Category week@work

The week@work March 23 – March 29

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In this week@work we considered the decision to leave work before work goes away. Why? We change as our workplace changes and although we may love our job, we need to trust our gut and control our future. We highlighted the importance of paying attention to our surroundings as a hint to our future. And finally, in a national book award nominated novel we listened to a conversation about work and the danger of sleepwalking through your career.

Three stories about work captured headlines this week covering themes of aspiration, commitment, bullying and gender discrimination.

On Friday, Astronaut Scott J. Kelly began his adventure on the Space Station where he will live for the next year, the longest duration for any NASA pilot. Think about that. A business trip away from friends and family for twelve months. Imagine not being able to step out into the fresh air to clear your head after a heated conversation with a colleague. Part of the NASA experiment involves comparing his health in space with that of his twin brother, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, who gets to leave work at the end of each day.

It seems a very long time ago that Americans first walked on the moon. A commercial currently running during the NCAA basketball tournament imagines a Mars landing, with people glued to their tablets watching the first steps by man onto the planet. Where is the reality that will capture our imagination for discovery and allow us to aspire beyond our global limits?

In London,’Top Gear’ presenter Jeremy Clarkson was fired by the BBC for assaulting a producer a couple of weeks ago over a missing steak. The internet lit up in the ensuing time before the BBC formalized his termination. Amazingly, people thought it was ok to punch a college in the workplace and keep your job. And now the head of the BBC, Tony Hall and his wife are under guard due to death threats over the decision.

Much has been written about the value of emotional intelligence in leadership. However, the workplace still has a significant population of bullies that believe leadership is an entitlement and not a trust. The BBC acted and by doing so demonstrated a no tolerance policy for violence at work. We are all entitled to be safe, to be productive where we work.

In San Francisco, Ellen Pao, a former partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, lost her gender discrimination suit against her former employer. The case highlighted the continuing issues women face in technology and venture capital firms.

Writing on The New York Times site, ‘The Upshot’, Claire Cain Miller reported “…venture capitalists have said that the trial has already put the tech industry on notice: It can no longer operate as a band of outsiders, often oblivious to rules that govern the modern workplace — even if that has been a key to its success.”

The week @ work March 9 – 15

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It’s amazing how many people cede their career decisions to the whims of others: high school students who select a college based on prestige vs. fit, college students who choose a major considering only the return on investment and mid career professionals who take residence in their comfort zone and lose connection with their network outside the organization.

There are many things in life where we have no control, but our career success is a result of the effort we apply to setting our goals and making them happen. Read any profile of an individual who has achieved their dream and you will learn of hard work, determination, failure, resilience and a bit of luck. These are folks who ‘own’ their career despite skeptics and critics, building a support system to enable their success.

This past week we suggested some ideas to jump start your decision process, reclaim ownership of your career.

First, write a letter to your younger self. What have you learned from your experience to this point? What is important to you? What were the ‘big’ things that seemed to matter at the time, that now, in retrospect, had no impact on your future.

Next, create a collage. Visualize your life in photos. Include all the things that describe you, and then broaden the picture to include the social influences and finally the reality of the workplace. Here is the narrative at the starting point. Who you are, who is influencing your decisions and how your goals will play out in the world.

Reflect on your experiences with a journal of life and work. Record your experience in real time and select intervals to go back and review: after a month, six months, a year. We are so consumed by the urgency of the present that we often miss patterns over time.

Clarify your ideas in conversation with others. Get feedback without abdicating ownership. Many have charted their career path before you and there is wisdom to gain from the stories of others.

Outline your plan and set it in motion.

 

 

 

 

The week @ work – March 2 – 8

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Today we celebrate International Women’s Day.  The day is being marked by a variety of events and online activities including a ‘google doodle’ and a popular YouTube campaign encouraging women to write a letter to their younger self, #DearMe, providing advice and encouragement to be who you are – confidence is key.

The first National Women’s Day was celebrated in the US in 1909 to commemorate the 1908 strike in New York by women garment workers protesting against working conditions. From its’ historical roots to today, International Women’s Day is about working women campaigning for change. Harriet Minter writing in today’s Guardian cautions those who believe we no longer need IWD:

“The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is “make it happen”. Yes, we’ve made things happen since 1909 but we haven’t achieved enough, there is still more to do. So let’s celebrate this IWD but let’s also remember, we’re a long way away from no longer needing it.’

This week the national jobs report showed lower unemployment but average hourly earnings only increasing by .01%. If you are in the workforce, this finding is not breaking news. Is the message here that you need to move to increase your income?

Last week I shared the story of Lynsey Addario, the photojournalist. This week it was announced that Stephen Spielberg will adapt her memoir and Jennifer Lawrence will play Ms. Addario in the film.

And for some workplace humor: ‘The Diary of the Left Shark’ by Kelly Stout in The New Yorker. You may remember the left shark from the Super Bowl halftime show. Here is his journal of events leading up to the performance and it’s aftermath. It’s an imagined story of workplace stress, sabotage and the resulting reevaluation of career direction. “Downloaded application to Columbia Teachers College. Think I could maybe make a difference in the lives of youth…Feeling O.K. about the future. Dance world maybe too toxic for a shark like me. Perhaps whole episode not humiliation but wake-up call! Considering move to Austin.”

