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Career

Worth Reading – Why Remote Managers Burn Out Without Knowing It
ByMike McBride August 19, 2025September 7, 2025 Reading Time: 2 minutes

I stopped my quote at that word “intentional” for a reason. I use that word often in this context. Whether you have teammates who are fully remote, hybrid, or just located in a different office from you, everything needs to be done intentionally. Communication, meetings, goals, expectations, etc., all need to be purposely set. If you want your team to feel free to disconnect after hours or on weekends, then you have to do that intentionally. If you allow work to creep into every hour of every day, or get lazy about communication, or demand an immediate response to an email late at night, even one time, you set the example that your team follows.

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Career

Worth Reading – I Stopped Asking “What Do You Do?”
ByMike McBride August 12, 2025August 11, 2025 Reading Time: 2 minutes

There are so many more interesting things we could be talking about. Yes, we are all here to connect and learn from each other about our work, but it doesn’t have to be the beginning and end of every conversation. Maybe instead of “what do you do,” I’m going to start asking folks what one thing they have learned this week that has them most excited? No offense to your job, but that conversation is going to be more interesting, in my humble opinion.

What have you learned this week?

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Artificial Intelligence

Worth Reading – Artificial Intelligence Can’t Fix the Work Environment
ByMike McBride August 5, 2025August 5, 2025 Reading Time: 2 minutes

When you read some of the statistics about email, meetings, interruptions, etc., it’s hard not to see the same glaring red flag that Sharlyn sees. We might suck at communicating.

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Career

Worth Reading – Icebreaker or iceberg
ByMike McBride August 4, 2025August 2, 2025 Reading Time: 3 minutes

Yes, it’s a dumb question that creates bias and other problems in the hiring process. On the other hand, when you need a job, you need a job. If mentioning something in response to the “outside of work” question creates an interest or connection with the interviewer, it’s to your advantage to do it.

College football is maybe the most white, upper-middle-class version of that. There are others. (Travel, outdoor activities, etc.) We should live in a world where all employers are working to remove this kind of bias from hiring, but we do not live in that world. The one we live in grants an advantage to the job seeker who can find a common interest with the interviewer. You might as well do some research on the people you’re going to be meeting with and turn this bias to your advantage if you can.

Read More Worth Reading – Icebreaker or iceberg
Security

Worth Reading – No surprise that Phishing Training Doesn’t Work!
ByMike McBride July 30, 2025July 29, 2025 Reading Time: 2 minutes

Every employee is probably learning about AI because their job demands it, learning new features after new features of the tools they use to do their job, learning new systems that get rolled out every year, and dealing with technological change at a ridiculous pace.

Then, we make them responsible for learning how to stay secure and deal with all of the hack attempts that may come their way, too.

It’s all too much. Most of your users aren’t going to put in that kind of effort, and a yearly reminder about data security isn’t going to help them keep up with the variety of risks that are out there. It might not be worth the money you spend on it.

Read More Worth Reading – No surprise that Phishing Training Doesn’t Work!
Career

Worth Reading – How to Get More Comfortable Working Remotely and Actually Like It
ByMike McBride July 26, 2025July 26, 2025 Reading Time: 3 minutes

I am likely very much in the minority in working this way. That’s OK. My point is that remote work should be flexible. Find what works for you that allows you to meet the job requirements and provides balance to your days. That’s the whole point.

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