Conversations At Work

What kind of conversations do you have at work? I was prompted to think about this a lot over the past few weeks by hearing some perspectives from people I have worked with that surprised me somewhat.

When we work closely with people over an extended period of time we often do so in ways that are focused on the technical details of our work, resolving a problem, or how to reduce potential problems with perhaps a little personal chitchat to balance out our days. But how often do we take the time to tell our colleagues how we see their contribution to our work experience beyond the efficient but not particularly informative “good job”, “thank-you”, “well done” etc.?

When was the last time you told a co-worker in specific terms what their contribution meant to your work experience? Have you ever received a recommendation from someone you worked with that surprised you because it included references to work that in your view was just “doing my job” but discovered that the people you worked with saw it as a significant and positive contribution to the effectiveness of the workplace?

How would having such specific conversations on a regular basis with our colleagues affect our motivation, our stress levels, and our ability to be clear on what is working well?

What do you think? What happens in your workplace? When was the last time you told a colleague in specific terms how their contribution made a difference?

Next Shift In Blog Direction

My post on the Netflix HR job posting yesterday is the last time I will post on this topic. I thought I was finished with that several months ago but several things I have read recently prompted me to put up my thoughts just one more time. Done, that feels great because I am at an end point with seeing exactly the same issue arise every year for at least the last 12 years. Either HR changes radically and quickly or it will become something else altogether and I am not talking about a name change.

I will still talk about HR stuff though, when someone asks me a question I will respond, when I encounter a situation that someone asks for help in resolving, I will respond; I just won't post about HR as a profession needing to change anymore. It has been said too much already.

Here is a question I was asked a couple of weeks ago and the topic has come up a few more times since then: Do you think companies in Canada are practising ageism? The first person who asked me felt that she had been turned down for at least 2 jobs she had interviews for based on her perceived age once she arrived at the interview.

Yes,human beings that do hiring as part of their role in companies are practising ageism; not all of them but more than you might think given our Human Rights Act. It isn't hard to 'get away with it' either. So, is there a solution to this? The simple answer is yes: stop it, just stop it. Unfortunately the solution needs a solution, because people do this based on ill-advised beliefs and often are so convinced of just how accurate or relevant those beliefs are that there is nothing you can say to change their minds. Which leads to the next solution, conduct research on companies you are interested in working for and find out if they practice ageism (or any ism for that matter); if they do not, then apply there. If they do, they don't deserve your awesome contribution, they just don't.