Author: Lynne Curry

16 Ways to Kill Your Managers (Metaphorically, Mostly)
Conflict & communications, HR/Human Resources & Operations, Office politics, Writing

16 Ways to Kill Your Managers (Metaphorically, Mostly)

Number six: drown in a vat of burnt office coffee, slow, bitter, company blend.
Number seven: death by paperclips, swallowed one by one.
Number eight: Lock Willy and Ken in the conference room with a malfunctioning speakerphone; feedback shrieking, brains scrambled, meeting finally useful.
Office fridge salmonella surprise. HR report: “unfortunate potluck accident.”
Continue reading 16 Ways to Kill Your Managers (Metaphorically, Mostly)

The Managerial Promotion Underbelly: Side Order of Chaos
Coaching, Management/supervision, Professional growth

The Managerial Promotion Underbelly: Side Order of Chaos

you can’t let your focus get hijacked and expect to feel successful. Reclaiming control isn’t about hustling harder—it’s about refusing to let every ping dictate your day. When your day becomes one long loop of: start task → ping → approval → “quick question” → begin again, you feel wiped out. No one thrives in a job that forces a full focus reboot every few minutes. Continue reading The Managerial Promotion Underbelly: Side Order of Chaos

The Roomba School of Management: When Everyone Looks Slammed but Nothing Gets Done
HR/Human Resources & Operations, Management/supervision, Professional growth

The Roomba School of Management: When Everyone Looks Slammed but Nothing Gets Done

Employee roomba: everyone performs work & looks slammed: syncing, circling back, touching base, aligning priorities, and actioning next steps. The problem? None of these verbs produced anything tangible. Meetings multiplied like rabbits while projects stayed in limbo. Like bouncing in place for your smartwatch. Continue reading The Roomba School of Management: When Everyone Looks Slammed but Nothing Gets Done

Job Hugging Confessions: still at my desk, still in denial
Career, Coaching, HR/Human Resources & Operations, Personal growth

Job Hugging Confessions: still at my desk, still in denial

Job hugging’s the workplace version of comfort food: familiar, filling, and guaranteed to leave you sluggish. Employees don’t love their jobs, but don’t see anything better on the horizon. They stay because the devil they know offers dental coverage, even though the spark that once made them excited about their jobs wheezes for oxygen. Continue reading Job Hugging Confessions: still at my desk, still in denial

The Smiling Assassin’s Guide to Office Politics
Conflict & communications, HR/Human Resources & Operations, Office politics

The Smiling Assassin’s Guide to Office Politics

One of the workplace’s most sophisticated power plays. It’s manipulation disguised as warmth, a velvet-gloved hand that carves you open so deftly end up thanking them for the incision. Weaponized niceness rarely shows its fangs. Niceness gives cover. These coworkers undermine through concern, criticize through flattery, and control through charm. Continue reading The Smiling Assassin’s Guide to Office Politics

Employee Polygamy: When One Job Just Isn’t Enough
Career, HR/Human Resources & Operations, Remote work/Virtual

Employee Polygamy: When One Job Just Isn’t Enough

69% of 1250 remote employees work a second job, with 37% of them holding two full-time jobs. Employee polygamists maintain two or more full-time jobs simultaneously, usually remote, often undisclosed, and occasionally heroic in their multitasking. Nearly half manage both roles remotely; the rest blend remote and in-person work. Only one-third admit to working 80 hours or more weekly. The rest? They’ve either found a wormhole in the space-time continuum—or one employer foots the bill for hours spent on another’s clock.

Continue reading Employee Polygamy: When One Job Just Isn’t Enough