“The Bridge: Connecting Science and Practice” is a TIP column that seeks to help facilitate additional learning and knowledge transfer in order to encourage sound, evidence- based practice. It can provide academics with an opportunity to discuss the potential and/or realized practical implications of their research as well as learn about cutting edge practice issues or questions that could inform new research programs or studies. For practitioners, it provides opportunities to learn about the latest research findings that could prompt new techniques, solutions, or services that would benefit the external client community. It also provides practitioners with an opportunity to highlight key practice issues, challenges, trends, and so forth that may benefit from additional research. In this issue, we profile CVS Health, winner of the 2017 HRM Impact Award for its implementation of an evidence-based, prehire screening assessment for call center job applicants.

But is the revolution, if you got one, the one you wanted or expected?

The hottest news is the #MeToo revolution. It is especially remarkable because it was not based in any new legal promulgation but by the rise of consensus that sexual harassment in the workplace really is unacceptable. EEOC can claim it was on the leading edge with its report on harassment, although, as the report acknowledges, there has been previous scholarship on the problem. In particular, that scholarship has highlighted ineffectual efforts to prevent the problem from occurring, not just responding when it happens. Getting control of a dysfunctional organizational culture, well within the I-O bailiwick, has been picked up by attorneys in the advice they give corporate clients. Some commentators have called for “big picture” strategy that seeks to deal with cultures that may support forms of discrimination other than harassment, such as pay inequity.

One might think that graduate students in I-O psychology would be quite adept at achieving work–life balance. After all, researchers in this field have studied the subject for over 30 years (Greenhaus & Allen, 2011)! Furthermore, many I-O graduate students read about the work–life interface in their coursework and study it for their theses, dissertations, and collaborative research projects. Of course, having a theoretical understanding of work–life balance is one thing, but knowing how to implement those principles successfully is something else entirely. In reality, achieving work–life balance is often a struggle for graduate students, given the rigorous and unstructured nature of graduate schoolwork. Graduate students often need to juggle a variety of ongoing assignments and duties (e.g., extensive course readings, independent research, teaching). As a result, they may struggle to put down their work, which can make it difficult for them to enjoy their leisure time and take care of household responsibilities.

Blockchain seems to be all the techno-rage these days.  It is the technology underlying the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and the many altcoins that have come after it, such as Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Ethereum.  Blockchain is poised to “disrupt” several industries, and consultancies like Deloitte claim that HR disruption is ahead.

To understand what might be disrupted and if I-O psychology should care, we need to dig a bit into what exactly blockchain is, what it does, and what potential it offers.  The best way to understand a technology is to recreate it yourself—think about how many years ago you learned ANOVA by creating a summary table by hand—so in this article, we will create a small blockchain using R to illustrate just how simple the basic concept is.  But first, let’s walk through it with words.

After focusing on nothing but researching and teaching since entering the tenure track, one of the fun pieces—I hope—posttenure will be figuring out how to shift my time around. Part of this shift will ideally be to regain a bit of work-life balance that has vanished since I started my PhD program 10 (!) years ago. I admit that this vanishing act was intentional, and I created it because I love my job, and that means work doesn’t always feel like “work.” However, I recently read this article by Katerina Bodovski on The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled “Why I Collapsed on the Job,” and many of the points hit home and fit with my own struggles that I have detailed here.