Category Archives: Balance in the workplace

The Psychology of Always being Tardy

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you-are-late-againYou’ve heard the saying “Joe would be late to his own funeral“…… And we all shake our heads and say, “Yep!”

Some people are habitually late. It matters not what the circumstance they are predictable. You can count on them always being late.

I am one of those who is on time or early because I can’t stand to be late. It has always been something that I’ve been conscious of since I can remember. What’s great too is that I must have passed this down to my daughter – a good trait to have, IMHP.

When I used to sing professionally and travel for business some 265 days a year back in the 90′s I had this one bass player that was a part of my band. He was consistently late. He was the nicest guy and a very good bass player (employee) but lacked this one thing > being punctual. It caused me all sort of grief.

He would come flying in at the last-minute, missing rehearsals and would come in with a giant smile on his face saying “I’m so sorry I’m late” (and always had an excuse). It was hard to deal with especially while he’s smiling at you.

I found myself scolding him week after week “Donnie, you need to be on time. We set rehearsal and set up times for a reason. You’re just being lazy or waiting till the last-minute” – I would repeat on a regular basis – to no avail.

He finally told me, “Susan, I’m just a late person. I’ve always been late and I’ll always be late. It’s something I have no control over.” Well, I didn’t buy that then and I still don’t.

Is it part of our genetic make up? Are we either punctual or late? Hmmm…..

To me it showed that he wasn’t considerate, had poor time management skills, should get out of bed earlier, and that he just didn’t care. He had accepted that he would never change and it would always be that way.

It’s said that it’s a universal theme in the workplace that everyone will get to work on time (give or take a few minutes…) except for the employee who is egregiously late nearly every day. Whether it’s school, work or whatever – they seem to always have an excuse. Here are a few -

What makes these employees run consistently late, anyway? While it’s true that some people have poor time management skills, habitually tardy employees can also be arrogant individuals. The same rules that apply to everyone else in the office simply don’t apply to them, and somehow, they never seem sincerely sorry for being late. In some cases, the tardy employee might be the boss’s precious snowflake or the office rainmaker who is allowed to get away with it. In these cases, the boss seems to be willing to overlook 10 minutes late here, 15 minutes behind schedule there.

So, how do we deal with it?

When we constantly allow them to get by are we just enabling them to continue this pattern?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and how you’ve handled this sort of thing in and out of the office.

Photo Credit: YummyWC

It’s not Social Media that’s killing productivity at Work

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I don’t know about you but I’m personally sick of hearing all the hype associated with the loss of productivity debate as it regards to Social Media and whether to allow it or not in the workplace. The reality is that your employees are already using Social Media at work even if they’re hiding under their desks with their smartphones to do it.

How about we try and think creatively as to how to incorporate it and use it to our advantage and business initiates? Sound like a plan?

Last month I presented at SHRM’s Work-Flex conference here in Chicago and my session was titled “Gaining a Competitive Edge in a High Tech World” and you can download that presentation on my SlideShare, if you feel the need.

In the presentation I made mention of the fact that it’s not Social Media that’s killing productivity at work, it’s other things such as email. It was noted that we’re spending 2.5 hours a day sorting, reading, and deleting emails that is just one of our productivity killers. I wish instead, someone would just kill email. I despise it. I mean, I really hate it. It’s such a time-waster and buzz-kill.

Incorporating the use of technology at work is a no-brainer and should instead be looked at as “keeping up with the times.” We’ve dealt with technology at work for years now with fax machines, even email and the use of computers and as we all know technology rolls in and out at the speed of light. By the time you buy that brand new HD TV and get it plugged in at home, the newer model is already on the shelf. That’s just a fact.

Social is changing how we do business, not only how we communicate.

So what are the real time wasters and productivity killers at work? Take a look at this Infographic:

What do you think about this? Do you have anything else that you’ve noticed that’s killing productivity that you’d like to add?

Thanks to the good folks at Compliance and Safety for the fun Infographic.

Photo Credit (TOP) SawPedia

My Recap of SHRM’s #WorkFlex12 Conference – and how it affected me, personally

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I had known for about 7 months that I would be attending SHRM’s WorkFlex 2012 Conference here in Chicago that commenced yesterday because they had asked me to be one of their session speakers. And I knew that they were having a roll-out of some fabulous speakers, but I had no idea how much it would change me personally.

Sometimes we find ourselves in a funk, especially when we’re trying to juggle (Work and Life) the very things we are preparing to discuss in some sort of public seminar or speaking engagement. This used to happen quite frequently when I traveled and spoke across our nation many years ago. I never thought it would happen to me this time.

