Links You Can Use: November 12-16

Find out how to establish a cohesive work culture, how to "manage up" when a supervisor seems difficult, and why it's best to have zero expectations about privacy when using work email. All this, and more, in this week's Links You Can Use.

What's the most important thing in establishing a culture at work? One expert says it is the people you choose to hire and offers tips on selecting candidates. (Chicago Tribune)

A clinical psychologist offers advice on how to "manage up," especially when dealing with difficult bosses. (American Psychological Association)

Plugging the Brain Drain

The statistics are breathtaking: according to the Pew Research center,  every day from now until 2030, ten thousand Baby Boomers will turn 65. (1) Every day.

In other words, hordes of working people are retiring, planning to retire, or thinking about retiring.

Who are these people? Very often, they’re the people in your organization who best know the whys and wherefores of your projects and procedures. They’re the ones who have so internalized tasks and deliverables that they’ve never even written the steps down. They’re the ones who remember why a certain project succeeded and why another failed and how that affected the company’s direction. In short, they are the holders of what’s known as organizational memory.

And they’re retiring.

What can you do to capture their knowledge? How can you make sure they don’t take the organizational memory with them?

Emergency Preparedness in the Workplace

Last week the East Coast was rammed by Hurricane Sandy, which is now the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, as well as the second costliest (following only 2005’s Hurricane Katrina). In its wake, over a hundred people have been killed, thousands of homes have been destroyed, and millions have been left without power.

A firm that performs catastrophe risk modeling “estimates… $20 billion in insured losses and $50 billion in economic losses in the United States.” These losses cannot be calculated just by property damage, but also by reduced productivity. Many workers lost hours or days of work due to power outages, mass transit suspensions, bridge and tunnel closings, evacuations, and other city- and state-wide measures implemented to protect citizens.

Cases like Sandy prove that it’s imperative for businesses to plan ahead—both for emergencies and for operational continuity in case of building closings, power cutoffs, and transportation shutdowns.