Cells in the loo?

By Kimberly Roden March 11, 2011 Career, communication, workplace

A colleague recently stopped by my desk and said, “I have a topic for your next blog post.”   Great!  I like to know what matters to people and if there is something I can write that will get varied responses and provide insight, I’m all over it.  I was anxious to hear more…

“Why do people talk on their cell phones in the bathroom?”

Go ahead and laugh but I can validate that I’m not the only one curious about this activity.  I work in 2 offices with contrasting environments and after casually asking around, I found that it’s not gender specific and everyone I spoke with found it odd too.  Personally, the thought of bringing my phone into the restroom has never crossed my mind.  So I put on my empathy hat and thought I would take a crack at coming up with a few reasons of my own.  I admit, my reasons are weak so if you do this or know anyone who does, please give us the facts! Read more

Top 10: Cheat Sheet for the C-suite

By Kimberly Roden March 2, 2011 Career, communication, responsibility, workplace

Over the last 20 years, I’ve worked with managers and leaders who all had their own unique style.  If the job of being a leader was easy there wouldn’t be 67,269 books written on the topic.  Leader or company perfection is non-existent.  There is no Nirvana in Corporate America — that’s why it’s called work!  Simply put, leaders have to know their business and know people. Read more

What would you do?

By Kimberly Roden January 24, 2011 Career, humility, responsibility, Work-life, workplace

I was recently talking to my good friend Steve, a business owner, who shared a story about one of his former employees. I’m not going to lie, at the beginning of the story I was laughing hysterically at the visuals that were forming in my head.  But as he shared more details, the story became troubling.  Then I put myself in his shoes and realized that a happy ending for everyone would be a real challenge. Read more

What hiring managers & recruiters miss

By Kimberly Roden January 13, 2011 Career

When I was in transition, I spoke with plenty of recruiters.  Most of them had a job description in hand and would look for a mirror image of that job description on a resume.  It was easy to see that if there was one bullet on the job description that wasn’t listed on the resume, the conversation stopped.  I want to know why recruiters treat intelligent people like they’re incapable of learning?  Learning is ongoing for professional people and let’s face it, the Internet provides an amazing springboard for research. Read more