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What are your favorite toiletry organizers for travel, ladies? I must admit I don't have a great system — I have a huge toiletry bag (bought at a discount store for less than $5) that I throw everything into and when I get to my destination I inevitably dump everything on the counter (shower stuff, makeup, first aid and all!) and start putting things back in once I realize I will no longer need it right this instant. (I should note that I have never personally liked hanging toiletry organizers.) My system works for me but I always have that moment of panic when we leave: have I just lost my favorite makeup brush or pot o' makeup?
Cut to a few months ago, when I realized that my husband, when traveling for work, was just throwing his toiletries into a plastic shopping bag. After some research I realized a “dopp kit” was what I was looking for, and I checked Amazon to see what they had in the budget realm. We ordered this bag — and then ordered it again for my kids (the Ziploc for toothpaste and toothbrushes was making me sad)– and now honestly I'm considering getting a third one for myself for my various toiletries when I travel. It's a lightweight nylon bag that doesn't have a ton of shape by itself, which I don't mind.
There are a zillion, large pockets and mesh side walls — perfect for keeping, say, your shower stuff/makeup/first aid toiletries separated. Because it opens horizontally you don't actually have to dump stuff on the counter to find it; you can just open it wide and look inside. Oh yes: and it's $15. Gonex Toiletry Organizer Red
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- Talbots – BOGO 50% everything, includes markdowns
- White House Black Market – 30% off new arrivals
Some of our latest posts here at Corporette…
And some of our latest threadjacks here at Corporette (reader questions and commentary) — see more here!
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middle-aged spread
As I slide from my 30s into my 40s, I am realizing that I am putting on a size every 3 years or so. Nothing going on other than general business and metabolism slow-down, not making it to the gym, loving delicious foods. This isn’t really bad in the abstract — I was a coltish varsity athlete at 18 and would not expect to have that shape, even at the same weight, at 43.
But in my family, women live into their 90s, so I’m wondering if I need to draw an aggressive line in the sand now or just accept that stores sell women’s sizes for a reason that I will get there eventually. Honestly, it’s just getting expensive to replace a whole work wardrobe (where we are casual but I still need the gamut all the way up to needing multiple suits) as soon as you’ve built it it seems.
Anonymous
I’m just hitting 40, so this is pure anecdata from watching the women in my family and my husband’s, but I think there is a point of stasis that women hit in their late 50s it seems. If anything, it appears that they start trending downward again in their 60s and on.
Anonymous
This may be what I need to know — do you plateau at a certain point and then later things may change as you may have further diminished health or limited mobility (or if you retire healthy, possibly improve things as you can exercise more and enjoy even simple things like more walking)?
I don’t want to own a wardrobe of 4-6-8-10 sizes (and I already own “too small clothes (round 1)” and “too small clothes (round 2)”) and then have to find new stores once I’m north of a 12.
OTOH, if a size is an inch, growing out 3 inches over 2 decades isn’t awful (although if it happens more over 5-6 years that is concerning).
Anonymous
I’d base size acceptance on health factors not clothing sizes. Excessive abdominal fat is particularly related to poor health, so if you’ve gained mostly there, I’d look to make healthy changes. Strength training helps build bone mass and yoga classes can help improve balance which is important for fall prevention. An active lifestyle in your 40s and 50s is going to set you up for a more active senior period. I work out three times a week (nothing major) but I go to one particular yoga class because the teacher is 72 and it reminds me how important it is to stay active if you want to have a fun active retirement.
Anon
You might not be able to retain the shape you had at 18 but you can certainly prevent significant weight gain if you don’t want to rebuild your wardrobe.
BB
No suggestions, but just commiseration! I feel the same way once I hit 30 a few years ago. I just saw a photo of myself at 26 and my face was so much less round. The weird thing for me though is that I’ve literally been a size 12 for the past decade, even though my weight has gone up a good 30lbs…not sure what’s going on there…maybe I’m just gaining it in weird places? Or is this vanity sizing?
Anonymous
Vanity sizing. I was in an airport lounge once and overheard a conversation between two execs about how the sizing were going to be adjusted and the roll out timeline. It was amazing how blatant they were about using vanity sizes to try and keep women buying single digit sizes as women will buy a size 8 over a 10 at another store.
