Cities, towns, and counties proclaim support for Freedom from Workplace Bullies Week 2011

Beverly Hills, California

LaCrosse, Wisconsin

Norfolk, Virginia

Over two dozen U.S. cities, towns, and counties have issued or are issuing proclamations supporting Freedom from Workplace Bullies Week (October 16-22). The proclamations are the result of outreach by grassroots activists from Healthy Workplace Advocates groups across the country.

These localities are endorsing Freedom Week (list as of Oct. 17, evening):

California:  Beverly Hills, South Lake Tahoe, Torrance, Burbank, Carson, El Dorado County, City of Placerville, Palo Alto

Connecticut:  New London, East Haven, Newtown, Milford, Torrington

Ohio:  Steubenville

Texas:  El Paso, San Antonio, Corsicana, Longview, Killeen, Galveston, San Marcos, Sante Fe, Arlington

Virginia:  Newport News, Portsmouth, Norfolk

West Virginia:  Weirton, Morgantown

Wisconsin:  LaCrosse

***

Okay, so it’s only a couple of dozen and change. But 10 years ago, this kind of public recognition would’ve been unthinkable. And look at the localities: This is not a blue state or red state cause. Workplace bullying hurts everyone.

***

(Note: I’m sorry the proclamations are so hard to read. We’re working on that. They sure do look good, though!)

Economics 101: Defining key terms and saving capitalism from itself

One of the most unfortunate by-products of today’s cheapened political dialogue is the way in which terms such as “socialism,” “communism,” and “capitalism” are misunderstood and/or misused.

Some on the far right toss allegations of socialism and communism at virtually any effort to provide a safety net to those in need, while trashing any call for labor and environmental safeguards. Some on the far left label profit-making enterprises as the root of all evil and call for the end of capitalism, without working through the alternatives.

Right now, we’re hearing a lot of this stuff surrounding the Occupy Wall Street movement and its progeny. However, some may not know what these terms actually mean. Others may understand, but deliberately misuse them because they work as scare tactics with the uninformed. So…at least let’s get the definitions right:

Capitalism (from the Merriam Webster Dictionary)

an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market

Socialism (from the Merriam Webster Dictionary)

any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods

Communism (from the Merriam Webster Dictionary)

a theory advocating elimination of private property

Mixed economy

The vast majority of nations, including the United States, are not purely capitalist, socialist, or communist. Rather, they sport what is known as a mixed economy, and I’ll rely on Wikipedia for a more expansive definition and explanation:

an economic system in which both the state and private sector direct the economy, reflecting characteristics of both market economies and planned economies. Most mixed economies can be described as market economies with strong regulatory oversight, in addition to having a variety of government-sponsored aspects.

…Governments in mixed economies often provide environmental protection, maintenance of employment standards, a standardized welfare system, and maintenance of competition.

In the U.S., most policy debates involving business, social programs, and regulation take place within the parameters of a mixed economy.

To save capitalism, create a strong safety net

The mixed economy we’ve had — which some now want to dismantle — has its roots in the New Deal legislation promulgated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the heart of the Great Depression in the 1930s. FDR was a member of the patrician class, and he feared a communist-style takeover of the nation if the economy did not improve.

To save capitalism, he proposed a stronger social safety net and a series of ambitious publicly-funded jobs programs, labeled the New Deal. That’s how we got banking regulations, Social Security, the minimum wage, and the right to join unions. It’s also how we built many of the roads and bridges still in use today. Even some of the warships that helped to win World War II were public works projects funded by the New Deal.

Occupy Wall Street, then regulate it

I salute the Occupy movement for calling out major corporations and the government for joining together to favor the wealthy and powerful. Capitalism without brakes leads us to a growing gulf between the rich and everyone else, brutally hard times for those in need, and a polluted environment stripped of its resources.

On the other hand, I don’t want the government to be running the whole show, either. The thought of unchecked public bureaucracies scares me as much as unregulated private enterprises.

In sum, as important as these protests are to illuminating our current predicament, I don’t regard the solution as necessarily being a radical one. As I see it, a healthy and balanced mixed economy, featuring robust private, public, and non-profit sectors, will work better than any of the pure “isms.”

Boston Book Festival 2011: Celebrating the work of great writers

Boston is a pretty bookish town, what with all the universities, libraries, and bookstores around. But until the creation of the Boston Book Festival in 2009, it had been years since the city hosted an annual event celebrating books and the work of great writers.

