Career Center | Jerks at work: a field guide for spotting and defending against them

By Rex Huppke / Chicago Tribune Imagine the workplace as a forest. We walk through the forest each day surrounded by creatures (co-workers). Some are kind, like squirrels and deer and animated talking bears. Others, like snakes and snarling wolves

Career Center | Q&A: Change office layout to improve employee morale

By Marie G. McIntyre / McClatchy-Tribune News Service Q: Our department's physical layout has created a lot of problems. My employees work in a completely open area without cubicles or dividers. There are no enclosed spaces where we can talk

Career Center | To curb workplace violence, employers should plan

By Gabrielle Banks / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Schaun D. Henry was leading an onsite training session on violence prevention in the workplace when a stranger barged into the room, headed straight for him and threatened: "I have a gun." The participants

Career Center | Q&A: Chatty co-workers are getting on my nerves

By Marie G. McIntyre / McClatchy-Tribune News Service Q: I am constantly distracted by people chatting near my desk. My cubicle sits next to a hallway, so there is an endless stream of employees passing by all day long. For

Career Center | 2012's workplace trends loom large for 2013

By Cindy Krischer Goodman / The Miami Herald As the country recovers from a recession, our workplaces are moving forward in new ways with new rules. Changes are afoot from how our offices look to who runs them and what

Career Center Blog | Balancing holiday cheer and your career

"Now that it's December, I can't wait to decorate my cubicle!" exclaimed a friend while we sipped coffee. Our other friend rolled her eyes, shook her head and groaned, "That's exactly why I hate the holidays at work -- people

Career Center Blog | Get out of that cow-print robe: Top 10 tips for working well from home

I hear it all the time from people I know who either work from home or want to: "It's so great to be able to just roll out of bed and go right to work in your pajamas." Um, no,

Career Center | Q&A: Co-worker can't stomach noises from office mate

By Marie G. McIntyre / McClatchy-Tribune News Service Q: I share an office with a woman who makes all kinds of irritating noises. She is constantly coughing, burping and clearing her throat. I have mentioned this problem in a nice

Career Center | Is your desk chair going to be the death of you?

By Karen Burkett / The Miami Herald When Citrix Systems redesigned its Fort Lauderdale, Fla., offices last fall, managers had a mission in mind: Kick-start creativity by getting employees to talk more and sit less. The new layout encourages workers

Career Center | Take a stand over wrong office chair

By Marie G. McIntyre / McClatchy-Tribune News Service Q: I am over six-and-a-half feet tall, yet I have the same size desk chair as my much shorter co-workers. Every day, I have pain in my neck, back and shoulders from

Career Center Blog | Sitting all day doesn't just make us fat, it can kill us

Sure, you sit at work most of the day. But you also exercise regularly, right? So naturally, you're not in any real danger from camping out at that desk. Right? Wrong. New research shows that being sedentary for eight or

Career Center | Shhh! We're trying to work here

By Linda Hughes / Special to NWjobs Phones ringing, copiers and printers chugging away, computer keyboards tapping all day, co-workers chatting about, well, anything — it all leads to distracting noise in the office. As open workspaces and cubicle farms

Career Center Blog | Drowning out the new office buzz

I read recently that the new buzzword in office design is "sound masking" -- the practice of making up for the poor acoustics and increasing "speech privacy" in new open-office floor plans. As office walls come down and more and

Career Center Blog | Summer work attire: flip-flops, tube tops and Speedos, oh my

With so much rain and gray all fall and winter, an early spate of sun and warmth is all we need around here to go a little crazy. You know what I mean: Shorts as soon as the temperature hits

Career Center | Co-worker's perfume a headache of a problem

By Marie G. McIntyre / McClatchy-Tribune News Service Q: A woman in my office wears so much perfume that you can still smell it after she passes by. Unfortunately, her cubicle is next to mine, and the constant odor gives

Career Center Blog | Spring cleaning will help revive home and office workspaces

The slog of winter came to a head for me a few weeks ago. Things pile up with the rain and the gray. On my desk, and in every room of the house (where I also work), stacks of papers

Career Center | Volunteer 'TC' Howard's labor of love

NAME: Terry “TC” Howard JOB: Volunteer, Museum of Flight Restoration Center, Paine Field ‘CUBICLE’ RAVE: This is the cockpit of the first Boeing 727, UAL 727, N7001U. We started full-time restoration in March 2004, installing the majority of flight equipment

Career Center | Vocational consultant Leslie Seeche's out-of-the-box cube

NAME: Leslie Seeche JOB: Right Livelihood vocational consultant, Lynnwood CUBICLE RAVE: “When is a cube not a cube? When it is ‘out of the box.’ I’ve used familiar objects such as a star, a mirror and the shell to reflect

Career Center Blog | Hey, boss, it's dark here: Bring on the Vitamin D

When I was a kid in grade school, a cart was wheeled from classroom to classroom every day. The cart carried two things deemed, by the powers that be, critically important for our developing bodies and minds: Milk and fluoride.

Career Center | Office pileup: Tackle that messy desk

By Michelle Archer / NWjobs It starts innocently enough. A piece of mail doesn’t get put away; a project is set aside; items you think you might need someday accumulate. Suddenly, your desk has disappeared. Or, if you’re Shoreline

Career Center | Frankly, some office restroom manners stink

By Rex Huppke / Chicago Tribune Every office has a bathroom, every non-robot worker has to use the bathroom, and sharing a bathroom with co-workers seems to be an almost universally unpleasant experience. My workplace bathroom advice, from a decidedly

Career Center | Ten bad work habits to leave behind

By Laura Frongillo / Salary.com In order to make room for the great new work habits you’re resolving to adopt in 2012, be sure to ring out any bad office practices. And, yes, procrastination is on the list, so reading

Career Center | Paralegal Verna Seal's workspace is fit for a president

EMPLOYEE: Verna Seal JOB: Paralegal, Garvey Schubert Barer, Seattle CUBICLE RAVE: "My office is a total and complete shrine to the Kennedy family. A few photos? Absolutely, but there's more! I have photographs, inaugural speeches, bobbleheads and my prized possessions

Career Center | Office harmony: Fix your workplace feng shui

By Dawn Dugan / Salary.com Whether you’re one of many workers in a row of cubicles or the CEO with the sweet corner digs, your workspace is the place where you are expected to create, inspire, come up with ideas