Like JCrew vanity sizes so much they had to introduce 0 and 00.
I have gap jean shorts from the 1990s that are three sizes bigger than I wear now even though I weighed 20lbs less at that time.
Ellen
I am so happy others are waying in here, as I too have put on alot of weight since I was in college, and I was wondering what others’ expereince is here. I know my mom has a big tuchus, but Grandma Trudy says she was never really svelte like I was. On my dad’s side, Grandma Leyeh is svelte, and mabye that is my best bet, b/c 1/2 of my genes come from the Barshevsky side, and that is the svelte side. Grandpa Sy was also very heavy and Grandma Trudy thought that is why he died so early. Dad thought he had alot of gas and that caused his heart attack. So this is all another reason that I must walk 10,000 steps a day, which they NEVER used to do years ago.
Anonymous
I feel that. I wasn’t even an athlete when I was young but I was skinny, and found myself putting on pounds in my late 20’s. Sometimes it feels like an uphill battle against that even now, as I’m trying to eat healthfully, trying not to overeat, and work out most weeknights and weekend mornings. I realize, of course, that I don’t have kids and my job allows people to leave at or around 5PM, and that’s not the case for everyone. I am glad though, that I decided to make fitness a priority, even though weight management is mostly diet, because as it turns out, it’s fun! And it makes me feel good about myself.
anon
I am trying (not always succeeding) to follow the guidance in this NYT column. Part of it is fairly consistent weight monitoring. I don’t weigh myself every day, but I do so regularly enough to try to stop that weight creep by upping my step count and skipping wine for a week. It’s a lot easier to fight off an extra 3 pounds than it is to lose 15 that came on over the course of a year or two. When I was younger, I thought that as long as my clothes were fitting, I wasn’t gaining weight, but now I realize my clothes are actually more accommodating than I thought.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/well/jane-brodys-personal-secrets-to-lasting-weight-loss.html
Peachy
Personally, I would draw an aggressive line in the sand now. It gets harder with each passing decade. You have to recalibrate what you are doing to maintain a healthy lifestyle. In the past few years, I lost weight via intermittent fasting, and it has made a huge difference for me. I like the way my face looks when I am 10 lbs lighter. At 42, I feel like clothes look good on me again. I had been feeling like I was aging out of brands that I had liked for a long time. I feel like I am back to the body I had in my late 20s. All that weight can be hard on your knees, too. A good rule of thumb is that 80% of weight loss comes from diet and the other 20% comes from exercise. So, focus on your diet first. It can be as simple as trying to eat more vegetables and cutting back on sugar.
Anon
I wish I knew. All the women in my family have wardrobes for their 10-12-14-16 selves. All of us. We joke (sadly) about the tubs of extra clothes in the attic/garage/spare closet. We can trim down to our 10s if we’re super disciplined; if we say screw it, drink all the wine, we go up to 16s. I look at photos of my great-grandmothers in the early 1900s and they’re all probably 14-16, and if they’re plump in an era when everyone else was skinny as a rail, I’m just calling it genetics. Le sigh. I’m 38 and have accepted I’ll never be a size 8 again, and so I parted with all those clothes, but I’d love to be a size 12 again… Some of my favorites are waiting for me in the garage… I miss how easy it was to lose weight in my 20s!
Jen
I am 43 and find it’s harder to bounce back from holidays and vacations vs. just a few years ago. I find when I nip it in the bud it’s not as hard to take off like 3-5 lbs but requires extra vigilance for sure. My body is also not shaped the way it used to be, especially in the abdominal region (I’m a mom). I try to take a common sense approach of eat less do more when bouncing back and generally practice good habits and this has been working ok for me thus far. For example, if I go to a week long business meeting with big dinners and wine every night and the most exercise I get is walking to conference rooms, the following 2-3 weeks I will add a workout and watch my portions. In my thirties, I didn’t have to be so disciplined as the weight just seemed to fall off.
Anon
I got a beautiful leather Dopp kit for my brother for graduation. For those who are looking for graduation gift ideas for young men – Dopp kits for the win.
anne-on
I feel like at a certain point everyone got the memo to give these out as graduation gifts/groomsmen gifts? We have no fewer than 4 – I’ll alternate between the ‘big’ and ‘small’ ones for my work travel and one got handed down to our son.
