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Category: People Skills

Can’t everyone just get along?

Defuse a stressed-out, tense workplace with simple, morale-boosting celebrations. Examples: To celebrate National Pie Day (Jan. 23), get pies for the office. For Make a Difference Day (the fourth Saturday in October), challenge each employee to do one thing for a co-worker.

Salaries dip, but there’s hope

Projected starting salaries for administrative professionals could see a decrease by an average of 2.2% in 2010. The good news: If you’re good at adapting to unexpected situations and able to quickly learn new skills, you’re the sort of person who will still thrive.

Reversing the toll of rudeness

More than 90% of the 3,000 employees surveyed by the Marshall School of Business said they had experienced incivility on the job. Of those, 50% said they had lost work time worrying about the incident; 50% considered changing jobs to avoid a recurrence; 25% cut back their efforts on the job. The remedy?

Work around the office manipulator

Question: “I’m not sure whether to trust one of my co-workers. ‘Amy’ is helpful and considerate to me. She provides useful information and makes friendly, encouraging comments. However, some co-workers say Amy stabs people in the back because she wants to climb the corporate ladder. If Amy really is a skillful manipulator, how do I avoid being hurt by her tactics, especially when management thinks so highly of her?”

Partnering with a micromanaging boss

When a control-freak boss monitors your every move, you and your co-workers may be tempted to rebel. Instead, don’t let your annoyance show. “Getting visibly irritated when he leans on you will only make him think he needs to keep an even closer eye on you,” says Albert J. Bernstein, a clinical psychologist and author of Am I The Only Sane One Working Here? Here are more strategies:

Dazzle them with teamwork

Cyclists at this year’s Tour de France proved you don’t have to be the “leader” to dazzle people with your leadership skills. Teammates on one team acted like leaders when they helped propel one of their fellow cyclists to win six stages of the race.