Has the way we communicate online taken office bullying to another level?

I was talking to a colleague this weekend about some odd issues in his office. Nothing he’s doing specifically, but recently a “gang” of staffers (all under 35, most under 30, all with 3-4 years at the office) has begun to reprimand younger staffers and interns without having any authority to do so, and from what I’m told, not much reason, and mid level managers are looking the other way

This reminded me of something that happened in my old office a few years ago that made me feel like I was in high school. I noticed that in less than one week, four of my coworkers (again, all under 30 and 2-3 years in the office) had unfriended me on Facebook and stopped talking to me socially during the work day. There was a bit of smack talk about me, I later heard from someone who overheard them and was annoyed. I never found out why they did it or if I had actually hurt one of them, but the group also became aggressive towards a number of staffers for seemingly no reason. Again, mid level managers didn’t want to get involved. I didn’t really care too much on the social end, and I didn’t need to work with any of them directly to do my work. I just thought it was rather odd and unprofessional.

Both groups might be classified as bullies….and some of their bullying appeared to have spilled over to social media. Both groups were made up of younger staffers, but what about the more senior employees? Organizations spend a nice chunk of HR funds to hire specialists to point out trends such as bulling and cliquish behavior. Focus should be on methods that are now being used thanks to social media, instant messaging and texting, etc.

Does social media enable cliques at the office? Does online bullying exist in the modern adult work place?

I heard an interesting story this weekend on NPR’s The State We’re In. In “Street Warriors”, host Jonathan Groubert talks to evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson about The Binghamton Neighborhood Project in Binghamton, New York. Wilson mentions that residents of Binghamton, himself included, don’t really have a great sense of community and the city has a poor sense of “self esteem.” Based on the concept of urban evolution, The Binghamton Neighborhood Project recognized the need for a community to work together to be productive and grow.

The program works by taking advantage of both group cooperation and competition. One project was designed as a neighborhood competition called “Design Your Own Park” and encouraged community input for designing and constructing a park on unused public property. The winning design came from one of the participants. The input from residents gave them a sense of ownership and involvement. (Perhaps not very surprisingly, the more affluent neighborhoods were not very interested.)

The group concept was also applied to a group of at-risk high school students with good results.

The entire piece is about 17 minutes long and very much worth the listen.

Also, he talks about religion and ants.

Have you heard of community projects like this? Can these kinds of projects really save failing communities?

After a decade of working for other people, I’ve started my own business. I’m pretty excited. I’m using my skills, knowledge, abilities, and connections, and I have no one to answer to but myself. If I succeed, it’s because I worked hard. If I fail, it’s because I didn’t get the formula right. The best part is that I can work from home, I can work from my coffee shop. I can work in Virginia, in DC, at my mother’s kitchen table in New York.

Or can I?

The tricky part of working from anywhere is knowing how to do it. Anyone who works from home, whether you’re out of your home office all the time or you telework a few days a week, will recognize the challenges I’m working with.

Here are some observations from my first five months as an independent contractor and advisor with a home office. My biggest hurdles have been dealing with location, tools, surroundings, schedule. A lot of my issues I believe are just growing pains, and I’ll figure out what works best for me over the next few months.

• Finding the right location
  Right now I’m sitting on the couch in my living room and writing, but I have both a desk in my “home office” and dining table that would probably make a more comfortable writing location. I could also leave my home and find a place to work, but will I have WiFi where I end up? Library? Coffee shop? What about the calls I have to make? Do I really want other people to hear my business conversations? Do they want to hear my business conversations? That’s kind of rude, isn’t it? And the panic that comes after the dreaded dropped call! “I’ll be in the car for an hour, let’s talk then.” Greeeeeeat idea, yeah.
• Having the right tools
  I have my computer, some file folders, my new awesome custom notepads to give to my clients (that makes me legit, right?), and my printer. What else do I need? Internet. Cell phone. Cell phone head set? Accounting software or just an Excel spreadsheet? What if I have a face-to-face meeting? Where do I go? Meeting space is a tool. Might be a bit awkward to have a business client in my dining room. I need some promotional flyers. I need more business software. Argh! My brain is a tool. Is it in proper working order?
• Dealing with surroundings & distractions
  I can’t get over the pile of laundry I forgot to fold last night. I know its there waiting for me in the next room. But I have some e-mails that I must return now, and I have to write up a proposal for a potential client before the end of the day. I’ve never wanted to fold laundry so badly!
  I have a pet who has gotten used to me being home during the day. She’s so excited to play with me, and she’s become so much more obedient recently…well…OK! Five minutes! We’ll hop around for five minutes and then I promise I’ll go back to work. (Literally, hop. She’s a rabbit.)
• Creating the right schedule
  If you have the flexibility to work at any time of the day, chances are you will. I’m having a hard time knowing both when to STOP working and save some tasks for the next day, and when to stop doing whatever it is that is not proper work and start to be productive. I have no problem writing at 9 am or 9 pm. If my creative juices are flowing, I don’t want that to stop. I try to schedule several weekly informal coffee meetings with colleagues to make sure I keep on track. (“I’m meeting Chris at 10 am, so I should be done with XX by 9:30 am and then pick up with YY again at 12 pm.”) Also, I put EVERYTHING into my iCal now. I really didn’t do that before. Just tried to remember everything I had to do. Not so good.
  To add two other, tiny, little wrenches into the scheduling issue, I also have a little craft business and participate in a crafter group. I have shows and events usually two to three times a month. In addition to that, I help out at my friend’s store a few times a week. I’ve been there since before I went out on my own. They appreciate the extra hands and I like putting something else down on my calendar! I also use their location as another place to work, sometimes.

