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(1999). A Safe Place for Dangerous Truths: Using Dialogue to Overcome Fear & Distrust at Work.
"In a strict hierarchy, when someone in power has the reputation for retribution, it would be irresponsible to encourage the discussion of dangerous truths. One time I believed a manager's self-description as 'open-minded and empowering.' Introducing dialogue into her group was a mistake. She was not open-minded and had a reputation for shooting the messenger. The result was agony—two hours of people squirming in their seats, eyes darting longingly toward the door, and no one daring to tell the truth." (p. 194)
(1999). Since Strangling Isn't an Option... : Dealing with Difficult People–Common Problems and Uncommon Solutions.
"It isn't always easy to have compassion for people who are in positions of power over us. We tend to think of them as having achieved something, or as having been given something we have not. Instead of thinking of your boss as a boss, think of her as a person. It's easier, and more productive, for two human beings to talk than it is for a boss and a subordinate to deliberate." (p. 39)
(1999). Set For Life.
(1998). Secrets of the Wild Goose: The Self-Management Way to Increase Your Personal Power and Inspire Productive Teamwork.
"'Constructive criticism'? It's an oxymoron. Criticism, by definition, is destructive." (p. 142)
(1998). Something More : Excavating your Authentic Self.
"'Disillusion only comes to the illusioned,' Dorothy Thompson reminds us in The Courage to be Happy, written in 1957. 'One cannot be disillusioned of what one never put faith in,' especially ourselves." (p. 159)
(1997). The Seven Fatal Management Sins: Understanding and Avoiding Managerial Malpractice.
"Every employee should be part of the corporate family. While that may be the case in some organizations, in other organizations employees are numbers—objects to be utilized and manipulated. Motorola stresses that the organization is a 'family' with human and democratic values, where no one can be fired without approval from the top." (p. 165)
(1997). Slaves of the Machine: The Quickening of Computer Technology (Bradford Book).
"Most of today's programmers are like lawyers who are concerned only with the law, not justice. Their letter-of-the-law, obey-or-you-will-be-punished tradition has the same problems in computing as it does in law." (P. 80)
(1997). Slowing down to the speed of life : how to create a more peaceful, simpler life from the inside out.
"See forgiveness as a process, and know that it will get easier and easier each time the memory comes to mind. If you see the value of forgiveness and are willing to forgive, each time the memory comes to mind while you are in a state of healthy psychological functioning, the experience will be a little less painful." (p. 135)
(1996). Surviving Your Boss: How to Cope With Office Politics and Get on With Your Job.
"In any situation of change, conflict, or misunderstanding there is anger. Anger frequently masks fear. Fear in situations of conflict and change is very predictable. And with anger there is usually blame, for oneself and for others. Anger is one of the most destructive forces in the workplace today. It is ultimately a fatal emotion. Studies show that about 20 percent of us have hostility levels high enough to be dangerous—to our own health and to those around us. Hostility level is associated with increased smoking, drinking, eating, and weight gain. Hostility has long been a well-established contributor to coronary risk and heart disease, as well as myriad other illnesses.
It's likely you have experienced the relationship between anger, depression, resentment, and low self-esteem. You know about the aches and pains that come from tension. The fatigue and lack of joy that ensue as days are increasingly filled with the burden of frustration and suppressed rage." (p. 96)
It's likely you have experienced the relationship between anger, depression, resentment, and low self-esteem. You know about the aches and pains that come from tension. The fatigue and lack of joy that ensue as days are increasingly filled with the burden of frustration and suppressed rage." (p. 96)
(1996). Software Portability with Imake.
(1995). Silent Sabotage: Rescuing Our Careers, Our Companies, and Our Lives from the Creeping Paralysis of Anger and Bitterness.
"At the organizational level, we must begin removing the hierarchical walls that we've built around us....We must move away from the concept that the boss is omnipotent and all powerful [sic] and move toward a more fluid organizational structure that favors a shared approach toward conducting business." (p. 57)
(1995). Social Organization of Work.
"Alienation occurs when work provides inadequately for human needs for identity and meaning. Work is alienating to the extent that one does it only from economic necessity, not from its intrinsic pleasures." (p. 56)
"A common response to alienating work is passive resistance through making work into a game (Burawoy, 2000), restricting one`s output (Roy, 1952), or focusing on aspects of work tangential to the main productive activity (Collinson, 2003). For instance, workers often adjust to alienating situations by focusing on interactions with their peers. Managers label such behavioral responses 'poor performance.' However, such behaviors do not necessarily result from incompetence or laziness: rather, they may be straightforward responses to having a job that is tedious, repetitive, or alienating. These responses are difficult to predict from workers' levels of job satisfaction or commitment. Workers who are very committed to their work may be the ones most likely to resist alienating conditions. Those who are less committed may simply exit or grudgingly suffer in silence." (p. 68)
"A common response to alienating work is passive resistance through making work into a game (Burawoy, 2000), restricting one`s output (Roy, 1952), or focusing on aspects of work tangential to the main productive activity (Collinson, 2003). For instance, workers often adjust to alienating situations by focusing on interactions with their peers. Managers label such behavioral responses 'poor performance.' However, such behaviors do not necessarily result from incompetence or laziness: rather, they may be straightforward responses to having a job that is tedious, repetitive, or alienating. These responses are difficult to predict from workers' levels of job satisfaction or commitment. Workers who are very committed to their work may be the ones most likely to resist alienating conditions. Those who are less committed may simply exit or grudgingly suffer in silence." (p. 68)
(1995). Stop Paddling & Start Rocking the Boat: Business Lessons from the School of Hard Knocks.
