- 16Oct2012
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A busy day: two scenarios
- By Ian Bradley
- 0 Comments
Many of the executives that I see in my Montreal practice for executive coaching talk about their hectic days. As I listen to their stories, I am quietly asking myself a key question: Are they in some measure able to control the stream of tasks, or is the onslaught occurring without a filtration or buffering
- 09Oct2012
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Working with “insurance” is stressful
- By Ian Bradley
- 0 Comments
“I’ll just run this by my boss” was a phrase that I heard all to frequently from my client who came to see about work-related stress. Laura, a young woman in her first major corporate job, worked for a boss who micro-managed. The boss, who did not like surprises, insisted upon being appraised about each
- 01Oct2012
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Stress Leave (conclusion)
- By Ian Bradley
- 0 Comments
In in two previous posts, I described the typical sequence of events that surround a workplace leave for psychological distress. I remarked on how the current system of handling such leaves is unsatisfying for the insuracne carrier, the employer, co-workers and most importantly, the stressed worker. I agree that the medicalization of the process with
- 25Sep2012
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Stress Leave (continued)
- By Ian Bradley
- 0 Comments
What’s wrong with the scenario outlined in my previous post about taking a medical leave for job stress? Most consequentially, –the protective aspect is simply too appealing. All too often in my practice I have seen stressed patients go from one doctor to another in search of that all-powerful prescriptive demand: Time Off Work Due
- 17Sep2012
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Stress Leave: current problems and possible solutions
- By Ian Bradley
- 0 Comments
Regular readers of my blog know that I have many criticisms about our current approach to workplace disability caused by stress. The problem is enormous and costly. Recent surveys in Canada reveal that approximately a quarter of the current workforce is either “quite” or “extremely” stressed. The majority of that stress is related to work.
- 11Sep2012
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Why do we work, and so hard?
- By Ian Bradley
- 0 Comments
According to a recent American Community Survey, the percentage of professionals working more than 50 hours per week has grown from 34% in 1997 to 38% in 2006. If Aristotle saw these figures, he would say that we can’t be happy or worse, truly free. In the classic Greek tradition, the only people doing anything
- 14May2012
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Bosses who destroy motivation
- By Ian Bradley
- 0 Comments
Draft a memo that I might use to prop up sales in the mid-west and then provide me with some stats showing how sales have fallen over the last quarter… Sounds like something reasonable for a boss to direct a subordinate to do. Probably, some phrase like this is asked by bosses throughout the world
- 23Mar2012
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Nature of Work: Radio Interview, segment 1.
- By Ian Bradley
- 0 Comments
Come and hear about some observations about the nature of work that was discussed in a recent CJAD interview. In the interview, emphasized the important transformation of raw materials to a higher sense of completion that is the essence of work. Whether, as an accountant who takes numbers to produce a final budget or a
- 28Feb2012
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Psychological testing for job applicants: Part II
- By Ian Bradley
- 0 Comments
Recently, I was asked by a large company to screen applicants for a senior management position using traditional psychological assessment tools. The lucrative offer was tempting but I declined. In my previous post I argued that psychologists were not very good predictors. Now I continue my criticism by suggesting that psychological testing has many underlying
- 19Feb2012
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Psychological Testing for Job Selection: Part I
- By Ian Bradley
- 0 Comments
Recently, I was asked by a large company to screen applicants for a senior management position using traditional psychological assessment tools. The lucrative offer was tempting but I declined. The assessment role was never a role I felt comfortable assuming. By nature I like to help people, not pick and choose. However in this case,