Author Archives: colinnewlyn

Are you heading for Burnout, or for Smoulder-out? We know what Burnout is, you go down in flames, right? It’s dramatic, there’s some sort of collapse or crisis, there’s an event after which things have to change. It fits in with a very popular narrative, one of disaster and recovery, one of ruination and redemption.Continue reading “Smoulder-out”

Gallup’s recent State of Work report highlighted an ‘engagement gap’ between the best and the rest (see graph). It’s not a little gap, a small sliver of difference. It’s a huge, Grand Canyon-sized gap. The best have almost three times as many engaged employees as the rest.
(in fact, the lower line is the average, soContinue reading “The Employee Engagement Gap”

BT, where I spent the bulk of my career, have announced they are intend to reduce their workforce by 55,000 employees world wide. That’s over 40%. So if you work in BT, you have a 4 in 10 chance of losing your job. The original announcement was couched in terms of being more efficient andContinue reading “Your job’s never safe”

How to manage people remotely How to manage people well See above The problem is not that remote or hybrid is harder to manage. The ‘problem’ is that it’s much less tolerant of poor management.

You’ve got the corporate gig, the ‘stable’ job with the nice benefits and you’re supposed to be happy but the way the organisation works is driving you nuts! You keep reading all this stuff saying that you should leave and become an entrepreneur but you don’t feel that’s for you. The problem isn’t having aContinue reading “A Pirate in the Navy”

Do you have a love/hate relationship with work? I certainly did when I was back in corporate. I loved the work that I did, it was interesting, challenging, and gave me a sense of achievement. I loved the people I worked with (mostly!). They were smart, helpful, kind and we had a lot of funContinue reading “Love/Hate work?”

“Are we there yet?” Perhaps we’re all being annoying children when it comes to the future of work. All parents will be familiar with this phrase, normally uttered after you’ve just started a long journey and repeated regularly until boredom and disillusionment set in. It’s also the question being asked about the future of work.Continue reading ““Are we there yet?””

“If it’s a toxic environment, just get out” is advice we often hear. But what if it’s not that simple. Changing jobs is not an easy, or even available, option to for many. They have commitment to children and family, they have bills to pay, they are settled in their personal life and can’t deal withContinue reading “What if you can’t ‘just leave’?”

“Companies are worried about the Great Resignation, they should be worried about the Great NEVER apply…” Gary Vaynerchuck Research shows that 50% of Gen Z want to be entrepreneurs. An increasing number of kids are rejecting the career path that their parents took. Why is that? Why aren’t they going for the corporate gig? Well,Continue reading “The Kids Are Alright”

Companies that enforce a ‘Return to the Office’ will get crushed by those who don’t. Discuss! Here’s why I think this is going to be the case: The arguments for Return to the Office (RTO) are unsupported by any science that I can find. The justification given for RTO is to improve productivity, communication andContinue reading “RTO companies will get crushed by those who don’t”