“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 […]
company culture
At Work, “Fun” is Just the Icing on the Cake
Can a company have a great culture without great programs and policies? For a while in the heyday of the new millennium, it seemed like the answer might be yes. Some of the most innovative companies in the world—Silicon Valley and e-commerce behemoths—were reinventing the workplace from inside out, smashing the boundaries between work and […]
9+ Things I Learned At The “Working Mother” Conference
October is National Work and Family month, so I was happy to take a couple of days last week to attend Working Mother Media’s Work-Life Congress, an annual conference built around the Working Mother 100 Best Companies list. In addition to a gala awards dinner, the event featured a day and a half’s worth of […]
What IS “Family-Friendly,” Anyway?
It’s National Work and Family Month, and I’ve been thinking: What does it mean for a workplace to be “family friendly”? Actually, since one of my regular gigs as an “employer-of-choice” writer and consultant is helping companies with their applications for “best workplace” lists, this question arises a lot. I find it fascinating how differently it can be interpreted […]
Not on This Year’s “Best Companies To Work” For List? Why Not Try for Next Year’s?
A couple weeks ago, Fortune magazine published its annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. The list includes lots of names that probably no one is surprised to see—places like Google and Zappos sometimes seem to be in the news as much about their fun workplaces as about their products. It has plenty of […]