There’s a part of the working experience that doesn’t get talked about very often, but I think it highlights one of the most important skills that one can learn in a job: managing expectations. Your own, and others. This issue …
Category: Learning
Emotional work at work, still hard.
“Emotional labor” was a Hot Topic a few years ago; the term was originally used to describe the work of managing personal feelings in a work context; then it was coined by a sociologist at Berkeley (why is it always …
Retrospective: My communications evolution
FIRST IN COMMUNICATIONS (meaning the publishing industry, in 1990), there were printed materials, and there was the telephone, and the fax machine. We had computers, but they were blinking green cursors on black screens. We communicated through the books we …
Clients and consultants: Thoughts
We take a break from the nonstop dumpster fire that is the ongoing news from 2020 to return to some more mundane work topics. Today’s topic: consultants. In thinking about today’s topic, I unearthed a blog post I had written, …
A plug for managers of the future
I have a remarkable memory, for some things. Once I share experiences with people, I remember everything about them: what they said and what they wore on particular occasions, the names of their spouses and kids and their friends, stories …
Going beyond work as identity
I have four nieces and two children and all of them are involved in some early stage of the process known as Real Life: college, jobs, first apartments, etc. Because of my very particular set of skills (channeling Liam Neeson …
What I learned from work
I have been thinking about how a résumé captures what one has done or accomplished in previous jobs; but I am hardly ever asked what I learned. Which is, to me, one of the biggest rewards from the effort I …
Communications 2.0: Being human
Sometimes I feel as if the universe is trying to teach me something. Not a spoon-fed chunk of wisdom, no. It’s more of a feeling that as I stumble my way through the different phases of life, I start to …
The argument for change
I recently started a new job. This is maybe my seventh? Eighth? Full-time gig, and so far, I like it a lot. The people are really friendly; almost everyone I’ve met is eager to do the right thing, professionally speaking, …
To be of use, again
In December 2017, I left a full-time job as a communications executive. I loved that organization, its mission, and my colleagues, and in many ways, I still do (I stayed on as a donor). But I was burned out; I …
