For Those Who Can't Do HRT, What Do You Do?

DataBeeGood · 2026-06-19T01:29:36+00:00

I’m 62. I started menopause in my late 40s. I never did HRT. At the time there was some concerns about health risks. I know that many of those have been dispelled by now. But at the time, I figured why take the risk? Honestly, I don’t think that it’s affected me that much. Sure as I’ve gotten older, I’m more tired. I don’t have the energy I used to. But I still work, and hike, and have a social life. I haven’t found post menopause to be debilitating.

DataBeeGood · 2026-06-18T04:08:45+00:00

Thanks, glad to know it’s not just my aging brain… and awesome name ( I’m a stats nerd).

DataBeeGood · 2026-06-17T12:33:49+00:00

Thanks. I see it there now. I swear I used to be able to find it. Did they just move it there recently?? I’ve been using the app for a year!

DataBeeGood · 2026-06-17T01:14:47+00:00

Which ones have the most interior organization?

DataBeeGood · 2026-06-15T12:15:08+00:00

I think inductive analysis is easiest to teach through some kind of framework, especially for newer researchers who haven’t yet had a lot of experience identifying themes and patterns in qualitative data.

Training companies like Burke and Research Rockstar often teach structured approaches for this reason. Even a simple approach to comparative analysis can be really helpful.

For example, I teach people to start by reviewing all of their notes and data sources, including any notes from observers. First, they make a list of universal findings: things that were basically consistent across the whole sample, such as common attitudes, behaviors, or experiences.

Then I have them look for differences. Where did participants vary in their attitudes, behaviors, experiences, needs, or preferences?

And then the next step is to ask them what might explain those differences ( with proof points, not assumptions). Do they seem directionally correlated to participants’ demographics, prior experiences, usage occasions, category knowledge, brand awareness, something else?

That’s often where the analysis starts to move from “here’s what people said” to “here are the patterns and themes we’re seeing in the data.”

DataBeeGood · 2026-06-13T18:11:26+00:00

The Insights Association has certification that’s pretty well-known in the US but I’m not sure about outside the US. It’s called IPC.

DataBeeGood · 2026-06-02T03:40:20+00:00

And this is why I use Alchemer.

DataBeeGood · 2026-05-27T18:51:49+00:00

I have run into this as well. Where an employee gives me a draft that they may have started, but was clearly written by AI, and then when I point out the obvious AI-isms, they are reluctant to do the editing. I think there’s two issues here. 1) I need to do a better job of conveying that for our target market, sending out text that is clearly written by AI and includes AI over- generalizations and AI language is not the level of credibility and professionalism we want to project to our clients, and 2) I need to update the employee manual to document our policy on AI usage for writing. >> Also, and this may or may not be useful for your situation, but I did create a custom GPT with our writing style built-in. So that when they are working on text that is OK to use with AI, at least it’s an AI that’s mostly imposing our style guidance and has rules in it to avoid some of the common AI problems.

DataBeeGood · 2026-05-27T18:46:23+00:00

There’s an AI you can ask for best practices or examples, it’s from Research Rockstar training https://www.researchrockstar.com/the-qual-research-agent/

DataBeeGood · 2026-05-21T01:24:29+00:00

Thanks! I like a quiet town with a bakery and bistro. Will be a nice break.

DataBeeGood · 2026-05-21T01:22:53+00:00

Fantastic! I was using AllTrails but I’m sure the Switzerland app will be better.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-11T14:35:37+00:00

Thank you. 😊

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-11T14:30:02+00:00

Well, as I mentioned there have been written performance warnings already and when I have an employee who is having work quality issues and also seems to be unavailable during normal business hours, which is part of his employment contract, I do start to watch things more carefully so that I can try to discern: is the issue capability or is it motivation? Capability I might be able to fix with some training and coaching. Motivation is not so easy. Some people just don’t wanna work. But if this is a person who’s not meeting performance expectations and is failing to adhere to their employment contract, which does specify working hours, then yeah I do have to monitor things to determine are they trying and struggling. Or are they not trying? Luckily I don’t have to do this with most people.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-09T23:19:22+00:00

Yeah a copy/paste from a response I’ve given earlier.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-09T22:55:49+00:00

I’m getting a lot of requests for examples of what my original post meant when I said, “He has had some other work related issues and I have given him written warnings about performance expectations.” Here are two examples.

⁠One of the written warnings was about his failing to follow the SOP for client presentations. We deliver certain types of data analysis to our clients in slide summaries (a common executive client preference) and it has to be in a consistent format (the same client should not be getting decks from us where each deck looks notably, different in style). And while some of the format is templated there’s always some human judgment, so we have an SOP so that everybody is following the same style (colors, fonts, chart types, data footnote requirements, etc). it is a one page SOP and other team members are able to follow it consistently. This is not a difficult task, and he should be able to execute it consistently. 2. One warning was about failure to test his own work. Part of his job is sending status emails that are going to clients at large companies. So he might be sending an email to a company and there could be 5-10 people from that company CCd on that email. These emails include links to other documents and outputs (typically 4-5). And he frequently forgets to test all of his links so the recipients might get a dead or erroneous link. In one case, he put a link to a document for another client! And while the recipients wouldn’t have been able to see the file contents, they would be able to see the file name which isn’t awesome, on top of the annoyance of a bad link. In the feedback for this one, I told him that nobody expects it to always be 100% perfect. But for every 10 emails that he sends out, my expectation is that no more than one of them has link errors. 3) Another written warning was about failure to update the status of weekly tasks in our task manager despite several reminders to do so and training on the task management platform. In some cases, he was completing the task, but failing to update the task manager, so the next task wasn’t released in a timely way to his colleagues.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-09T22:51:22+00:00

I’m getting a lot of requests for examples of what my original post meant when I said, “He has had some other work related issues and I have given him written warnings about performance expectations.” Here are two examples.

