Hey hubcaps, it's been a while! Just landed a job where I'll be earning 2.5x what I used to make (but I laid myself off in May), which is great but I do expect some culture shock as this will be the very first corporate role I've held. Also, my partner is now wondering what it would be like if we lived in NYC, which would probably be cool as we have lots of friends and family there, but like, even though I just got a big pay bump, I'll basically be back to my old buying power if/when we move, but them's the breaks. Honestly, after living on the West Coast for a bit I really miss the walkability of East Coast cities. Personally, I think my partner also wants to live in a place where she can wear her collection of vintage fur coats she's been amassing FOR NO REASON, but whatever.

Today was my first day of my new corporate job. There were no fires to put out, no sudden changes without clear recourse, and all in all, everything unfolded according to plan, which I am not used to. I think I'm going to like it here and it feels like a lot of hard work I've put in over the years is finally paying off. I think it will take some adjusting, but I'm really looking forward to it!

I'll see if I can't find a photo of it, but this year at the temple, there was a letter from a longtime Burner who was essentially breaking up with Burning Man. He'd included every ticket, vehicle pass, book, and map he'd received starting from I think, 2003. Basically, the letter said that he'd got as much out of BRC as he needed, and that the Sparkle Ponies and other elements introduced over the years had created an experience that he didn't recognize, or want to be part of any longer.

It was sad, but got me reflecting on why I go. Sure, I wish I'd seen what it was like before social media, before electronic music was the norm, and before every night on playa was lit up as brightly as Burn night, but it's still an amazing beast to behold. For me, it's still about intention, change, and centering humanity, but what do I know?

Anyway, our camp fared much better than some, especially those that needed to be evacuated and pressed into other camps. We had a communal dome which kept us all dry, equipped with a DJ booth, commercial grade sound system, and full bar. We also had great DJs and a fantastic honkytonk musician who kept our spirits high with unbelievably good music. And of course, since the service our camp provided was food, we ate well! Last year I lost about 10 lbs. over the course of the Burn, but this year I only lost 1.5 lbs.

This was my first year volunteering with the org as a Peer Support Counselor and honestly, I think I'd do it again. I still love the parties and the music, but the community aspect of Burning Man has added such phenomenal dimension to the experience that I'm sure I'll end up at BRC again in the future!

I’ll be running a diversity, equity, and inclusion podcast, magazine, and quarterly conference for a large consulting firm :)

I’m with Peer Support, those two little offices across from People Ops and Cart Repair. Part conflict resolution, part psychological first-aid, part traffic control, directing people to Rangers, Zendo, etc.

Didn’t have to handle much, but the people involved were amazing! I’d definitely do it again.

Aw shit, if I'd known you were there, I would have passed along my unused shower tickets (not even sure if the Wet Spot is still functional)!

I hope the ride back is quick!

SAME! Hey, if you might be open for it, I'd love to have a buddy in a similar situation as I navigate my new financial reality as a means of processing and checking myself. No pressure, of course!

A guy from back home got really into making doors and today he makes a living on instagram/renting out the tiny homes and cabins he builds (featuring cool doors!). Anyway, my friends from back home that got into woodworking when we were kids are all still at it and having a blast doing it. Give it a whirl, no need to go any deeper than it being fun!

Happy New Year! I got a raise today! It’s not a huge raise, but it’s nothing to sniff at either.

Maybe the bump in income will help me to weather whatever shit storm is brewing.

Things have been bumping along in weird, but ultimately good ways, though not without stress. My girlfriend's dad died of COVID and long story short, we weren't sure what was going to happen next, since she had to return to her home country and her visa was expiring soon after. All that worked out as best it could, so I'm glad about that.

I guess I also have an interview show now, which is pretty fun I have to say, but it's something totally new for me. Some questions that have come up for me are of course around how to keep output flowing,

The only other update from me is that I've been taking this course with a guy I met through work. Basically, the premise thus far is that democracy is necessary for peace, democracy is imperiled, and everything that people think is helping, actually is not. I like this dude, but I keep waiting to see if he's full of shit. And of course, that could be coloring my time learning with him, but an open mind is something that needs constant work.

Today I saw an old man on a walk, who would stop to make faces at jack-o-lanterns that haven’t been taken down. When he came closer, it was clear he was talking to them too.

That set the tone of the day for me. How’s everybody?

I forgot how much I like your voices and through listening, I missed you all. Some other thoughts: “humanodon was born here” is maybe the most concrete endorsement of my citizenship other than my birth certificate, so I really appreciate that! Also, Trump’s shoulder seam on his suit is wicked gross. Don’t do that shit hubski.

Also: really nice job editing both video and audio!

Steve’s words really resonated with me. At work, one of our values is Collective Care:

We do not subscribe to the concept of self care by itself. We believe in collective care. We have to take care of each other, create the space for people to take care of themselves, and hold each other accountable for taking care of themselves and each other.

This has been my experience with hubski. Users here have privately contacted me when I’ve been down and out, offering to make connections for potential jobs, supporting me when I’ve been bent on being too hard on myself, and one user even asked me to do them a favor by reading a book that they sent to me, inside of which, I found $100 when I really needed it.

