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Hi! I’m Peter, CEO of Kickresume, and these career-related stories caught my attention this month — and might catch yours too.

As someone who runs a company, I get a front-row seat to all the latest trends and hacks promising to turn our workplace into a productivity powerhouse. 

But here's the kicker: somehow these “innovations” do the exact opposite. And we choose to keep them. 

Yet, when we find something that does work AND makes employees happy, we're scared of it.

All the stuff that was supposed to be great (but isn’t).

Let's look at the stuff we thought would make work better. 

Email, for example, was supposed to make talking to each other easier. Fast forward, we’re now drowning in unread messages, with productivity gasping for air. I know I am.

In fact, workers are now spending 40% of their work week (the equivalent of two work days each week) on email and in meetings, according to a recent Microsoft study. 

Open-plan offices, sold as the ultimate collaboration boosters, turned into battlegrounds for personal space and concentration. In fact, it's a scientifically proven productivity killer – an Exeter University study found a 15 percent reduction in productivity in open offices.

Funnily enough (or sadly, actually), approximately 70 percent of all offices now have an open floor plan.

And hot-desking? How is NOT having your own desk supposed to help? The logic isn't logic-ing. (Oh, and according to Forbes, hot-desking will actually straight up kill your company.)

Here’s a controversial one: project management tools (I won't name drop but it rhymes with banana). You either hate or love them. We spend so much time assigning tasks, creating tasks, and organizing tasks that there’s hardly any time left to… actually do the task. 

Let's not forget about my personal (least) favorite – employee monitoring. A Zippier survey found that 67.6% of big companies in North America use employee surveillance software. 

Now, you may think this is one of the tools that could actually increase productivity… but you would be wrong. 

Instead, 59% of employees report increased stress and anxiety caused by surveillance. And here's the kicker: Studies have repeatedly proven that as employee stress levels rise, their productivity falls quite dramatically. 

So much for surveillance as a productivity tool.

The funny part? All of these “productivity” boosters stuck around, even though they are empirically proven to kill it.

The win-win innovation everyone's afraid of

Enter flexible and remote work. Let's look at some numbers:

• 43% of respondents said that flexible working hours helped them achieve more productivity (Gartner 2021 Digital Worker Experience Survey)

• Remote employees worked 1.4 more days every month, or 16.8 more days every year, than office workers (Airtasker survey)

• 73% of managers believe flexible working arrangements have increased productivity (University of Birmingham study)

• 30% of surveyed remote workers said they accomplished more in less time 

Yet, companies are now hitting the panic button and calling everyone back to the office. 

Among them giants like Amazon, Meta, IBM, or KPMG.

It's like the managers go “Hold up, everyone's happy AND getting stuff done? That's suspicious.”

I don’t know, maybe it's about control. With remote work, companies can't keep an eye on employees every minute of the day. 

But here's the real head-scratcher: we cling to practices like open offices and endless email chains, even though they're proven productivity vampires. 

And then, something that actually works and makes people happy comes along, and it's treated with suspicion. 

Maybe It's time we embrace what works and ditch the old playbook. 

After all, happy employees are productive employees, and isn't that the point of all this?

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Random piece of career advice

There you are, after rounds of interviews and building connections, feeling so close to landing the job — only to open your inbox to "We've decided to move forward with another candidate." 

Yes, it's tempting to just hit delete on that message and swiftly move on, convincing yourself it's their loss, not yours.

But the smarter move? Taking a deep breath and crafting a response to that job rejection. 

It's actually a valuable opportunity to:

• showcase your professionalism;

• get feedback;

• and to keep the door open for future possibilities.

Here's a response you can copy, paste and personalize to fit your situation:

Dear [Interviewer’s Name],

Thank you for letting me know about the decision. While I’m disappointed not to be moving forward, I appreciate the chance to interview for [Position Name].

If possible, I’d welcome any feedback you might have on my interview or application, as I’m always looking to improve.

I remain interested in [Company Name] and hope to find an opportunity to work together in the future.

Thanks again for your time and consideration.

Best regards,

[Your Name]

Thanks for sticking with me to the end. 

Since no great scroller should go unrewarded, here’s a 20% discount code for Kickresume Premium. 

Catch you later!

Peter