workplace

A recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board allows companies to restrict the use of their e-mail systems for union activities by their employees. The case dates back to 2000, at which time a union official for the Register-Guard newspaper in Eugene, Oregon, sent three union-related messages. The NLRB found that since the newspaper had a policy in place that restricted use of e-mail for "non-job-related solicitations" for outside organizations, it was within its rights to ban such messages.

What a surprise!

If your work entails use of your employer's e-mail system--whether or not the company … Read more

A few years ago, I spent three months between jobs.

It wasn't by choice; I ran a company that filed for bankruptcy along with hundreds of others when the tech bubble burst. It took awhile to find a new job. I made the best of it and built a greenhouse.

I had never had so much fun. But when it was done, I got bored. Not only that, but my wife wasn't used to having me home. I took pleasure in hanging around the house and annoying her, but it got old after awhile.

Finally, I faced the fact that I missed working. I know that sounds crazy, but I did.… Read more

Before I began writing this post, I googled "the ends justify the means" and got 204,000 results. The volume of philosophical discourse that's gone into analyzing the implications of the phrase is staggering.

Frankly, I think it's all a bunch of pseudo-academic crap. It's never acceptable to breach moral, ethical, or legal boundaries to achieve some perceived greater good. But I didn't always think that way.… Read more

In 1964 congress passed the Civil Rights Act. Three years later came the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), followed by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. This litany of legislation proves that politicians can actually get things done when they put their minds to it, all recent evidence to the contrary.

As an engineering manager for Texas Instruments in the mid-80s, I was careful about discrimination. Then I got a memo explaining that sexual harassment would not be tolerated. I was terrified until I realized the memo went out to all employees. Whew, that was a relief. I wish the memo proves that executives care about their employees, but I think it was more about avoiding litigation. And my relief was all about keeping my job.

Regardless of how or why any of this stuff happens, it's exactly the kind of thing that distinguishes our nation. We've made great strides toward putting an end to job discrimination and sexual harassment. But lately, something seems to have gone terribly wrong.… Read more

There's a great scene in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy saga; I think it was in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. The lead characters find themselves on a spaceship full of middle-managers from the planet Golgafrincham. (No, I don't know how to pronounce Golgafrincham.)

According to the hapless, half-witted middle-managers, their home planet was doomed and they'd been sent off on this spaceship to escape certain death. The plan was to rendezvous with two other ships - one of which contained the planet's leaders and scientists, and the other containing all its useful workers.

In fact, the planet wasn't doomed and the other two ships didn't exist. It was all a scheme to rid the planet of its useless populace. And the middle-managers were clueless.

Contrary to the book's satire, middle managers are useful, especially these days. There was a time - the 80s - when bloated companies had three or four more layers of management than they needed. That was ridiculous. The great management-layer purge of the 90s took care of that.

Still, there is a stigma attached to middle-management. But is it deserved? Let's see.… Read more

On an overcast afternoon in Brooklyn, N.Y., a group of preteen girls purposefully approached a boy. There was nobody else in the playground. It was 1969.

Hands planted on hips, one of the girls stood out from the others and addressed the boy, "We've decided not to play with you anymore because you curse too much." The other girls nodded in stern solidarity.

"Tough s**t," said the boy, who shrugged and walked off.

The following day, the boy apologized to the girls and said he would work on it. He had no intention of changing, but he didn't want to lose the girls' company either. The ploy worked, thus beginning a lifelong pattern that would continue through 20 years of dating and 18 years of marriage.

Okay, so you figured out who the boy was. Good thing my wife doesn't read the blog. She'd probably curse me all the way back to Brooklyn.

I bring all this up because I've often wondered if cursing is acceptable in the workplace. In my experience, most high-tech executives curse, some more than others. Moreover, there appears to be a general acceptance of a wide variance of behavior, from political correctness to the truly vulgar.… Read more

What do a world renowned chess champion and a Mickey Mouse-loving entertainment executive have in common?

They both believe that successful entrepreneurs must put fears of failure aside in order to achieve their goals.

On Thursday, chess champion, political activist and Russian presidential candidate Garry Kasparov and the former Walt Disney CEO and chairman Michael Eisner presented their views in front of a packed house at the World Business Forum at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Kasparov, who in 1984 became the youngest chess champion in the world at age 22, said the key to success is … Read more

Every morning, each one of us wakes up a ragged mess and eventually, presumably after cleaning up a bit, exits the house dressed in attire that expresses his or her inner feelings.

Don't believe me? It's true; ask a shrink. The way you dress is a window into the subconscious. Of course, it helps if you know how to interpret the data. Sometimes the conscious mind overrules the inner self, so what you get is the opposite of what the person is feeling. It's complicated.

Okay, enough psychobabble. The premise here is that the way you dress matters and it matters in the workplace. Over the course of my career, I've noticed a lot going on with clothes, but nobody talks about it. Case in point, people have been commenting on the way I dress for decades, and I have no idea why.

Way back in 1981 - when I was an engineer designing chips for Texas Instruments - my manager told me I might consider dressing differently if I wanted to get ahead. I was wearing torn overalls at the time. Hey, I was just an engineer ... and it was Texas!

Anyway, he did have a point. Years later I read Dress for Success and began taking this stuff a bit more seriously. When I became a sales executive calling on customers, I began wearing a jacket and tie or a suit.

However, when it comes to really working, i.e. in the office, I'm strictly a blue jeans, untucked shirt, and sneakers or other comfy shoes kind of guy. I guess that's what comforts my neurotic subconscious.

When I worked at microprocessor upstart Cyrix in the mid-90s, Jack Kemp - quarterback turned politician extraordinaire - sat on our board of directors. That didn't entirely make sense to me, but he was a great guy and really fun at dinner parties.… Read more

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word salesman? A pushy insurance or car salesman with no self respect? Those nice people who accost you the second you walk into a clothing store? Or maybe the folks you can never find at Home Depot.

Wait, I bet you think salespeople were put on this planet to babble endlessly and waste your time until you're ready to hang yourself just to make it stop. But you can't do that, so instead you give in and buy whatever it is they're selling.

Did I get that right?

Well, guess what? I don't care if you're an IT professional, a musician, a consultant, a CEO, a recruiter, an engineer, a doctor, an accountant, or a professional athlete. You're also a salesperson. That's right, we're all in sales. You, me, your boss, your lawyer, your spouse, your kids; everyone's in sales.

You see, from time to time, each of us is called upon to sell something. It could be a product, a service, a plan, an idea, a creation, a story to a judge or jury, or even oneself (presumably for a job, not into slavery). And more often than not, it's actually very important that we succeed. I don't know why; that's just the way it is.

It's hard for me to imagine anyone being successful in life without having the ability to sell when necessary. And yet, we think of it as something unsavory or even unethical. Not only does the idea fill some people with disgust, fear or self-loathing, but to make matters worse, most people aren't even good at it.… Read more