Month: April 2017

It’s the end of term 2. Library hours are extending, students are studying more every day. Finals are here, and students are not happy about it. A lot of time is devoted to studying, so why do many students feel as if they’re not given enough time? It’s all about procrastination, but why do students keep doing this?

First, we need to question our intrinsic and extrinsic factors. During exams, many of us do it for the extrinsic factors, those being results. We all want good grades that will lift up our GPA, without any care for what the content is on. As long as we memorize it, it’s okay. If we had intrinsic factors such as what you get out of the content memorized, and by learning interesting things, we may be able to study more as we’re more involved with the work itself.

Secondly, recognition is a huge motivator. Regardless of the amount of work students put into their courses, it’s very hard for them to get recognition. Whether that be scholarships or proud parents, it’s very hard to achieve. There is also the motivator that is rewards, which is very similar to the former.

It may be exams season soon, but students are not okay with it. It’s not just that the exams are too hard or the content doesn’t make sense, it’s just there is no motivation. Motivation is what drives us to meet our goals. No motivation, no results. All we can hope for is to ride the curve…

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It was one of the biggest retail-related stories in Canada back in 2015. I remember first hearing about it and being shocked. It was final. Target Canada was closing down all of its’ stores after a mere 2 years in business. For such a large retail chain, why did it fail, and how did it fail?

In January 2015, it was announced that all 133 of its stores across

Canada would slowly close down, with over 17,000 employees being effected by the result. In 2014, Target Canada was met with mediocre to poor sales, giving them the only option of hoping for a massive change in their holiday sales. Unfortunately, this was not the case, giving no surprise as to why they had to close down all their stores. How did Target Canada go from an optimistic idea to a failure in the span of 2 years?

First of all, Target Canada had lots of trouble having an influx of inventory products. This could be in part of poor management and

cooperation between Target and its inventory-specific countercompanies. Not only this, but the prices in Target were also exceptionally higher than those in the US, as well as having little to no online presence and competition with other similar department stores.

All of these reasons could have been fixed with proper communication and structure. It seemed as if during these two years, Target was in ‘Storming’ in the group development process. By doing this, Target was unable to perform at expectations that were initially needed. Group development is a very important process, and must be completed in the following steps, those being forming, storming, norming, and performing. Unfortunately, Target was stuck in this storming process, as previously mentioned. Many of its problems that lead to its initial destruction was because there was no proper structure, possibly due to insufficient management strategies.

With proper help, Target could have fixed these errors and gone straight to norming, possibly even performing. If the case, Target could have matched the success that other major retailers have done, such as Walmart, Winners, and Nordstrom (despite their different offerings). When it comes to any company or workplace, proper group development is vital to ensuring a successful implementation, especially when its a massive company adapting to a new country. It looks like Target missed its mark with this one.

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BuzzFeed, one of the biggest internet media companies in the world, has been seen as one of the best places to work. They are a very pro-equality company, with all of their videos seeming as if they are really fun to make.  All of the employees in the videos look like they love what they’re doing. Many people apply to work at BuzzFeed, with only select few getting hired, due to the huge demand. Why is it then that many of its’ beloved employees are quitting?

Many of BuzzFeed’s memorable employees have been fired (or have quit) without any explanation the general audience. With videos garnering millions of views under channels that have millions of subscribers, many viewers are asking BuzzFeed the simple question: Why?

These employees who have left the company have come out with their own stories, usually through a YouTube video, giving all the answers as to why they had individually quit. Many of them have given the same reasons as to why they quit, and that is all about how in their contracts, BuzzFeed has the statement that they any and all content and ideas that they provide to BuzzFeed has to stay in BuzzFeed, and cannot be used for any other purpose. Not only this, but BuzzFeed doesn’t like it when their employees have their own YouTube accounts. They say all content they work on should go strictly to BuzzFeed, as if the company owns them.

Earlier last year, two BuzzFeed employees were fired from the company.

These two individuals, Jenny Lorenzo and Brittany Ashley, were not having their own channel, or copying content and giving it to other creators. They were simply in another channels’ video. To no surprise, there was a lot of outrage on this topic. Many fans on social media directed messages to BuzzFeed, saying that the company should not own their employees, and instead should encourage them to focus on their talents and creativity, rather than pressure them into giving all their ideas away.

This form of leadership that the company is taking is not the most effective way in treating their employees properly. Being such a highly profiled workplace, BuzzFeed should give their employees more freedom to allow them to experiment in other series. The company makes their employees internet celebrities it seems, and losing many of them each year isn’t good for the company. Many of its’ previous employees still have huge fanbases, making for loss potential for any of BuzzFeed’s future videos.

The company needs to take a more laid back approach with their

employees. The workplace is all open, with employees being able to interact with each other at all times. This conflicts with their leadership approach, as it forces its employees into feeling trapped and under appreciated. If BuzzFeed wants to keep their reputation as a loving and caring workplace with amazing employees, they’ll need to realize that change needs to be made before these ex employees (and now self-made internet celebrities) turn BuzzFeed’s audience against them.

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