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5 Ways to Win Back an Unhappy Employee

There will come a time in every manager’s career where he is forced to deal with employee dissatisfaction.  While this is never something a manager wants to deal with, some simple practices can make the incident easier to deal with. As a result, the manager will be less tense and the company might not lose what is otherwise a productive employee. Do not stress; just take advantage of a few employee retention ideas to get your employee back to a place where the two of you are happy working together.

1. Take time to personally talk with the employee.

The first thing to do is to take some time to talk to the employee one on one. This should be done in your office towards the end of the day.  It will provide you with an opportunity to discuss the problems at hand without leaving the rest of the day to chance. That way the disgruntled employee can go home and think about the conversation without being caught up in a lot of water cooler gossip. You will also have the opportunity to get your questions answered.

If another employee’s name is brought up, you may need to set up a time when the three of you can get together and talk. Of course, you should let all parties involved know of the date and time ahead of schedule. That way everyone has an opportunity to organize his or her thoughts beforehand. At the end of the meeting, you should see if anything can be done immediately in order to alleviate any tension that exists.
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WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 13 – Gina Trapani

WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 13 – Gina Trapani

WorkAwesome editor Mike Vardy had the pleasure to interview Lifehacker founding editor and highly-regarded developer Gina Trapani on this week’s episode of the podcast. Gina’s got a ton of projects on the go on the web, all of which are awesome in scope and in nature. She’s regarded as one of the top productivity experts on the web today (one could go as for to say that her reach expands well beyond the Internet realm as well), and it was truly a privilege to have her on as a guest.

Show Notes

  • Gina discusses the reason behind starting started Lifehacker and the reason for eventually leaving the site.
  • Why Gina believes that productivity has had (and still does have) such an appeal to so many on the Internet.
  • Todo.txt app, Gina’s self-developed task list application, is discussed.
  • Gina gives a rundown of her daily workflow, including IRC, email and other tools she uses.
  • What is ThinkUp? Gina spills the beans.
  • Mike and Gina offer a requiem for the late, lamented Google Wave.
  • The status of Gina’s standing desk experiment.
  • Apparently, Gina occasionally dances while she works. So what’s on her playlist?
  • Gina digs Gmail…she explains her reasons, what aspects of Gmail’s features she uses and some of the other apps she has to keep tabs on things.

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The On/Off Principle

If you’re the kind of person who thinks outside the box when it comes to work (as most WorkAwesome readers are), then you probably know all sorts of tricks and techniques for getting the most out of the working day. Whatever your “top tips” for time management are, there’s one element which underpins them all; one fundamental ingredient which determines whether you stick to a program of time management or slip back into chaos or procrastination.

Working State

If you’ve ever read a list of tips or even a detailed manifesto like David Allen’s GTD system, you were probably sold on the principles instantly. You’d spent a couple of afternoons being productive, but then promptly fell off the wagon and straight under the crushing wheels of habitual routine.

What matters most isn’t so much your system, but rather your state of mind. You might have had days when work just happened effortlessly — like an athlete in the zone — when everything just seemed to come together. Unfortunately, if left to chance, this doesn’t happen so often.

The key to any program of self-management, self- motivation, self-improvement — call it what you will — is to take responsibility for your own brain first.
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6 Ways to Rise Above Workplace Politics (and Emerge Unscathed)

Unless you have always worked by yourself, you are likely to have come across office politics in one form or another. When you think about it, it is just another way of describing human relationships. It’s not surprising that workplaces usually have some type of politics — especially when the nature of many jobs means you don’t get to choose who you work with. So how do you rise above workplace politics and yet still save face?

From observing my own and other people’s behaviour, I have noticed that it is possible to navigate workplace politics and come out smiling. It is not always easy, and it takes practice but there are mindsets and behaviours that make it easier to do.

1. Treat Others As You Want To Be Treated

Gossiping is the fuel for workplace politics. Gossiping means that things are not dealt with directly and can be very damaging. Whatever has been said is usually distorted as it is passed around, whether intentionally or not. Be direct and deal with things professionally. Try not to gossip — and if someone tells you something, don’t pass it on. You can let your co-workers know (verbally or by your actions) that you don’t want to engage in gossip. This can be hard initially but once people see that you mean what you say, they will respect you for it. At the end of the day, we all view life through our own unique and subjective lens; try and see the bigger picture. This doesn’t mean that you can’t be understanding to your co-workers, but there are always two sides to any story. I have seen people swallow up everything that is said to them and turn on other people as a result. Take a step back and try and be objective — it will help you to keep a professional distance and avoid being pulled into politics yourself.
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Why I Love My Dumbphone

Why I Love My Dumbphone

When I was recently checking out the top five mobile phones in America (according to the Nielsen Company), all but the Samsung Intensity were smartphones.

