Live from the blogosphere: Kevin Kennemer writes personally about job loss, Douglas LaBier shares ideas about unhealthy management and human rights, and Dan Seitz shares creative ways to quit.
Kevin Kennemer’s “jobectomy”
Chief People Officer Kevin Kennemer shares his personal story of leaving a terrible workplace and a bad boss:
I want to tell you a little story about shock and awe in the workplace. Technically, the term comes from the military doctrine of using overwhelming power to dominate the enemy, but sometimes in life those who shock are not the ones who awe.
…Walking out of the first floor lobby and into the parking garage, I couldn’t believe I had just been escorted to the elevator after undergoing a jobectomy: a termination meeting in a conference room with a member of management and an attorney in a sterile conference room.
Unhealthy management = human rights violation?
Psychologist and organizational consultant Douglas LaBier posts a thoughtful, wide-ranging entry to his Psychology Today blog, raising the question of whether unhealthy management violates human rights, and concluding with suggestions and questions about how to improve our workplaces:
I think the primary obstacle to thinking of unhealthy management as a human rights violation is something different. It’s rooted in a socially conditioned perspective about the link between work and mental health. That is, companies that do acknowledge a link at all between emotional disturbance and the workplace tend to think of troubles that people bring with them to the office. For example, depression, alcohol and drug problems, severe anxiety, uncontrollable anger, and acute family crises. Of course, many people experience conflicts like these for reasons largely unrelated to the workplace, and they do impact job performance and workplace relationships.
But these are in the category of how the person impacts the workplace. I find that the more pervasive and insidious conflicts today are those resulting from how the workplace impacts the person.
LaBier recognizes the role of the workplace bullying legislative movement in prodding employers to take workers’ human rights more seriously.
Hat tip: Kathy Hermes, Connecticut Healthy Workplace Advocates
“The 7 Ballsiest Ways Anyone Ever Quit Their Job”
This very funny post from Dan Seitz at Cracked.com needs no further explanation beyond its title.
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Roughly once a month, I will collect interesting blog posts about work, workers, and workplaces and provide short summaries. The blogosphere is chock full of interesting commentary on the experience of earning of our daily bread. Enjoy!
Minding the Workplace 
Thanks for posting my article about unhealthy management, Prof. Yamada. I’ve been a supporter of your efforts to raise awareness about these issues and to promote legislation re “bullying” in the workplace.
Unhealthy management happens all the time and sometimes left unchecked. Not everyone is willing to voice out to point out the mistakes of their bosses or company.