Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Meet the Dirty Digital Dozen
I grew up with a single mom who was half Wonder Woman, half Mary Tyler Moore: She managed to combine a significant career with raising a kid on her own. You know what she didn’t have to deal with? 7 p.m. emails. Digital communications tools like email, Google Docs,...
Why your rights shouldn’t depend on your employer
The Supreme Court decision that struck down Roe v. Wade also ushered in a new era for the workplace, and for how all of us—yes, in every country—relate to our employers and employees. Within hours of the decision, a string of major companies announced their intention...
The 3 questions everyone’s asking about hybrid
Like so many people, I’ve started my return to the world of in-person work. In the past two months I’ve delivered four in-person keynotes, enjoyed my first multi-person boardroom meeting, and attended a large client event. The audiences I’ve addressed could not be...
Are you ready for Peak Colleague?
“I miss seeing my colleagues and being able to bounce ideas off them.” “I get to work with much more skilled people, now that our teams don’t have to be made up of people who are all in the same place.” “I get so frustrated waiting for my co-workers to reply to my...
What we’re getting wrong with hybrid
Organizations are getting a lot right in the transition to hybrid work: Recognizing that most professionals want to keep working remotely at least part of the time. Taking a team-based approach to hybrid, because the right structure depends on the kind of work you do....
The dimensions of hybrid equity
Those of us who enjoy the professional and personal benefits of remote work are a large and lucky minority—but yes, a minority. Most estimates show that about 60% of North American jobs just have to be done in person. Not incidentally, these are jobs that are more...
Latest newsletter
To get the most from collaboration tools, customize
My latest for The Wall Street Journal outlines seven key considerations in picking software to help your hybrid team work more effectively.
Remote work is a learned skill
Nobody is born knowing how to work...
Remote work: A conversation
What does it take to succeed in the hybrid workplace? I'm delighted to join my friends at the Lavin Agency for an Author's Corner conversation with Charles Yao, Lavin's Director of Intellectual Talent. Our conversation will take place online at 9 am Pacific (noon...
The Harvard Business Review
Meet the Dirty Digital Dozen
I grew up with a single mom who was half Wonder Woman, half Mary Tyler Moore: She managed to combine a significant career with raising a kid on her own. You know what she didn’t have to deal with? 7 p.m. emails. Digital communications tools like email, Google Docs,...
Why your rights shouldn’t depend on your employer
The Supreme Court decision that struck down Roe v. Wade also ushered in a new era for the workplace, and for how all of us—yes, in every country—relate to our employers and employees. Within hours of the decision, a string of major companies announced their intention...
The 3 questions everyone’s asking about hybrid
Like so many people, I’ve started my return to the world of in-person work. In the past two months I’ve delivered four in-person keynotes, enjoyed my first multi-person boardroom meeting, and attended a large client event. The audiences I’ve addressed could not be...
Are you ready for Peak Colleague?
“I miss seeing my colleagues and being able to bounce ideas off them.” “I get to work with much more skilled people, now that our teams don’t have to be made up of people who are all in the same place.” “I get so frustrated waiting for my co-workers to reply to my...
What we’re getting wrong with hybrid
Organizations are getting a lot right in the transition to hybrid work: Recognizing that most professionals want to keep working remotely at least part of the time. Taking a team-based approach to hybrid, because the right structure depends on the kind of work you do....
The dimensions of hybrid equity
Those of us who enjoy the professional and personal benefits of remote work are a large and lucky minority—but yes, a minority. Most estimates show that about 60% of North American jobs just have to be done in person. Not incidentally, these are jobs that are more...
Latest newsletter
To get the most from collaboration tools, customize
My latest for The Wall Street Journal outlines seven key considerations in picking software to help your hybrid team work more effectively.
Remote work is a learned skill
Nobody is born knowing how to work...
Remote work: A conversation
What does it take to succeed in the hybrid workplace? I'm delighted to join my friends at the Lavin Agency for an Author's Corner conversation with Charles Yao, Lavin's Director of Intellectual Talent. Our conversation will take place online at 9 am Pacific (noon...
OneZero
TV that works harder
I watch a lot of TV. My TV habit often surprises people, because I seem like a pretty productive person—and it’s true, I get a lot done in a day! But I also watch a lot of TV: four or five hours a day, according to both subjective experience and hard data. If those...
