Excess Baggage

Your work day has not gone particularly well. It’s finally time to pack up to leave for home. You open your oversized messenger bag and start putting in all the annoyances and disappointments of the day. Into it goes that email from your co-worker saying she doesn’t have time to help you with that special project. And that message from your boss moving up a deadline. You add that frustrating exchange with a client, and that feeling of being left out when you saw two friends ... Read more

Leave a reply

Moody Judy and the Terrible Workplace

It’s extremely challenging—and all too common—to work in an environment where the tone is set on a daily basis by the boss’s mood. Most of us have been in work situations where we know when the best time to approach our supervisors is—when they are more likely to say yes, give helpful feedback, or respond positively. We also know when to stay away from them, tiptoe around their office, and remain invisible until they come out of their funk. We are all human and it’s impossible to expect ... Read more

Leave a reply

Are Self-Imposed Boundaries Imprisoning Your Career?

We are all subject to boundaries of many types—geographic boundaries, legal boundaries, various rules and regulations, and the boundaries of good taste. All of these are essential to a well-functioning society. There are other boundaries, though, that are not essential, nor even useful. Many of these are self-imposed. Think, for a moment, about personal boundaries you have erected for yourself. Do they help or hinder you? Do they have a positive effect, or are they limiting? Sometimes we ... Read more

Leave a reply

Trusting Your Career GPS

Travel has become easier since the availability of GPS systems. No longer do you have to spend time figuring out directions or trying to actually read a map. Just put in the address and away you go. When you begin a trip, you know the desired destination. It might be as simple as the closest drugstore or a cabin ten states away. Your GPS assesses traffic flow and fairly accurately determines your arrival time. You also are given step-by-step instructions and plenty of advanced warning when ... Read more

Leave a reply

Approaching the Point of No Return at Work

Today the phrase “Crossing the Rubicon'” is used in a variety of ways (think Jeep Rubicon, a popular car choice.) In case you have forgotten the historical origin, it refers to a choice made by Julius Caesar in 49 BC when he crossed the Rubicon River, a geographic boundary that he was forbidden by Roman law from bridging. Today we use the phrase to mean “a point of no return.” There are rubicons in our lives are formed by laws, rules, oaths, and promises. Our ... Read more

Leave a reply

Use or Lose

As the old year draws to a close, many employees are scrambling to use remaining vacation time. Perhaps you saved time especially for the holidays, or, maybe you didn’t take enough time off during the year. Now you find that you can only take so many days at one time, or that others have requested the dates before you. As a result, you simply aren’t going to be able to use all of your vacation days this year. Does it really matter? Almost all companies have policies about leave ... Read more

Leave a reply

Emoticons, Emoji, Women, and Work

I have always disliked “smiley faces.” They seem rather silly to me. The emoticon for a smiley face (colon, hyphen, parenthesis) has been around since 1982, and a huge industry using pictographic symbols (generally referred to as emoji) for electronic communication has grown tremendously since the late 90s. Currently, you can’t watch tv without seeing McDonald’s ads using “emoji” to highlight their change in menu. In the ads, everyone, men as well as ... Read more

Leave a reply

Reversing a Bad Decision

We do it all the time-—make a decision and then rethink it. Sometimes, we completely reverse it. Most decisions are personal and small. Will you go to your high school reunion? Will you join a gym? Will you spend vacation with your parents? Other decisions, such as buying a house or changing jobs, are bigger and can have a bigger impact. In the workplace, decisions carry their own consequences. Each day, you probably make many small decisions, most of them so routine that they are barely ... Read more

Leave a reply

What Can Google Tell Us About the Status of Women?

Ads for high-income jobs are shown more often to men than women. Arrest records are more likely to show up in searches for distinctively “black” sounding names. Predatory loans are marketing more heavily to low-income individuals. And apparently the highest-ranking female CEO is Barbie…as in the doll. At least that’s the conclusion one must draw from a quick Google search for CEO. After 26 pictures of predominantly white men portraying what the American public has concluded is the image of ... Read more

Leave a reply

Own It

Entrepreneurs are different from most of us. They are innovative risk-takers who prefer to start their own business rather than work for someone else’s organization. This may have been their ultimate goal as they obtained their education, or they may have arrived at the decision after working for someone else for a few years. Perhaps their family operated a business, and they were part of that endeavor while growing up. If so, they understand the dedication and time it takes to open ... Read more

Leave a reply