Anon
I can assure you that my brother had never been a groomsmen when he graduated from high school.
anne-on
Ok? But I don’t think (older) high school kids being groomsmen/bridesmaids is super shocking if he had, am I missing something? People sometimes have families with age gaps.
Either way, agree, it’s a great present but tends to be pushed as one of the (few!) easy gifts for men so you inevitably wind up with a few as an adult.
Anon
Yup, it’s a pretty standard gift idea. Every father’s day/boyfriend/husband gift round up will include at least one.
Anom
DH travels for work. He picks up freebie dopp kits on flights. I get the idea that men get the freebie dopp kits the way women pick up make up bags (albeit from different sources).
Anon
My husband has at least five of these; I swear they replaced engraved flasks as the Groomsman Gift Du Jour for all of the aughts. Not sure what the brands are, but any model that tolerates machine washing is 1000% better than the “wipe clean” ones, especially when used for anything that can leak oil-based product (cosmetics).
Anonymous
I’m in a job where much of my work right now revolves around covid-19 response (during and outside of standard work hours). My spouse is happy that his unrelated job gives him a nice break from thinking about it. What can I do to give myself a break from covid-19? Need to be available by phone in the evenings or else I’d go to a movie! Novels? Other ideas?
Anon
Hard to predict but there are so many museums and things do in Paris that I would be shocked if EVERYTHING was closed. Paris is the most visited city in the world and tourism is one of its biggest industries. At the very least, near Paris, there are breathtaking parks, hikes, and castles that you could see. If you’re absolutely keen on museums, Paris is an easy place to take a train to another country’s capital and explore there.
Anonymous
Lol. I like the way the nesting fail makes it sound like you should just go to Paris. I would definitely read. Maybe read in the bathtub. Also workout at home while watching TV.
anonshmanon
movie night at home! Skip the TV show you would normally turn on, go right to the Oscar-movies watchlist that you never get to. Make popcorn, pour a nice tea or wine.
Switch to comfy things when you get home, even if it seems not worth it because you’ll go to bed in an hour. Sing along to a fun playlist while making dinner. Call a friend or relative just to chat. Write a nice card, maybe to your BFF for intl women’s day.
Anonymous
Well, I used to go on this s -i -t -e but that’s not working! Ha.
Anon
Coloring or an easy craft, like cross-stitch, while listening to a light podcast. It helps your brain relax without the lethargic feeling of TV
Skip?
It is customary at my current workplace to have a little get together when someone is leaving. Many people have temporary contracts so this is common. While I would like to have one I haven’t been very happy at this place. I was really harassed in the beginning–there was a learning curve in this job and a heavy workload and my boss didn’t understand. The only people I have enjoyed interacting with are a group that I have lunch with. But not so much my team members. I am abit inclined to propose a special lunch with those I have lunch with but skip the pot de départ. I’m in France, its essentially a sort of coming together where you bring snacks and drinks to share with everyone. So I’m essentially looking for opinions on whether I should skip doing it. I have never felt valued by my team so I honestly don’t feel like doing it. Thoughts?
Anonymous
No one cares if you feel like it. Do it. You can choose to be remembered neutrally or as that weird woman who didn’t even do the normal good bye.
Anon
+1. Assuming you are staying in the same field, it is likely you will interact with some of these people again. Just do the normal good bye party. It has nothing to do with whether you like these people, it is just a work obligation.
Amelia Bedelia
I need advice, hive.
I’m not worried about the coronavirus. However, I have a family trip to Paris scheduled for first week in April. We have to cancel by tomorrow to get a refund of the majority. I’m not worried about my kids “catching” anything. I am worried that all the museums will be closed and that is a major purpose of our trip. Any inclinations? I’d heard this is happening in Belgium and didn’t know if anyone had heard it might happen in France?
Thoughts?
Anon
The Louvre is currently closed, so yeah I would say this is a valid concern.
Anonymous
Louvre is currently closed. You should look into your itinerary places and whether they’re open:closed now, and decide how that impact your plans if they stay closed.
