When I still managed a team, at the beginning of every team meeting, we’d have the Two Minute of Hate. Everyone in the team would be able to complain about whatever was bothering them.

Very often, when the hate was work related, the team would come together to solve the problem. It worked really, really well.

Other managers tended to be very uptight about the idea.

Sometimes the hate would last through most of the meeting.

After some fairly distressing and debilitating hates, I added Eye Bleach permanently to the end of the agenda. It was when people would share something to make everyone feel better. It was usually either cute pet or kid pictures, or happy news or uplifting stories.

I still work there, but I’m not a manager anymore. I’m still strangely part of the management team, but I have no direct reports, and I’m not officially a manager.

I’m not really sure I was really the person they wanted managing people. I suppose it’s not too surprising, but the entire management team seems to think they are what keeps the place working. I always saw management as a necessary evil. My team was what kept things working, not their manager.

I mean the pole could definitely be dangerous aswell