Anne Loehr in Fast Company: Summer Roundup

Posted by
Anne Loehr in Fast Company: Summer Roundup

I’m honored to be a regular contributor to Fast Company’s leadership column. Since early 2016, I’ve covered topics like menopause in the workplace, the challenge in following your passions, being born between generations, freelancers in rural America, agism and more. Here’s a complete list of my articles published by Fast Company.

1. How Menopause Silently Affects 27 Million Women At Work Every Day

Anne Loehr in Fast Company

I kept having fevers. I couldn’t sleep. I was feeling totally unfocused. I thought it was just an extension of my restless tendencies, but after days of unrelenting symptoms, I decided I should see a doctor. I left the office with my diagnosis in hand, feeling astounded, confused, and angry. I thought I was too young for menopause—and felt baffled that millions of women work every day feeling like this. Read the full article here.

2. Why Your Company Needs To Stop Recruiting “Digital Natives” 

Anne Loehr in Fast Company

Companies that advertise job openings for “digital natives” may think they’re simply appealing to the most tech-adept candidates out there. But they aren’t. When an older worker—even someone in their late thirties—spots that term in a job listing, they’re likely to think applying is a waste of time. This is a loss for organizations. Read the full article here.

3. These People Who Followed Their Passions Share How and Why They Did It 

Anne Loehr in Fast Company

Want to build a life and career around something you’re passionate about? Great! Now how do you feel about intense struggle, repeated failure, and constant change? To be sure, those are things pretty much all of us are bound to face in our careers, but it’s far more likely you’ll have a tougher go of it if you’re dead set on following your passion. But the fact is that some people do follow their passions and find it actually works out… Read the full article here.

4. Born Between Generations? Here’s How It Can Help Your Career

Anne Loehr in Fast Company

Helen Phung, a communications consultant, had what she considered a brilliant Halloween costume. She couldn’t wait for her coworkers to give her knowing nods and make clever comments as they passed her in the kitchen. She was dressed as the Chicken Lady from Kids in the Hall, the Canadian sketch comedy show that originally aired from the late ’80s to mid-’90s, and later as reruns on Comedy Central during the ’00s.

When Phung strolled into her office wearing her pink and white masterpiece, ready to score points and winks, she recalls, “No such thing happened. No one knew who I was, nor did they think it was funny.” Read the full article here.

5. Five Ways Older Workers Can Combat Age Discrimination

Anne Loehr in Fast Company

“I turned 50 and seemed to have been thrown out of the public relations profession, my industry of 20 years,” says Lisa Wells, who recalls having traveled repeatedly from New York to Philadelphia and Boston for job interviews–all without having any luck. Desperate, Wells sought some professional help. But “after going to a head hunter’s office in Midtown to meet a young woman who seemed to be in her pajamas,” she recalls, “I went home and decided to open my own consulting business.” Her experience isn’t unique. Read the full article here.

 6. Why These Freelancers Ditched Cities For Rural America 

Anne Loehr in Fast Company

We had gunfire in our Harlem neighborhood. We have daily gunfire here, but it’s from hunters and gun enthusiasts,” explains Hans Hageman, a creative marketing consultant and strategist. A New York native who remembers an earlier, grittier incarnation of the city, he’s doing today what would have been hard to conceive of earlier in his career–living in a rural area and working for himself. At one point, Hageman was living in a brownstone and making six figures as a nonprofit executive, but he wanted a different life. Read the full article here.

7. Five Creative Ways These Freelancers Landed Gig Work

Anne Loehr in Fast Company

According to a recent study by Upwork and the Freelancers Union, the most common places for freelancers to pick up work are friends and family (36%), professional contacts (35%), and online job platforms (29%) like Upwork, Freelancer.com, Guru, and even Craigslist. This breakdown spells trouble for some. American workers looking for projects on online marketplaces, for instance, are often competing with workers who live in countries where the dollar is strong. That means many foreign workers can accept far lower rates. If you can hire someone to transcribe an interview for $3 an hour, you aren’t giving that contract to a freelancer charging $15. So where else can freelancers find work? Read the full article here.

 8. What It’s Like To Transition At Work

Anne Loehr in Fast Company

Growing up outside of Great Falls, a small Montana city, Shannon Scott worked on a ranch with what she remembers were “rough and tough” men—bailing hay, riding four-wheelers and horses, and branding cattle. Her coworkers saw her softer personality as a weakness, and for that she suffered name-calling and violence. Scott quickly learned there was a side of her that wasn’t safe to share.

Last year, the National Transgender Discrimination Survey found that nearly half of the almost 28,000 transgender adults it polled weren’t hired, were fired, or weren’t promoted due to their gender identities. Read the full article here.

What topics would you like to see me write about in the upcoming months? I’d love to know what interests you. Let me know in the comment section below, on Twitter, or send me an email.

 

Get Monthly Leadership Tips from Anne Loehr
Is your leadership ready for the future workplace? 

Leave a Reply