Skip to content

Year: 2014

A strong hand slap for a nosy co-worker

Q: “I work with a woman who is extremely nosy. ‘Shelly’ has read my email messages and looked at my cellphone to see who I am calling and texting. She has also tried to find out about medications that I am taking. Yesterday, I received roses at the office for my birthday, and Shelly actually opened the card to see who they were from. I want to do something about this invasion of privacy, but I don’t want to sound childish. What do you suggest?” Violated

Leading a team when you’re not the boss

Being part of a team of equals doesn’t mean individual members lack accountability to each other, Vertical­­­Response CEO Janine Popick writes. Popick offers these tips to help you get results from co-workers when you’re responsible for a shared outcome.

Looking for a document shredding firm?

Whether you have pallets of sensitive documents or just a few boxes you need destroyed, you may be considering using the services of a professional document shredding company. But do you know what to look for to get the best deal? Here are 10 pointers to guide you in the right direction.

Sign a birthday card like you mean it

Living the office life means you’re going to sign a lot of special occasion cards for fellow employees. You don’t have to be a standup comic or drive-by philosopher when the card is passed your way, but be aware that only signing “Best wishes” again and again does make it seem like you care not […]

Keep presentations to just 9 minutes

Research shows workers waste an average of more than 2½ hours a week in unnecessary meetings. The reason is Parkinson’s Law: the amount of time given for a task is the amount of time it will take. If given 30 minutes to give a presentation, it will take 30 minutes.

Does hard work pay off?

In a recent poll, adults were asked which of these statements they agreed with more: “Most people who want to get ahead can make it if they’re willing to work hard” or “Hard work and determination are no guarantee of success for most people”?

8 steps to learning a new skill

“In a fast-moving, competitive world, learning new skills is one of the keys to success. It’s not enough to be smart; you need to always be getting smarter,” says motivational psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorson. She and Joseph Weintraub, a professor of management and organizational behavior at Babson College, suggest a process to help make learning new things as easy as possible.

Waste no time in asking why you’ve been cut out of the loop

Q: “My team leader has started asking one of my co-workers to make changes to my projects. We are all software programmers, but we work on different products. Since I’m never told about these requests, the changes catch me off guard. When this started, I asked the team leader to keep me in the loop, but he hasn’t done that. How should I handle this?” Left Out