While the number of people working from home has tripled in the past 15 years, it’s grown leaps and bounds in the past several weeks, at least temporarily. With the likes of Facebook, Google and Amazon encouraging at least some of their employees to work remotely during the coronavirus outbreak, supporting the social distancing recommended […]
No Vacation Nation The United States has been dubbed “No Vacation Nation” because we have no guaranteed paid leave written into our laws, and our standard amount of paid vacation is two weeks. And, in 2016, 54 percent of employees didn’t even use all of their paid time off, leaving 662 million vacation days on the […]
Thinking of making a career change or maybe tweaking your current one a bit? Maybe you’re considering going back to school or a little extra training to give your expertise an edge. Before you sign up for that online course or quit your day job, however, you might want to consider which way the job market […]
I have never liked calling people on the phone. So, imagine my chagrin when I found myself in an occupation that required an occasional phone conversation. I would put off these calls repeatedly for more important things, like picking lint off the carpet or lining up all the notebooks on my desk. We all have tasks […]
It’s easy to decide to pause your job search over the holiday season. You’re busy, you could use a break from it, and no one’s hiring anyway, right? Not exactly. Companies Are Hiring for the Holidays. Some companies find, with business slow around the holidays, they finally have time to screen candidates and interview people. […]
Rejection is never fun, whether we’re talking love or careers. But it’s a necessary part of the process at some point in most of our lives. And while it’s healthy to admit disappointment, people have an inborn tendency called “negativity bias” that causes them to over-focus on rejection. We spend hours overanalyzing what we did, said, […]
When your boss approaches you and asks you to take on an additional project, your first inclination might be to say “yes.” You want to be a team player, make a good impression, and show you are willing to work hard. But “yes” isn’t always the best response. Extra tasks, outside what you were initially […]
Stress. We talk about it a lot, usually as a negative thing. Too much stress, or the wrong kind, definitely hurts our health and happiness, but stress is also an essential part of who we are as humans. The phrase, That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, is based on scientific evidence. According to one study […]
The Changing Landscape of Vacation and Sick Leave Paid Time Off (PTO) Whether you’re an employee or employer, you may have noticed the age-old two-weeks vacation a year formula is no longer ubiquitous. A lot of companies are switching to a combined vacation time/sick leave PTO (paid time off) bank, in which all paid time […]
If you have kids, you’re counting down the days until summer break. The kids themselves are undoubtedly excited about sleeping late and keeping their own schedules for the next couple of months. You, on the other hand, may feel more ambivalent. Even for parents, summer vacation can be a nice respite from getting kids to school, […]