Anon
The Louvre is currently closed in Paris, and there doesn’t seem to be certainty about when it will reopen. My company has suspended travel through at least the end of April, I would try to push back to later in the summer if I were you.
Anon
Museums are already closed and all indoor spaces/events holding more than 5,000 people have been closed – which includes almost any place you’d want to go museum wise.
Anonymous
Cancel
Anon
The dismissive use of scare quotes around “catching” doesn’t make us think that you’re cool and level-headed while everyone else who has been posting about this is hysterical. It’s okay to be concerned about coronavirus and to admit it.
Amelia Bedelia
my children have a greater chance of catching the flu in the united states and dying from it than even catching the coronavirus. That’s scientific fact. I did not mean to sound dismissive. apologies if my tone was.
Amelia Bedelia
thanks, everyone! I will cancel!
Amelia Bedelia
need advice, hive.
I’m not worried about the coronavirus. However, I have a family trip to Paris scheduled for first week in April. We have to cancel by tomorrow to get a refund of the majority. I’m not worried about my kids “catching” anything. I am worried that all the museums will be closed and that is a major purpose of our trip. Any inclinations? I’d heard this is happening in Belgium and didn’t know if anyone had heard it might happen in France?
Thoughts?
Vicky Austin
LOL, my husband calls his a “dope kit” and we’ve never been able to figure out where he got that phrase – everyone in his family calls it a dopp kit.
In my family it’s called a diddy kit and I can’t tell you why that is, either.
anon
My family also calls them ditty bags. We got it from scouting, but appears to originally be from sailors!
Anon
Yes!!! My uncle calls it a ditty bag and he’s the only one I’ve ever heard call it that!
kk
Items like this one spark zero joy for me- I’d much rather find something beautiful and functional. Someone on this board recommended the Emme bags to me, and I’ve used them for weekly (consulting) travel for years!
I also have liked the Tom Binh clear packing cube in the smallest size, as it’s a perfect replacement for a ziploc when I’m traveling internationally and have to take my liquids out of my bag in security. I’ll put a link below.
kk
These Tom Binh bags are really great- made by a family business in the USA, and mine has lasted since 2014. https://www.tombihn.com/products/3d-organizer-cube-clear?variant=16399453639
Anon
Love my Emme bags! I have the small and the large – the large is way too large for air travel but I like it for car-based road trips.
I actually keep my travel kit packed and ready to go at all times because if I try to pack it before the trip I will inevitably forget something. I travel at least once a month, usually twice, so it’s much easier this way.
pugsnbourbon
Agreed – there are tons of options that are more exciting than this. Even this one by the same brand comes in prettier colors:
https://www.amazon.com/Gonex-Cosmetic-Portable-Toiletry-Organizer/dp/B07QMV1ZFB?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1
Never too many shoes...
Me neither. I recently bought a rose gold glitter encrusted one from Old Navy. Now that made me happy.
Anon
I know everyone is sick of the COVID-19 posts but I just returned from a doctor’s visit and I thought I’d share his calm, reasoned perspective:
The fact that there are several cases of people testing positive without any connection to travel to China means the virus is already in our communities. Many people all around us already have it and just aren’t aware that it’s the coronavirus. In most people, it feels like a cold that is focused in the lower respiratory area (chest/lungs) and not upper (nose, ears, sinuses). Most of us will catch it and most of us will be fine. It’s really people with other problems who are dying.
He also thought things like avoiding handshakes (I brought this up in the context of a meeting for 200 people I’m hosting) were unnecessary but couldn’t hurt.
I know this is probably not huge news to anyone, but he actually made me feel a lot better.
Anonymous
“It’s really people with other problems who are dying.”
That is not at all reassuring. I have one of those “other problems.”
Anon
“people with other problems” is a lot of people.
