I have not done an exhaustive study on the subject, but it seems to be human nature to simply dismiss people that are not like us. The first lesson in my [almost] adult life was when I was working a summer job between my freshman and sophomore years in college. Looking back, I can see the wisdom in my father’s push to get me a job in a factory environment as a place to learn… Read More »Defense Against Dismissivism
It is appropriate after a week of talking about people watching that we look at how our culture makes up meaningless rules that we may choose to obey or ignore. It is not the nature of the rules that is fascinating as much as it is the behavior of people who make and follow them. People who are in a position of authority can sweep out the old rules in favor of their own personal… Read More »From the Archives of Make HR Happen – Those Times We Talked About Made-up Rules
If there is a line between stalking and people watching, I probably test those boundaries from time to time. There is a library of characters in my brain, probably for that unwritten great American novel, that grows with every day. This week began with observing how people see different generations. If ageism is alive and well it is probably partially due to how people are perceived by another age group. Next we transitioned into a… Read More »Reviewing This Week on Make HR Happen – Watching People Everywhere
All of us are people-watchers at one time or another. We can find amusement in watching people perform in their own one-act unrehearsed and unplanned play as they stumble through life unaware that anyone is watching. When it becomes necessary, we consciously, or maybe unconsciously, focus our observation on others in order to learn acceptable behaviors and successful patterns of actions. For a job seeker, there are many lessons to be learned about changing the… Read More »A Job Search Requires More Than One Lens
People-watching gives us a peek into the thoughts of an individual by their actions. Watching groups of people as they interact with each other gives us clues to the culture they are creating among themselves. I have learned to be very cautious about applying the lessons learned in parenting and training pets as a somewhat inadequate solution to solving business problems, but there are some interesting parallels. Children cannot be expected to arrive with a… Read More »Rewarding Bad Behavior