Every week, The Press presents advice, anecdotes and reflections for leaders, entrepreneurs and managers.
Published at 9:00 a.m.
The decision
The big boss announces that he will leave… in a few weeks. What can we expect from employee behavior?
The Prime Minister of Canada is not the only one to resign with more than two weeks’ notice. This option is often considered by CEOs of large organizations. Let us think of Michael Sabia, former president of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), who announced in November 2019 his departure in February 2020. Or even of the former president of Hydro-Québec Thierry Vandal, who resigned in January 2015 and left his post in May of the same year. According to human resources specialist Annie Boilard, president of Réseau Annie RH, it is better for a boss to stay in place for a while rather than leaving immediately, because it makes the transition easier, she maintains, although there are exceptional cases. Several employee behaviors are observable in such a situation. “All projects are put on ice. As no one knows what the new boss’s priorities will be, employees do not want to do work unnecessarily, explains Annie Boilard. Then, corridor discussions multiply. People speculate about the “who” and priorities going forward. Then, the bosses in place are challenged. They must move operations forward without having clear directions. They often feel like they are moving in a fog. »
The sentence
“A true leader must know how to come out through the front door, at the right time and in the most elegant way possible. But in practice, achieving this goal is not so easy. »
This is what Jean-François Bertholet and Alexandre Rousseau, lecturers at HEC Montréal, observe in the winter issue of the magazine Management HEC Montreal. Their text is intended to be a practical guide for aspiring managers who want to know if the job that made them dream so much is (still) made for them. When a leader faces the difficulty of passing the torch, he is not necessarily blinded by an excessive ego nor incapable of trusting the next generation, they analyze. Reason and emotions are in a heated battle, they write, because of the cognitive bias of sunk costs: the effort, time, sacrifice and money invested.
Source : Management HEC Montreal
Read the Winter 2025 issue of Management HEC Montreal
The gesture
Friendship in the office: beware of routine
Office friendships are crucial because they increase satisfaction, a sense of belonging, and promote career advancement while improving innovation, collaboration, profitability, and employee retention. However, these relationships can be complex to manage due to differences in goals, power dynamics and professional pressures, reports Australian magazine The Conversation. Friendships at work are based on fundamental elements whose importance varies over time: mutual support in the face of challenges, sharing of significant experiences and projection in common projects, indicates The Conversation. Paradoxically, these elements can also weaken relationships if they become unbalanced. To maintain healthy friendships at work, it’s essential to be aware of these dynamics and make deliberate efforts to balance them. As in love, everyone must remain attentive to routine risks in this friendship between colleagues.
Check out the article on office friendships on the website The Conversation (in English)
Source : The Conversation
The study
Health and safety under strain in the United States
According to a recent report from the British Standards Institution (BSI), a professional standards and compliance monitoring body, U.S. businesses need to significantly improve their support for workplace safety. In the American magazine dedicated to occupational health and safety EHS Today, Xavier Alcaraz, director at BSI, points out that the current culture normalizes excessive work and neglects safety to meet delivery deadlines. The testimony of a manufacturing worker illustrates the consequences of this culture, describing physical pain and increasing psychological pressure attributable to increasing production targets. The report recommends various strategies to improve safety, such as recognizing safe work, adopting a management approach focused on continuous improvement, aligning safety objectives with business objectives.
Read an article about the report
Source : EHS Today
The trend
Have the predictions for 2025 come true?
In 2011, the magazine Forbes predicted a revolutionary world of work for 2025, with physical offices as daily destinations obsolete, clear hierarchies replaced by dynamic networks and borderless talent. Today, in 2025, some predictions have come to fruition, while others remain in development. Work has become more flexible, with the mass adoption of hybrid and remote working accelerated by the pandemic. Offices have evolved into collaboration spaces, and digital tools have become essential. However, immersive virtual collaboration technologies and autonomous transportation have not yet transformed work as expected. The gig economy and self-employment have seen significant growth, but traditional employment models persist. Artificial intelligence is making progress in automating tasks, but its creative potential is only beginning to emerge. Companies are collaborating more with self-employed workers, and global talent markets are growing. However, full-time employment remains predominant, and the integration of older workers remains limited.
Source : Forbes
Lisez l’article « The Future Of Work We Predicted For 2025—What Actually Happened? » sur le site du Forbes (in English)
