I admit, it’s not easy to find things to be grateful for this year. At this writing, nearly a million and a half people around the world are dead of Covid-19, and the number is steadily rising—especially here in the United States, where over a quarter of a million people have died. Schools are closed, […]
Who Knew Trump Had Something To Teach Us?
I never even heard the term “fake news” until 2016. Although it rapidly became a Donald Trump rallying cry, cynically (and inaccurately) tied to respected and legitimate journalism, if you peer back through the dark mists of time you may recall that was not its initial meaning. Four years ago, it was used to describe […]
First it was Bring Your Child to Work Day. And Now This…
Last spring, when Take Your Child to Work Day rolled around, it seemed like a cosmic joke: so many millions of people were wishing they could just kick their kids out of their (home) workplace, for once! Few, I suspect, thought we’d be awash in the same dark irony six months later, but there it […]
Blogging and Blogging Like I’m Running Out of Time
I’m not about to compare myself to Alexander Hamilton. Frankly, all I know of banking can be summed up in two little words: “Overdrawn? Again?” But there’s a recurring line in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s depiction of that particular founding father that I can relate to: …writing and writing, like you’re running out of time! After all, […]
Women Are Bearing the Brunt of This
The global pandemic is hard on everyone. But it’s especially hard on women. The ill and dying, and those watching their loved ones suffer, are of course experiencing the worst of it (by many magnitudes). But I’m talking about those who don’t have the virus, and are simply trying to soldier on under dramatically new […]
Is Your Company a “Summer Soldier” or a Hero?
“These are the times that try men’s souls,” Thomas Paine famously (if sexistly) said. It was the middle of the American Revolution, and he meant “try” in the now-archaic sense of “test,” contrasting “summer soldiers and sunshine patriots” with real heroes willing to put their lives on the line. In 2020, a soul-trying year if […]
Don’t Expect the Office Life You Left Behind
In late February, just before the U.S. began shutting down, I took on a new project: helping a client develop employee communications relating to their upcoming move to an open-plan office. Not surprisingly, that project soon ground to a halt. By early April, a different client had hired me to research how to prepare their […]
In Unique Times, What Makes A Great Employer?
Pity Great Place to Work! For nearly two dozen years, the global consulting firm has been producing “best workplace lists” around the world, including the best known one here in the United States, Fortune’s annual “100 Best Places to Work.” As I have described in past posts, the entire process and approach got a makeover […]
When Every Day is Take Your Child To Work Day
Google tells me, without a hint of irony, that “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” falls on April 23 this year. Of course, by the time that day rolls around, millions of children will have been deeply entwined in their parents’ workdays for weeks. Take heart, though. From what I know about how […]
Why This Remote Work Is Different From All Other Remote Work
One enormous, if tangential, effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has been businesses’ wholesale embrace of remote work. Perhaps embrace is the wrong word—most of the many thousands of organizations that have sent their employees home have had little choice in the matter. But even for those for whom at least a portion of their workforce […]
