by jmalouff | Mar 1, 2022 | Organizational Psychology, Social psychology, Work
The new school year has started, and I have compiled for myself a list of things not to do while teaching. My list comes from actual and fictional events. First, do not refer to students who never come to class as spooks. This was a mistake...
by jmalouff | Feb 22, 2022 | Human Thinking and Behavior, Work
I went to see my GP recently. I had a book, Wolf Hall, in my hand, and he told me he had read it and its sequel. He added that he disliked them both. I must have shown puzzlement, so he explained that he never stopped reading a book he had started. His...
by jmalouff | Aug 1, 2021 | Human Thinking and Behavior, Mental health problems, Work
I was telling a friend about something that happened to me at work when she uttered a wolf howl. I stopped talking and looked at her. She said she was hungry. My first thought: A howl in that situation is what I would expect from someone who has attention deficit...
by jmalouff | Dec 6, 2020 | Job hunting, Social psychology, Work
A friend of mine recently had a management-consultant job interview in which he was asked to name the last book he read. I don’t know how he answered — he is not a regular book reader. My immediate perverse thoughts turned to what answers would be...
by jmalouff | Oct 17, 2020 | Personality, Work
A friend told me about a co-worker who has problems at work due to being overly conscientious. When the colleague sees something wrong at work, she reports it to her boss. The boss lately has responded by falsely blaming the worker for the problem, probably to deflect...
by jmalouff | Nov 11, 2019 | Behaviour Modification, Emotions, Human Thinking and Behavior, Learning, Strategies for Teachers, Work
Australian schools don’t smack pupils anymore. As years pass, fewer and fewer parents smack their children. I was never punished at all as a child, except that my mother tried to pinch me sometimes. She had arthritis, so the pinches never hurt. Parents nowadays...