Category Archives: Toxic work

The Cult Of The Working Dead (And How To Escape It)

It’s easily done. Start out in life so energetic and full of great ideas. Then find yourself in a career, a job, a way of life to which you’ve given over your ability to think. Hard to say how or when it happened. And if you look back it was probably not just one event…

How Not To Give Feedback At Work: Part Two

Have you ever wondered about the source of poor management behaviour? I’ve always believed it comes from the top. The board or its equivalent. Set a bad example and you give your more junior people leaders licence to copy you. On the weekend, I witnessed a sad but true endorsing example. You may recall that…

The Shocking Truth About Corporations

Big business’s lack of respect for people came home to me yet again this weekend, when an invoice I’d submitted to a company for a piece of executive coaching was returned unpaid three months after it was raised. I’d made a small, but apparently significant error in addressing it. The whole thing angered and saddened…

How Not To Give Feedback At Work

An embarrassing thing happened to me the other day that I want to share and get your perspective on. I’m in a coffee shop with my other half for breakfast. I order him a bacon butty. The barista, a fairly new guy, doing his best at smiley customer service, puts two sachets of ketchup on…

A Comprehensive Guide To Slaying Your Vampire Boss

Your first meeting with her was inspirational. “Hurrah for charisma,” you thought. At the time, something lurched in your solar plexus; something you couldn’t name. But you told yourself not to be silly; you were just imagining things. But weeks after you start working for her, things are not right. You’ve got all the signs…

Is Your Boss A Closet Vampire? Check These Tell-Tale Signs

Ever have that feeling of being perpetually drained of energy? You know, that wrung-out, zombie state that never seems to leave you? You want to shake yourself free of it, but can’t quite find the enthusiasm. Meantime, there’s work to do, targets to meet, actions to deliver. So you just go along with it all,…

Warning: Not All Career Rules Are True

Corporations often dish up beliefs as truths and then manage you through that lens. I see it all the time in my coaching work. There’s an implicit set of assumptions that underpin the culture of a business. These are all well and good if they happen to jive with your values and beliefs, but crazy-making…

7 Warning Signs That It’s Time To Quit Your Job

photo credit: DaveBleasdale According to a recent survey, 40% of professionals are considering going in search of a new job when they get back from their summer vacation. They’re battle weary after months of slogging it out in positions where their promotion prospects are disappearing, their bosses aren’t living espoused company values, and their bonuses…

What Employers Need To Know Now

Last week The Wall Street Journal reported that more people are quitting their jobs than being laid off for the first time in 15 consecutive months. Recent UK figures paint a similar picture. The WSJ article reckons there’s two reasons: First, there’s a glut of people who have sat out the recession in the relative…

Social Media. Another 24/7 Work Culture?

This is a question that’s been on my mind for a couple of weeks now. Especially since a few uncharacteristic mistakes in my client work brought into focus how much time I was spending online and how tired it was beginning to make me feel. Not good for one whose raison d’être is about living…

Category Archives: Toxic work

The Cult Of The Working Dead (And How To Escape It)

It’s easily done. Start out in life so energetic and full of great ideas. Then find yourself in a career, a job, a way of life to which you’ve given over your ability to think. Hard to say how or when it happened. And if you look back it was probably not just one event…

How Not To Give Feedback At Work: Part Two

Have you ever wondered about the source of poor management behaviour? I’ve always believed it comes from the top. The board or its equivalent. Set a bad example and you give your more junior people leaders licence to copy you. On the weekend, I witnessed a sad but true endorsing example. You may recall that…

The Shocking Truth About Corporations

Big business’s lack of respect for people came home to me yet again this weekend, when an invoice I’d submitted to a company for a piece of executive coaching was returned unpaid three months after it was raised. I’d made a small, but apparently significant error in addressing it. The whole thing angered and saddened…

How Not To Give Feedback At Work

An embarrassing thing happened to me the other day that I want to share and get your perspective on. I’m in a coffee shop with my other half for breakfast. I order him a bacon butty. The barista, a fairly new guy, doing his best at smiley customer service, puts two sachets of ketchup on…

A Comprehensive Guide To Slaying Your Vampire Boss

Your first meeting with her was inspirational. “Hurrah for charisma,” you thought. At the time, something lurched in your solar plexus; something you couldn’t name. But you told yourself not to be silly; you were just imagining things. But weeks after you start working for her, things are not right. You’ve got all the signs…