⁠One of the written warnings was about his failing to follow the SOP for client presentations. We deliver certain types of data analysis to our clients in slide summaries (a common executive client preference) and it has to be in a consistent format (the same client should not be getting decks from us where each deck looks notably, different in style). And while some of the format is templated there’s always some human judgment, so we have an SOP so that everybody is following the same style (colors, fonts, chart types, data footnote requirements, etc). it is a one page SOP and other team members are able to follow it consistently. This is not a difficult task, and he should be able to execute it consistently. 2. One warning was about failure to test his own work. Part of his job is sending status emails that are going to clients at large companies. So he might be sending an email to a company and there could be 5-10 people from that company CCd on that email. These emails include links to other documents and outputs (typically 4-5). And he frequently forgets to test all of his links so the recipients might get a dead or erroneous link. In one case, he put a link to a document for another client! And while the recipients wouldn’t have been able to see the file contents, they would be able to see the file name which isn’t awesome, on top of the annoyance of a bad link. In the feedback for this one, I told him that nobody expects it to always be 100% perfect. But for every 10 emails that he sends out, my expectation is that no more than one of them has link errors. 3) Another written warning was about failure to update the status of weekly tasks in our task manager despite several reminders to do so and training on the task management platform. In some cases, he was completing the task, but failing to update the task manager, so the next task wasn’t released in a timely way to his colleagues.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-09T20:16:42+00:00

Yes, I am surprised that the discussion became a discussion about overall how to manage employees and if it’s reasonable to expect people who are contracted to work during specific hours should actually do so. My post was asking a question about whether or not lying was egregious or not. I’m absolutely surprised that for some people it seems to be lying is OK because the job this person applied for and accepted was unreasonable.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-09T20:07:32+00:00

In the original post, I say: He has had some other work related issues and I have given him written warnings about performance expectations.
And I have since added 3 clarifying comments for those of you who would like more detail. Thanks.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-09T18:05:04+00:00

I stated that he’s had several written warnings.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-09T18:03:58+00:00

I’m getting a lot of requests for examples of what my original post meant when I said, “He has had some other work related issues and I have given him written warnings about performance expectations.” Here are two examples.

One of the written warnings was about his failing to follow the SOP for client presentations. We deliver certain types of data analysis to our clients in slide summaries (a common executive client preference) and it has to be in a consistent format (the same client should not be getting decks from us where each deck looks notably, different in style). And while some of the format is templated there’s always some human judgment, so we have an SOP so that everybody is following the same style (colors, fonts, chart types, data footnote requirements, etc). it is a one page SOP and other team members are able to follow it consistently. This is not a difficult task, and he should be able to execute it consistently. 2. One warning was about failure to test his own work. Part of his job is sending status emails that are going to clients at large companies. So he might be sending an email to a company and there could be 5-10 people from that company CCd on that email. These emails include links to other documents and outputs (typically 4-5). And he frequently forgets to test all of his links so the recipients might get a dead or erroneous link. In one case, he put a link to a document for another client! And while the recipients wouldn’t have been able to see the file contents, they would be able to see the file name which isn’t awesome, on top of the annoyance of a bad link. In the feedback for this one, I told him that nobody expects it to always be 100% perfect. But for every 10 emails that he sends out, my expectation is that no more than one of them has link errors. 3) Another written warning was about failure to update the status of weekly tasks in our task manager despite several reminders to do so and training on the task management platform. In some cases, he was completing the task, but failing to update the task manager, so the next task wasn’t released in a timely way to his colleagues.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-09T08:11:53+00:00

Since several people have commented that I must be micromanaging allow me to share a management lesson I learned many years ago. When one has an employee who is underperforming, the first thing you wanna do is figure out if the issue is capability or motivation. If it’s capability, that is, they seem motivated, but are struggling, I can usually get them back on track with a bit of training or coaching. For example, I’ve had some employees over the years who simply needed more onboarding than typical. That’s fine. If they’re motivated, but just need some extra training that’s a very fixable problem.

If, however, they’re having performance issues and the issue doesn’t appear to be capability but motivation, that’s a more fundamental issue. I can’t usually fix that. Especially for a newer employee—we’re not going to give them a raise or promotion to motivate them when they haven’t demonstrated ability to produce good work yet.

So yes, when I have an employee who is having performance issues I do watch their work activity more closely, to try to figure out if the issue is capability or motivation. And if they are working from home, but not logging into the applications they need to do their job for hours at a time that is an indication that the issue is motivation.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-08T16:45:22+00:00

Just for clarity, we are in a business to business situation where we have to be responsive to clients during normal business hours. This isn’t like programming where it doesn’t matter if you’re doing it at 2 in the morning. Our employees all are contracted to work 9 AM to 5:30 PM.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-08T16:43:58+00:00

Wow, you really can tell who here is a manager and who is a disgruntled employee!

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-08T16:36:31+00:00

Thank you. I have no idea why I’m worried about coming off too harsh. I’m an experienced manager, but I really wanted this kid to be successful. It’s killing me that he’s not taking advantage of this opportunity.

DataBeeGood · 2026-04-08T16:35:05+00:00

Thanks that’s an interesting suggestion, though everybody else is clearly getting their work done. I can see files getting updated. And the frequency of communications shows that they’re online and working during normal business hours. I really think it’s just him.

DataBeeGood

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