Later, Ms. Garigarn watched a YouTube video on how to end a conversation gracefully.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-a-wework-world-finding-an-office-buddy-is-a-social-minefield-11553873968

  • Universal basic income: The plan to give $12,000 to every American adult | Andrew Yang

    In an UBI economy, corporations (especially retail) will view these funds as a subsidy and find ways to pay employees less, and squeeze out more profit.
  • Repairing All the ‘Structurally Deficient’ Bridges in the US Would Take More Than 80 Years

    The ARTBA’s 2019 Bridge Report said that 8 percent—or 47,000 of the country’s 616,087 bridges—are “structurally deficient,” which the ARTBA estimates would cost $171 billion to fix. The report, published this week, is an analysis of data from the US Department of Transportation’s National Bridge Inventory.

    “There’s a lot of conversation on Capitol Hill about investing in infrastructure; it’s the one thing both Democrats and Republicans agree should be done,” John Schneidawind, vice president of public affairs at the ARTBA, told Motherboard in an email. “But there’s little agreement yet on how to fund that investment.”

    https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/yw8ypb/repairing-all-the-structurally-deficient-bridges-in-the-us-would-take-more-than-80-years-artba

  • How to (Politely) Get Someone to Sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement

    “In the interest of maintaining good governance with future investors, we’re asking that anyone closely involved with this project at this early stage sign an NDA.”

    What you are saying is that you’re planning to approach investors who will want to see that you follow best practices in the way you run your business. The fact that you can produce a list of people who have been exposed to the concept and who have signed an NDA will bode well with professional investors doing due diligence. It will also prevent them from using this as an excuse to nibble down the valuation.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/331079

Photo by Simon Maage 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: 7/11/2018

The Source: Work Smart? Joey Lombardi

  • ‘Work Smart, Not Hard’ Is a Lie: Why Smart Is Nice But It’s Hard that Matters

    High performers typically work more hours than average performers. Simple logic explains why. If two equally skilled and motivated people engage in an activity and one person spends 25 percent more time on it, that person will produce more results, on average. The additional time they invest at work creates a virtuous cycle. More work means more learning has occurred, so that person becomes more capable and potentially a better contributor in the future. Her higher performance from her additional hours becomes known in the organization, so she receives additional opportunities to show her skills. She might get more exposure to senior leaders who can serve as sponsors or mentors. Her success isn’t guaranteed because she’s put in more hours, but she will be more likely to succeed than those who work fewer hours.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/315381

  • It’s official: No one cares about your “cool” office perks

    Those funky perks employers tout as supposed emblems of a great work culture are actually empty totems that employees don’t really care about.

    “One of the top factors most likely to keep professionals at their company for 5+ years,” LinkedIn researchers write in a summary of the findings shared this morning with Fast Company, “is having strong workplace benefits such as PTO, parental leave, and health insurance (44%). In comparison, the least enticing factor for keeping professionals at their current companies is having in-office perks such as food, game rooms, and gyms (19%).”

    https://www.fastcompany.com/40589970/its-official-no-one-cares-about-your-cool-office-perks

  • Uber ruined their careers. Should it pay a price?
  • Higher testosterone levels are apparently driving men to luxury goods

    A new study published this week by a collaboration of very serious academic institutions has come up with a finding that’s equal parts trivial and amusing: higher testosterone levels in men have been shown to stimulate a higher preference for luxury or status symbol goods. Authored by researchers at Caltech, the Wharton School, INSEAD, ZRT Laboratory, and the Sorbonne University, the study suggests there’s a measurable causal relationship between the hormone testosterone and a person’s desire for higher-status brands and goods.

    https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/4/17534124/caltech-testosterone-luxury-status-symbols-study-report

  • When diversity training backfires

    “While the capacity for white people to sustain challenges to our racial positions is limited — and, in this way, fragile — the effects of our responses are not fragile at all; they are quite powerful, because they take advantage of historical and institutional power and control. We wield this power and control in whatever way is most useful in the moment to protect our positions. If we need to cry so that all the resources rush back to us and attention is diverted away from a discussion of our racism, then we will cry (a strategy most commonly employed by white middle-class women). If we need to take umbrage and respond with righteous outrage, then we will take umbrage. If we need to argue, minimize, explain, play devil’s advocate, pout, tune out, or withdraw to stop the challenge, then we will.”

    https://www.cio.com/article/3286623/it-industry/when-diversity-training-backfires.html

Photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash

Posted on

News You Can Use: 1/25/2017

  • Why You Should Recognize Luck’s Role in Your Success or Failure

    Recognizing luck also helps with empathy. When you over-credit hard work and throw the role of luck out the window, it’s easy to assume everyone else should be able to accomplish the same things you can. When you recognize the role of luck, however, you keep your ego in check, which makes it easier to look at things more objectively and with less judgment.

    http://twocents.lifehacker.com/why-you-should-recognize-luck-s-role-in-your-success-or-1791093753

  • Would You Want the “Right to Disconnect” from Work?

    …“All the studies show there is far more work-related stress today than there used to be, and that the stress is constant,” MP Benoit Hamon told the BBC. “Employees physically leave the office, but they do not leave their work. They remain attached by a kind of electronic leash — like a dog. The texts, the messages, the emails — they colonize the life of the individual to the point where he or she eventually breaks down.”

    http://lifehacker.com/would-you-want-the-right-to-disconnect-from-work-1790830015

  • How to Say ‘No’ at Work (Infographic)

    Too often, people burn themselves out by agreeing to take on more tasks than they can handle. However, overloading yourself with work can reduce the quality of what you produce. If you’re too busy, you may also miss deadlines. In those cases, the person you’re working for likely would have preferred that you had just said “no” from the start.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/287746

    Photo: The Business Backer
    Coming out of college almost 20 years ago, I entered a work force that told me to “NEVER SAY NO”. Early in my career that was a major source of burnout. However, in the last 5 years, saying yes gave me opportunities and access to projects that were good for both experience and my career politically.

  • The Purpose of a Supply Chain Manager: The End Customer Experience

     The journey to understand that focus tells you what your business model really depends on. Too many companies don’t understand what customers really value and as a consequence spend a lot to develop low-value innovation, such as car manufacturers loading their cars with more features that customers don’t use – a phenomenon known as marketing myopia.

    http://www.scmr.com/article/the_purpose_of_a_supply_chain_manager_the_end_customer_experience

  • Bonus: Americans at Work: Philadelphia’s Municipal Offices

    While photographing in these spaces what stuck out most visually was the physical evidence of decades past, not only in the space’s aesthetics and architecture but in the office equipment itself. An employee can find themselves sitting at mid century desk working on a 21st century computer while referencing a ledger book from 1887. Philadelphia City Hall is like a time capsule no one is quite ready to put the lid on. Over time, as Philadelphia grew, more municipal offices have been built to accommodate the needs of the city. One of these offices—Philadelphia’s Municipal Services Building—is a more modern office building, something office workers of today would be more familiar with.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/01/americans-at-work-philadelphias-municipal-offices/513209/?utm_source=feed

Photo: JoshWillink