The Joy of Tedious Work
Coaches and strategists often encourage us to maximize impact by spending most of our time and attention in the zone where we make the greatest contribution. We’re told: Focus your days on the projects and tasks where you have something unique to add, or where only...
The Hybrid Worker’s Guide to Information Overload
The overwhelm that so many people feel when working from home—or when returning to the office, conferences or other group settings after a few years of relative isolation—is intimately related to the cognitive, psychological and sensory challenges of living in a state...
Culture in the hybrid workplace
What does hybrid work do to our organizational culture? How do we help nourish a sense of culture within a distributed team? Why do I feel so disconnected from my colleagues, or so isolated in my time at home? These are questions I hear when speaking with...
Tune up your burnout busters
Combine meeting and walking. If you don’t need to be on camera, or need to take only minimal notes, go for a walk during the call. I’ve found that these meetings often allow me to be more creative—and make a stronger personal connection—than what happens on a...
R.I.P. social media. Long live hybrid work?
Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has sent me into mourning — not just for that once-beloved social network, but for social media in general. And with that grief has come something like recognition: recognition that my optimistic view of hybrid work parallels the...
What Mastodon means to your work
Just four weeks ago, I posted that I was officially, permanently worn out with social media. But it only took three weeks to change my mind. And four weeks for me to see that a better version of social media could create better workplaces, too. Hope looks like...
How to learn from hybrid mistakes
Don’t be surprised if you make some mistakes during the transition to hybrid work. I’m not just talking about mistakes in how you transition to a hybrid work arrangement: I’m talking about garden-variety operational, service and professional errors that happen as a...
JSTOR DAILY
TV that works harder
I watch a lot of TV. My TV habit often surprises people, because I seem like a pretty productive person—and it’s true, I get a lot done in a day! But I also watch a lot of TV: four or five hours a day, according to both subjective experience and hard data. If those...
The Joy of Tedious Work
Coaches and strategists often encourage us to maximize impact by spending most of our time and attention in the zone where we make the greatest contribution. We’re told: Focus your days on the projects and tasks where you have something unique to add, or where only...
The Hybrid Worker’s Guide to Information Overload
The overwhelm that so many people feel when working from home—or when returning to the office, conferences or other group settings after a few years of relative isolation—is intimately related to the cognitive, psychological and sensory challenges of living in a state...
Culture in the hybrid workplace
What does hybrid work do to our organizational culture? How do we help nourish a sense of culture within a distributed team? Why do I feel so disconnected from my colleagues, or so isolated in my time at home? These are questions I hear when speaking with...
Tune up your burnout busters
Combine meeting and walking. If you don’t need to be on camera, or need to take only minimal notes, go for a walk during the call. I’ve found that these meetings often allow me to be more creative—and make a stronger personal connection—than what happens on a...
R.I.P. social media. Long live hybrid work?
Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has sent me into mourning — not just for that once-beloved social network, but for social media in general. And with that grief has come something like recognition: recognition that my optimistic view of hybrid work parallels the...
What Mastodon means to your work
Just four weeks ago, I posted that I was officially, permanently worn out with social media. But it only took three weeks to change my mind. And four weeks for me to see that a better version of social media could create better workplaces, too. Hope looks like...
How to learn from hybrid mistakes
Don’t be surprised if you make some mistakes during the transition to hybrid work. I’m not just talking about mistakes in how you transition to a hybrid work arrangement: I’m talking about garden-variety operational, service and professional errors that happen as a...
THE VERGE
4 ways to make work fun
So many of us now spend big portions of our working lives at home, but we’ve brought the office home with us — including a whole lot of outdated ideas about what’s professional or what work is supposed to look or feel like. But there is nothing unprofessional about...
Walk and Work with ChatGPT
6 Ways to Recharge
Watching The Lazarus Project is one the ways I recharge at the end of a workday We can only sustain our attention for so long before we need a cognitive break. That's one of the key points in Attention Span, by Gloria Mark. Her book takes decades of...
Get ready for upload
Hybrid work warmed us up for the world of generative AI in many ways: When you’re already used to interacting with your colleagues via chat rather than in person, it’s easier to get used to riffing with a chat-based AI. When you’re constantly overloaded by...