During my first summer in public accounting, my CPA firm assigned me to work much of the summer in Georgia. Our Atlanta office needed dozens of staff people for a government audit. Instead of assigning me three straight months in Georgia, they graciously allowed me to work for two weeks, then home for two weeks, throughout the summer. This enabled ...
Leading up to the first Labor Day celebration in the 1880s, a typical workweek was 10 hours a day, six to seven days a week. It wasn’t until 1938 when a 44-hour work week was mandated with overtime pay for over 44 hours. Changes came when employees were in great demand or had a better bargaining position because of labor ...
Some 57% of United States and Canadian workers reported feeling stress on a daily basis, up by eight percentage points from the prior year. United States workers rank as the most stressed workers on the planet. There is hope, however. Faith at Work: An Empirical Study administered by Gallup asked over 7000 responders if their faith helps to guide them ...
Jim, a Canadian leader in the telecommunications field, was leading a cross-functional team on a significant project. One member of the team became antagonistic. Jim started to remove this person from the team when he decided to try to reconcile one more time. As he did, Jim felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to ask if this person was a ...
A recent discovery of mine is that nepotism isn’t just the hiring of a family member. Instead, according to the dictionary.com definition, Nepotism is “Favoritism granted to relatives or close friends, without regard to their merit.” For small business owners, family members are often a source of trusted labor. But to non-family staff, even diligent efforts to treat family members ...
According to the book “Rare Leadership in the Workplace,” Purdue University conducted research to improve egg productivity from chickens. They separated the highest producing chickens hoping to create a group of “super chickens.” After six generations of “super chickens,” only three survived. But the normal chickens egg production increased dramatically! These researchers discovered that the “super chickens” were predators. They ...
Kathy and I met a young couple recently who had moved to our area from Oregon. They both work in information technology for different employers located in Oregon. They desire to start a family and decided that the Midwest was a better location for them. When I asked about their employer’s willingness to allow them to live out-of-state, they said ...
When my father was discharged from military service, he needed a job. Dad didn’t have a high school degree, so when he had an opportunity to work at General Motors, he leaped at the opportunity. 30 years later, my dad retired from that same job. Over those years you couldn’t find a more loyal employee to General Motors. My father ...
Country music star John Rich is working on a new song called “I’m Offended That You’re Offended.” He’s one of a handful of conservative performers who are taking a stand against the raging “Cancel Culture” prevalent in our nation. In a Newsmax interview, John Rich talks about a growing number of performers who believe that if they speak up about ...
A Harvard Business Review article titled “Creating Space for Religious Diversity at Work” highlights ways companies may respect those with different religions in their workplace. The authors identified two principles to help build what they call an “elastic hybrid organization.” The first principle includes cultivating vagueness around how the organization’s purpose relates to religious practice. An example might be a ...
Equipping Others to Do Work Differently