In three short years, the Festival has become quite an event. To me it is a reminder of the best of city life and culture, a gathering of authors, readers, booksellers, publishers, and those who support them. This year’s Festival was held on Saturday, October 15, with a preview event the night before.

No grand editorial point here, just a celebration with some pictures and words:

The Art of the Wire

This year’s Festival kicked off on Friday night with a panel discussion featuring actors, writers, and consultants for The Wire, HBO’s deservedly acclaimed urban crime drama set in Baltimore. After the panel, cast members Tray Chaney (“Poot”), Robert Chew (“Prop Joe”), and Jamie Hector (“Marlo Stanfield”) were among those who stayed around for a book and poster signing. They couldn’t have been more friendly or gracious toward their fans.

(For a link to a podcast of the event, go to the Boston Phoenix newspaper site here.)

(For a related post, see Work on TV: HBO’s “The Wire.”)

Civil War panel authors

My favorite writers panel was on the Civil War. This was an all-star lineup of Civil War authors, and each one gave an excellent talk. They captured the heart of their work and brought it to life for the audience. I went home with copies of their books.

Inside the information tent, Copley Square

The events were inside various buildings surrounding Copley Square, with vendors’ booths lining the Square itself. At the center was this information booth, which also served as a signing place for some of the featured authors.

Vendors' booths

Most of the vendors were booksellers, literary journals, publishing companies, and colleges offering writing programs. Here’s the Brattle Book Shop booth, one of Boston’s legendary used bookstores, and a favorite of mine.

Freedom from Workplace Bullies Week 2011: October 16-22

“Freedom from Workplace Bullies Week,” an annual observance sponsored by the Workplace Bullying Institute, runs from October 16 through 22.  It is an important opportunity for supporters of the workplace anti-bullying movement to educate the public and rally others to the cause.

In the U.S., this movement is reaching the point where workplace bullying is a recognized phenomenon. Although there always are new audiences who haven’t named or labeled this hurtful and destructive behavior, these days we’re having to explain ourselves a little less than before. Within wider circles, the term “workplace bullying” is used and understood. Our educational work is far from over — the need will endure — but we’re seeing progress in terms of public comprehension.

For today, I want to center our attention on action. Toward that end, I’m re-posting my article “Ten ways to stop workplace bullying,” from December 2010:

Ten ways to stop workplace bullying

When people talk to me about workplace bullying, they often ask, what can I do to help? The following list is hardly exhaustive, but it’s a starting place:

1. Don’t — Don’t be a workplace bully. It starts with each of us.

2. Stand up — Stand up for someone who is being bullied. Silence equals permission.

3. Support — Similarly, support friends, colleagues, and family members who are experiencing bullying at work. Validate their concerns and, where appropriate, guide them to coaching, counseling, and legal assistance. (For some resources, go here.)

4. Ask — Ask your employer to educate employees about workplace bullying and to include an anti-bullying policy in the employee handbook.

5. Post — If you read an article on workplace bullying, post a comment to it online, voicing your support for taking this problem seriously. Help to generate momentum for the anti-bullying movement.

6. Talk — Yes, just talk about it with others. Without making a pest of yourself to your friends, family, and associates, discuss bullying as part of the workplace experience for many employees.

7. Law reform — Support anti-bullying legislation. For readers in the U.S., get active in the grassroots campaign to enact the Healthy Workplace Bill in states around the nation (link here). (Full disclosure: I’m the author of the Healthy Workplace Bill, so I do have an interest in seeing it enacted!)

8. Unions — If you are a member of a union, lobby your union leaders to educate members about workplace bullying and to negotiate an abusive supervision clause in the collective bargaining agreement, as discussed here.

9. Faith — If you are a member of a church, synagogue, or mosque, encourage your congregational leaders and fellow members to include workplace bullying among their social action concerns.

10. Connect — We must connect workplace bullying to other forms of interpersonal abuse, such as school bullying, cyber bullying, and domestic abuse. There are many unfortunate similarities between them, and helping others to understand this will serve as a powerful consciousness raising mechanism.

