Developing a real friendship with your boss will always seem a little fraught. Too many complications (like them being able to tell you what to do) will prevent a mutual, balanced relationship. Still, building a connection with your manager can have many long-term career benefits. Even if your relationship remains strictly professional (you never talk…
The everyday process of going to work is hard enough. Getting up early. Fighting traffic or the crowds on public transportation. Standing in line for your morning coffee. Everything gets worse if you’ve got a Debbie Downer waiting for you once you get to work. The drudgery of a commute is quickly quashed if your…
It’s been an obsession of business writers for a least the past decade and a half: what to do about millennials? When they were teenagers, people fretted about how to market to them. Then, concern shifted to how to deal with them as new college graduates in the workplace. Now, with the older cohort of…
Five years ago, you were staring blankly at the front wall of your cubicle, lamenting another day sacrificed to a go-nowhere dead-end job. Now? Still staring blankly at the front wall of your cubicle, lamenting … well, you get the point. The problem? Five years ago, you didn’t make a plan to energize your career….
The direct financial cost of a bad hire can mount quickly. Start adding up the time and effort of the recruitment process, plus the onboarding and training for the short-lived employee. Throw in that person’s salary for the brief time they worked for you and it can really add up. As painful as the financial…
You feel like the company is moving on without you. You see exciting new projects coming up, but other teams get the lion’s share of the work. Opportunities that might become fast-tracks to promotions and recognition don’t even come on your radar anymore. In short, you feel useless. But you can’t just sit on the…
You hired them with high hopes. At first, everything was great. You predicted superstar status. However, over time, things have started to change. Output has slipped. Engagement is down. The days of volunteering for overtime are long gone. The team member you had once slated as a likely top performer hasn’t slipped to the bottom…
Your workweek probably breaks down a lot like this: Most of your time spent at work, with some small blocks of the day reserved for grooming, meals, getting to and from the office, and maybe a couple of sleepy hours in the evening for Netflix, Facebook and family. The weekends free up a little more…