I keep coming back here and I’m so grateful that this group of people has come together.

This was really fun! In many ways, this was reaffirming as well. I'm glad that though I've been mostly absent, hubski persists in such a great way. Thanks c_hawkthorne for doing the thing!

Learning a lot of shit in my new role at a diversity and inclusion consulting firm. A lot of it is really interesting, though quite a lot of it is over my head. If anyone knows anything about automating workflows, Zoho, LMSs, or online learning, I'd love to have a chat.

I know that I'm not super active here anymore, but I do come back! One of the things we're trying to accomplish with the online learning platform is a community for thoughtful, engaging discussion. If anyone would like to chime in to give their perspective on what makes hubski the kind of place that people want to come back to, or to engage with one another, I'd really like to hear those points of view.

For me, part of the appeal of hubski is the individual personalities, and the space to interact with various, recognizable personalities over time. I also really like the willingness of the community to take ideas and run with them, whether it's the threads where people are collaborating on things just for the fuck of it, or continuing discussions over a number of threads over time. It would be great to get something similar going on in a more focused way, but I'm not sure if such a focus might have a negative effect on engagement. If anyone has thoughts on this point, I'm happy to hear those perspectives too!

Ah, this is something I may be able to support on. Then again, I do have a bias as my degree is in conflict resolution and in particular, workplace conflict. One of my areas of interest is actually organizational silence and it’s related phenomena, gossip.

Eng, to my eye what you describe fits well with what I would frame as “latent conflict”, likely due to essentially, the psychological defense mechanisms of leadership. If we’re thinking about flows of communication, in organizations, these flows tend to be oriented horizontally (among peers) and vertically (between ranks/levels).

The tendency of leadership is that they outwardly want say, an open door policy, but are also keenly aware that an open door means that anyone can come in. Thus, vertical conflict management systems tend to be implemented by those at the top to get information from those below.

Simple, right?

Here’s another simple thing; the human mind strives to maintain a positive self-image, which results in attempts to explain or to justify actions after the fact. In a nutshell, the people at the top want to believe that they are good people (however they define that). Negative feedback threatens that positive self-image and so to protect itself, the mind will subconsciously be motivated to defend.

In most cases, this means that the people at the top say they want feedback, but are actively (though often subconsciously) avoiding it. How? By adding layers, and by controlling the timeline for resolution or management.

Now, the people who aren’t at the top quickly learn this. When people aren’t listened to, they stop talking. In organizations, when legitimate channels of grievance aren’t listened to, people stop using them.

Cue gossip. Not only does this create in-group bonding, it can quickly evolve into a way of those without titles to get things done. Most organizations have informal leaders. Next time you’re in a meeting, pay attention to who is being listened to and who isn’t; the titles might not match up with those who are being listened to.

Now, I’ll freely admit that I hate HR and that this is a bias of mine, but as a consultant, I feel like it’s important ( in the American context anyway) to understand that while there are good HR people out there, by and large, HR exists as the organization’s condom: to keep the organization from getting sued.

I bring this up because you mention that they are listening to you. It may be worth your while to get a clear picture of why. In the event that you may be thinking of leaving, it may be some small comfort for you to know that the real costs of employee turnover are often 1/2 or a full year’s salary to replace and then train the new person, not to mention productivity and opportunity costs.

Anyway, one reason why you might find the situation an analog, is because racism is a form of oppression, and many work practices are forms of oppression too. I’m sorry to hear that you’re going through that, but if you’d like to discuss it more, or if I can send useful materials your way, let me know, because that sounds like it sucks balls.

Name: Rico

Location: Library

Age: Drinkin'

Current Preoccupation: I don't really want to get a Ph. D, so why are so many things in my life pointing to a Ph. D?

So, I couldn't believe that you'd add a M.A.S.K. video that wasn't the theme song, so of course I had to go listen to the theme song, which of course auto-played into a cover where the original singer drops in to comment.

Anyway, I don't want to be cool enough for GoBots at this point in life. Like, did they even have Orson Welles playing Unicron, the Lord of Chaos, the Chaos Bringer, the Planet Eater? Maybe, maybe not.

From the Transformers Wiki:

George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985), actor and director, was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin and lived a fairly eventful life, in case you hadn't heard. For starters, in 1938 he convinced a bunch of rubes that Martians were invading the Earth with his The War of the Worlds radio show. On screen, Welles had a highly memorable role in The Muppet Movie, where he gave Kermit the Frog his big break in Hollywood. Oh yeah, he also made some movie about some guy who wants a sled (spoiler alert).

It wasn't until 1985 that Mr. Welles finally fulfilled his true destiny by playing the planet-gobbling world Unicron, although, sadly, Mr. Welles died before the movie was released in 1986.

"You know what I did this morning? I played the voice of a toy. Some terrible robot toys from Japan that changed from one thing to another. The Japanese have funded a full-length animated cartoon about the doings of these toys, which is all bad outer-space stuff. I play a planet. I menace somebody called Something-or-other. Then I'm destroyed. My plan to destroy Whoever-it-is is thwarted and I tear myself apart on the screen."

—Orson Welles, on his final film performance.