I’ve been doing this juggling act with work and life now through so many life-changes; the loss of a job, the loss of my husband’s career and trying to help him navigate his next move, car issues, home issues, family issues. Add all this to your current work-load and starting a new business is sometimes very challenging. Who am I kidding? It’s sometimes overwhelming and keeps me up at night (and not in a good way).

I headed to the conference on Wednesday, not making Tuesday because of many of the issues I stated above. I had been up all night the night before heading in and was running on about 2 hours of sleep. I knew it was going to be a long day and I would need to somehow dig down deep for some kind of supernatural strength to be able to make it till the end of my session, not to mention blogging and sitting through numerous sessions and a few keynoters that I wanted to be in on.

I will admit that I have been on an emotional roller-coaster and a bucket of nerves for several weeks now. And I was starting to feel sorry for myself and I could sense myself chewing on a bitter weed of discontent. Even my close friends were kind enough to point it out. I had indeed become a Debbie Downer to be around. One of those very people I can’t stand to hang with, I had become.

And guess what? Something happened.

I had sat in on a couple of fabulous sessions back to back in the morning and was able to live-tweet several nuggets. And then I went in to hear JR Martinez speak.

As he began we found ourselves laughing at his humorous jabs at the audience and then so many of the things he shared began hitting very close to home and I kind of had an epiphany. Something started shifting inside me. A paradigm shift, for lack of a better explanation.

If you haven’t heard his story I highly recommend it. Having come through so many challenges (which seems like an inappropriate word) and finding the strength to go on is his mantra and was what I needed to hear to get me outta my funk.

Here are a few things he shared that struck me:

  • Everybody has a story. (This is something to always keep in the back of our minds, especially when we’re dealing with people. It tends to make us more sympathetic).
  • Being flexible is MUST! Plans change, either by our choices or the fact that life is unpredictable. But even the high rise buildings around us are created to be flexible to be able to stand the atmospheric conditions.
  • Adapt and Overcome! No matter what comes your way.
  • Every single person has strengths and weaknesses. When we find ourselves in a crossroads of life, we need to find our strengths. Dig deep!
  • There comes a point in life when there’s nothing else you can do but simply throw your hands up and laugh! Even in the midst of difficulty.
  • Your life can completely change in one moment. How are you going to respond to it? Are you going to quit or fight?
  • In his darkest of times he made the decision to forget about his long-term plans he had created and focus on the short-term. How could he remain positive – today? Tomorrow will take care of itself.

In the end, he started talking of how he made it out of his “funky time” because he started thinking of how he could give back. He started volunteering his time, through his darkest of moments, and visiting others who had gone through horrible experiences of their own. This drew him out of himself and his own pity party, and once again, created purpose.

Sometimes we need reminders that cause us to think differently, whether it’s how to incorporate new ideas in the workplace, juggling our own work and life initiatives, or simply seeing that inside each and every one of us is a hidden strength that if found can pull us out of the deepest and darkest of places. They cause us to once again help us re-focus, re-group and find our purpose.

Thank you SHRM, for bringing this conference to my city and allowing me to have been a part of something life-changing.

Adjust your Work-Life to join our LIVE Hangout on Work-Life with guest @JudyMartin8

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Today I will be chatting it up LIVE with my pal Judy Martin, of WorkLifeNation.com. We will be hanging out on Google+ which you can join in on the hangout, watch the LIVESTREAM on Google+ or on my Youtube. The recording will be added here after the fact.

Since we are headed to Chicago next week for SHRM’s Work-Flex Conference and October is National Work and Family month, I thought it would be cool to gather an industry expert who is way more qualified than I, to discuss this issue in a LIVE video chat. So I asked my online pal Judy if she would be interested in sharing her knowledge with me and she agreed.

A little about Judy

Judy is an Emmy award-winning journalist and the founder of WorkLifeNation.com. “Transforming Stress in an Always-on World.” She’s been tracking trends in work-life integration, workplace wellness, career development and business for two decades. She has contributed to NPR, Marketplace Report, BBC Radio, CNBC Business Radio, Forbes.com and News 12 Long Island.

As a stress management consultant, Judy combines her skills as a breaking news reporter, volunteering in Hospice-related work and as a yoga and meditation teacher ~ to help business executives better manage stress in the work-life merge. She released her first CD – Practical Chaos: Reflections on Resilience in 2006.

Hangout Overview: Here are a few things we will be discussing during the hangout

  • Is Work-Life Balance even possible?
  • Over-loaded and stressed out employees
  • Technology and it’s affect on work-life
  • Reducing Stress in the work-life merge

UPDATE: We had a blast hanging out with Judy Martin discussing this topic. Here is the recorded hangout >

Hidden truths of motivation

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I came across this little video blurb on Friday and it really makes sense. What motivates us at home and work? Check it out!

