The Day After: Reflections on International Women’s Day

Another International Women’s Day has come and gone and along with it another round of clever hashtags, hopeful social media posts and frankly, hollow pledges of support. We’ve been through it before. Some of us have been through it more times than others and after a while, there’s a certain fuming cynicism that sets in. …

Open letter to the micro-manager

Dear micro-managing megalomaniac, I'm writing this letter to you on behalf of employees everywhere who have been subjected to the particular form of office persecution known as micro-management. If you are perplexed, micro-management is the phenomena whereby a senior manager or executive pays "attention to small details in management: control [of] a person or a …

Blunders and bragging rights

Today, a talented young woman was found dead. The commentary has already begun and the judgments have been pronounced even at this early stage. It seems that even when a person’s mistakes have led to their own demise, we are intent on criticizing people for the things they do wrong, no matter how many things …

Speaking with authority, picking up garbage and trusting your gut

As a parent volunteer at my daughter’s high school after grad party, I had about five hours to stand around in a toque, covered in Deep Woods Off, with only a clipboard and my absolute sobriety to protect me. During that time, with a shortage of parent volunteers (totaling no more than 4-6 at any …