“Working it” column published in the Career Moves section of The Evening Echo on 10/03/2008
What do you think of your boss? It’s OK, they’re not listening… so go on, what do you really think of them?
Perhaps you’re one of the lucky ones, and have a boss who really values his or her team, listens to what you have to say and actively seeks constructive contributions; a boss who offers direction and guidance when you need it, but is wise enough to step back and let you get on with your job when you don’t.
Then again, perhaps not.
Bad bosses, of course, have always been around, and always will be… but for some reason its a problem that seems to be on the rise, and it’s generating animated discussion off- and on-line.
Survey results indicate that approximately 40% of employees have, at some time or another, had to deal with a bad boss. A Gallup survey of more than 1,000,000 employees discovered that if a company is losing its best people, it can normally be traced back to problems with their immediate supervisors. Bad bosses, it seems, are the primary cause of staff turnover. “People leave managers not companies,” says Gallup. “So much money has been thrown at the challenge of keeping good people – in the form of better pay, better perks and better training – when, in the end, turnover is mostly a manager issue.”
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I’ve just posted a piece about “Reality Mining” on my digital marketing blog. From a marketing perspective it opens up all sorts of options. From a consumer and privacy point of view, I don’t know….
I’m not really comfortable with the concept that my phone will be better than my friends and family at diagnosing depression.
How about the fact that using data from your mobile analysts will be able to predict exactly who you’re going to meet, and even on which day of the week you’re going to meet them.
Yikes!
Stumbled across this wonderful writing advice on the web. It’s an article by best selling Science Fiction novelist C. J. Cherryh, and, as the author encourages sharing I thought I’d post it here in its entirety. It really is great advice, and although its naturally biased towards fiction writing (which is what most non-fiction writers secretly long to write anyway), there are heaps of useful suggestions that will help to make any writing more dynamic and engaging.
The most important thing to remember, as always, is that when you’re writing rules are never absolute. They offer guidance, but if breaking rules helps you convey your message more effectively, do it! Or as C. J. Cherryh so eloquently puts it: “CHERRYH’S LAW: NO RULE SHOULD BE FOLLOWED OFF A CLIFF”.
Enjoy….
Writerisms and other Sins:
A Writer’s shortcut to stronger writing.
by C.J. Cherryh
(c) 1995 by C.J. Cherryh
Copy and pass ‘Writerisms and other Sins’ around to your heart’s content, but always post my copyright notice at the top, correctly, thank you, as both a courtesy and a legal necessity to protect any writer.
Writerisms: overused and misused language. In more direct words: find ‘em, root ‘em out, and look at your prose without the underbrush. You may be surprised by how much better it looks.
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my latest tweets! 
