I have a dear friend, colleague and mentor who spent her whole life in the government and was sidelined for almost as many years. The “funny” thing is, she’s a genius. And whenever they had a problem, they’d come to her. “That’s alright,” she used to say, “I keep everything in Outlook.” And she wouldRead… Read more »
Confession time! I’m a canary, of sorts. No, I do not sing like one. (In fact, during school assemblies, I was told to lip-sync, for the sake of everyone present!) — Like an estimated 15% of Americans, I am highly sensitive to many common chemicals found in offices, homes, and retail establishments. – Why amRead… Read more »
Whether it’s a simple tiff over dishes in the sink or a productivity-scuttling battle over who has authority over a project, coworker conflicts can contribute massively to office stress. As with any relationship, conflicts will pop up over time – over miscommunications, misunderstood expectations, personality differences, and a host of other little things. They’re inevitable, butRead… Read more »
There are so many long-running projects in government that have failed to gain traction or reach full implementation. When leadership sits down to figure out why, one of the top reasons (outside of cost overruns and missed deadlines) tends to be culture, or the necessity of culture change. Of course, that’s a pretty big undertaking.Read… Read more »
By Lily Whiteman, author of “How to Land a Top-Paying Federal Job”; speaker on career issues; Twitter: @Lilymwhiteman What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of working in federal headquarters offices located in the Washington D.C. area vs. working in federal field offices located throughout the U.S.? This question is answered by the two tablesRead… Read more »
So what I did, I reverse engineered my work and figured how to back things off like in a project management schedule and then re-established my own goals to complete actions on a monthly or quarterly basis so I could manage my own workload better.
Aspiring front-line managers often ask me, “What would you do as a front-line manager the first week on the job.” I tell them I would start having conversations with my team members that foster emotional connections. The first questions I would ask my direct reports are, “What is your personality and temperament, what are strengthsRead… Read more »
As a little girl, I was taught not to use the word lie. It was a bad word in my world. My mother told me to use untruth instead. And so I did…until I transitioned to the workplace; I began to use ‘fabricate’ to replace untruth. Today, telling an untruth is simply deemed a lieRead… Read more »
When I was growing up, I’m sure my parents and most others who were working adults struggled with what we now call “work-life balance.” My dad had a full-time job and worked part-time on weekends. My grandmother worked in other people’s homes, and my mom worked outside the home, off-and-on, but mostly kept our home.Read… Read more »
Seeing as this post is published on a Friday, I would like to observe #fbf aka Flashback Friday. Now close your eyes and cast your mind back to elementary school. What would happen in Kindergarten if you got the answer right to what 1+1 equals? You’d probably get something like a gold star or aRead… Read more »