Anon
It is a lot of people, in fact I think well over half of people have some kind of pre-existing medical condition. But that means that not all pre-existing medical conditions translate to a high death rate, otherwise WAY WAY WAY more people would be dying. I see a lot of “everyone with X chronic medical condition is going to die” panic that is very unhelpful. There are published death rates by age group that don’t exclude people with chronic medical conditions, and they’re incredibly low (same as seasonal flu) for people under 50 and relatively low for people under 70. I’m not trying to minimize the sadness of losing older people, and I’m definitely worried about my 70-something parents, but I find the the “my child with asthma is going to die!!!!!” panic extremely unhelpful and unscientific. Literally no child has died from this virus, and very few adults under 50 have. And there are a sh!tton of people with asthma and other lung conditions in China due to their poor air quality, so obviously this disease is not taking out kids and young- and middle-aged adults with asthma en masse. Same with autoimmune diseases, which an estimated 10% of young adults suffer from, etc.
Anon
You might have missed the morning thread where those of us with “other problems” emphasized how callous and hurtful it is for everyone else to say that it’s no big deal because “most of us will be fine.” I recommend reading it and reexamining some of your unconscious biases.
HW
+1
Anonymous
But it is circulating in our communities, which means “people with other problems” will continue to be exposed. And “other problems” include common things, like being elderly.
I think you must be reassured that you personally will be fine, but please continue to be cautious so you don’t accidentally spread it to someone who could die from it.
Anonymous
Also, there is something you can do here that might help others — have NO HANDSHAKES please for your event. It can’t hurt & it might help any potentially vulnerable people (and it could be any of your attendees as we can’t know others medical conditions).
Anon
Just +1 to all of the above comments. It’s quite awful to not care about severe illness and death in people with underlying conditions and the elderly – which are so so many people. Unless everyone in your life is in perfect health and your parents and all older relatives are dead, this could very much affect you and it’s callus to think otherwise.
Anonymous
Not news at all, and writing off the vulnerable isn’t cool.
pugsnbourbon
My wife read an article where someone said, “yeah, those of us with pre-existing conditions? WE CAN HEAR YOU!”
Anon
People do it all the time though and prioritize the wellbeing of the healthy (e.g., repeated conversations here justifying coming in to the office with a fever/flu, even when you know coworkers have health conditions and are at risk for serious complications). The last few weeks have been frustrating to say the least.
Anon
As someone with a preexisting condition, high blood pressure, this is not reassuring. Based on a Chinese study, I have over a 6% chance of dying. Not huge, but not great.
Anon
You don’t understand statistics. If you’re 30 or 40 or 50, you don’t have a 6% chance of dying. People with high blood pressure are disproportionately older, and this disease kills the elderly at an extremely disproportionate rate, so overall the death rate for people who have high blood pressure is high because most of those people are older and likely have other chronic conditions. Are you slightly more likely to die than a similarly-aged person without high blood pressure? Yeah, probably. But if you’re, say 45, that might take your risk from 0.5% to 0.75%. You can’t just look at data that say that because *all people with high blood pressure* have a 6% death rate, that *you* have a 6% chance of dying. That is just not how statistics work at all.
Anon
Condescendingly explaining “how statistics work” is not helpful.
Anon
But what I said is factually true, and wrongly believing (and telling people) that you have a 6% chance of death is not helpful to you or anyone else.
anony
Well, they were correct. The statement you made was not misleading, and I appreciated the clarification. You may not ?like it? But it should be reassuring to you. I thought it was a great explanation about “how statistics work” in this case.
Anon
So we’ve been discussing in my team if we have already had it and just didn’t know. We work with folks who travel back and forth to China a lot (although none of us in my team went to China Nov-Jan, we all had contact with people who did) and most of us got a really bad chest cold in January or February that in a couple of cases necessitated doctor visits to get checked for pneumonia/get prescriptions for rescue inhalers. Not everyone went to the doctor, those who didn’t go to the doctor just toughed it out at home. No one actually got pneumonia but those who got sick (and almost all of us did) were out for 2-3 workdays. The symptoms we had were identical to the ones that have been described in the media.
Anon
I wonder if I’ve had it too. I had a terrible chest cold with a cough I couldn’t kick for weeks in January. A boy in my daughter’s daycare class returned from Hubei province on January 2. Neither him or my kid got seriously ill, but I’ve read that kids generally don’t. I feel like if I’d had it there would now be cases in my community though, so probably not. But I was definitely exposed to someone who has traveled to the epicenter of the virus and then got a terrible cough with a few weeks.
Anon
Idk the science behind it, but is it possible to get tested to see if you have antibodies or anything? This could provide valuable information to help form the spread of the outbreak in your state.
anon
no because the US is failing miserably in testing.