I’ll admit it, I’m a newbie when it comes to this work from anywhere business. I’m still getting my feet wet, but I understand these broad challenges now, and I’m learning to deal with them in a way that works for me.

What advice do you have for those who work from home? Have you done it? What worked? What didn’t?

(BONUS: Working from home allowed me to watch Discovery this morning from my roof deck. Here’s my full photo set.)

Rural local governments across the country have historically had something of a tougher time than their more populated counterparts when it comes to connecting with their citizens. Greater distances, lower incomes, slower Internet access and hesitancy about adaption of certain communications technologies have proven to be the main challenges. This phenomenon is especially prevalent in the western United States, where there is an abundance of land and far fewer people per square mile.  (A bit about the “digital divide.”)

It is precisely for these reasons that rural governments should consider jumping on the opportunity to using social media tools – in cooperation with existing outreach and communications – to connect with their citizens. A great example is Moffat County, Colorado.  Situated in the northwest corner of the state, Moffat is the second largest county in Colorado (4,756 square miles) but has a relatively small population of only 13,818 people. Moffat County Commissioner Audrey Danner has seen firsthand the effectiveness of social media tools. Commissioner Danner spearheaded the county’s new website and has her own Facebook page. “I’ve embraced these tools, and they have really proven effective at getting the message out to my constituents. More importantly, they’ve provided a forum for the citizens to share information with me – which helps me do my job better.”

I’ll be detailing Moffat County’s experiences in future posts. Stay tuned.

Have you seen rural governments embracing new communications? How do you think they’re doing?

Certain topics in public education have become more controversial over the last few years. Parents and the public wonder whether it’s the place of the public schools to teach sex ed or driver’s ed, and sometimes they even debate the material in social studies and science curricula.

But what about social media? As in sex education, where’s the line between parents’ and school’s responsibility? Should students be required to take a course in online safety? What topics should be covered? Should they wait until high school or do it sooner?

Here’s the question, right up front.

How would Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce use social media to promote their clients’ products? (Before you say, “they would have no use for it, as advertisers in the 60s,” let’s just pretend.) Obviously, they’d use it. It’s a great marketing tool, and their clients would expect a great social media campaign from this über creative agency. Would they be at the forefront of the movement with new thinkers, or would Don and Roger brush it off as a fad that would go down in flames and waste their design time and money? Think about the hard time Harry still has in 1966 selling ad space on TV with its exponentially expanding media audience. Roger doesn’t really care about TV advertising. (Let’s go ahead and compare that to government, while we’re thinking about different generations adapting to new media, shall we?)

What if it seems to backfire, à la the “equal opportunity” ad they placed in the paper to try to poke a rival agency? We hear stories about social media advertising problems occasionally, usually when an outside agency is hired to Facebook or Tweet for a company. Not only does voice not translate correctly, the message might be totally off. Case in point: Belvedere Vodka. #Fail.

Finally, I’m really sorry for another MM internet post, but c’mon. After waiting a year and a half for a new episode, I really think everyone is entitled to at least one.

(That’s me with a martini after a hard day writing ad copy.)

We’ve all pretty much accepted that St. Patrick’s day is a new American holiday, regardless of the amount of Irish whiskey blood pumping through your veins. Around the country, we observe this day by drinking beer and wearing sparkly green pants and shamrock sunglasses.

What do we do to observe non-religious holidays? President’s Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Veteran’s Day, for example…we wear the red, white and blue, buy home appliances and cars on sale, and get a day off from work. How much emphasis is placed on the actual historical reasoning for these days? At this point, not a whole lot. Probably about as much as for St. Patrick’s day.

How would you create a local government holiday? Not a county fair or local observance of a larger national holiday, but a real local government day? Who or what would you celebrate or observe? How would you do it? How could you involve all segments of the community?

What kind of engagement could you generate with a DIY government holiday?

(PS – Perhaps an entire month long celebration of county government? Hm?)

Follow the discussion here on GovLoop