NWjobs | NWautos | NWhomes | NWsource | Free Classifieds | seattletimes.com
NWjobs
Author Michelle Goodman serves up fresh tips and trends for attaining that crazy little thing called work/life balance.
November 4, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
Much of what's written about office gossip makes it sound as though no good can come from sharing juicy tidbits about those we work with. Earlier this week, an article in the Science section of the New York Times discussed a recent study that found that workplace gossip tends to be "overwhelmingly negative." So negative, in fact, that Times writer John Tierney suggested it rivaled the damaging teenage jabs seen on TV's "Gossip Girl." According to Tierney's article, the big difference between working adults and the petty, overprivileged teens seen on the...
November 1, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
Corporate theft is nothing new. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), U.S. employers lose 7 percent of their annual revenue to employee theft -- from inflated expense reports and abuse of corporate credit cards to out-and-out embezzling. Occupational fraud has certainly made headlines a lot this past year, from the Bernie Madoff crew to the guy accused of pocketing four-plus years of paychecks (totaling almost half a million dollars) from a company he never worked for. In fact, a recent ACFE survey of fraud experts found that the recession...
October 29, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
I've always been fairly ambivalent about office Halloween celebrations. One the plus side, any festivities your department has scheduled (haunted house, costume contest, orange-and-black cake, people bringing in their kids to treat or treat) can provide a nice distraction on an otherwise dull Friday. On the minus side, if you're trying to put a pressing project to bed before the weekend so the coming Monday isn't quite so miserable, you may not appreciate gathering round the jack-o'-lantern with your coworkers in superhero garb, especially if attendance is mandatory. On the web...
October 26, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
I know many of you are swapping your Seattle mayoral picks and your thoughts on I-1033 and Ref. 71 around the office water cooler. But how about on Facebook and Twitter where many of your officemates and customers lurk? When I've written about talking election politics at the office in years past, the expert advice has been to play it safe and stay mum. If you can't resist swapping election picks at work, the legal and career experts would warn, do so on a lunch or coffee break, steer clear...
October 25, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
With today's cost-cutting employers keeping close tabs on worker productivity, no one wants to look like they're operating at less than 200 percent. Of course all this goes out the window if your body throws you a curve ball. Suddenly, recovering from an accident, treating a life-threatening illness, or otherwise regaining your health becomes your primary concern. So how you tell your employer you have to spend the next eight weeks in the hospital recuperating? How do break the news that you won't be in on Fridays for the rest...
October 23, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
I was a cellular holdout for a long time. Like years. And while I maintain a landline and have been known to leave the house without my mobile phone on occasion, I can't imagine returning to the days of worrying about missing a client's urgent message should I step outside, or worse, trying to find a payphone if late or lost en route to an important business meeting. Apparently, however, there are still people unenchanted with the idea of being accessible anytime and anywhere. They're in the minority, but they're...
October 21, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
Ask anyone who's ever had a bad boss how much time they spend stewing about their supervisor each week and they'll likely answer, "Far more hours than I spend at work." It doesn't have to be this way, says Joe Takash, behavior strategist and author of "Results Through Relationships: Building Trust, Performance and Profit Through People." There is such a thing as training your boss (a.k.a. managing up). Whether you're an entry-level employee or a middle manager, forging a partnership with your boss can make the difference between a job...
October 16, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
Welcome to another Hallmark holiday, National Boss Day, which falls on October 16 each year. Rather than rushing out to buy their bosses greeting cards, flowers, or bottles of scotch, HR solutions provider Adecco Group suggests that many Americans may be silently stewing about their supervisors. According to a recent Adecco survey, 53 percent of workers think their boss is dishonest and 25 percent think their boss is lying to them about whether their job is secure. In fact, if they had any say in the matter, 28 percent of...
October 14, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
There's been a lot of talk of the "new normal" this recession has brought on -- workers spending less, saving more, and feeling far less certain they'll be able to retire as early as they'd hoped, if at all. Now the good folks at international staffing firm Randstad want us to know that one thing has not changed: the American worker's definition of the so-called perfect job. In a survey of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted this fall, Randstad found that 83 percent would not change their definition of the perfect job...
October 11, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
A lot, says Kate Lister, co-author with Tom Harnish of Undress for Success: The Naked Truth About Making Money at Home and principal researcher at the Telework Research Network. Aggregating the latest U.S. Census American Community Survey figures and data from more than a dozen studies, Lister developed something called the Telework Savings Calculator. This free online tool lets you calculate what you, your employer, city, county, congressional district, or state could save through telecommuting. "Only 4.1 percent of the U.S. workforce currently telecommutes the majority of the time, but 40...