Words of caution

Some of these actions carry personal risks. There is something very threatening about this topic to certain individuals and organizations. Furthermore, when someone is suffering due to workplace bullying, they may be in a difficult place psychologically. Thus, please consider:

1. Those who stand up for bullying targets may find themselves next on the firing line. This is a very real possibility.

2. A bad employer may consider you a troublemaker simply for asking that the organization oppose these behaviors.

3. Posting a comment online about workplace bullying may lead to some people to ridicule your concerns.

4. Providing homebrewed psychological counseling or legal advice is not only unwise, but also illegal if you are not licensed to provide such assistance.

***

Related post

Cities, towns, and counties proclaim support for Freedom from Workplace Bullies Week 2011

Netflix: When a new style business screws up in old style ways

Over the past decade, Netflix has demonstrated how a new business can redefine a market. First with its lightning fast DVDs-by-mail service, and then through its streaming video offerings — all by monthly payment plans rather than item-by-item rentals — it has changed how millions experience and pay for home entertainment.

In recent months, however, Netflix has taught us that even supposedly cutting-edge business leaders can screw up in inexplicably clueless ways:

Dumb

First, over the summer, it announced big hikes in monthly subscription fees for customers of its DVD and streaming offerings. The announcement set off a firestorm of criticism. Netflix lost a chunk of its customer base, and its stock value started to head south.

[Personally, I was unhappy about the change, but not to the point of protest. In my opinion, Netflix's subscription fees remained a pretty good deal for someone who enjoys their DVDs and streaming videos as much as I do.]

Dumber

Next, Netflix pulled its whopper of a mistake. A few weeks ago, its CEO e-mailed all subscribers announcing that (1) we’re sorry for raising our monthly fees (GOOD); (2) we’re not rescinding the fee hikes (NOT SO GOOD — YOU’VE JUST APOLOGIZED FOR RAISING THEM); and (3) we’ll be separating our DVD and streaming operations into two businesses, requiring you to visit different websites to maintain your accounts (TRULY EPIC STUPID).

Customers and investors reacted with a vengeance.

[That's when I called Netflix and cancelled my streaming video service, which I use much less than the DVDs-by-mail, explaining that I'd prefer to stick with the convenience of one website.]

Less Dumb

Finally, the message sank in: Earlier this week, prompted by more customer and shareholder outcry, Netflix announced that its DVD and streaming operations would NOT be divided into separate businesses.

[I don't think I'll be reinstating my streaming video service. I'm trying to watch my expenses, and I can live without it. Sorry, Netflix, you messed up.]

Old fashioned business judgment

Netflix forgot to put itself in the place of its loyal customers, a lesson that goes back to the first time anyone tried to build and maintain a business.

It started with the badly handled increase in subscription fees.

That was followed by a condescending “apology,” topped by the boneheaded decision to break the business into two units with separate websites, thereby trampling the easy convenience that has made Netflix a customer favorite.

A few bad decisions are all it takes for a popular and profitable business to chase away customers and drive down its value. Netflix’s mistakes attest to the fact that leadership and management always boil down to decisions made by human beings, shorn of any digital bells & whistles.

***

P.S. Oh, and readers, forgive my local bias, but if you want an example of how an old style business screws up in old style ways, do follow the hari-kiri-like post-season meltdown of the Boston Red Sox.

The Let-Me-Impress-You Club

Most close followers of American politics, regardless of affiliation, would agree that Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign was a masterful one. The candidate conducted himself with cool smarts and emotional intelligence — often at levels that belied his relative inexperience on the national stage. He assembled around him a leadership team that advised him well and built a superb campaign organization.

However, to date, his Presidency has been less successful. Despite some victories, he repeatedly has been outflanked by his political opponents, and often his message has been garbled and indecisive.

Why the disconnect? How can such a remarkable candidate morph into a President who often seems to have lost the strong, decisive voice and strategic edge that swept him into office?

All the bells & whistles

This piece is not about praising or pummeling President Obama’s record per se. I voted for him in 2008 and likely will vote for him in 2012 (albeit less enthusiastically), but I respect the fact that others may feel differently.

Rather, this article is about how Barack Obama exemplifies a cohort of young (or youngish), extremely able, and advantaged professionals whose compelling personal qualities and talents create opportunities for which they are not quite ready.

Members of this “Let-Me-Impress-You Club” have spent their lives jumping through the right hoops, going to the right schools, and schmoozing the right people. However, many have not been tested under fire. Consequently, their on-the-job learning tends to come on a bigger stage than the typical training ground, and their bad decisions thus come at a higher cost.

