Listen to Lucy
Summary: Lucy Kellaway, the FT's management columnist, pokes fun at management fads and jargon, and celebrates the ups and downs of office life. You can find more of Lucy Kellaway's columns from the Financial Times on our website and listen to more episodes of Listen to Lucy on iTunes, Stitcher, Audioboom or Soundcloud.
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- Artist: Lucy Kellaway
- Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2009. 'FT' and 'Financial Times' are trademarks of the Financial Times.
Podcasts:
Easily the most satisfying job I've done in two dozen years as a journalist was writing a series of articles describing the offices of famous chief executives. For a brief period, I was allowed to indulge my natural nosiness - and get paid for it.
Nearly half of the chief executives of Britain's biggest companies have gained awards for their prowess in the field of sport, says Lucy Kellaway.
To mark the retirement of Bill Gates, inventor of Windows, Lucy Kellaway decides to turn off her computer and Blackberry, and write and think with a fountain pen. Can she survive?
One might think that the American purposeful complaint is better than pointless bellyaching, but in fact both can prove to be highly enjoyable.
I have been out collecting a botanical array of dangerous workplace blooms, words that can spoil our day, our week - or our career.
I am running a competition in which a chief executive has to woo his customers with a letter. My finalists are Vikram Pandit and Johnnie Boden.
Being in love is like being on drugs. Do we let people who are off their heads on cocaine make important decisions? Of course not.
The only answer to the growing problem of worker unhappiness is to stop trying to find a solution and get on with what you do.
Even though in offices 1968 did not happen until about 1988, the ideas of the 1960s still affect how we behave and think at work.
In truth we don't have the foggiest idea what life would be like if women ran the show. So far we have only isolated, untypical examples.
Win-win? Instead of pretending that everything is a win, the good leader needs to get better about wining and losing
It isn't easy to keep a person happy in a job that is poorly paid and involves much wiping of bottoms. Managing a nanny is management at its most extreme.
Knowing the difference between personal fiscal prudence and being a spendthrift is one thing. But being able to keep a tight rein on your personal spending is quite another.
'Your call is important to us'... Lucy Kellaway provides a rot analysis of business talk, looking at phrases that mean the opposite of what they pretend to mean.
It is wrong to see doodling as something to do when bored. Instead, it is what we do when we are forced to listen to someone else.