Is Your Boss A Closet Vampire? Check These Tell-Tale Signs

Ever have that feeling of being perpetually drained of energy? You know, that wrung-out, zombie state that never seems to leave you? You want to shake yourself free of it, but can’t quite find the enthusiasm. Meantime, there’s work to do, targets to meet, actions to deliver. So you just go along with it all,…

Warning: Not All Career Rules Are True

Corporations often dish up beliefs as truths and then manage you through that lens. I see it all the time in my coaching work. There’s an implicit set of assumptions that underpin the culture of a business. These are all well and good if they happen to jive with your values and beliefs, but crazy-making…

7 Warning Signs That It’s Time To Quit Your Job

photo credit: DaveBleasdale According to a recent survey, 40% of professionals are considering going in search of a new job when they get back from their summer vacation. They’re battle weary after months of slogging it out in positions where their promotion prospects are disappearing, their bosses aren’t living espoused company values, and their bonuses…

What Employers Need To Know Now

Last week The Wall Street Journal reported that more people are quitting their jobs than being laid off for the first time in 15 consecutive months. Recent UK figures paint a similar picture. The WSJ article reckons there’s two reasons: First, there’s a glut of people who have sat out the recession in the relative…

Social Media. Another 24/7 Work Culture?

This is a question that’s been on my mind for a couple of weeks now. Especially since a few uncharacteristic mistakes in my client work brought into focus how much time I was spending online and how tired it was beginning to make me feel. Not good for one whose raison d’être is about living…

Category Archives: Toxic work

The Cult Of The Working Dead (And How To Escape It)

It’s easily done. Start out in life so energetic and full of great ideas. Then find yourself in a career, a job, a way of life to which you’ve given over your ability to think. Hard to say how or when it happened. And if you look back it was probably not just one event…

How Not To Give Feedback At Work: Part Two

Have you ever wondered about the source of poor management behaviour? I’ve always believed it comes from the top. The board or its equivalent. Set a bad example and you give your more junior people leaders licence to copy you. On the weekend, I witnessed a sad but true endorsing example. You may recall that…

The Shocking Truth About Corporations

Big business’s lack of respect for people came home to me yet again this weekend, when an invoice I’d submitted to a company for a piece of executive coaching was returned unpaid three months after it was raised. I’d made a small, but apparently significant error in addressing it. The whole thing angered and saddened…

How Not To Give Feedback At Work

An embarrassing thing happened to me the other day that I want to share and get your perspective on. I’m in a coffee shop with my other half for breakfast. I order him a bacon butty. The barista, a fairly new guy, doing his best at smiley customer service, puts two sachets of ketchup on…

A Comprehensive Guide To Slaying Your Vampire Boss

Your first meeting with her was inspirational. “Hurrah for charisma,” you thought. At the time, something lurched in your solar plexus; something you couldn’t name. But you told yourself not to be silly; you were just imagining things. But weeks after you start working for her, things are not right. You’ve got all the signs…

Is Your Boss A Closet Vampire? Check These Tell-Tale Signs

Ever have that feeling of being perpetually drained of energy? You know, that wrung-out, zombie state that never seems to leave you? You want to shake yourself free of it, but can’t quite find the enthusiasm. Meantime, there’s work to do, targets to meet, actions to deliver. So you just go along with it all,…

Warning: Not All Career Rules Are True

Corporations often dish up beliefs as truths and then manage you through that lens. I see it all the time in my coaching work. There’s an implicit set of assumptions that underpin the culture of a business. These are all well and good if they happen to jive with your values and beliefs, but crazy-making…

7 Warning Signs That It’s Time To Quit Your Job

photo credit: DaveBleasdale According to a recent survey, 40% of professionals are considering going in search of a new job when they get back from their summer vacation. They’re battle weary after months of slogging it out in positions where their promotion prospects are disappearing, their bosses aren’t living espoused company values, and their bonuses…

What Employers Need To Know Now

Last week The Wall Street Journal reported that more people are quitting their jobs than being laid off for the first time in 15 consecutive months. Recent UK figures paint a similar picture. The WSJ article reckons there’s two reasons: First, there’s a glut of people who have sat out the recession in the relative…

Social Media. Another 24/7 Work Culture?

This is a question that’s been on my mind for a couple of weeks now. Especially since a few uncharacteristic mistakes in my client work brought into focus how much time I was spending online and how tired it was beginning to make me feel. Not good for one whose raison d’être is about living…