Sunday, June 21, 2015

No Time To Be Nice at Work


This article in today's New York Times about work incivility really resonated with me... some excerpts below.
Intermittent stressors — like experiencing or witnessing uncivil incidents or even replaying one in your head — elevate levels of hormones called glucocorticoids throughout the day, potentially leading to a host of health problems, including increased appetite and obesity. A study published in 2012 that tracked women for 10 years concluded that stressful jobs increased the risk of a cardiovascular event by 38 percent.
Bosses produce demoralized employees through a string of actions: walking away from a conversation because they lose interest; answering calls in the middle of meetings without leaving the room; openly mocking people by pointing out their flaws or personality quirks in front of others; reminding their subordinates of their “role” in the organization and “title”; taking credit for wins, but pointing the finger at others when problems arise. Employees who are harmed by this behavior, instead of sharing ideas or asking for help, hold back. 
Incivility shuts people down in other ways, too. Employees contribute less and lose their conviction, whether because of a boss saying, “If I wanted to know what you thought, I’d ask you,” or screaming at an employee who overlooks a typo in an internal memo.
Leaders can use simple rules to win the hearts and minds of their people — with huge returns. Making small adjustments such as listening, smiling, sharing and thanking others more often can have a huge impact. In one unpublished experiment I conducted, a smile and simple thanks (as compared with not doing this) resulted in people being viewed as 27 percent warmer, 13 percent more competent and 22 percent more civil.

Friday, June 12, 2015

More Aphorisms (Timeless Wisdom)

From The 2,548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said by Robert Byrne

"The trouble with born-again Christians is that they are an even bigger pain the second time around."
Herb Caen

 "It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry."  H. L. Mencken

 "He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I ever met." Abraham Lincoln

 "Husbands are like fires. They go out if unattended. " Zsa Zsa Gabor

 "Many man owes his success to his first wife and his second wife to his success." Jim Backus

 "Few people know how to be old." La Rochefoucauld