From the category archives:

Employee Relations

Office Gossip and Rumors

March 15, 2010

Many people view gossip as a bad thing.  And as such, they make every attempt to ban anything remotely resembling gossip in the workplace.  I agree that back-stabbing and undermining behavior are totally inappropriate and unacceptable and should be stopped.  We can probably all agree on that.
But, thinking you can eliminate gossip is naïve.  Again, [...]

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Chain of Command

March 11, 2010

I always enjoy debates about the chain of command concept.  I’ve found most people are completely fine with chain of command as long as things are good (for them).  The minute situations turn sour, then employees question why chain of command exists.
Obviously, there are two directions in the chain of command.  Up and down.  Most [...]

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Have Something To Say? When the Answer is No

March 2, 2010

Even when you do everything right, the answer can still end up being “no.”  You can have a great idea.  You can present it beautifully.  It can be perfect timing.  And the answer might still be no.
There are lots of reasons for this:  company doesn’t have any money, the employees aren’t skilled enough to implement [...]

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Something to Say: When And How to Say It

February 23, 2010

I recently wrote a post about having something to say.  We should all develop opinions and thoughts about ourselves and our businesses in order to help achieve good things.  But that prompts the question, when and how do you present what you have to say?
First, let’s talk about when.  We’ve all heard the old cliché, [...]

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The Things I’ve Learned Watching Undercover Boss

February 21, 2010

I have to confess.  I wasn’t going to write an “Undercover Boss” post because everyone else already has.  But Bryon Abramowitz over at The HR Technologist blog is doing a special HR Carnival – Undercover Boss Edition.  I like supporting the carnival, so I’m caving in writing a post about the show.
Just in case you’ve [...]

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Failure Is Nothing Personal

February 9, 2010

Normally I sleep like a rock.  But recently I haven’t been sleeping well.  One night, while I was surfing the infomercials to cure my insomnia, I stumbled across a commercial from a drug company about losing weight or smoking cessation (something like that.) It was one of those “make a better you for the new [...]

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Free Your Mind

January 27, 2010

One of the things I really enjoy about weekends is reading the newspaper.  I get my news online during the week.  But, on weekends, I relax with my coffee and the print newspaper.  This weekend, I read a couple of articles I found very disturbing.
The first was titled “Shades of bigotry: Experts see a rise [...]

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