Designing our work experience

Another book on toxic work culture and personality types to look out for. Some of these may sound familiar from similar lists:

• Narcissists 
• The Withholder 
• The Socialised Psychopath 
• The Egomaniac 
• The Bully 
• The Sleaze 
• The Rigid Control Freak 
• The Aggressive 
• The Histrionic 
• The Passive-Aggressive Manipulator

These lists are like celebrity photo galleries. There's something sordid about the act of looking at them and identifying people with labels. I don't discount their value to helping anyone negotiate the work environment I just wish such lists were accompanied with positive examples to give people a more balanced perspective and provide tools to help readers evaluate those around them more holistically.

Anyway, to read more about these traits and the book go to http://www.smh.com.au/business/art-of-spotting-and-managing-office-pests-20130209-2e50z.html

Speaking as a graduate of one, top schools teach you credentialing and ladder climbing. If you’re lucky, you might learn how to create a financial model or craft a solid argument. They don’t make you a great UX designer or programmer. Your passion for learning and gaining more and more experience are what make you great. The nights you stayed up until 5am coding make you great. Your love of building things makes you great.

I want to hire hungry creative kids that want to step up. The best programmers from shitty schools and wannabe designers who dropped out of film school. Network engineers who started off as college dropouts but figured it out from years of on-the-job experience learning to be the best. Dev Bootcamp grads without any experience but who have spent every day and night the last 6 months programming.

I don’t give a shit where you went to college as long as you’re talented.

... There are benefits to rudeness … that is, for those who perpetrate it. In a study conducted by a trio of American universities last year, it was discovered that rude men earn 18 per cent more than “agreeable” men, while rude women earn 5 per cent more than nice women. 

The study comprised 10,000 workers over a period of 20 years, and it concluded that one explanation for the salary difference is that rude people tend to be more forceful during salary negotiations. The result? They get what they want.

Sure, rudeness might offer an advantage to some people, but it creates a stack of problems for others. Research released in 2011 by Baylor University in Texas found rude people at work create a negative impact not only on their unfortunate colleagues, but also on their colleagues’ partners.

Read on over at smh.com.au to find out how. 

In our view, too many companies try to raise engagement by launching disconnected initiatives like wellness programs. Such initiatives might improve employee morale slightly and serve other purposes, but they’re detached from customers’ priorities. They lack the specific mechanisms that lift employee engagement the most over a long period and link directly to customer advocacy. ...

Companies that have substantially raised employee engagement act differently. They go beyond the basic prerequisites of employee satisfaction, which include an emotionally safe environment, the right tools to get work done and fair compensation. These trailblazers manage to instill an extraordinary sense of purpose and autonomy, as well as strong affiliation with the company and its offerings. They take a systematic approach, focusing on a few key areas.

Measure employee engagement just like customer engagement and tightly link the two