The Inside Job
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Get a Personality and Save Your Job
Continue reading… 0 CommentsSure, you might be efficient, effective, fluent in six languages, able to recite large chunks of the employee handbook, and never complain about the freezing cold or feverishly hot office thermostat settings.
But if you have no personality, you might get canned. MSNBC reports that in a tight economy, bosses tend to hang on to the people they like, while loners should "start sprucing up" their résumés.
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7 Surprising Facts About Salaries
Continue reading… 1 CommentWhat do gaming managers at casinos and flight attendants have in common? They are among the nation's most surprising six-figure jobs, according to Forbes, which compiled the list of occupations from Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Not all gaming managers and flight attendants make six figures. For example: "The top 10 percent of gaming managers, whose primary responsibilities are overseeing staff and catering to gamblers, earn $106,220 a year, while the average annual salary is $69,600," according to Forbes.
Using recent BLS data on average salaries by occupation, I offer my own list of surprises:
- Economists make less than mathematicians: $86,700 versus $90,930.
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Why Scott McClellan Is Like Dilbert
Continue reading… 28 CommentsUpdated on 05/28/08, 5:40 p.m.
Scott McClellan, once the voice of the nation's executive branch and spokesman for the leader of the free world, is just another powerless Dilbert with a lousy manager. That, according to Politico's report on McClellan's new book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception.
Most of us learn at a young age the rather pat phrase: "You're either part of the problem or part of the solution." But in a culture that has a fondness for gray areas and moral relativism, the phrase seems to have lost its applicability. In the workplace—and particularly in the case of McClellan, a former White House press secretary—we've come to prefer "pass the buck."
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The Office Survival Kit of Your Dreams
Continue reading… 0 CommentsThe website Lifehacker is asking, "What's in your office survival kit?" Michael Wade of Execupundit.com (and one of our stellar Outside Voices bloggers) says he packs raw almonds and a moleskine notebook. The post that started it all, at SimpleProductivityBlog.com, suggests a quick stain remover and a sewing kit, among other things.
The fact is, we can all survive with very few things: a working computer, a decent chair, a phone, a pen that dispenses ink. But many of our work-related frustrations are the same things our parents and our parents' parents encountered. We're frustrated by dueling assignments and troubled by the challenge of prioritizing. We're frustrated by the austerity of our workspaces, and we feel the anxiety rise as we work to the tune of our own worries.
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How Would You Fix the Airlines?
Continue reading… 15 CommentsIf you're a successful person, you're probably a problem solver—not just at work but elsewhere in your life. Maybe you'd stop and help a confused gaggle of tourists find their bus stop, or stoop to fix a shaky table at a restaurant. So what's your solution for American Airlines? Seriously. (I'm guessing that airline problems have already negatively affected your business travels and your work.)
Nobody—frequent travelers least of all—is happy to hear that the airline's parent, AMR Corp., is slashing flights, retiring planes, and about to start charging $15 for the first checked bag on some domestic flights. From yesterday's statement:
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Can Your Business Card Do That?
Continue reading… 1 CommentBusiness cards are most often basic. Sometimes they are attempts to be innovative in a way that can make eyes roll.
The website [Re]Encoded, however, has a fantastic gallery of card designs that are innovative and not the least bit cheesy: A landscape team prints its phone number on seed packets. A post-marriage counselor's card is ripped and taped back together. A chest physician's "cards" are printed on balloons.
It's creativity done right.
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Say Yes to Things That Scare You
Continue reading… 4 CommentsMany people I know suffer from an epidemic of busyness—a result of saying yes to many things and no to few.
I do not, however, belong in this camp. In fact, I say no to many things: No, I do not want to come to your party next weekend. No, I would rather not join your kickball team.
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Wives as Breadwinners Resent Husbands
Continue reading… 24 CommentsHere's some bad news for wives with high-paying gigs: A survey conducted by women's website BettyConfidential.com found that "most women in this role are simultaneously proud of themselves and resentful of their husbands."
The site's editor, Nicole Christie, notes that women who rake in more money than their husbands find it a blessing and a curse—causing "a gap between husband and wife that's difficult to bridge."
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Fill In the Blank
Continue reading… 1 CommentA book landed on my desk called Office 101: An Illustrated Guide. It's a compact picture book of office-isms (like "Don't get carried away on Casual Friday") accompanied by silly illustrative photographs (like an office worker with his mug of coffee, dressed in a carrot suit).
One of author Geoffrey Day-Lewis's office rules plays on Rudyard Kipling's poem "If":
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it's quite possible you haven't grasped the situation.
Another: "If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried."
Dear readers, what office-isms can you offer?
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Don't You Dare Get 'Sweetie' on Me
Continue reading… 22 CommentsQuestion: Is the term "sweetie" a great way to make an ambitious professional woman feel silly?
Sen. Barack Obama called a female journalist "sweetie" yesterday. The Democratic presidential candidate's use of the term of endearment for a TV reporter he didn't want to answer has sparked a little controversy.
But he's not the only man to be recently quoted as saying it. A quick news search shows that so did Ron Stone, a Houston anchorman who died recently. But Stone said it to a 5-year-old girl who was crying because she'd lost her front teeth.