Anon
I think scientifically this would work, but there aren’t nearly enough tests in the US and they’re being given to people who have symptoms and/or known contact with people who definitely had the virus. I did call my doctor and mention I had a bad cough and recent contact with a person who’d been to the Wuhan area, and she basically said there was nothing to do unless I got seriously ill.
Anon
Yeah. I’m actually not worried about this virus. Yet.
But I have a couple of these “oh it’s the weak people who will die” things. I have high blood pressure (thank you genetics and fucking awesome high-pressure job) and asthma and am generally weak from a tabloid pow.
I’m not planning on getting corona. But of course my world will expose me to the point that whether I have had enough sleep or not the last week might ACTUALLY matter. Whether you bother to wash your hands will matter to me.
I don’t adapt. Yet. But I’m a little tired of the “let’s wait and see the weak ones go first” thoughts.
I don’t begrudge you your “I CAN HANDLE ANY FLU” moment. Go you! Keep on eating multivitamins and watching goop. But don’t for one moment think that means that you’re allowed to think everybody else is as lucky. We wish. So be responsible. Not for yourself. For the person next door who is genuinely afraid to go out to get toilet paper and who might loose their job if they are not able to ignore self quaranteen advise. Step up.
Stop ridiculing them. Fuck of already. (That’s for the threads last week, OMG so much eeeughs). This is normally such a great site for accepting different lives!
Anonymous
I posted a non-constructive vent this morning about a professional challenge, so coming back to ask for wisdom.
I inherited a very challenging team. There are years of resentment built up, but the current issue is that I have a few staffers who flat out are refusing to share knowledge.
Literally they have things saved in their personal drives or will not write things down. I’ve tried structuring new folders and asking thoughtful questions, engaging and empowering by giving them leadership tasks, and giving them opportunities to train.
Ultimately, right now I’m at the point where they refuse to train other staff, using the rationale ‘nobody trained me’ and will literally only ask direct questions when asked by me. If I ask them to share a file they will send it but broad directives like ‘I need all documents related to the x project shared in this folder’ are met with a hostile response that they cc’d director (person has since retired) at the time and don’t know what I mean. I’m at the point where I’ve got meetings to help me learn where… unless I ask the exact question, I don’t get an answer.
Any tools for this? Suggestions? I’ve tried every useful ‘ask a manager’ phrase and it’s been… miserable.
Anon
Write them up. If you have directly told them to document what they do, then make that part of a performance improvement plan. They must document x and y by z date or else. You have to be specific and firm, and you need to have your own manager’s support on this.
Elegant Giraffe
+1 You’ve tried engagement techniques and they aren’t working. So try disciplining.
OP
Thank you! It’s been challenging in that this staffer will answer direct questions but anything general is met with ‘you need to be more specific’.
It’s so hard when you don’t know what you don’t know.
Anon
Do you have hiring and firing power? Because if they continue to refuse to do what they’re instructed to do, I’d fire them.
anon
At this point it’s insubordination. Is your own boss aware of the issues and pitfalls? I don’t know what industry you’re in, but I think it has to be made very, very clear that this will not stand and there will be consequences (i.e., firing).
Anon
Since you’re desperate, have you tried hiring a team building coach – either one that comes in or one you go to? (I’m thinking of the cheesy, fun activities kind that we all roll our eyes at but you do actually get to know each other better and it does break down barriers…but I’m sure there are other types.) If it’s to the point where your alternative is to fire the whole team, surely the company would be willing to spend a bit on a coach?
Anonymous
Instead of a team-building coach, I’d bring in a good trainer to teach some skills the team needs, using interactive exercises. A shared experience that is meaningful and productive is the best method of team-building.
OP
This is actually a good idea that I plan on using for the rest of my team… My staffer(s) with whom I have this issue would (and have) called out sick on days when this/something similar was scheduled.
Anonymous
You’ll get more buy-in if it doesn’t feel like solely a directive from above so much as helping each other and themselves.
Approach them on one one and ask for their suggestions.
