Office

Regardless of position or job role, scheduling meetings can seem like an overwhelming task given all the details and planning required. For anyone who schedules meeting, I recommend creating a generic checklist of all the things you need to do such as booking the room, arranging for refreshments, preparing handouts, etc. Each time you schedule [...]

The answer to this question really depends of the individual, their situation and their personal preference. I know some co-workers who never take work home with them and I know others who put in another six to eight hours of work when they get home.
I also grew up seeing both sides of the coin. My [...]

In every workplace, you are bound to find negativity. Unfortunately, negativity can be infectious and one negative person can bring down others around them. In such situations, you can counteract the negativity by remaining a positive force with the following tips:
Do not contribute to the negativity
Avoid listening to or participating in negative conversations. You may [...]

Speaking from experience, being a mom and holding down a full-time job is a challenge. For me, the challenge is in getting the routine tasks done, such as making lunches and dinners, doing laundry, cleaning the house, etc. It all comes down to planning and cooperation.
Over the years, I’ve adopted some great tips from other [...]

Some of us are not as intuitive as others. There can be warning signs all over the place and still we do not clue in to what is happening. Other times we choose to ignore warning signs, hoping that they will just pass.
When it comes to job security, there are certain warning signs that may [...]

The current market conditions have affected employee engagement in the workplace and managers are constantly looking for ways to keep their teams engaged. One such way is to ensure your team is kept up-to-date and knows what is going on, even when the news is bad. However, many people, managers that is, feel that bad [...]

When you receive a fax or envelope marked urgent, you usually open it immediately. Why? Simply because the word “Urgent” is an indicator that the contents require your attention. You can apply the same idea to email messages through the subject line. In doing so, you can help you co-workers manage their email because they [...]

Leaving the office to go on vacation should be relaxing. However, many people find it to be very stressful. Will poor decisions be made in your absence? If there is an operational breakdown, who will solve the problem? Is there a competent person to act in your capacity? Such concerns understandably make it difficult to [...]

Some people are born to complain and the constant complainers who walk around with black clouds over their heads. Now imagine having to work with someone who complained about everything, right down to the pens and the paper.
If you work with a constant complainer, there are ways of dealing with the situation. First of all, [...]

No one is perfect and we have all screwed-up at some point. Unfortunately, a workplace screw-up can be far more embarrassing and stressful than a personal screw-up. If you are in the midst of a workplace screw-up, here are a few tips you can use to get by:

First of all, if you do screw-up, just [...]

Employee negativity has risen drastically in the workplace over the past year because of the economic conditions. However, even before the economy took a turn for the worse, employee negativity was still common in the workplace.
Aside from the economic conditions, there are some common reasons behind employee negativity. Some of the most widespread causes of [...]

Three areas that have been identified soft skills that are important for people in the technology careers are writing skills, public speaking, and the ability to work within a team. It is important that people involved in technology training should remember that graduates will be required to complete reports that outline the information in a [...]

In recent years it has become more common for workers to have a few careers or to work at several different companies. In the current economy this will probably become more common. Fifty years ago your grandfather probably worked for the same company his whole career. But with the changing demands of the economy this [...]

In order to answer this question it is important to discuss the pros and cons of games on work computers. I can recall that when I first started to use a computer at work I had a solitaire game on it. We were told to use the game to practice using the mouse and increase [...]

There are many different ways that you can build your career network and you will need to decide which of these ways will work for you. One of the easiest ways to establish a career network is to join the professional organization that represents your field. For example, teachers have professional organizations that organize professional [...]

How often have you heard of someone who was hired for a great new position in the same field that you work in and you were not even aware the position was available? Or have you ever heard of a firm that recently hired a new director for a department and this director insists on [...]

Let’s assume that this is the first day of the first job you have ever had. How will you survive this first day on the job? Let’s also assume that you were clear about the job responsibilities from the job description and the interview process. Your task on the first day then will be to [...]

As we become busier in our lives with family, work, friends, and home chores, it becomes more difficult to maintain a work/life balance. It is important to remember that we have some control over our lives and often our own expectations lead us to make decisions that make us feel dissatisfied with our life/work balance [...]

The obvious answer is no. Most people would state emphatically that it is stressful and annoying to work with a project manager who micro-manages projects. Micro-managers are called ‘control freaks’ because they like to control and manipulate the work of others. However, remember the project manager will have to answer to management if the project [...]

My co-workers and I recently relocated to new office space. Unpacking my boxes got me thinking about how I was going to set up my desk space so that it was clean and organized. Given that I spend most of my day at my desk, I wanted to make sure it was both productive and [...]