Super people

In a recent piece for the New York Times (link here), James Atlas found himself fawning over a cohort of young people who appear to possess extraordinary credentials and abilities:

Let’s call this species Super Person.

Do we have some anomalous cohort here? Achievement freaks on a scale we haven’t seen before? Has our hysterically competitive, education-obsessed society finally outdone itself in its tireless efforts to produce winners whose abilities are literally off the charts? And if so, what convergence of historical, social and economic forces has been responsible for the emergence of this new type? Why does Super Person appear among us now?

If you’ve ever spent time around a prestigious law school or business school, you’ve seen these folks in abundance. They sport absolutely frightening lists of accomplishments, and often they believe they are meant to fulfill a certain personal destiny. Many, however, are prime candidates for the Let-Me-Impress-You Club.

I submit that once Barack Obama entered Harvard Law School and began building a record of achievement there, he joined this group of very able and privileged individuals.

A missing piece

Regrettably, many of these well-credentialed and connected individuals have spent more time auditioning than performing. Their fast-tracked careers become a continuous series of interviews and tryouts aiming toward the next rung on the ladder.

As I recently observed:

The School of Life is a valuable teacher. That’s why when it comes to leadership positions, in most cases I’ll opt for a talented, energetic, albeit weathered veteran over a shiny ingenue or a hyper-confident rookie.

Going with an untested leader is a crapshoot, plain and simple. Sometimes it works out well, but I’m convinced that — other things being relatively equal — we’ll get better results with more seasoned people at the helm.

Prepped for conformity

In addition, Let-Me-Impress-You Club members typically are conditioned not to challenge the Establishment, especially if doing so poses a risk to their résumés. As I have done previously, let me draw upon an insightful 2009 speech on leadership that writer William Deresiewicz delivered to West Point plebes:

Why is it so often that the best people are stuck in the middle and the people who are running things—the leaders—are the mediocrities? Because excellence isn’t usually what gets you up the greasy pole. What gets you up is a talent for maneuvering. . . . Pleasing your teachers, pleasing your superiors, picking a powerful mentor and riding his coattails until it’s time to stab him in the back. . . . Being whatever other people want you to be, so that it finally comes to seem that . . . you have nothing inside you at all.

Back to the President

Okay, Barack Obama is hardly a mediocrity. He is a gifted individual, and we saw that on the campaign trail in 2008.

But at least let’s consider the possibility that many Let-Me-Impress-You clubbers are not prepared to be excellent, difference-making leaders because they are so devoted to, and invested in, a status quo that offers them so much.

For example, isn’t it telling that after the election, the man who touted himself as the voice of change surrounded himself with some of the same establishment, Ivy-encrusted economic advisers who helped to give us the economic meltdown in the first place?

And when he found his idealistic, non-partisan, let’s-work-together message being drowned out by opposition from those determined to make him a one-term President, isn’t it possible that Obama hit a personal wall, not accustomed to such angry resistance and hostility after a career of being regarded as a Chosen One?

Preparing and selecting leaders

This exemplifies a challenge facing many members of the Let-Me-Impress-You Club. They have learned how to wow people in a room with their personalities and accomplishments, but they haven’t quite figured out how to lead when the going gets tough and they are no longer cheered by admirers.

It also reflects a fundamental problem with how we select people for positions of influence and responsibility. Too often we make these choices on the basis of Let-Me-Impress-You credentials and qualities, while downplaying, if not ignoring, other important indicia of who can provide effective service and leadership.

A sad legacy of the 1985 Chicago Bears: Pro football & workplace safety

For Chicago sports fans and students of pro football in general, the 1985 Chicago Bears stand as one of the most legendary teams in the history of the National Football League. After posting a 15-1 regular season record, they stormed through the playoffs, finishing with a 46-10 Super Bowl annihilation of the New England Patriots.

Many Bears players were so confident of an eventual Super Bowl win that even before the regular season ended, they gathered at a recording studio to make their now famous video, “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” featuring some of the worst dancing you’ve ever seen.

Special place

As a long suffering, devoted Bears fan who grew up near Chicago, this team will always have a special place in my heart. The 1985 squad made up for all the dreary, frustrating seasons that preceded it. The roster was loaded with talented, colorful players, and they were so much fun to watch.

