And you are here why?

  Cynicism is pretty much in vogue. Mind you, I suspect it's always been in vogue, well before the Marquis of Cynìcse famously remarked " mon élicotère est plein d'anguilles " in response to a question about the monarchy (etymology of "cynicism", in case you're wondering). This is particularly relevant when it comes to one's workplace - witness pretty much anybody's response to an exhortation to do good by the company. I mean, " The company doesn't give a s**t about me, why should I give a s**t about the company " is pretty much is a fact of life these days, isn't it? The thing is, it is all too easy to mix up the Company with the People That Work At The Company. If anything, that's pretty much the job of whoever is doing brand-management at the company, that's their job, and they tend to be very good at doing so! But, and this is important, don't fall into that trap . Oh, by all means, be cynical about the company t...

What actually matters in your organization - the People? Or the Process?  OK, that's a bit of a trick question, right?   I mean, of course  the people matter, because you're all People Persons, and y'all care about your peoples, and y'all want to do The Right Thing, etc. etc. But, and this is one of those things that is kinda hard to face, is that actually true ? After all, there are very few companies out there that basically come right out and say "Yeah, we don't care about our employees". Instead, what you'll find is any number of declarations along the lines of  • Our employees are our most important assets • We foster personal development • We are honest with each other, and don't play politics etc. If anything, the more sociopathic the organization, the more likely that their ostensible values are the exact opposite (probably thanks to some very judicious word-smithing courtesy of their Marketing/PR wings 🙄) And that very sociopathy is what ...

/via https://money.cnn.com/2014/07/31/pf/vacation-days/index.html You’ve probably seen variations on this theme by now. They might go by different names — “ Unlimited PTO ”, “ Flexible Vacation ”, etc. — but the underlying system tends to be somewhat the same. On top of the usual Bank Holidays, you get to take however much vacation you want, as long as your job gets done. Straightforward, right? Well, actually not. As with most things, the devil is in the details. If you, or your company, is offering this as a benefit, ask yourself the following questions 1.  How does this map to your team/company values? If everybody around you is burning themselves out working 7 days a week, any time off you take will might feel like a betrayal — both to them,  and to you!  That kind of high utilization and high stress environment not only precludes you from taking full advantage of the “unlimited vacation” policy, when you’re actually  on  the vacation, you’ll alway...