The hiring process also falls apart because everything’s ultimately a sale

What’s the line from Glengarry Glen Ross? ABC? Always Be Closing? Everything’s a sale at some moment in organizational culture, and the job interview is no different — the hiring manager and the HR rep are trying to upsell the company… Continue Reading

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Will the culture of being busy lead to an Essentialist movement eventually?

I’ve had a bunch of job interviews in the past two months or so, and whenever we get to the “What do you want in a corporate culture?” question, I usually mention the idea of a place where not everyone… Continue Reading

The Five-Minute Rule could make your life a lot more rewarding

Everyone likes to talk about how busy they are — it’s the new currency of our day-to-day lives, in some respect — but regardless of how slammed you are day-over-day, there’s a good chance you have five minutes somewhere that… Continue Reading

Forget summer Fridays. Why do people work in an office on Fridays in the summer at all?

This morning, I probably sent seven e-mails related to different things to people with office jobs. I got six auto-replies about them being out this Friday (bear in mind, for most people this week didn’t even start until Tuesday). That’s… Continue Reading

Brief thought exercise: in reality, does your job need to exist?

Are you doing something that really moves the org forward, or are you there to represent how fast the place is growing? Continue Reading

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Results-Only Work Environment, or ROWE, should be the wave of the future. The problem? Often, employees are treated like children.

There’s a long article on Slate from over the weekend — I think it’s one of their most popular and most shared, all that — about ROWE, or Results-Only Work Environment. Here’s the article. I’ve written about this kind of stuff a ton… Continue Reading

Is entrepreneurship dying? And if so, is one reason (aside from the economy) the general distaste for bureaucracy in an entrepreneurial culture?

If you really think about, one of the most tangible selling points of America — one that you’ll hear bantered about quite often — is the idea of “entrepreneurial spirit.” This ties back to the American Dream; it’s the concept… Continue Reading

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Brief thought exercise: why are people generally more receptive to “let’s hop on a call” or “let’s schedule a meeting” then a three-line e-mail that explains the situation?

I’ve wondered this constantly in different jobs I’ve had, and even aspects of the job search. You can write a pretty short, to-the-point e-mail that explains your situation or a project’s situation and one of the first series of responses… Continue Reading