Managing People at Work

What do job candidates really want?

July 1, 2022
As part of a study of remote work, the Society for Human Resource Management created fake job profiles with seven different features—work location (remote, hybrid or on-site), commute time, compensation, position level, benefits, professional growth potential and company reputation—to determine what candidates favor.

Deal with people who refuse to read

June 24, 2022
Have you ever known or worked with someone who just won’t read communication? Before you stew about these “information vacuums” too much, consider a few things.

Learn from Lorne Michaels’ boundless energy for a problem

June 24, 2022
The creator and producer of “Saturday Night Live” has long been a kind of opaque manager prototype blend: a brilliant, mysterious, powerful and sometimes infuriating entity. For a glimpse into the processes of Lorne Michaels, we go to a snippet from Doug Hill and Jeff Weingard’s book about the early days of “SNL,” called Saturday Night.

Game over at GameStop: Employees walk out

June 17, 2022
Plenty of overworked, underpaid workers are fed up with their managers these days, but at one GameStop store in Lincoln, Nebraska, the entire staff simultaneously quit, shutting the doors of the business.

Are you prepared for a medical emergency at work?

June 17, 2022
Medical emergencies can and do happen in offices every day, and your team will have a much better chance of navigating them if they prepare in advance. Whether it’s an employee having a heart attack or stroke, sustaining an injury or going into diabetic shock, managers need to be ready to find themselves on the front line of a medical crisis. Keep these tips in mind.

Should employees rate each other?

June 17, 2022
While trends indicate that the dreaded annual performance review might be going the way of floppy disks, one employer has come up with a new “radical transparency” app to try to evaluate workers differently. If it gains steam, it’s likely to be controversial.

Be prepared for a crisis with a business impact assessment

June 10, 2022
In going about your day-to-day operations, you likely don’t have much time to plan for the worst. But all managers should conduct a business impact assessment to determine the most likely hazards that could suddenly cause everything from your processes to staff morale to quickly break down due to factors beyond any one person’s control.

Survive a ‘kiss-up/kick-down’

May 27, 2022
You know them, right? The climbers. The game players. The two-faced team members. Sometimes referred to as Machiavellian, they are perhaps more succinctly referred to as “kiss-up/kick-down” employees.

How to manage the office Eeyore

May 13, 2022
Every office tends to have one: that glum, withdrawn and isolated loner. They remind you of Eeyore, that fictional character in the Winnie the Pooh stories, the pessimistic donkey who is perpetually gloomy. How do you manage an office Eeyore?

The gamble of hiring bonuses

April 22, 2022
The last two years have seen dramatic shifts in the job market, many of which will cause ripple effects for the foreseeable future. One of the most pronounced markers has been the surge in signing bonuses offered by employers to potential candidates. Here are some important questions to consider about this practice.