  1. Apple iPod 3GS
  2. Samsung Intensity
  3. Motorola Droid
  4. RIM Blackberry 8500 series
  5. Apple iPhone 4

And just to make a case for Apple, the iPhone 3G was 6th on that list. Now it’s possible some of the rankings on this list has changed since then, but the fact remains that smartphones dominate the mobile marketplace.

Why are they so popular? Well, on smartphones you can do things like check your email, update your Facebook and Twitter statuses, get turn-by-turn driving directions, play games, watch videos, read a newspaper and listen to music. All that and you can make a phone call.

When my boyfriend and I snuggle up  under the covers at night, the very last thing he does is check the news headlines on his iPhone. This is not romantic. Besides doing that, his new obsession is Words With Friends; he plays it constantly. If he can’t sleep, he’ll play Ragdoll Blaster while holding his iPhone so close to his eyes that it’s practically resting on his nose. He loves his iPhone with a passion that I can’t quite understand.

As for me, I do not own a smartphone…and I don’t even want one.
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WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 12 – Patrick Rhone

This week’s episode of the WorkAwesome podcast features a “less than minimal” interview with renowned minimalist and talented writer Patrick Rhone. Patrick’s writing covers the landscape of productivity, technology analysis and practical tips, all with a tremendous amount of articulation, thoughtfulness and flair.

Patrick is the writer and curator at Minimal Mac, a website that promotes subjective simplicity to Mac users everywhere. However, Patrick’s philosophy goes beyond the Mac platform alone (although admittedly, it is his platform of choice) and he has taken it to the next level with his new podcast, entitled Enough – The Minimal Mac Podcast.

Patrick and WorkAwesome editor Mike Vardy discuss the nature of minimalism (what it is and, more importantly, what it really is), workflow and the crux of the term “enough” as he sees it. Since Patrick is a busy guy, we delve into how he achieves balance in all that he does — both in work and life — and the shift that has been happening for him with the rising success of his writing career. He also mentions some of those that he thinks are doing awesome work with their writing these days. We even talk about email strategies.
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Beating Up Workplace Bullying: A Pacifist’s Guide

Did you have a bully in your school? Every school has at least one. Maybe you were the kid that wore a “Kick Me” sign on your back and wondered why other kids seemed to always gang up on you. I was that kid (the “Kick Me” sign kid, not the bully). I didn’t wear pocket protectors or tape on my glasses. But I was desperate to be liked, and I often felt like I failed. I had a hard time standing up for myself and I was targeted by bullies a lot as a result.

In my last post, How to Support Coworkers When Tragedy Strikes, I saw an unexpected but somewhat common thread in readers’ comments. People had experienced tragedies and returned to work environments that were –- for lack of a better word –- hostile.

Workplace bullies aren’t typically the focus of this blog, but they are a common issue that thousands of workers across this world deal with.

A workplace bully is someone who mistreats another employee or a group of employees for the sake of appearing superior or for a higher salary. According to studies like this one, there is an 80% likelihood that this bully is a manager or supervisor.
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The Best Way to Make Time for Passion Projects

Do you have a blog, startup idea or just want to start/build something outside of you day job? Do you have enough time to make it as awesome as you envision? I’m sure most of you would nod your head in agreement.

Most of us that have a blog, want to start a side business or just have a passion project that is maintained outside a full-time job struggle with making time to work on such projects. Working hard by putting in extra hours — which is common in many work places — to get the work done is not an option. We cannot act like The Technician working more and more hours to get the work done as Michael Gerber describes in his book The E-Myth.

Time is limited by not only a full time job, but also by family and other commitments. In order to make time to progress in our passion projects we must work extremely hard, but we must also work smart. Working smart means being efficient and not wasting the precious time we carve out in the day. To get passion projects finished or make them a success we must combine working hard with working smart, while finding those few hours each week to do the work itself.
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