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Photo Credit: Celsias

Balancing work and family – Oh PSHAW!

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Okay, I just had to use that #oldschool word Pshaw! In fact, I love it! Somehow I’m sure that word has since been translated into our 21st century phrase “Yeah, right!”

I’ve been trying to balance work and family for years now.  I think one of the hardest times of trying to do that was when I was working 40+ hours a week for GTE-Mobilnet in Houston in my early twenties. I had also started traveling on weekends beginning my professional singing career with my then husband. At the same time, within months, found out I was expecting my daughter. Talk about needing some kind of balance!

The next year and a half was horrific. In fact, looking back on the whole thing makes me stop and say, “How in the heck did I manage that?”

Here’s how it went down

I would wake up in the morning vomiting from morning sickness only to go have a bowl of cereal (I couldn’t tolerate any hot foods nor the smell of it) and then my ex would drive me to work (only about a ten minute drive). I would have to pull over on the way to work to puke my cereal cause I couldn’t hold anything down. I would get to work and need something in my stomach so I’d head down to the first floor cafe and get something to eat only to go back up and run to the ladies room to you know, puke it up. This happened day in and day out, all day, all night. Exhausting!

Add to that working 40+ hours in the corporate world and no break on the weekends because at 5:00 PM on Fridays I would head out to go to a singing gig – either somewhere back around Alabama, Mississippi or Louisiana and then on to the next singing gig and so on, and so on…..only to arrive back in Houston at home – yeah, in time to go back to work on Monday morning. I remember stopping on the side of the interstates being down on my knees vomiting while cars flew past me. And I won’t even mention the smelly, disgusting bathrooms in Louisiana.

I wound up having to be admitted to the hospital several times during my pregnancy from being dehydrated. The only cool thing? I didn’t gain weight.

Somewhere around the eighth month the sickness started to lesson and by then I could not wait to have that precious little girl. I continued going into false labor and my hospital was downtown Houston (I lived in the far north suburbs – about an hours drive) and they would send me home saying it’s not yet time (BUMMER). I found out the reason for the false labor was because when I would sing, and air would push down on my diaphragm it would then cause me to go into false labor. And could not be avoided. The final time I yelled, “I’m not leaving this hospital until I have this baby!!”

Nevertheless, I simply had to ride it out. I had to make the best of it.

The Dreaded Call

While on maternity leave I received a call from the C-Suite (my boss included) on speaker phone that I could return back to work, but I could not return as Executive Assistant to the General Manager. Instead, I was being allowed to come back as a Customer Service Rep. I couldn’t believe it! I had stuck it out – through the most horrendous time and dealing with all the physical hardships that went with it, and still mistreated and demoted.

I seriously had to stop and think, “Do I want to do this? Am I too proud to go back? Will I have to walk in there with my tail between my legs?” ….. Of course they weren’t taking away my salary – but for the first time I felt replaceable.

I decided I would go in there and act as if it didn’t bother me at all. I was determined not to let them get the best of me and just roll with it. It wasn’t easy, but as it turns out – was the best thing for me. My previous position was so stressful and I was always having to put out fires. I was constantly taking that @#$% home with me and it affected my relationships, family time, and my health.

I remained in that position for about five more months, just long enough for my new daughter to continue getting insurance and care – and long enough for me and my ex to get our act together where we could start traveling and singing full-time. I went on to travel ten years singing while able to travel with my family, while homeschooling my daughter and making bookoodles of cash – doing something I never thought I would be able to do!

It all worked out – and I learned a little humility in the process. However, it did make me wonder if it had anything to do with me dressing up as a pregnant nun on Halloween, at eight months (the VP of GTE-Mobilnet was Catholic) HA HA!

Sometimes we have no control over our work situations and even the things that come along in life – but we do have control over our responses to them. I know, that sounds cliché and dumb. But there is something to be said for how we allow it to affect our family relationships and to look at them instead as opportunities of growth.

I’m a firm believer – it all works out in the end!

Building a Leading Diverse People Culture

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Yesterday I had the privilege of sitting in on the session “Building a Leading People Culture – Flexible and Inclusive Work Environments” presented by Jackie Lillie, Midwest sub-area inclusiveness and flexibility leader and Dot Proux, Ernst & Young, LLP – Chicago. These two chicks were way smarter than me and mostly spoke about things over my head but I did get in on a few things about diversity and inclusion. (look for my take on Flex – next week)

Diversity 

Here are a few things I found interesting. The first being “Diversity is strategy.” I’m sure you already knew that as smart as you are, but to me – it made one of my ears go up and I found myself sounding like Scooby-Doo saying “What’s that Scrappy?” I suppose I knew that myself but had never heard anyone use that word along-side it.

