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A couple of weeks ago I mentioned a discussion going on at Business Week, offering readers the chance to weigh in and comment on serious workplace topics. My error was in misreading that June 30 was the last day to comment—the discussion is still going on. Additionally, there’s a place to offer up stories, pictures and videos of your own wacky experiences in the workplace or just to enjoy others’.

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Want to know what people are really thinking about the hottest topics in the workplace? Then check out Business Week’s massive discussion of the top six topics.

The six topics are the result of voting by 8500 people; they are

• Work-Life Balance
• Staying Entrepreneurial
• Time Management
• Negotiating Bureaucracy
• Toxic Bosses
• Generational Tension

“…now we’re looking for solutions. Starting today, you can submit comments, essays, pictures, or videos chronicling the challenges you face in any of the categories—and how you’ve tried to resolve them. At the end of June, BusinessWeek writers and editors will use the material, along with the input of experts, to produce a precedent-setting multimedia package—with content and videos online beginning Aug. 14, the Special Issue in mailboxes Aug. 15, and broadcast segments appearing on BusinessWeek TV Aug. 16 and 17.”

My apologies for bringing this information to you so late, but you still have today. And I will bring you more on the discussion as it develops.

Post from Leadership Turn Image credit: danaloganphotography

Cynic that I am, I never really bought into the idea of “sisterhood” and that women supported each other because they were all in the same boat. Nice idea, but I just couldn’t swallow it, partly based on my own experience and partly on what I saw happen around me.

For all you doubters I offer more proof from a brief item in Business Week synopsizing a study in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

Researchers at George Mason and Rice universities had 105 people (56 men, 49 women) play the role of interviewer as nonpregnant and visibly pregnant candidates (the researchers, some wearing prosthetic bellies) “applied” for such [traditionally “male”] jobs as corporate lawyer and engineering professor… Hostility toward pregnant applicants was 33% higher than for the other women, with the “interviewers” agreeing afterward with such statements as “she’ll try to get out of doing work” and “she would be too moody.”

Complaints are up 14%, but probably would be higher if more women bothered.

But if that same 105 people had to answer the questions publicly or in front of an audience of predominantly pregnant women, I bet that the general hostility would evaporate, the attitudes change drastically and political correctness would shine through.

Is it right? No. Is it fair? No. is it reality? Unfortunately, yes.

Have you or someone you know experienced pregnancy bias?

What do you think can be done to change it?

Your comments—priceless

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Image credit: Nammer

Few people put much thought into organizing meetings, whether company-wide, department or team. The best create an agenda, but little beyond that.

If this sounds familiar, you need to think again.

The idea that meetings need to be consciously designed as does any successful, productive business process is addressed by Business Week Innovation.

More new age voodoo?

According to Debra Dunn, a 22-year veteran of Hewlett-Packard, “Meetings have tremendous symbolic power.”

Robert Sutton, an expert in organizational behavior and author of, most recently, The No Asshole Rule, says, “If you destroy the culture, then you destroy the company.” (Both teach at Standford University.)

Read the story and the Playbook and compare your attitude, approach and most importantly results to the case study presented.

How do your meetings measure up?

What changes would make them more productive?