Skip to content

Category: Career

8 morale boosters to try now

Workplace budgets remain tight, yet recession-weary employees are more in need of morale boosters than ever. Now’s the time to use a little creativity to reward workers. Here are a few ideas from Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, whose advice appears on a Harvard Business Review blog:

Train your middle-age brain

If you often find yourself chalking up things to a “senior moment,” it may be time to train your aging brain. Scientists have confirmed that brains continue to grow through and beyond middle age. The trick is finding ways to keep brain connections in good condition and to grow more of them.

1-Minute Strategies: Feb. ’10

Remain contactable by creating a Google Profile … Ask or you won’t get it … Pose targeted questions about the specific behaviors that you want feedback on … Volunteer if you want to feel better about your life … Eliminate everything from the web page you’re reading, except the text and photos, with Readability.

Office bandits stealing your best ideas?

There’s a common type of workplace theft, and it has nothing to do with missing office supplies, reports a recent OfficeTeam survey. Nearly one in three employees interviewed said that a co-worker has taken credit for their idea. “Being proactive in sharing your vision with your manager and colleagues early on can help ensure others know the concept originated with you,” says Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam.

Weighing your career

Could an oversized waistline put your future career at risk? Career columnist Anita Bruzzese says, “If you’re carrying too much weight—enough to be considered overweight or obese—then you’re a concern to employers.”

More sleep = better decisions

Get your sleep or watch your decision-making skills decline. That’s the advice from Duke University researchers who studied people denied sleep for 24 hours and found that their decision-making capabilities declined in critical ways.

Business etiquette: after the job interview

Question: I know that applicants should send a thank-you note after a job interview, so I normally fax a letter within one or two days. However, I have some questions about the process. When I’m interviewed by several people, should I include all the names on one letter or send an individual note to each person? If I send separate letters, can they all have the same wording or should each one be different? — Puzzled

Workplace styles of the sexes

Do women have to be better than men to succeed in the workplace? Nearly half (45%) of all working women answered “yes” in a survey by Cisco and Gender IQ. Only 26% of men agreed with the statement. Other findings: