What is Micro-Managing?

No one likes having someone looking over their shoulder, especially at the workplace One of the biggest challenges for business owners and managers is trusting that your team will deliver their work to the quality expected–this is magnified during COVID, as many employees are working remotely. This can lead to issues when you feel it […]

How to Manage Winter Work-From-Home Blues

The holiday season and winter blues have always had an interesting relationship in that they coincide while representing two completely different emotions–joy and sadness. For the record, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), also known as Seasonal Depression, is real. It’s recognized as a clinical disorder that occurs during winter as the weather turns cold and the […]

How to Increase Workplace Diversity

Creating a diverse workplace provides a workforce that brings more innovation, thought leadership, and improved customer insights to any business. Diversity today is not only about race, but is far more inclusive embracing different cultures, religions, genders, and sexual orientations. This offers new perspectives that help companies find opportunities to create improved products and services. […]

Why Employers Need to Talk About Mental Health in the Workplace

Last year, The Society For Human Resource Management (SHRM) reported that 61% of workers said their productivity was affected by their mental health, and 30% noted that their work environment contributed to their symptoms. You can bet more people are struggling with mental health challenges during the pandemic.  Unfortunately, many people live in the shadows […]

How Do Deal With Election Results And Political Conversations In The Workplace

They say the three things you should never discuss in public are religion, politics, and money. These days, it’s pretty hard not to, considering we’re in an election year, and these three topics are often intertwined.  We’re going to focus on politics. We just concluded a gruelling election season that some can argue has created […]

How to Tell an Employee That They’re Not Ready for a Promotion

As a business owner or supervisor, you have hard decisions to make, especially during these pandemic days:  How do you adjust your budget? Do you have to make reductions in force? Do you spend more or less on marketing? Are you keeping your employees engaged? Are you meeting your industry’s compliance standards?  Another tough one […]

4 Ways to Provide More Flexibility to Working Parents

This tweet says it all: Right now is quite possibly the most difficult phase of the pandemic for working parents. If you’re “lucky”, your school has a hybrid system of some days in school, and some days with remote learning. If you’re unlucky, your children are remote-learning full-time, and with COVID cases surging again in […]

How to Teach Professionalism in the Workplace

“You do You” is an expression of empowerment that encourages people to be their authentic selves. This helps people with their identity and to be comfortable in their own skin. Living by this is important, but it does not preclude employees from being professional and representing their employers.  There’s another expression: “Lead by Example” that […]

4 Virtual Activities that Can Boost Employee Morale Now

Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay We talk about employee engagement here frequently because, fundamentally, if your people aren’t engaged, your business will suffer. Engagement runs the gamut from employees having purposeful work to do, receiving flexibility, and feeling valued to having fun. I’m not talking about simply giving your staff the opportunity to blow off […]

Employees Are Doing Just Fine Spending Less Time in the Office

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay In a previous blog post, we discussed the negative effects of presenteeism in the workplace, which bears repeating. To recap, presenteeism occurs when employees are physically present at work but not functioning at their full potential because of an illness or other medical condition. This is a bad practice […]