Workplace Dangers: Meeting with Legal

Instructor, Caroline Bender This is not Miss Bender's usual lecture about the paper trail -- of the CYA/Kumbaya variety.  We'd like to go a little wider and deeper in today's class.  These are habits you need firmly established before you need them.  Because you never know when you are going to be deposed. Let's review some examples of a email reply, with attachment. 1) subject line: none.  No message text 2) subject line: "spreadsheet".  message -  "Here ya go."  or... "per our conversation," (however formal your environment tends to be) 3) subject line (name of attachment):  message text: Hello Brenda,Please...

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Influence without authority

A letter to the editor by Diane Chambers, BWFS Graduate student "I'm at my wit's end," Chambers' letter began, "so I thought I would pen a quick relatively snarky post." We at the Finishing School do appreciate the snarky.  We even appreciate the stomp around and overturn the water cooler.  But even at the highest levels of the faculty, our motto is... When you want to stand on the table, write a helpful post instead.   Trying to get something done when you aren't in a position to say, "do this because I pay you" or "do this because otherwise I will hurt you" may necessitate the technique of  "influence without...

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Ask a Manager: Something's Rotten in Denmark

Our latest Ask the Manager question got our Executives in Residence plenty talkative.  Even our Research Fellows, who rarely step to the podium, had something to say.  So we opened this to our full panel. Note:  some facts in the letter below have been omitted or altered to obscure the workplace.  The letter is otherwise genuine.   Please also note that our panel of managers are all senior staff  and  thought leaders in their organizations and their professions.  We are grateful to have their mentorship, and have masked their identities in exchange for their participation. Enough disclaimers. ...

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The New People

Senior Thesis Proposal, Pam Beasley Halpert     They are not new to the world of work, just to your world of work.  Help your new colleagues feel welcome and prepared without being overwhelming or condescending. Having new people around is a little like having the Boss listen in on your meeting:  you are bound to be a lot more polite and discreet than you would ordinarily.  Suppressing the daily grouse can also make you want to avoid the new people, and that is unfair.  They are nervous, and lonesome, and eager to please....with very little to do while they watch the rest of you scramble around complaining...

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Princesses are not Perfect (book review, of sorts)

a confusing business fable Chief Researcher, Caroline Bender  Parents in our student body may have already explored this topic.  Your Miss Bender is on field research this week, as a spinster businesswoman with little other-life experience.  Living through the eyes of a 4 year-old this week is a fascinating look into how we get here.  Give me the princess until she is 7.... and I will give you the Chairwoman of the Board. If you live within a mile of a 4 year-old girl, you understand the pull of Princesses.  I gave up trying to explain it years ago.  I accept that for most of this demographic, the world is painted...

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Ask a Manager: Why did you leave your previous job?

The Finishing School welcomes our guest manager,  "Miranda Bailey," to respond to a recent Ask the Manager question. Note:  some facts in the letter below have been omitted or altered to obscure the workplace.  The letter is otherwise genuine.   Hi there, Came across your web page and "ask a manager" section particularly interested me. Here's my query: hope I get some guidance. An overview to my profile: I am an MBA graduate. An HR professional (Based abroad) I've worked for 5 yrs with mostly start-up organizations. Throughout my career I made sure that I give my best to the organizations (for which I did...

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My Interview Story

Guest Instructor, M. Cipriani  Whenever things happen that make me think, “This is not how it used to be,”  I realize I am getting old. I long for the days when job offers were made over the telephone, rather than through email.   When you were courted by a company that wanted to hire you, rather than having to remind them – “Hey, you have a job to fill, remember?” Perhaps it is the economic downturn that has left the state of human resources and recruitment in such a mess, as those folks along with the sales and marketing teams are usually the first to be escorted to the door.   Perhaps I have unrealistic expectations...

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Real and Imagined Business Panic

Bunny Watson, Student at Large A story comes to us this morning that Spokesduck Gilbert Gottfried has been dismissed by Aflac for a steady stream of tweets making light of conditions in post-earthquake Japan.  We might all agree to cry "Too Soon!" on this play; when you are the voice of an insurance company.... well, that just won't do. Oh, our Tweets will undo us, won't they?  Tweets are the new Send-All email gaffes we all made 15 years ago.  We all have a story of accidentally sending to an entire distribution list an off-color joke or response to the company meeting.  And that was just an extension of being caught passing...

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Ask a Manager: Taking one for the Team

The Finishing School welcomes our guest manager,  "Patty Hewes," to respond to a recent Ask the Manager question. Note:  some facts in the letter below have been omitted or altered to obscure the workplace.  The letter is otherwise genuine. I am so frustrated.  For 3 years I had been telling the VP that my staff's salaries (and mine) were depressed.  I had been told that we would be benchmarking the exempt positions and at that time would make the adjustments, [so]  I beefed up my job descriptions for my department  [and] the consultants [recommended] my job [go] up 3 pay grades.  But my company will...

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No Sneakers at the Office - Adam Scholl (Book tour)

In Miss Bender's real life workplace, she informally mentors a young professional with real spark, drive, and upward mobility.  (She keeps Miss Bender honest, to tell you the truth.)  Recently, we were talking about some exploring in the job market this NewPro has been doing -- fly fishing really, but you never know when something may strike.  Her biggest concern of the moment (though she has no upcoming prospects from these on-line searches) is how she will  manage to squeeze an interview into her workday. She says, "I can't suddenly show up one day dressed up."  Because of course her daily attire is jeans, t-shirt...

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Help Wanted: Female

Instructor, Caroline Bender Student Z.N. asks, "Why are women preferred to men for secretarial positions?" and what the question generated was an exploration of whether that statement is necessarily true.  That is certainly our recent, western, cultural belief, but has certainly not always been so.  When did it change, and what is the status of that alleged preference today, in a business world where women now proportionately outnumber men? "Secretary" as a job title has fallen out of favor, and the role exists far less than it did, especially in the corporate arena.  Miss Bender's personal observation is that they only exist...

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