The HR Machine: The Water Cooler
Everyone gets thirsty. It’s easy to see thirsty folks heading to the water cooler for refreshment, be it in the traditional form, a coffee station, or by proxy via vending machines. Everyone gets bored, too.
Human Resources
EEOC Seeks Presenters for 2015 EXCEL Training Conference
How much do you know about EEO? Are you a subject matter expert in issues of equal employment opportunity (EEO) in the public and private sectors? If so, you should consider applying to be a presenter at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) 18th annual EXCEL Training Conference this summer in Washington, DC. TheRead… Read more »
Government Skills Gaps And The Dangers Of Routine
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. To see better results, some inherent part of the process must change, but it’s hard for teams to think outside the box when no new people are involved. Habits die hard, so in looking to change the status quo,Read… Read more »
How Project Management Can Create a More Efficient Government
Project management refers to the process of planning, motivating, organizing and directing resources, protocols, and procedures to attain particular goals that will help in solving both scientific problems as well as problems in your day-to-day. A project refers to a temporary exercise that is designed to create a specified service, product, or result with aRead… Read more »
Waiting to be Uncovered
In 1963, Erving Goffman, an American sociologist, coined the term “covering.” He described it as the efforts people make to keep their stigmatized identities hidden. He indicated that one of the most visible acts of covering was when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt would be seated early at the table prior to a Cabinet Meeting inRead… Read more »
How American Indian Values Can Help Your Workplace
Interdependence American Indian organizations are interdependent. They understand that the success of the organization depends on everyone regardless of their title, role, paycheck or ego. Obligation to Others American Indian organizations realize they are obligated to the success of their members and those they serve. They do not give up on each other no matterRead… Read more »
Dealing with Veteran Disabilities
If I have learned anything from my accident, it is that it is supposed to help other people. I’ve heard it from veterans who know about my accident that they received training as a military police directly as a result of my accident. I also know that the things I have gone through and continue… Read more »
Building and Sustaining Teams
This week, I attended a 3-day federal supervisory/managerial training class on building and sustaining teams. Day 1 began with the facilitator explaining that we were to define our roles in teams behaviorally, by observable or measurable movement or activity. In other words, we were to state the behaviors that we see exhibited in ourselves andRead… Read more »
From the Schoolyard to the Workplace: The Bully
Last week I wrote about the MVP in the workplace. This week, I am prompted to make a stretch from last week’s narrative. Something quite the opposite. Although each of us can identify an MVP or two on our team, look around and you may not only identify the MVP but you may just alsoRead… Read more »
I’ve Been Teleworking Since 2001. Here’s How I Make it Work
At my job in the 1900s (you guess the decade), my supervisor told us that she wouldn’t approve our working from home anymore. That was too bad, because I always accomplished much more from my den than I did in the office. I didn’t have the distractions, and amazingly, I had the discipline to toRead… Read more »