Think Twice Before Buying Holiday Gifts for Your Boss
A third of U.S. workers say they buy presents for their manager. It’s time to end this predatory ritual once and for all.
bosses
Here’s How Trump’s Labor Department Quietly Gave Bosses Even More Power Over Their Workers
On January 5, the Department of Labor (DOL) quietly took a step to bolster the legal power of bosses over their workers by reissuing 17 previously withdrawn opinion letters. Developed at the end of George W. Bush’s final term, the letters had been withdrawn by the Obama administration, which discontinued the practice of issuing opinion …
Bosses are stealing billions from their workers’ paychecks, but it’s not treated like a crime
Here’s a kind of theft almost no one goes to prison for. When an employer doesn’t pay workers the money they’ve earned, it has the same effect as if they got paid and then walked out on the street and had their pockets picked. But somehow wage theft—not paying workers the minimum wage for the hours …
The End of Enemies at Work
Microsoft and Yahoo recently received permission to move forward with their joint venture on search from both US and European regulators. Competition makes strange bedfellows. And nary a day goes by today that Microsoft isn’t announcing a new partnership, or a partnership discussion, with a company that it formerly tried to crush. Real Networks, Palm, …
Losing Friends and Influence at Work
I get a lot of wonderful fan mail. But the nasty emails are the ones that you can really learn something from. Take this one (please!), that I received recently: “You are an idiot; the main thing wrong at my workplace is management. Same as the last job. It would be nice to be treated …
Can They Do That?
Lynn Gobbell was fired because her boss didn’t like the bumper sticker on her car. During the 2004 presidential election, Gobbell put a “Kerry for President” sticker on her bumper. When her boss saw it, he ordered her to the sticker off. When she refused, he fired her. Most people think that what happened to …
Who Makes the Worst Bosses?
According to my email, today’s workplace is full of bosses who seem more focused on baubles and bling than on their organization’s well-being. Bosses who yell, bosses who have their own set of rules or even bosses who ask their assistant to type her own termination letter (a true story from one of my presentations) …
Some Things I Took Away From The Organizing Conference Last Week
Last week I attended the Web 2.0 Organizing Conference in NYC. It was an incredible event packed with hundreds of online organizers from around the country. While I think the conference was a tremendous success, I think we, in labor, have a long way to go. We have the daunting task of internal organizing so …
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Do You Have to Be a Jerk to Be an Effective Leader?
Business is tough in the best of times. And few would probably argue that these are the best of times. A part of the problem is the rift between workers and their bosses. From an old Harris Poll that found only 37% thought their management had integrity, emails to Workplace911 and almost any conversation overheard …
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Why Organizations Are Getting Worse and Worse
I’ve averaged 35 speeches a year for the last ten years. Most of my audiences have been comprised of executives. And if there is an overriding concern that they’ve voiced to me during these presentations it’s that employees aren’t as loyal as they used to be. The executives give lots of reasons for this decline …
