The Bent Archive

The double-edged sword of office perks

How do you handle keeping your team motivated at an office with, arguably, too many benefits and perks?

A manager’s guide to chat apps

What happens in your team’s chat is a direct reflection of your team’s culture. These are some of the biggest lessons we’ve learned about using messaging apps on the job.

So, you’re on the hiring team now

The point of any interview is to get concrete evidence that the candidate can or cannot meet the expectations you have for the role on your team. If you’re the hiring manager, you’ve got to calibrate with your team on what the ideal candidate will demonstrate, and what are dead-in-the-water dealbreakers.

Are her clothes holding her back?

Do you think it’s true that the way we present ourselves can dictate a lot about others’ perceptions and therefore our ability to move up in an organization (especially when getting into leadership roles)? Or am I focusing on the wrong thing and being judgy and sexist?

How to give a good reference

You know that scrambling, tunnel-vision feel you get when you’re in an interview and bombing a question? Imagine that, only with someone else’s job on the line.

How to answer, “Why did you leave your last job?”

Hiring managers are not afraid of people who quit their jobs. If they were, the only people they’d be able to hire would be 16. It’d be the same as only dating people who’ve never had a breakup before — only virgins and widows!

Professional FOMO

Can you talk me off this ledge?

Managing vs micromanaging

No one can stop micromanaging overnight. That’s like getting a swimmer to switch which side they’re breathing on in the middle of a race — even if they physically can do the motions, their immediate performance will suffer. It takes time and training to break micromanage-y habits, and to develop systems that build trust and transparency with your team. Get started by asking yourself five gentle questions.

Serious answers to silly questions

When you’re a new manager, every single thing is hard at first. There’s the obvious hard stuff: how to hire, how to fire, how to “get results.” But also, when you get to the office in the morning and people are on their computers wearing headphones, do you go say hi? Or do you go straight to your desk? Do you make small talk in the bathroom? On the way home at night? This week, we offer serious answers some of these silly questions.

Put this in your kudos folder

Vague compliments certainly aren’t bad. But to make gratitude meaningful, to prove you’re paying attention and really understand how someone’s actions and decisions and talent combine into something worth noting, you need to scratch a bit below the surface.

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