announcements

All About Work’s Holiday Break

Snow on the decorated tree in my yard. (credit: own photo)

A phrase I’ve heard being used a lot to describe this time of year is, “Well, we made it.” The world certainly wasn’t a happy place in many ways in 2022, but….well, we made it. Here’s hoping that 2023 is a little less eventful and a little more empathetic.

I’ll be taking a few weeks off from All About Work to rest up and recover. I hope you’ll have some time to relax as well. Here are the posts on the blog that got the most traffic this year:

1) Bob White and “Final Offer”

2) Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000 Hour Rule” Doesn’t Add Up

3) The Joy of Figures

4) What’s A Rotating Strike?

5) Compulsory Figures: Technical Guidelines, Diagrams, and Tests

See you in 2023!

MIXTAPE, My New Book

I’m delighted to announce that my new book MIXTAPE: 21 SONGS FROM 10 YEARS (1975-1985) is now on sale, at the retailers listed here. It was a lot of work to write but also a great deal of fun. I hope you’ll check it out!

“All About Work” is 10 Years Old

March 2022 (March 16, to be exact) is the 10th anniversary of All About Work.

It doesn’t feel like 10 years have gone by, but who doesn’t say that on an anniversary? When I started this blog, I didn’t have any goals about keeping it going for a certain length of time. I decided to just start it up and see what happened. I wanted to have a place to discuss work and organizational issues in a more informal style than academic writing uses, and where I could write for whatever length I thought was appropriate, without external editorial constraints like the dreaded Reviewer #2.

Writing and running All About Work has been an incredible education. I’ve learned a lot about how online publishing works, and about how to communicate ideas in different ways and to different audiences. I’ve written nearly 350 posts on this blog over the past 10 years. Some of them have had almost no readers, and some of them have had thousands of readers. All About Work has also been an opportunity for me to explore ideas and information beyond my work-related interests, and I appreciate the faithful readers who are willing to take a look at a post regardless of its topic.

I learned enough from running this blog to start a second blog, Writing On Music. As its title suggests, that blog is more focused on my freelance music writing career. In the 10 years since this blog started, some bloggers have moved over to more writing-focused sites like Medium, or started producing email newsletters using something like Substack. But I like the format of blogging on WordPress, and I like not being tied to a regular schedule and having the flexibility to post whenever I have something to say.

All About Work has been a little quiet of late because I’ve been working on a major project. I hope to wrap that up soon and start posting more regularly. But in the meantime, I want to express my thanks to everyone who’s read, shared, or commented on All About Work posts over the past decade. It’s been a trip, and it’s one I intend to continue.

Change

As of May 31, I’ll be retiring from my position as Professor in the School of Business at the University of the Fraser Valley. I’m moving to a part-time position at the BC Council on Admissions & Transfer, which administers BC’s post-secondary transfer system.

But this blog will continue. This is a very interesting time for work and for organizations, with the changes that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about. A lot of fundamental assumptions about how and why we work are being questioned, and there is lots to think and write about.

I’ve been posting irregularly of late, but I hope to post more regularly once things have settled down. Thanks to All About Work‘s readers, followers, and commenters for your continued support.

Cleaning out my office (credit: own photo)

All About Work’s Winter Break

2020 has been…..quite a year. So All About Work is taking a much-needed break for the holidays.

The top five posts for this year were:

  1. Bob White and “Final Offer” (hint to students looking up this post: your essay will get a much higher grade if you actually watch the film)
  2. Why Academic Freedom Is Important to Everyone (Not Just Academics)
  3. Population Ecology in Real Life: How the Globe and Mail Misunderstood Its Environment
  4. Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘10,000 Hour Rule’ Doesn’t Add Up
  5. What’s A Rotating Strike?

Thank you to all the readers and commenters who, in spite of everything else that happened this year, showed that respectful, thoughtful discussion still has a place in the world.

I wish everyone a happy, restful holiday, and a healthier and saner New Year. See you in 2021!

Decorations at the Ivy restaurant, Chelsea, London, December 2018. (credit: own photo)

All About Work’s Summer Vacation

It’s an unusual year, to say the least, but the weather tells us that it’s summertime – so All About Work will be taking a few weeks off to enjoy the sun. See you in September!

The moat at the Bishop’s Palace, Wells, UK, summer 2018. (credit: own photo)

‘All About Work’ Holiday Break

As 2019 rolls toward its last few weeks, All About Work will be taking its annual end-of-year break. The most popular posts on the blog this year were:

  1. Population Ecology Theory in Real Life: How The Globe and Mail Misunderstood its Environment
  2. Bob White and “Final Offer”
  3. Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000 Hour Rule” Doesn’t Add Up
  4. Why Academic Freedom is Important to Everyone (Not Just Academics)
  5. The Joy of Figures

Have a restful holiday, and see you in 2020!

Frost on cedars at Buntzen Lake. (credit: own photo)