One of my favorite newsletters is Tim Ferris’ Five Bullet Friday. In it he lists five things that have caught his attention or that he’s enjoyed over the prior week. Since we are publishing early this week, I’m a little behind. So instead of a full-length Insight article I offer you these 5 Bullets of things from the labor world (and beyond) that caught my attention over the last week:
- Union Access Part Of The Harris/Walsh Labor Task Force Recommendations: I still haven’t seen the official announcement or the details, but Axios reported yesterday that a key part of the Harris/Walsh Task Force recommendations will include giving unions access and time to brow beat… err… talk federal employees into joining unions. In addition, employers (not clear whether this is just referring to the federal government or contractors) will be required to “communicate more clearly throughout the year about their collective bargaining rights and how to contact their unions.”
- Card Check is Not as Far Away as You Think: Brandon Magner, who until recently wrote the great blog Labor Law Lite, published two interesting items. The first is that he’s no longer writing his blog because he is now working for the National Labor Relations Board in one of the Regions. In other alarming news, Magner (who has been doing some of the best writing and thinking about how the Biden administration and NLRB can best take advantage of their new majorities over the last year) just published a 61-page article entitled The Good-Faith Doubt Test and the Revival of Joy Silk Bargaining Orders.
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General Stanley McChrystal
Book I Can’t Wait to Read: Speaking of Tim Ferris, this interview with Stanley McChrystal about his new book called Risk: A User’s Guide was really interesting. I also enjoyed McChrystal’s interview with Tyler Cowen (Ferris and Cowen are two of my favorite Pods). These interviews really got me thinking about the decisions employees must face when deciding to vote in a union election (or even sign a union authorization card). These decisions (either way you go) have risks associated with them. While we talk about those at times, I don’t think we really do a great job of framing how you make a risky decision with incomplete information. We should really do a much better job of this.
- Speaking of Podcasts: I had a really fun interview on the HR Leads Podcast, where host Tara Crowley and Rob Trotter interview Oklahoma HR luminaries (they obviously lowered their standards to get me on the list) on labor unions, leadership, and other topics of interest like leadership lessons from Ted Lasso, the topic of my next book, and a collection of other random thoughts. The episode doesn’t drop until next Monday, but if you listen in, let me know what you think!
- One Answer I Wish I Had Back: The last question Tara and Rob asked me was, “What do most people get wrong about you?” I wish I’d answered the question differently. But for those readers who know me I’m curious, what do you think most people get wrong about me?
- Bonus Bullet – Album I’m Listening to a Lot: Promise of the Real by Lukas Nelson (son of Willie) and The Promise of the Real. Especially love Four Letter Word and Pali Gap/Hey Baby, but it’s a great album wire to wire.
