My name is Lonnie, and I'm a victim of identity theft.
So check this out. A buddy of mine wrote a Facebook post about how someone stole his daughter's Social Security number and filed for unemployment benefits with Washington State's Employment Security Division (ESD). Having never occurred to me, I decided to go to ESD and attempt to file an unemployment claim. After I entered the information I received the following message: The Social Security number (SSN) you entered already exists and is linked to this partly hidden email address: *****@fasternet.co
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One Monday morning, Kyle showed up for a status meeting with his project team. Eva, a team member and close friend, noticed a pattern: Kyle looked perpetually exhausted. Concerned, she approached him, “Kyle, are you okay?” “Yeah, just a hectic weekend with kids’ activities and prepping for the exec meeting this week.” “I certainly understand,” Eva said. “Are you taking time to rest up? I know how demanding your life is right now.” “I’ve got great work/life balance. It’s just very busy with everything going on,” Kyle said. “Kyle, you remind me of my father. Always running at 100 miles an hour, thinking that ‘work/life balance’ by default meant rest. That was until he had a heart attack, caused by all the stress of trying to keep up. Rather than deciding to get some rest, the decision was made for him. Work/life balance doesn’t guarantee rest.” Kyle paused for a moment, reflecting on Eva’s advice. “I hear you.” “Be careful, I’m concerned about you.” Eva smiled at Kyle and walked back to her desk. Read more at ProjectManagement.com Recently I was having a discussion with a colleague. During the chat he made a comment that really resonated with me: “I love my career—not just because of what I do, but also what it enables me to do.” That one sentence seemed so simple, but so impactful. He was saying that his career was fulfilling, provided financially, and afforded him the flexibility to do non-work things that were really important to him. It was about both a great career and the benefits his career brought to the other aspects of his life. As I ruminated over the concept, it occurred to me that it might be helpful to put a bit of definition around the “enabling me to do” phrase. I’ve written in the past about finding contentment in nine different life areas and thought that to be a reasonable starting point, as follows: Read more at ProjectManagement.com
So let’s talk about over-used terms for a minute.
If you’ve been in the business world for any length of time you’ve likely heard your management espouse the desire for employees to achieve greater work/life balance. Many U.S. companies have adopted programs to help employees strike a better life balance by providing health club benefits, entertainment discount programs, and additional time off for events such as the birth of a child. Despite all this, Americans are of the most overworked and flat-out busy people on earth, recently surpassing the Japanese and long surpassing the Europeans. With all this discussion of work/life balance, how can we in the U.S. also be of the most overworked people in the world? The answer is pretty simple; many of us talk work/life balance, but don’t live work/life balance primarily because we don’t know how to do it.
One day, my wife Patty and I were eating lunch when she said, “I’ve been seeing some social media posts about mental load; have you ever heard of it?” “No,” I answered, wondering if I’ve been missing out. She then told me more about what she’s seen and its impact on people. Intrigued by the term and her explanation, I decided to do a bit more research on mental load. Here’s a little of what I learned from healthline.com: Read more at ProjectManagement.com. One of my favorite family movies is Mary Poppins. My grown kids will still tell you that my favorite part was watching Dick Van Dyke’s character Bert dance with the animated penguins. (Even as I type this, I have a smile on my face just thinking about his facial expressions as he flopped around in his sagging pants.) Aside from Van Dyke’s talent as a dancer, there was something else about Bert’s character that interested me: Bert was a one-man band, chalk artist, chimney sweep, and kite salesperson. The jobs had little in common other than the fact that Bert had skills that enabled him to perform each job. While Bert may have been happy doing each of the jobs, it doesn’t appear on the surface that there was any intentionality to his job choices. Having a wayward approach to career changes worked great in the movie, but it might not work so well in your professional life. Read more at ProjectManagement.com.
Brad was an incredibly bright young executive with a very promising future. Ever since graduating college, he seemed to take on increased responsibilities in his company like a duck to water. He married his college sweetheart, Nancy, right after graduation and has two small children. Brad's talent didn't go unnoticed in the industry, with several competitors approaching Brad about his willingness to join another firm. He steadfastly resisted, that is until the offer of all offers came his way.
Cantata Group, a larger and more prominent competitor to his current company, wined and dined Brad and ultimately offered him a VP position with a higher salary and better benefits. The offer was too good to pass up so Brad talked with Nancy about the job and they both became enamored with how this was going to advance Brad's career and what they would be able to do with the extra money. Brad joyfully accepted Cantata's offer, gave his current company two weeks' notice, and started in his new VP role. Within a year of joining Cantata, he noticed some unexpected side effects of his new position. He was required to be in weekly global executive virtual meetings which could happen at any time of the day or night. He was routinely working 60+ hours a week, missing dinner with Nancy and the kids. He traveled at least once a week, many times to put out fires at clients. His eating habits were horrendous and he wasn't exercising due to his schedule. He began putting on weight. Nancy was frustrated with him not being around and his kids missed their daddy. The stress was unbearable and led to Brad one day grabbing his chest and collapsing during a customer meeting. I always want to ensure I am putting my four decades of experience to good use by helping others grow—and helping them avoid some of the (many) mistakes I made as a project manager, leader and human being. In thinking through my responsibility as a steward, it occurred to me that being effective as a project manager is much more than honing skills—it’s about guiding project managers in not only work skills, but also life experiences. It’s about positioning project managers for long-term success. It’s about helping PMs bounce back from failure, learn from it, and then help others avoid the same failure. It’s about what I call building sustainability, which will be the underlying theme of my content: the Sustainable PM. Read more on my column at ProjectManagement.com. |
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April 2024
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