"Visionaries have to come to work willing to be fired. That's the price you must pay. You've got to be willing to take chances, to speak up, to rattle cages, to challenge the basic premises, to suggest a better way of doing things." p. 222
(1994). Self-Esteem : A Proven Program of Cognitive Techniques for Assessing and Improving.
"Within a given profession or social level, our culture next awards worth based on accomplishments. Getting a raise, a degree, a promotion, or winning in a competition are worth a lot. Acquiring the right house, car, furnishings, boat, or college education for your kids—all those accomplishments are worth a lot, too. If you get fired or laid off, lose your home, or in any other way slip down the accomplishment ladder, you are in deep trouble. You lose all your counters and become socially worthless.
Buying into these cultural concepts of worth can be deadly. For example, John was a bank examiner who equated his worth with his accomplishments at work. When he was late in meeting an important deadline, he felt worthless. When he felt worthless, he got depressed. When he got depressed, he worked slower and missed more deadlines. He felt more worthless, got more depressed, worked less diligently, and so on in a deadly downward spiral." (p. 88)
Buying into these cultural concepts of worth can be deadly. For example, John was a bank examiner who equated his worth with his accomplishments at work. When he was late in meeting an important deadline, he felt worthless. When he felt worthless, he got depressed. When he got depressed, he worked slower and missed more deadlines. He felt more worthless, got more depressed, worked less diligently, and so on in a deadly downward spiral." (p. 88)
(1994). Spirit Of Community.
"If businesses would cooperate with parents to make it easier for them to earn a living and attend to their children, the corporate payoffs would be much more than social approbation: they would gain a labor force that is much better able to perform." (p. 67)
(1994). Success through teamwork: a practical guide to interpersonal team dynamics.
"Not all team members are equally motivated to participate and be productive. In addition to motivating productive members, you must motivate average or nonparticipating members to increase their commitment to the team.
The following strategies can help you turn nonparticipating team members into active participants:
* Seek their advice
* Make them teachers
* Involve them in presentations
* Delegate 'star projects' " (p. 85)
The following strategies can help you turn nonparticipating team members into active participants:
* Seek their advice
* Make them teachers
* Involve them in presentations
* Delegate 'star projects' " (p. 85)
(1993). Sharkproof: Get the Job You Want, Keep the Job You Love...in Today's Frenzied Job Market.
"So you got fired.
You can take the hurt and anger you feel and use it constructively. To prove they made a mistake when they let you go. Think. And do. Prove those critics wrong, wrong, wrong. Keep the vision of their pinched little faces handy, where you can get at them when you need them. Make them eat their words. Show them your stuff. Get mad. Get going. Get even.
Payback time is coming." (p. 248)
You can take the hurt and anger you feel and use it constructively. To prove they made a mistake when they let you go. Think. And do. Prove those critics wrong, wrong, wrong. Keep the vision of their pinched little faces handy, where you can get at them when you need them. Make them eat their words. Show them your stuff. Get mad. Get going. Get even.
Payback time is coming." (p. 248)
(1993). Snow Crash.
Stephenson's dark social satire illustrates what an anti-ROWE future might look like:
"You could try to favor a particular station, try to sit there every day, but it would be noticed. Generally you pick the unoccupied workstation that's closest to the door. That way, whoever comes in earliest sits closest, whoever came in latest is way in the back, for the rest of the day it's obvious at a glance who's on the ball in this office and who is—as they whisper to each other in the bathrooms—having problems.
Not that it's any big secret, who comes in first. When you sign on to a workstation in the morning, it's not like the central computer doesn't notice that fact. The central computer notices just about everything....You're only required to be at your workstation from eight to five, with a half-hour lunch break and two ten-minute coffee breaks, but if you stuck to that schedule it would definitely be noticed..." (p. 282)
"You could try to favor a particular station, try to sit there every day, but it would be noticed. Generally you pick the unoccupied workstation that's closest to the door. That way, whoever comes in earliest sits closest, whoever came in latest is way in the back, for the rest of the day it's obvious at a glance who's on the ball in this office and who is—as they whisper to each other in the bathrooms—having problems.
Not that it's any big secret, who comes in first. When you sign on to a workstation in the morning, it's not like the central computer doesn't notice that fact. The central computer notices just about everything....You're only required to be at your workstation from eight to five, with a half-hour lunch break and two ten-minute coffee breaks, but if you stuck to that schedule it would definitely be noticed..." (p. 282)
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