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Auld Lang Syne: The importance of organizational history and memory
Memory was a key theme appearing on this blog several times during the year. In other words, what events and persons do organizations and institutions choose to remember, and which ones do they opt to...
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Dear Apple, please start taking global human rights seriously
photo credit: Wikipedia Here’s a factory scene from China, as described by Charles Duhigg and David Barboza of the New York Times: The explosion ripped through Building A5 on a Friday evening last May,...
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Raising workers’ health insurance payments for bad lifestyle habits
One of the unfortunate by-products of our messed up health care system is how some employers are raising employee health insurance contributions for those who engage in lifestyles deemed unhealthy....
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3 Questions for Elizabeth Gingerich, business law professor and editor,...
Elizabeth Gingerich, Valparaiso University Elizabeth Gingerich joined Valparaiso University’s College of Business Administration as a business law professor after a substantial legal career advising...
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Meltdown Follies continue at Goldman Sachs
In a New York Times op-ed piece that has gone viral, departing Goldman Sachs partner Greg Smith issued an ethical broadside against his now former employer, reinforcing some of the worst public...
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Generationally speaking: Assessing the Millennials (and tomorrow’s workplace)
A common assumption has been that members of the Millennial Generation (“Gen Y”) — comprised of those born in the early-to-mid 1980s and beyond — are more socially and environmentally conscious and...
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HR in the contemporary workplace
Yup, I’m pretty tough on human resources offices. No doubt this orientation is grounded in the shared stories of so many workplace bullying targets who report being abandoned or set up by HR. Rare is...
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Hey Apple, start paying your store workers a decent wage
During the past week, I’ve had the pleasure of attending three free workshops at the Apple Store in Boston’s Back Bay. There I’ve learned how to better use my various Apple gadgets. Each workshop —...
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Healthy vs. dysfunctional organizations
With some 800+ articles posted to this blog since late 2008, I’ve been periodically collecting pieces on related topics for your reading pleasure. Here are eight posts from 2011 and 2010 that address...
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The Penn State sexual abuse scandal: When iconic institutions fail us
If there was any doubt before, the damning findings of an independent investigation led by former FBI director Louis Freeh have pretty much erased them: High-ranking officials and football coaches at...
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McDonald’s Big Mac ad hits a new low
From the Orange Line, Boston subway (photo by DY) McDonald’s is now pitching Big Macs by making fun of public service ads for people who may need mental health counseling. Here’s the ad I saw while...
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Prestigious honorary society president may be a bullying boss
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies, a sort of hall of fame for leading scholars and artists. Leslie Cohen Berlowitz, who has...
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Working Notes: On the trauma of job loss, retaliatory e-mail surveillance,...
Dear readers, here are three articles worth your attention: Experiencing a layoff In an unusually personal piece, Carey Goldberg, health writer for WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station, blogs about her...
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“Compassionate management” sounds great, but can it sweat the tough stuff?
Last month, business writer Bronwyn Fryer blogged for the Harvard Business Review about the welcomed trend toward “compassionate management,” at least as measured by a growing number of conferences,...
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Google: Awesome and not-so-awesome
Very few individuals have either all good or all bad qualities. Hopefully we have more of the former and less of the latter. The same goes for companies, and few capture these extremes more than...
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Why I cancelled my Amazon Prime account
I cancelled my Amazon Prime account earlier this week, and until working conditions for their employees improve, I won’t be shopping there nearly as often as I have previously. Amazon Prime is a...
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The dignity of a living wage
Across America, labor activists and other progressives are calling for a higher federal minimum wage, often citing the personal financial challenges that confront low-paid retail and fast food workers....
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The NFL and domestic abuse: An evolving case study in horrific leadership
Before our very eyes, the National Football League — notably Commissioner Roger Goodell and various team executives and owners — is putting on a show of horrific leadership in the midst of domestic...
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Recycling: Five years of September
Each month I’m reaching into the archives to highlight a piece from that month of each past year. Especially for those of you who missed them the first time around, I hope they provide interesting and...
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Measuring employer heart quality: How does an organization handle worker...
This hit me like a ton of bricks the other day: If you want to know whether an organization is a good place to work, take a look at how it treats people at the end of the employment relationship. In...
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