Can you make documentation of processes part of their goals? I have a lot of these sorts of tasks on my project managers’ goal docs for the year and most of them welcome it because it crosses off the “I have to find a goal” checkbox with something they know they can control. Meeting these goals has a role in promotions and bonuses, so it also has an incentive built in.
Is there something about the current shared drive that isn’t working–maybe the answer is OneNote or Confluence or Trello or Box…?. By first posing this as what they don’t like/really need in a shared system, you can get them to play a hand in “owning” a replacement that they’ll be more likely to use. Also, put all key project schedules, ticketing systems, etc. on this new system. It will force them to get more comfortable with using it when they realize everyone else is up there and the info they need is up there.
Can you work with IT to get support for a shared drive system under the guise that it will help prevent their information from getting lost in the event of ransomeware or a computer virus or the like? (This actually happened at my company, and folks who weren’t on our common drive found they were SOL on getting a lot of their docs back in any sort of timely fashion.) Maybe put limits on what can be on an individual drive/the existence of the individual drive by X date.
Can you put in some sort of shadowing system (and they need to shadow each other or the shadow is who is going to cover them for vacation)? The more folks recognize a real human is on the other end of their documentation, the better they tend to be about being helpful. And a you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours set-up doesn’t hurt. Also, some folks just aren’t very strong at documentation, What is clear to person A may not be to person B. Can you share some examples of what you are looking for that they can use as a template?
Rotate group “trainings” where each person has to present on how to do a task.
Once you’ve exhausted opportunities for willing engagement and buy-in, your hands are tied. If someone is being truly terrible, at that point I’d have to say you’ve got to get them on a performance improvement plan. You’ll likely have some folks go, willingly or forcibly, but you’ll have a better team in the end. The more folks see others getting away with things, the more it starts bringing everyone down.
Anon
I don’t think these are good ideas. The problem is not that they can’t share their information, the problem is that they won’t. The root problem is insubordination and none of these ideas will fix that.
OP
This is awesome, thank you so much!
…It also really makes me feel like I’ve been doing a lot of these things and I find it oddly reassuring that I’ve been doing what one would expect at this point.
We’re at the point where one staffer has too much knowledge on one topic and refuses to teach or share it with others. I complained this morning that this person is now demanding an immediate transfer… some of the commenters pointed out that there’s a major management problem.
(Note if you read my morning ‘rant’. The staffer who is leaving is good at their job, but not great. The things that hold them back are insubordination, refusal to teach or coach others, knowledge hoarding, and an attitude that is outwardly hostile to management. They think the reason they have been passed over for promotions is because they have been pigeonholed into one job when really… everybody knows this and this is also how this person behaves in interviews. It’s a true delight.)
Going away etiquette?
In my current job people usually have going away get togethers at the end of their contracts. I’m in Europe, this did not happen as much when I worked in the US–I only saw such events for those retiring. As my contract ends soon I am thinking of not having this kind of thing. I have been really unhappy and have not felt valued by my team. But at the same time I wonder if I should just do it for show even though I feel like I would be pretending. There are things people say you should do for the sake of professionalism even though your heart is not there, in case you meet those people later on or of course when you ask for references. There is a group of co-workers I have lunch with who are not part of my team and I was thinking of organising a special lunch with them, they are the only people I have really enjoyed interacting with while here. By special lunch I mean make reservations at a restaurant we have on the institute’s campus and send can email to the entire team listserv and whoever wants to come can do so. The other alternative is not having any going away event. Advice on how to navigate this? Thanks in advance.
Anon
As you say ‘you do things for professionalism even though your heart is not in it’. You’re working in a place with different norms, you should try to meet those norms. Just invite everyone and try to sit surrounded with the people you actually do like.
In-House in Houston
I got this at Costco late last year. It’s not available anymore, but it had 5 pieces. This has the most important 2 pieces in my opinion. I use the hanging bag for all of my toiletries – I pretty much keep it stocked and just grab it when I travel because I travel frequently for work. Other bag I use for things I don’t need every time I travel, but want them if I need them – like eye drops, bandaids, ibuprofen, etc. I love this brand!
https://flight001.com/spacepak-toiletry/
Anonymous
I use random freebies, one for makeup and one for toiletries. I keep a notepad and pen in the toiletries bag and write down what I use up so it’s easy to restock after the trip.