#attendance-and-deadlines

#attendance-and-deadlines

When the CEO held a virtual town hall in 2020 and said there needed to be layoffs, I knew I would be one of the first to go because I served zero purpose at that point.

The first event is a roundtable on "Zhuangzi: Fate, Desires, Transformation" on April 6th at 9:00am Beijing time.

Recent data from The TalentLMS 2026 L&D Benchmark Report reveals a 19-point perception gap on AI learning support. 83% of HR leaders believe they actively support AI learning, but only 64% of employees agree. This extremely polarized viewpoint raises an uncomfortable question: If leaders are this far off on AI skills support, what else might they be misreading about their teams' capabilities?

Having ADHD affects executive functioning skills, those mental processes headquartered in the prefrontal cortex that are responsible for planning, prioritizing, regulating attention, managing time, and sustaining effort. In a fast-paced environment, demands on such skills can expose areas of vulnerability.

To successfully repair after a mistake, you need to acknowledge and name the mistake, validate the other person's feelings and viewpoint, and create a plan for the specific actions you will take to prevent this mistake from occurring again.

When power runs low, anxiety sets in. Psychologists often refer to this as battery anxiety, a stress response linked to the fear of losing access to information, contacts, or work tools. Attendees become less focused in sessions, check their devices more frequently, and start scanning the venue for somewhere to recharge.

Most company policies are written for a hypothetical, 'best-case' employee: rational, attentive, well-rested, and operating in a low-pressure environment. They assume employees will read the rules carefully, remember them, and apply them consistently at the point of purchase. As appealing as this assumption may be, it bears little resemblance to how real workplaces operate.

Workplace noise isn't just a nuisance. It's also a stressor and productivity killer, according to a Jabra study from 2024. As someone who likes working in quiet zones, I understand. That's why I recommend leaders spend time considering how their workspace design affects the noise level for their employees.

I see this daily in veterinary medicine, where high burnout rates cost the sector upwards of $2 billion per year. It's a challenging environment with long hours, stressful workloads and patients that can't even tell you what's wrong. But I've found that the best way to boost performance and even increase capacity with maxed-out teams is to address the underlying operational issues.

Or the one who grabs coffee nearby because they arrived at the restaurant fifteen minutes before your lunch date? I used to think they were just anxious or had terrible time management skills that made them overcompensate. But after interviewing over 200 people for various articles, I've noticed something fascinating: the consistently early arrivals tend to be the same people who seem to have their lives remarkably together.

I'm always amazed at how easily we give our time to others without thinking, and then are mad later when it was wasted. What exactly did we think was going to happen? That everyone was going to be prepared, productive, and appreciative? Time has become the ultimate luxury-we never have enough of it, and are jealous of those that have it. For too many of us, endless meetings, back-to-back emails, and constant interruptions leave little room for focused, meaningful work.

Continuous​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ learning has become a strategic priority, and employee training programs are a major lever in enabling workforce capability, productivity, and long-term business success as companies navigate the era of rapid technological change, job role evolution, and competition intensification. Effective corporate training programs present a means for L&D professionals to inspire performance, facilitate transformation, and link employee development with organizational objectives, apart from just delivering courses.

While some workers are being mandated to return to the office, a growing majority of workers now say they want to "microshift" their workday. Unlike hybrid or remote schedules, in which you work remotely some or all of the time, microshifting is about making small adjustments to your start times, breaks and hours rather than adhering to a rigid nine-to-five schedule.

Work changes fast. New tools arrive, roles grow, and processes shift. Often, the training just doesn't keep up. That gap is learning debt. It builds up quietly and shows up in small ways. Like a normal week turning into a scramble because one key person is on vacation. Let's look at what this looks like in daily work, why we ignore it, and how to start paying it down.

No wonder it feels personal that this team rejects your efforts. It is personal; it's happening to you. But it's not about you. This team might have so much internal tension that they can't stand to be in a meeting together. Maybe they had a bad experience with your predecessor. They might think they know it all already and attending meetings is just wasting their time. Or it could really be as straightforward as what they've told you: Their working hours and training times are already used up.

Valentine's Day is out there with fire, arguing about who forgot what, and pretending not to look at who clicked on your Instagram story. Every year, in a big way, the day reminds us that we are all still very committed to love, maybe even irrationally so.

If you run a business, there's a familiar email you probably opened this fall: the one from your benefits broker with your 2026 health insurance renewal. You scroll. You see a double-digit increase, and your stomach drops. You want to do right by your team. You also have a P&L to protect. And the three standard options you're handed - pay the increase, raise deductibles or push more cost onto employees - all feel bad in different ways.

The union is great, don't get me wrong, but one side effect of having it is that there are massive, sometimes arbitrary and annoyingly vague, lines around what I can and cannot do in my role. This wouldn't necessarily be a problem, if most of the time the things I'm not allowed to do are required to be done by managers. Managers who are overworked, undertrained, and underpaid, and so don't have the time or brain space to address things I bring to them.