Category Archives: Uncategorized

What are the things that make your experience of work so crap? Here’s my far from complete list that I came up with as I wrote this week’s ‘The Decrapify Work Not-Newsletter’. What would you add to it? The technology The tech we have at work has become a real drag. We were promised thatContinue reading “What makes work so crap?”

When I met my wife, she had a dog. She made it clear he was part of the package. She told me, “Love me, love my dog!” Which was fine. I liked Toby, he was good to have around, apart from his tendency to run off when being walked. In which case he wasn’t around,Continue reading “Who let the dogs out?”

I didn’t realise how dangerous my workplace was. I mean, it was just an office, in a division of a big company. One that was generally reckoned to be a ‘good’ employer. What harm could I come to? The answer, as I found out, was a great deal. I shouldn’t have been going in toContinue reading “Is your workplace a hazardous area?”

An employer has no business with a man’s personality. Employment is a specific contract calling for a specific performance. Any attempt to go beyond that is usurpation. It is immoral as well as an illegal intrusion of privacy. It is abuse of power. An employee owes no “loyalty,” he owes no “love” and no “attitudes”Continue reading “An Abuse of Power”

Since I entered the workforce a few decades ago, lots of new words about it have emerged Stress Downsizing The extra mile Burnout Surveillance Micro-management Workplace Isolation 110% Toxic ‘Always on’ Moral Injury Psychological Safety Workplace PTSD What does this tell us? All that time ago, I viewed work in a favourable light. It wasContinue reading “New words about the workplace”

Is the ‘Future Of Work’ conversation played out? It’s certainly less intense than it was because a lot of things have settled out. Here’s my take on what’s DONE, what’s NOT DONE and what could be COMING. (A longer and more expansive version of this is in the ‘Decrapify Work Not-Newsletter’ that I put outContinue reading “State of play on the Future Of Work”

Do you get the ‘Sunday Scaries’? Quite a turn of phrase for something so common that 8 out 10 employees experience it. We used to call it ‘the Sunday blues’, the dawning realisation that tomorrow was a work day and the fun would have to stop soon. The deflating thought of another week of boringContinue reading “Sunday Scaries”

A beacon of common sense amongst a sea of ego and opinion, US insurance provider Allstate have embraced the shift towards hybrid/remote working. These are my observations from what their CEO Tom Wilson said at the Aspen Ideas Festival (summarised by Charter’s Kevin Delaney – link in comments) It’s not what they’ve done that’s impressiveContinue reading “Allstate – a beacon of common sense”

Has Jamie Dimon become a socialist? He recently said AI would improve workers lives and lead to them having a 3 1/2 day work week. He also said they would live to 100 because technology would stop them having cancer. Sharing the benefits of progress with workers? Whatever next? Is he also suggesting that healthcareContinue reading “Is Jamie Dimon a socialist?”

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”