Author: Elaine Ezekiel

Turn Travel with Colleagues into Your Professional Superpower

Over the past year, I’ve spent dozens of hours in a car, train, or plane next to a coworker. We Atoms travel together between offices and to client sites, outreach events, and conferences.

I’ve always loved traveling. The passing landscape provides the perfect backdrop for a nap, catching up on email, or staring out the window with my headphones turned up. Travel for work is another story. When traveling with colleagues, these behaviors can waste an opportunity to meaningfully connect with my travel partner. Read more on Turn Travel with Colleagues into Your Professional Superpower…

Who’s Doing the Glue Work at Your Company?

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the work that falls outside of job descriptions. I’m talking about the stuff that needs doing, but isn’t anyone’s explicit job.

I’m aware of how this type of work can impact my career, but Atomic has made that impact manageable—and sometimes even beneficial—through smart policies. I’ll share my story and offer some ways you can support workers at your organization. Read more on Who’s Doing the Glue Work at Your Company?…

Five Tips for Sharing a Project Retrospective with Your Whole Company

I recently attended a retrospective led by a team of Atoms who worked on a large project. My colleagues were both vulnerable and knowledgeable as they shared challenges, successes, and hard-won lessons.

Two Atoms from the team shared their process for creating the project retrospective with me. I organized their thoughts into five tips your team can use to conduct a valuable, company-wide project retrospective.
Read more on Five Tips for Sharing a Project Retrospective with Your Whole Company…

Harnessing the Power of People Skills, One Interview at a Time

This is the story of how our first non-technical employee helped Atomic Object, slowly but surely, build a culture that insists on good people skills for everyone.

When Mary O’Neill joined Atomic Object in the early 2000s, she was our sole woman and only non-technical employee (managing accounting and other operational business activity). Read more on Harnessing the Power of People Skills, One Interview at a Time…

Atomic Awarded for Being a Breastfeeding-Friendly Workplace

Just in time for National Breastfeeding Awareness month, Atomic Object received a gold-level Michigan Breastfeeding-Friendly Workplace Award. The distinction, awarded by the Michigan Breastfeeding Network, acknowledges organizations that demonstrate support for women who may need to express breast milk while at work. Read more on Atomic Awarded for Being a Breastfeeding-Friendly Workplace…

Atomic Ann Arbor Welcomes its First Accelerator Group: Cell Alpha

After the Grand Rapids office’s successful launch of the Accelerator Program, an accelerated professional development program for newly-graduated developers, we launched our own program in Ann Arbor. This spring, Cell Alpha (the first cohort of the Ann Arbor Atomic Accelerator) joined the office. I asked each of them to tell me a little about themselves and discuss their first few weeks on board. Read more on Atomic Ann Arbor Welcomes its First Accelerator Group: Cell Alpha…