2015 – Page 2 – Employee Point

Wanting Workers to Work Like Machines (Bartleby the Scrivener)

AndyG July 28, 2015 November 9, 2018Uncategorized

During the Industrial Revolution This topic is kind of obscure. In a course I took on organizational behavior (OB), we were required to read a short story by Herman Melville, called “Bartleby the Scrivener.” It’s a strange story, written in 1853 – shortly after the industrial revolution made such drastic changes to working conditions and other aspects of society and which we were told the authors of the time were railing against. A Strange…

How We Feel About Our Jobs (Fun with Urban Dictionary)

AndyG July 21, 2015 November 9, 2018Uncategorized

These definitions from urban dictionary are evidence of how employees feel when they’re not engaged in their jobs: Employee: A slave with a paycheck. Groups of people at the workplace who engage in the means of production by providing labor to the employer. In return for their hard work, the employees receive pay and benefits while the employer makes a profit which allows the employees to continue to earn income which they spend in other places allowing other people to remain…

The Boss Doesn’t Always Know Best

AndyG July 14, 2015 October 27, 2015Uncategorized 0

Being Promoted Doesn’t Mean Always Being Right I think people who get promoted often make the mistake of taking that as proof that their decisions are the right ones. Not necessarily so. Suppose for example, one of two people get promoted. Now that person gets to decide how everything gets done. But it might have been a really close call. With a different toss of the coin, maybe the other person would have been promoted,…

How We Talk to Each Other at Work

AndyG July 7, 2015 November 9, 2018Uncategorized

How We Communicate Is More Fundamental than Any Amount of Planning …improvement in organizations essentially comes down to the interactions between one individual and another. The woman who taught me non-violent communication a number of years back, believes that improvement in organizations essentially comes down to the interactions between one individual and another. She is an experienced OD consultant, who’s done things like strategic planning with groups for years. Eventually, she shifted to teaching people…

Should Autonomy In One’s Job Be a Human Right?

AndyG June 30, 2015 November 9, 2018Uncategorized

What!? A human right? How can I suggest that autonomy within one’s defined function at work is important enough to be considered a human right? You Can’t Be Responsible Without Authority Many leadership theorists agree that one shouldn’t delegate responsibility without delegating authority (e.g., Responsibility Without Authority on Victoronbusiness). Lack of Independence is Deadening We all know it’s annoying when someone micro-manages – or when they tell us ‘how’ to do our job instead of…

For Employees Everywhere

AndyG June 23, 2015 November 9, 2018Uncategorized

I’ve been an employee – and an observer of employee experiences – for three decades. Over the years, I’ve always been keenly attuned to the ways employees’ lives at work can be uniquely challenging. The Struggle to Contribute in a Demotivating Environment Through many conversations with many unhappy employees, I know lots of us have persisted ongoingly, feeling frustrated and often trying to come up with ideas for how to make things better at work…

The Point of Employee Point

AndyG June 22, 2015 November 9, 2018Uncategorized

I have wanted to set up support for employees in workplaces for a long time. I’ve had the idea and have been working on developing and testing it – and on my confidence to bring it forward – for quite a while. I’m hoping it’s an idea whose time has come. First: Workshops for Employees A while back, I designed a workshop series called Making Work Better aimed at helping employees in challenging workplace situations…