We heard so much about “engagement” this past week but I liked hearing it from the diversity end when I heard “If people feel included they will be engaged.” And that is so true.

If we could somehow do away with all our viewpoints of how we think this world or work place would be so much better if we didn’t have to deal with this particular group of people (be it women, men, blacks, whites, religious, non-religious, gays, non-gays) we could somehow have a mostly drama-free somewhat normal workplace and get rid of our dysfunctional mindset.

I think one of the great points also mentioned that made me really stop and think about the above was that one of the things Dot Proux noticed in her own behavior at work and her feelings against women being in the workforce was this:

“The things we experienced in our childhood or throughout our own life can sometimes cause us to be bias towards hidden things that we have not yet acknowledged.”

This so makes sense – It impacts our decisions even and especially in the workplace and how we engage and relate to our employees.

For instance, she told her own story of when she was 9 years old her mother had to go back into the working world after having been a stay-at-home mom. She explained how this so affected her that she then continued thinking “women shouldn’t work, especially if they have children” into her adult years and into her own practice.

After having been coached on the issues associated with a more diverse strategy at Ernst & Young she realized that she had these viewpoints because of her own experiences and that she needed to put those feelings aside and go forward.

Here are some Initiatives that get to the root of leading with a diverse and inclusive strategy:

  1. Creates Executive accountability to be mentors and champions
  2. Bias education for all levels
  3. We need to teach people to lead inclusively
  4. Increases role models and builds divers leadership teams
  5. It should be embedded in all communication and “people” processes
  6. It challenges our evaluation and development processes for equity
  7. It’s integral to our business operations and growth, which deepens our client relationship
Leverage

Diversity-inclusiveness – really go hand in hand. Diversity is about the mix and inclusivity is about leveraging that mix.

Leveraging diversity through inclusive leadership – is a journey!

I’ll end with these closing high-lights:

*Learn to appreciate differences and attitudes and biases towards (self, others)

*Identify and transform exclusive patterns and behaviors (that you’re not being exclusive)

*Embed and model inclusive practices into the culture (D&I should be looked at in everything you do)

Sleep lessons and other innovative solutions for the workplace

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I just finished the main session at SHRM11 where we heard Arianna Huffington, creator of the infamous Huffington Post to which I am an avid reader. Taking on new technology and up and coming trends, Arianna Huffington launched the site in 2005 and it has now become one of the most highly read news sources on the internet and they are just about to reach their 100 millionth comment from their readers.

In her speech she stated that although print media will always be around but the values and the things we look for offline are the things we are now looking for online; Information! Being innovative is key and we are all living in a period of transition in this world of survival and competition.

Online self-expression has become the new age entertainment ( writing blogs, facebook, twitter)….people want to express themselves. Instead of watching TV our society has turned into a lover of  ”all things social.” I loved the analogy she used in regard to the new world of media when she said, “It’s like galloping on a horse, people observe and pass it on and so on and so on.”

She is also all about work/life flexibility and balance in the workplace and one of the things she noticed was that the more rested and balanced we and our employees are, the more able we are to deal with things in our life with wisdom and purpose. It  creates a better more balanced and productive atmosphere.

One of the innovative ideas she implemented was creating two nap rooms within the working environment. “There’s nothing like a 15-20 min nap to put everybody in a good mood,” she stated. And she’s exactly right. Look at your own sleep habits and see how they may be affecting you personally.

When it comes to sleep and recharging – women seem take the lead in this but the need is there  to create a world in which men and women get plenty of sleep. Men seem to be the ones to be more susceptible to sleep deprivation which is linked to high blood pressure, diabetes, and many other illnesses. Wanna be in the groove? How about offering “sleep lessons” to your employees? That’s exactly what they do at The Huffington Post family – and she goes on to say “People have forgotten how to sleep.”

Scheduling and organizing sleep

Who would have ever thought to plan your sleep like you schedule your weekly business meetings? That is one of the thing she has started implementing in her own life as well as encouraging her employees to start doing. She schedules and organizes it just as she would any other activity. None of us are ever at our best unless we are well rested. We are more creative and productive. It’s a proven fact. And isn’t that what we’re trying to accomplish? That of course is the end result we’re hoping for; a more creative and productive workplace. Bringing in balance.

Being a leader and especially an innovative leader is all about seeing the ice berg before it hits the ship and planning accordingly, trying new things, finding and experimenting with new solutions, being willing to fail along the way – not expecting someone else to take the lead.