And in the weird way that sports fans associate favorite teams with times of their lives, the ’85 Bears came along at a good time in mine. I had just graduated from NYU’s law school and was working happily as a public interest lawyer in New York City, while enjoying life in the city on a shoestring budget. From a distance, I was treated to the unfolding of a remarkable season.

But many have paid a price

Sadly, however, we now are seeing how the game exacted a demanding price on the minds and bodies of our gridiron warriors. For example:

Dave Duerson

Earlier this year, one of the stars of the team’s defensive unit, Pro Bowl safety Dave Duerson, committed suicide at the age of 50. He did so with a purpose. He knew he was deteriorating mentally, and he strongly suspected that head injuries during his playing days were the cause. He killed himself in a manner that allowed his brain to be studied.

Ed Pilkington tells the story for The Guardian in an excellent, in-depth article (link here):

But he knew that he had a problem. There were the outward signs of difficulties – the collapse of his business, the breakup of his marriage, the debts. But there were also the internal changes. The lapses in memory, the mood swings, the piercing headaches on the left side of his head, the difficulty spelling simple words, the blurred eyesight. And hanging over it all was his fear that both his material and physical decline might not be coincidental, that they might have been caused by injuries to his brain suffered playing the game he loved so much – football.

Read the full article to learn more about what is being discovered about football players and brain injuries.

Jim McMahon

Quarterback Jim McMahon was brash, cocky, and remarkable in the clutch. However, having suffered five concussions during his playing days, he now is experiencing repeated short-term memory loss. Earlier this year, he became a lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the NFL, alleging that the league is responsible for exposing its players to harm from concussions.

As reported by the Associated Press (via ESPN, link here):

Seven former players have sued the NFL in Philadelphia over the league’s handling of concussion-related injuries, the first potential class-action lawsuit of its kind.

The players accuse the league of training players to hit with their heads, failing to properly treat them for concussions and trying to conceal for decades any links between football and brain injuries.

The plaintiffs include two-time Super Bowl champion Jim McMahon, who has said he played through five concussions but now frequently walks around “in a daze” and forgets why he entered a room.

Walter Payton

Walter Payton, one of the NFL’s greatest running backs and perhaps the most beloved sports figure in Chicago history, died in 1999 from a rare form of cancer. It was a stunning loss for his fans; the player known as “Sweetness” was only 45 years old.

On the field, Payton’s durability was remarkable. He started 170 consecutive games, a stunning record given the rigors of the game and the number of times he carried the football.

Thanks to a new, controversial biography of Payton — Jeff Pearlman’s Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton (2011) — we now learn that he apparently abused his body with powerful drugs so that he could play through the pain. As excerpted in Sports Illustrated (link here):

As a player he had numbed his maladies with pills and liquids, usually supplied by the Bears. Payton popped Darvon robotically during his playing days, says [his longtime agent Bud] Holmes, “I’d see him walk out of the locker room with jars of painkillers, and he’d eat them like they were a snack”, and also lathered his body with dimethyl sulfoxide, a topical analgesic commonly used to treat horses.

The physics of football

NFL players bring combinations of size and speed that make football a very dangerous and brutal game. The sheer wear and tear on their bodies can take a serious toll. We’re seeing the effects of when players’ heads repeatedly are batted around, knocked to the ground, and used as weapons.

The NFL finally is taking the risks of concussions more seriously, but there remains the long trail of players who have suffered head traumas, with the injuries sometimes compounded by inadequate treatment.

In addition, we fans must come to grips with the fact that many of our football heroes, while handsomely compensated, have paid for the privilege and glory of entertaining us with their immediate and long-term health. This game simply must be made safer, or else it’s time to consider whether it should continue.

***

Related post

Should this be our last Super Bowl?

Steve Jobs: Brilliant, visionary, and (like most of us) imperfect

Apple store, Boston's Back Bay (by David Yamada)

Public reaction to the passing of Apple’s Steve Jobs after a long struggle with pancreatic cancer has become a phenomenon in itself. News media have devoted tons of space and time to stories praising his inventive, visionary work. Facebook was inundated immediately with expressions of sadness from Apple fans. Grateful customers have left flowers and notes outside of Apple stores, as this photo I took on Sunday attests.

When was the last time we saw such an outpouring of affection and mourning surrounding the death of a company executive and entrepreneur?

Remarkable personal legacy

I’m writing this article on my MacBook. Earlier this year, I bought an iPad. Though I don’t use it often, I’ve got an iPod too. And were it not for my loathing of cell phones, I probably would’ve replaced my ancient flip phone (with antenna!) with an iPhone as well.

