Blog

April 7, 2021

Greg Thomas

Come on Up to the Bug Bar

The Bugs are plentiful and they are all free. Stay until the wee hours when the critical bugs come out. No, not that kind of a bar, more like a level, more like your hand where you are drawing a line in the sand and saying – “this is how far we’ll go until we get into trouble”. The problem with a bug bar, is no one wants to admit when they are almost in trouble, when things are getting dicey, when hard decisions have to be made. It’s easier to close your eyes, let the pile grow and then

April 6, 2021

Greg Thomas

Planning for the People

The Hardest plan to work on is one where it’s about the people on your team. On their growth. Taking into account their skills. What they are able to accomplish. What level they are at. It’s not a plan for you and what you need, it’s a plan for them and what they need. Many managers will struggle with this type of planning because the line between their goals that they need to achieve and what their people need are not always in alignment. Having to forgo their goals in favour of someone on their team is not something that

April 5, 2021

Greg Thomas

The Invisible Ladder

There is an invisible ladder we don’t see but that exists all around us. It’s the ladder we use to determine how we rank, level and compare against everyone else we know – albeit professionally and/or sometimes personally (hopefully more on the professional side). We look at the skills someone else has and think – “We need to learn that, we need to know that, that’s the missing piece to me getting better, if only I had that.” The truth about this ladder, is that it is in our head, no one else can see it, no one else knows

April 4, 2021

Greg Thomas

The Spring Clean

Going through the list of everything you need to do once winter is over is an exciting time. You have lists for your lists of everything you are going to get done, everything that is going to be cleaned up and made better. The excitement is in the air as the snow melts and you start to smell the fresh grass (somewhere in between everything else that you are smelling). And when you start the work, it feels phenomenal, you are whipping through tasks, making headway and knocking things off your list. But here’s the question you probably aren’t asking

April 3, 2021

Greg Thomas

It’s Been a Year…

It’s been a year, a long year, today I heard someone call it “Morch” as in, we are in more March, over and over again. New Year’s didn’t start on January 1, it started on March 14th. Here’s an update from Remotely Prepared over the past year, what we miss, what we look forward to – it’s still your year. https://www.upsidedownoffice.com/podcast/one-year-of-remote