Ft Listen To Lucy

The sacking of Carol Bartz last week made theatre of the most superior kind. Watching the former chief executive of Yahoo go down spitting obscenities was exhilarating in an immediate sort of way, says Lucy Kellaway  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Research from an expert in ethics at Harvard University suggests people behave better when teddy bears are in the room, says Lucy Kellaway  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Larry Page’s thinking on his decision to spend $12.5bn on some mobile handsets, patents and set-top boxes is woolly at best, says Lucy Kellway.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Is working with people of different ages really a problem?  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What keeps you in your job? What would your six-word answer be?  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The ubiquitous piece of software can leave one feeling grumpy and passive and in no frame of mind for proper work, says Lucy Kellaway  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When the new head of Tesco in the UK said he wanted staff to love customers, I followed up by visiting my local store, says Lucy Kellaway  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In business, optimism is good and pessimism bad. Optimists have a monopoly on success, on happiness and even on longevity. Pessimists, with their long faces and dark thoughts are pariahs, thought fit for nothing in the gung-ho corporate world except possibly careers in journalism (where bad news is good news). Otherwise, they have a choice between the couch, the closet or the comedy circuit.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Everyone agrees that we spend too much of our lives e-mailing. Everyone agrees that the answer is to write fewer, shorter, clearer messages. Everyone has known this for years. Yet instead of getting better, the problem goes on getting worse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Two different women, both of them up to their eyes in different sorts of trouble, last week put forward the same excuse to explain lapses in their behaviour. Each said she was suffering from a new debilitating condition – a compulsion to please people.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It is a terrific relief to find that the true path to happiness involves doing what most of us do most of the time, whether we like it or not – work  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Legal disclaimers on e-mails are not only unenforced but unenforceable – making one wonder why they are so popular  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lagarde is right to play the female card – this is the best time there has been to be a woman with talent, charm, and an appetite for advancement, says Lucy Kellaway  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I don’t like the idea of deputising for someone who was sorting out the financial crisis and might have been president of France, says Lucy Kellaway.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the early days of computers I never forgot my password because the top secret word I’d chosen was ‘Kellaway’, which I found could be effortlessly recalled even in the most fraught moments, says Lucy Kellaway.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Research shows that with CEOs overwhelmingly having boring first names, the drearier the moniker, the greater the success – and that diversity is bunkum says Lucy Kellaway.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The reams of justification for executive remuneration are mind-numbing and likely to make one succumb through sheer weariness, says Lucy Kellaway.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Even though I prefer to have genius status granted for big things, I’m prepared to accept it for any achievement at all, even for pressing send on my computer, says Lucy Kellaway.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Last Monday, when Kerry McCarthy MP got up to speak in the House of Commons she made history – not for the words she spoke, but for reading them off her iPad.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A letter posted on a lavatory wall to amuse with its verbosity highlights the deficiencies of another missive by a virtuoso at apology – and guff.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.