Most Popular

At Work, Play Nice

In last season’s finale there was the following brief, fiery exchange between Kelly and Gabe. She was interviewing for branch manager, and he was doing a poor job of pretending to take her seriously. Gabe: “What are your weaknesses?” Kelly: “I don’t have any, asshole!” This raises the question: Is civility in the workplace important? […]

Critical Success Factors in Building a Better Workplace

By Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones Building better workplaces is not an alternative to, but rather a means for, responding to the new challenges of capitalism, for building productivity, unleashing creativity, and winning. Why Should Anyone Work Here? What it takes to Create and Authentic Organization provides the tools to help assess how your own […]

Working late at the office

What message are you sending about what is important?

Two of my colleagues forwarded me a recent New York Times article about the temptation of managers to reward employees who work long hours instead of those who produce results. Maybe they were trying to send me a not-so-subtle message! The article cited a study published in 2010 in which researchers found that employees who […]

Readers Take Offense over ‘Commitment’ Column

By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady BLR CEO Bob Brady’s “Commitment” column generated some surprisingly strong backlash. Here’s his response. In last week’s column I wrote about “commitment” in the workplace and tried to make a joking comparison about male-female relationships. My offhand attempt at humor backfired and provoked a mini-controversy. In the column, […]

How Do You Decorate?

Have you ever had a coworker who just loved to decorate the workspace? How did they decorate their space? Typically it’s sports paraphernalia, travel memorabilia, kids’ drawings, etc., but a few take it a bit further. In a recent survey, The Creative Group asked advertising and marketing executives to describe the strangest or most surprising […]

DoD to Begin Extending Employee Benefits to Same-sex Partners

Some employee benefits such as child care and transportation benefits are soon to be offered to the same-sex domestic partners of military members, U.S. Department of Defense recently announced. Outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta indicated in Feb. 11 memo that the move was a step toward conferring benefits to same-sex partners that currently are only […]