So yes, I understand how Steve Jobs changed the way millions of people work and play, especially when our lives cross with digital technology. He believed in making products that were, in his words, “insanely great,” and quite often, he succeeded.

Many associate Jobs with his more recent innovations, but if you want to learn more about the early days of the digital world he helped to create, check out Steven Levy’s Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution (1984) and Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything (2000 ed.).

But he could be a bully

Nevertheless, those interested in effective management should not overlook that Jobs was an extremely demanding boss who could become a bullying one. As David Streitfeld observed last week in the New York Times (link here), he “chewed out subordinates and partners who failed to deliver, trashed competitors who did not measure up and told know-it-all pundits to take a hike.”

In 2009, Forbes magazine named Jobs to its “Bullying Bosses Hall of Fame” (link here), noting that he “is known for his obsessive attention to detail and iron-fisted management style. He is often accused of making his subordinates cry and firing employees arbitrarily.”

Jobs was a genius, intolerant of what he perceived to be marginal work. Forbes pointed out that some of his subordinates produced the best work of their careers, but surely others withered under the blistering criticism.

Life lessons

Steve Jobs envisioned and created digital machines that have changed the everyday lives of millions. However, we can praise his body of work without ignoring that — like most of us — he had some things he should work on. After all, the lives of remarkable people yield more useful lessons when we regard them as gifted and imperfect human beings, rather than as icons.

***

Related post

What will be your body of work?

Preserving jobs and customer sanity: Retailers reversing course on self-service checkout lanes

Last year I wrote a bit of a rant about a local CVS drugstore replacing most of their staffed checkout lanes with automated ones. I confess that my initial irritation was due to the hassle of fumbling around with the self-service machines, but I also saw how this less-than-inspired move eliminated jobs:

Recently I walked in the store and was stunned to see that most of the “regular” checkout counters had been replaced with the self-service variety.  At this CVS store, you’d better be prepared to check your own purchases, or possibly wait in a longer line for a human cashier.

…Indeed, when we customers serve as our own cashiers, we become involuntary accomplices to eliminating yet another route to employment.  And while these may not be the greatest jobs in the world, they are sources of income, especially for younger workers entering the workforce and workers of all ages who may lack advanced training and skills.

Reversing course?

Stephanie Reitz, reporting for the Associated Press via Yahoo! News (link here), writes that retail America’s transition to self-serve checkout lanes may be going in reverse:

Big Y Foods, which has 61 locations in Connecticut and Massachusetts, recently became one of the latest to announce it was phasing out the self-serve lanes. Some other regional chains and major players, including some Albertsons locations, have also reduced their unstaffed lanes and added more clerks to traditional lanes.

…An internal study by Big Y found delays in its self-service lines caused by customer confusion over coupons, payments and other problems; intentional and accidental theft, including misidentifying produce and baked goods as less-expensive varieties; and other problems that helped guide its decision to bag the self-serve lanes.

Let’s not forget that jobs are at stake here. For some, that low paying retail gig may be the only buffer between being poor and very poor, a source of income in a difficult job market. For young folks possibly headed to college, trade school, or a higher-paying vocation, that job is where they can learn a work ethic and hone their interpersonal skills.

In doing these jobs, they provide a service, not the least of which is saving customers like me from going ballistic when some computerized machine tells me to place an item in the bag correctly before it allows me to scan the next one.

Check ‘em out: Top 50 workplace blogs

Pull up your mouse and get ready to click away! Organizational-Psychology.org maintains a list of its Top 50 Workplace Blogs, and exploring it will keep you busy.

The top 5 blogs are: Chief Happiness Officer, Bud to Boss, Corporette, Four Hour Work Week, and Workisnotajob.

We’re on the list!

I’m honored that Minding the Workplace also made the Top 50 list. Here’s the short description:

Blogger David looks to understand the idea of the workplace as it has morphed in the new millennium. Workplace bullying and post traumatic stress disorder are new topics.

You can check out the full list here, and I’d recommend setting aside a chunk of time to do so. There’s a lot of good stuff in these blogs.

Hitting the books

In addition, for those exploring degree programs in organizational psychology, Organizational-Psychology.org provides a freely searchable “Find a School” database of some 380+ schools offering undergraduate and graduate study options.