"The irony of [Welles] playing a planet-sized eating machine wasn't lost on anyone."

—Michael McConnohie

I make food. Mostly salad dressings, sauces, and soups. Today I made some burgers because some steak cuts were cheaper than ground beef. I write poems, but less and less lately. I write things that almost make it into academic journals. I make mistakes. I make connections. I make my bed in the morning, even though I know that the dog will unmake it. I make time to do a lot of partial things. I make a lot of jokes. I make do.

I’m trying out a meal replacement so I can keep up my calorie intake while working, since I’ve been forgetting to eat while working and my partner says I get cranky (true).

I feel like it actually makes me more hungry, but I just started. I’d really rather just have a meal, but don’t like working past my designated work hours.

Anyone got tips on optimizing the whole meal replacement thing?

I defended my thesis. I am told by my committee that they're willing to work with me to get it to publishable standard and that they are interested in supporting my development of a theoretical framework. According to them, I've done 80% of a possible dissertation, with another subsection of my thesis showing promise for the development of a separate paper.

I'm still broke though.

Ugh, why can’t fundamentalists be fun?

We didn't even make any 9/11 jokes this year

1) I study conflict resolution with a focus on organizational conflict

2) I gossip like a motherfucker

Personally, I take these things to be indicators and try to take a qualitative research tack. What nodes keep popping up? If everyone says Carol is a bitch, what's up with that? As for shame, what's going on there? Maybe digging into those feelings through something like writing out your thoughts (by which I mean, writing without self-judgement in an effort to map feelings, tensions, and potential inciting incidents) might be helpful.

I don't know your situation, particularly as some of the information is apparently sensitive, but I am curious about the role of leadership within your organization. What kind of leadership exists? Are there underlying sources that result in gossip? Can you talk to anyone in the leadership about this? What avenues exist for you to try to address this issue of morale?

Often, with top-down leadership, there is a great deal of power distance, resulting in a lack of employee buy-in, inclusion, and belonging. In organizations where power-distance is minimized and employees tend to have a lot of trust from their leadership, we see a lot of decision-making ability and thus, empowerment. When people have this ability, creating employee/"follower"-based solutions is often an option, which tends to improve morale.

In my view, gossip tends to occur when people don't have outlets that are sanctioned as legitimate for grievance within organizations. Often, this results in employee turnover, a lack of trust, and overall, greater expenditures in training and ineffectual interventions, such as diversity and inclusion programs rooted in compliance to Title VII and affirmative action, as opposed to employee empowerment. We also see litigation more often in these types of environment.

In short, avoidance of gossip or conflict tends to have adverse effects. However, engaging in conversations to address morale can also have adverse effects for employees as organizations are inherently conservative and interested in avoiding litigation and so may be prone to retaliation or attempting to sweep things under the rug. Of course, my advice would be to seek the help of a professional; a facilitator, a mediator, or someone who can help with conflict, but then, I have an interest in promoting the industry I'm hoping to be employed in. The one thing I can tell you, is that there is no need to be ashamed for feeling like things can be better, or for regretting a contribution to negative dynamics. It sounds like you have a clear idea of what the problems could be and that there might be a real need to address them. Who can be engaged to work this out?

Great seeing you too!

I think that's so true of so many things. In the US context, what you're talking about also applies to university; how can we expect literal children to choose for themselves the path that will lead them to meaning and financial independence, when they don't have the life experience to really know what they need or want?

In terms of your move to Norway, I'm not very surprised to hear that your experience is so different. Both the UK and the US tend to have very large organizations with a great deal of what I would term, "power distance". For example, here in many organizations (large or small) the people at the top, never meet the people at the bottom, or even in the middle. Different levels tend not to interact with one another much, except through very established channels and contexts.

Here's a real shocker: these kinds of organizations tend to have less potential for upward mobility and as organizations tend to reflect the communities and populations that they're embedded in, they also tend to reflect societal dynamics. In societies with very little social mobility (like the US) we see less internal promotion and more bringing in upper level people from the outside. Further, "chain of command" type org structures tend to have notably higher rates in turnover, which means that they spend a shitload on hiring and trying to establish pipelines to draw on talent. If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure, for whatever reasons, the customer keeps demanding the cure and wondering why they can't cut costs.

It's not healthy.

My mom asked me if I had a big date planned for tonight. I finished my first draft of my thesis just now, so maybe now I can think about dating again?

Things are still uncertain at work, but it's looking up. We're very busy and have a lot of things lined up that should position us well, but one concern we have is the time between creating our deliverables and getting paid.

In other news, I also started making waffles as my girlfriend got me a waffle maker. I haven't had much chance to try it out, but the results are good so far. Just when my pants were getting loose, but hey, them's the breaks.

I will be presenting a paper for discussion at this year’s Academy of Management conference on effects of organizational inclusion on conflict and organizational silence. Never been to a conference like this, so I hope I do ok. Hopefully I can publish the paper somewhere after revision and even more hopefully, that will put me in a better position for PhD programs.

I am so curious about this. Last I knew, Moderna was having trouble sourcing Black participants for their vaccine trials.

How does this work exactly?