It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…. 1. Employee is taking all his vacation days at our busiest time of year. I am a first-time manager and have a question on how to discuss vacation time with one of my employees. We have a use it or lose it vacation day policy based on calendar year. The employee in question, Bob, has 15 vacation days and was hired before I came to be his manager. Last week, Bob put in a vacation request to use all 15 days in December around the holidays, resulting in four work weeks off at the same time. I was shocked. How do I have this conversation with Bob? MORE

There continues to be a lot of chatter about performance reviews. Love them or hate them. Keep them or ditch them. We’ve written about performance reviews before – here’s one of our faves. Performance reviews aren’t a one-size-fits-all process. They have tremendous flexibility and, what might seems like a small detail (like when the review is conducted), can actually have a big impact. MORE

As you head into work this week, how does your plate look? I’m sure it’s full. I’d be surprised if it’s not. Knowing that’s the case, how are you going to start the day? Are you going to pull your big boy/big girl boots on and jump into the fray? You probably will and it will have limited success. recently attended a great training class at work on Planning. Seriously. MORE

Interviewing teachers for different grade levels can be challenging when taking into consideration the varying needs of students as they progress through school. Elementary School. Having good elementary school teachers is the foundation of any child’s learning experience.  kindergarten teacher will have a different method and approach to teaching reading and writing versus a fourth grade teacher.  MORE

Last week I wrote a very critical blogpost about Volkswagen. I was, of course, hardly alone in doing so; the scandal has created tremors beyond even recent examples. But in the days since, I’ve been trying to think in different terms – in particular, what must it be like to be an employee of VW in these difficult days? What is the view from inside the glass, looking up and out? What Can Be Done? MORE

Last week I wrote about the productivity puzzle and how the UK lags very far behind most of the other major economies of the G7 on this particular measure. There are of course many pieces to this particular puzzle – and a timely report by The Work Foundation  issued last week highlights how sickness absence plays a part in this issue also. Some selected facts from The Work Foundation report are shown below: 1 in 3 employees have a long-term health condition (LTC). 42% of the above grouping feel their condition affects their work. And it’s a growing problem.  Best regards. Steve. MORE

It is a well-known fact that establishing effective collaboration in remote teams requires considerable patience, learning, and experience. Members of the team also have responsibilities and contributions to make in regard to establishing effective virtual collaboration in a remote team. In order to develop deeper relationships with other members in a remote team, consider the following. Virtual Teams Being Successful In A Remote Team How To Work Remotely Working In A Remote Team MORE