 

 

 

Week in Review – February 16 – 22

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It’s Oscar Sunday, the culmination of awards season for the film industry. As the industry titans walk the red carpet it will appear that the Sony Pictures hacking scandal never happened. All will be wearing happy faces, closely monitored by a bevy of publicists. This is the world of make believe and scripted narrative.

Since the first stories broke of the Sony hack in the days before Thanksgiving, we’ve been spectators to a world of behind the scenes dysfunctional relationships in the entertainment industry. If you are an insider, there was no surprise. But for the millions who line up weekly at the box office, it was a rare glimpse of the ‘reality show’ we call Hollywood.

Is there a lesson in this for all of us who go to work in the ‘real world’? Yes. How we understand and manage our relationship with work and our workplace community is the critical foundation for success.

This past week we have had a conversation about our relationship with work in prose, poetry and even a few suggested novels to help clarify our values and definition of success.

This week we also learned that author and professor, Oliver Sacks  (whose memoir was the basis for Robin William’s character in the film ‘Awakenings’, a Best Picture nominee in 1991) had received a diagnosis he described it in The New York Times OP-ED column on Thursday: “But my luck has run out – a few weeks ago I learned that I have multiple metastases in the liver…It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me.”

As he has many times before, he provides us with a prescription for a life well lived, clear on his priorities and relationships:

“Over the last few days, I have been able to see my life as from a great altitude, as a sort of landscape, and with a deepening sense of the connection of all its parts. This does not mean I am finished with life.

On the contrary, I feel intensely alive, and I want and hope in the time that remains to deepen my friendships, to say farewell to those I love, to write more, to travel if I have the strength, to achieve new levels of understanding and insight.

This will involve audacity, clarity and plain speaking; trying to straighten my accounts with the world. But there will be time, too, for some fun (and even some silliness, as well).”

We do not live in the world of make believe, but we do live in a world where imagination and creativity allow us to make connections and develop relationships in life and at work. Perhaps it’s time for us to eliminate the inessential and focus on self, work and friends as Dr. Sacks suggests.

 

 

 

 

Week in Review – February 9 – 15

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It was not a good week for journalism. The week began with speculation about the future of NBC Nightly News anchor and managing editor, Brian Williams. On Tuesday he was suspended for six months. On Wednesday evening, CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon was killed in a car crash in Manhattan. A journalist who had covered wars for the entirety of his career lost his life close to home. On Thursday evening, after moderating a panel on the documentary ‘Citizen Four’ at the New School, David Carr, The New York Times journalist collapsed on the newsroom floor.

Over the past week, our conversation here has covered topics of authenticity, engagement, hope and loving what you do at work. In reading about Mr. Carr’s career, it occurred to me that his words this week were incredibly relevant to our dialog.

On Sunday, prior to the NBC announcement,  Mr. Carr analyzed Mr. Williams’ and NBC’s dilemma in his column for The New York Times:

“I don’t know if Mr. Williams will lose his job. I don’t think he should — his transgressions were not a fundamental part of his primary responsibilities.

We want our anchors to be both good at reading the news and also pretending to be in the middle of it. That’s why, when the forces of man or Mother Nature whip up chaos, both broadcast and cable news outlets are compelled to ship the whole heaving apparatus to far-flung parts of the globe, with an anchor as the flag bearer.

We want our anchors to be everywhere, to be impossibly famous, globe-trotting, hilarious, down-to-earth, and above all, trustworthy. It’s a job description that no one can match.”

I don’t think there is a better description of conflicting expectations in the workplace.

After Mr. Carr’s death, social media lit up in response to the loss of a mentor and talented writer. City Paper and it’s staff collected stories  from his colleagues and young journalists recounting their experiences….take a minute to read these familiar names relating their encounters…and remember we learn from the wisdom of others.

Dean Baquet, The New York Times Executive Editor described David Carr as “the finest media reporter of his generation.”

David Carr was authentic, engaged in his work, hopeful and loved what he did.

In his words, quoted in his obituary, “I now inhabit a life I don’t deserve,” Mr. Carr wrote at the conclusion of “The Night of the Gun,” “but we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn’t end any time soon.”

Week in Review

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Groundhog Day has always been one of my favorite annual celebrations. Since the Bill Murray movie, I think of it as the national day of second chances. So, if you don’t get it right the first time – you get another chance.

I launched ‘Workthoughts’ on Groundhog Day because a blog about work should be a blog of career evolution, lifelong learning and many second chances.

The blogs of this past week introduced some of the themes I hope to expand as we continue our conversation. Here’s a quick summary of the week that was:

Finding your work ‘place’ may be a more realistic way to find your ‘passion’.

The vanishing ‘snow day’ still provides an unexpected window into work/life balance.

Storytelling is still alive and well in both job funding and venture building

Competence and confidence will only get you so far.

Poetry is the portal to visualize your ideal.

We learn from the wisdom of others – this week, Bob Dylan.

‘In the news’ – The New York Times reported the ‘The economy cruised into the new year with a bust of fresh momentum, adding jobs at the fastest pace since the boom of the late 1990s and lifting unemployment and wage prospects for millions of Americans left behind in a long but mostly lackluster recovery.”

Will the recovery lead to more mobility within the employed? Good question to explore as we continue the conversation next week.