A psychologist's take on world events, life, happiness and the human condition
Here you’ll find free advice for working professionals on how to stay sane and happy at work, deal successfully with difficult colleagues, and other fun things we grapple with in the working world.
This section also covers organisational psychology and human resources topics, like psychometrics, coaching, team building and workplace culture.
My Halloween special is about corporate evil, from bad behaviour of political groups to large scale organisational corruption and abuse.
I have a theory that evil concentrates over time due to a natural quirk in human nature. Fortunately, this also means that unhealthy institutional cultures can be prevented or cured. Read more…
Working with family can be hard. Dysfunctional dynamics transfer from home to the workplace, making life more stressful than it needs to be and threatening the success of the business. This post is the ultimate guide to understanding what’s up with your sibling relationships and what to do about it.
(HINT: This is really for anyone who has difficulty with their adult brothers or sisters – you don’t have to be working with them.) Read more…
The Bank of Queensland have been talking with me recently about the unique stresses of owning a small or medium business, and what to do about them.
They commissioned research into this topic, resulting in the fascinating Business Balance Report. It reveals shockingly high levels of depression, anxiety and stress among Australian business owners.
So I gave them some tips for staying sane and happy while running a business. Read more…
I was on the radio today, discussing the citizenship test with presenter Thomas Oriti. Does it really predict anything about a person’s values? Is it useful?
We also talked about the use of psychometrics in the business world, and how that kind of testing differs.
Having the radio or TV on in the background drives me bat-poop crazy. Fortunately, I and my other half have evolved a reliable arrangement that includes volume controls and a rather spiffy wireless headset. (For him, not me.)
It wasn’t always this way. As in any relationship, the compromises of cohabitation are negotiated and whittled over time. Working from a nice open-plan home much of the time, at first I found myself frustratingly unproductive. I had discovered the inherent incompatibility between the analytical nature of my business consulting and writing work, and sharing space with a stimulation-craving extrovert. Read more…
Say what?! This was a real question posed to me recently, while the USA’s 2016 presidential campaign was hitting peak insanity.
The questioner, in a (fleeting) moment of sympathy for what he interpreted as front and centre mental health issues in Donald Trump, contemplated whether he was, therefore, being unkind by condemning his behaviour…
Let’s look at it this way instead: If the US Presidency were a regular job. Before inviting candidates to apply for a job, Occupational Psychologists draw up application criteria. Read more…