Tag: Code of Conduct
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Each and every one of us matters
Each and every one of us matters Some visitors to the Ombud’s office tell me that they are “too insignificant” or “too low” in the chain of command for their opinion to really matter. Or they tell me they feel that, because they are an assistant or a technician, there’s a difference in attitude towards
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A purposeful return to work
A purposeful return to work By mid-September, most of us are back at work after the summer break, although some lucky souls may still be recharging their batteries in their holiday destination of choice. Like the new year, the end of summer and the return to work often go hand in hand with good resolutions
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Bread-and-butter issues in the Ombud’s office
Bread-and-butter issues in the Ombud’s office At my request, my predecessor, Pierre Gildemyn, kindly agreed to compile and share his statistics for the 2017-2020 period in order to shed light on the categories of conflictual situations that are most frequently raised with the Ombud. Here, in order of frequency, are those eight categories, each illustrated
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Integrity doesn’t come with age
Integrity doesn’t come with age “My colleague recruited his best friend’s son as a technical student and the same friend’s niece as a summer student.” (Dmitri*, 31 years old) “My project leader asks me to carry out certain tasks that push me to the limits of the safety rules.” (Felix*, 32 years old) “My boss
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Sharing knowledge
Sharing knowledge Barbara* has accepted a new role in a new service, where she hopes to have more opportunities to use her skills as an analyst. But after her first few days on the job, she’s already disillusioned, because the procedures and spreadsheets she’s taken over from her predecessor are much more complicated than she
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Wherever you are, don’t forget that you represent CERN
Wherever you are, don’t forget that you represent CERN Wednesday, 4 July: it’s summer, the days are long, it’s warm and sunny. Marc, Kevin, Miguel, Nicolas and Thomas1, five colleagues from CERN, decide to go to the Bains des Pâquis in Geneva to relax after work. They head into town on the tram, getting off
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Lost in the layers
Lost in the layers When one is leading a project that is part of the activities of a team within a larger group that, in turn, consists of many sections, there is a real risk that information about who actually did what gets lost in the multiple layers of hierarchy. In large organisations like CERN,
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Due credit!
Due credit! Patents, copyrights, trademarks… there are many ways to protect intellectual property and yet, despite these precautionary measures, it seems that colleagues sometimes still slip up: plots done by one person are used in another’s presentation without being appropriately credited, citations are wrongly assigned, references are inaccurate… Plagiarism and misappropriation do not only happen
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A world without lies?
A world without lies? Can a world without lies exist? Are there different types of lies, some more acceptable than others, or is that just an excuse that we use to justify ourselves? What consequences do lies have in the working environment? If we look in the dictionary for the definition of “lie”, we find:
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Stuck in conflict – why me first?
Stuck in conflict – why me first? When a long-standing conflict appears to permeate every action, and even the rest of the team seem resigned to there being no hope of a solution, there is still always a way out, even if only one of the people concerned decides to do something about it… John