ThomasCantrell.com Tech Blog

After I read the article in the Harvard Business Review, I found this video online:

The Harvard Business Review has an excellent article on managing during a recession. After all:

[Susan] Fiske explains: “People pay attention to those who control their outcomes. In an effort to predict and possibly influence what is going to happen to them, people gather information about those with power.” Further, people tend to interpret what they see the boss do in a negative light…. Related studies also show that when people down the pecking order feel threatened by superiors, they become distracted from their work.

The articles advice is for managers to work hard to address four areas:

• Predictability: Give people as much information as you can about what will happen and when….
• Understanding: Explain why the changing you’re implementing are necessary…
• Control: Take a bewildering challenge and break it down into “small win” opportunities.
• Compassion: … Express empathy and — when appropriate — sorrow for any painful actions that have to be taken.

This article seems to have a strong grasp on the issues. I’ve seen the “cone of silence” where managers don’t talk about the layoffs and keep me in constant stress. However, I’ve also seen managers personally talk to every employee in their department when employment seemed unsure.  It quickly eased the tension. Now that’s good management!

An interesting review of burnout from A List Apart:

You may be flirting with burnout if:

• Every day is a bad day
• You are no longer emotionally invested in your job or the work you’re doing
• You feel unappreciated or do not feel like you’re making a difference in your job
• There is a clear disconnect between your personal values and what is expected of you
• Self-defined goals or those imposed on you are unrealistic or unreasonable
• A significant amount of your day is focused on tasks that are not fulfilling on a personal or emotional level

These indicators are good to remember. It can mean that our balance is off, or it can mean that we are doing the wrong things. Either way, these indicators are important to keep an eye out for before there is a stronger emotional effect on our lives.

Finally, a personal note. I want to assure readers that I don’t feel burned out. Rather, my personality type is such that I need to be constantly aware of when I am running myself too thin.

An Oldy But A Goody from Joel on Software:

[P]rogramming tasks take so long to task switch. I feel like when I have two programming projects on my plate at once, the task switch time is something like 6 hours. In an 8-hour day, that means multitasking reduces my productivity to 2 hours per day. Pretty dismal.

While this is eight years old, it is still extremely true. It’s good to remember really how inefficient it is to try to do multiple things while programming. 

In my world, my responsibilities are spread over enough topics that I can easily switch between things and take over a day to “task switch.” That’s why it’s really good to try to focus on one main thing. Now if I could only control outside interruptions…