Tweet about masking feelings at work

The following Tweet, and replies, illustrate masking in the workplace, the stress of service jobs, employee assessment.

@kcdanger's original Tweet, and replies, show you how this poor Starbuck's employee had to mask his feelings. Go through the thread in order to see her in-depth, visceral description of what it is to mask one's feelings, especially when your livelihood depends upon it.

ok interestingly this is a rly good example of emotional labor. yr working at ur dumbass job that you get up at 6am for, tired af, and someone does something they think is cute but actually is almost unbearable/makes ur job harder. what do u do? service workers know: smile, a lot https://t.co/3JJVPbnVKS

— DJ BOYFRIEND (@kcdanger) December 14, 2019

In addition to @kcdanger's reaction, users also bring up other nuances of this situation. User @KaiaVictoria chimes in with her own experiences of being up against the clock at Starbuck's, and unrealistic expectations for service.

Rare Army Alpha picture for you History of I/O lecture

Russell Warne found this nice photo, perfect for the first week of I/O as you describe the history of the field. Also, click through for Russell's journal article about the Army Beta test.

In my research on the Army Beta, I found this appealing pic. It's soldiers taking a predecessor of the Army Alpha in Nov 1917. I don't think the pic has ever been published before.#psychology #wwi #historyhttps://t.co/LsYPnUVkQG pic.twitter.com/nA3YP62UwT

— Russell T. Warne 🇺🇸🇨🇱 (@Russwarne) March 24, 2019

Suicide prevention in construction workers

I know a lot of my posts are silly. This one isn't. Content warning: Suicide.

This story by NPR by Yuki Noguchi tells the story of how one construction company recognized that suicide and depression was wide-spread among their employees and decided to do something about it. They consulted with experts, changed health care and leave policies, re-trained managers, and gathered data that demonstrates the efficacy of the new procedures.

Below, I've included some of the highlights that illustrate I/O principles. The news story itself is quite moving and includes personal stories from employees who have been suicidal and prevented suicides. It is a heavy piece but a very hopeful piece.

An employee for RK Construction died by suicide. The organization wanted to prevent future suicide and recognized that employees in their industry have particular risk factors for suicide. They consulted with SME prior to implementing changes.

RK implemented crisis training for management, they changed their leave policies in order to be more sensitive to individuals who required time off, and they started offering employees 24-hour counseling services.

They have gathered data and demonstrated that these changes don't just seem like they would help, but that they actually help:

Bias and work place scheduling

How to use in-class? Using data to demonstrate bias in the workplace. Using data to detect underutilization of an employee (poor Zuma) and then figure out how they could be better utilized. OR...maybe Zuma is actually a very poor team member. Or maybe Ryder's method for selecting employees for emergencies needs to be re-evaluated.

Also, what kind of functioning municipality hires DOGS to perform emergency service? What batshit crazy selection process brought that into being? And Ryder is clearly a child and shouldn't be in his position/violated child labor laws. And the Mayor should be recalled.

Choose your own adventure: How to use this image in I/O class?

I challenged my Twitter friends to find the I/O lesson in this video. As always, my I/O friends did not fail me.

Here are some of the ideas:

For complete list of I.O suggestion, see the original thread: https://twitter.com/Notawful/status/1178995613641449472

Credit to @emergidoc for sharing the video!

Exit interviews...for the heart

Get it? Like an Exit Interview for employees, but MORE painful and embarrassing. More details/receipts here.

I think this is absolutely hilarious and that it would be fun to ask your students to create exit interviews for their former partners. OR: You could think of the subscales required for the exit-interview, or what a 360-degree feedback session might look like (interview your friends about how much they liked your partner, etc.).

Keep a hard copy of your performance review!

https://twitter.com/IOSyIslam/status/1196857216923570177

Hat tip to Sy Islam for finding this gem. Performance reviews aren't just for cost of living raises: They are documents that can defend a person against attempts to malign one's reputation.

More detail here:
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/11/vindman-blows-up-jim-jordans-smear-of-his-service-by-reading-glowing-performance-review/

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/jordan-questions-vindman-on-his-judgment-and-leaks-73686597617