Is Your Boss Endangering Your Career Advancement?

There are good bosses and bad bosses, but sometimes you’re not so lucky. Your boss is a key figure in your career advancement so, like it or not, he or she will play a major role in your life. What happens if your boss is far from ideal? How do you deal with him or her? The Five “Bad” Bosses…

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2018 Career Goals

New Year’s Resolutions to Skyrocket Your Career in 2018

Writing a New Year’s Resolution is easy, especially if you’re not happy at work. Your resolution could be to get a new job, get a raise, or make it through a week without complaining about your boss. You have plenty of ideas about the things you want to improve. Setting a resolution isn’t so easy and straightforward when things are…

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Alert! Don’t Fall for these 3 Ego Traps that can Ruin Your Executive Career

You’re on top of your game. You’re the boss and you have a corner office to prove it. Yes, it definitely took a lot of hard work to get to where you are now, but what got you to the top may not be enough to keep you in this position. Being the boss can make anyone prone to a…

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Unexpected Succession Planning: What to Do if a Key Executive Unexpectedly Quits

You may not be the CEO yet. But as a company executive, an executive’s unexpected resignation, termination, or even absence is cause for alarm. Best case scenario, you may be chosen by the board to serve as interim CEO or executive. On the flip side, you may lose your job or the company may go down in the dumps as…

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How to Build a Strong Alliance of Supporters at Work

One of the secrets of succeeding in the workplace is building strong alliances. No matter how seemingly good and experienced you are, or even if you hold a top position in an organization, time will come that you’ll need someone else’s help. This is where building alliances comes in handy. Successful employees work hard to build themselves a network of…

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When Office Friends Turn into Liabilities

In general, making friends at work make Monday mornings more bearable and over time work a little less stressful. Having friends at work can make an otherwise stressful environment enjoyable, but things can also go sour under different circumstances. In light of International Friendship Day on July 30, we look at the different situations where office friends can become a…

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How to be a Good Neighbor in an Open Office

So you have a new job – congratulations! It’s bound to be filled with all kinds of new challenges and tests – not the least of which is learning to get along with your new colleagues. This is not something to be taken lightly. How you get along with people will affect your social life and work performance at your…

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Do’s and Don’ts to Survive ‘Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day’

It’s not designed to be the most productive day of the year work-wise – but the implications of ‘Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day’ go beyond the day. It could shape a child’s future career, or even a life. The purpose of ‘Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day’ is to expose kids to what their parent,…

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How to Make Work-Related Travel Less Miserable

Gone are the days when work meant punching the clock at an office at 9 AM and sitting in a cubicle or with fluorescent lights on until 5 PM. Today, with the economy gone global and many companies doing business with people around the world, most jobs will entail some form of travel. While some people will travel only once…

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Your Quick Guide to Surviving Holiday Work

Maybe you’re a newbie in your office, or maybe you just drew the short straw. Either way, you’re stuck working this coming Thanksgiving. It’s a done deal. Nobody will trade shifts with you – after all, who would want to? They are just breathing a sigh of relief that it’s not them – and it’s written in stone on the…

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How to Deal With Unethical Behavior in the Workplace

Workplaces are complicated. There isn’t a lot of black and white most of the time, so it’s normal for employees to deal with issues of ethics at some point. Whether they’re asked to do something they don’t think is quite right, against the general morals of the workplace or society at large, or hide something, the guilty feeling in the…

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Remembering the Importance of Work-life Balance after Labor Day

Recently, we celebrated the last long weekend of the summer. In honor of Labor Day, workers vacated their cubicles, turned on their out-of-office notifications and had a great BBQ with their friends and neighbors. Did you join in the fun? Did you take advantage of the R&R? Or did you hunker down at your desk to catch up or get…

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A Primer for Compassionately Dealing with the Emotions of Laid Off Employees

It’s the hardest part about being the boss – you will inevitably have to lay off one or more employees at one point in your career. If you haven’t had to do it before, you might wonder: Why is it so hard to lay off an employee? After all, it’s not your fault – you had no say in the…

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Introverts: Afraid of Mingling? Don’t Let That Impact Relationships with Co-Workers

There are all kinds of people in a workplace… Outspoken, gregarious types, and shy, timid types. And that’s OK, everyone is different. The problem with that is, even though we’ve moved beyond high school, popularity contests still exist in real life. People still gravitate towards others who are outgoing, friendly, outspoken, and give off high energy because they are exciting…

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Lessen the Guilt You Feel After Giving the Pink Slip to an Employee

Many managers have experienced it at one time or another; an employee just didn’t work out or fit into the workplace culture. But even when it’s the employee’s fault – a history of tardiness, no-call or no-show behavior, or performance issues at work – it’s hard to let go of someone. It’s hard, even with the knowledge that it is…

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Employee Recognition: How to Celebrate the Dad’s and Father Figures at Work

As a manager or supervisor at your workplace, you’re responsible for more than managing the workload, assigning duties, and giving feedback to your team. You’re also responsible, at least in part, for their well-being. Why? A happy staff member is a productive staff member, and one who will call in sick less often, take fewer personal days, and be more…

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Don’t Accept that Management Job UNTIL You Ask Yourself these Questions

For many people, getting a management role seems like the most obvious option in climbing their career ladder. While it’s true that nobody aspires to work at an entry-level job for the rest of their lives, the truth is that a leadership role isn’t for everyone. No, I don’t mean that you have to be born with it. Having a…

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4 Spot-On Strategies to Get Your Manager’s Trust

When it comes to your career, there are a number of factors that can influence how quickly you get ahead, or if you get ahead at all, but none are as crucial as your boss. Yes, your manager can control when you get promoted – and if you get promoted at all – what projects you take on, where and…

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Warning! 5 Signs You’re About to be Let Go

It’s every employee’s worst nightmare – being let go from a job that they don’t want to leave, or that they’re not ready to leave. Finding yourself without a job, with bills to pay and a family to support, is likely one of the most stressful things that could happen to you as an employee. Lately, with an uncertain job…

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How to Stop Beating Yourself up over Your Mistakes at Work

I found this interesting post on Reddit. Can you relate? “We were at a conference and I had to take notes and photos and write a report on it the following day, several people were speaking and at some point I got distracted with taking photos and forgot to take notes for one of the speakers except for one or…

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How to Conduct Your Own End of Year Business Review

It’s that time of the year again. Everyone is about to start planning their business goals for 2016. How about you? What are your business goals for 2016? Ramp up talent acquisition, restructure a department, cross-train employees, or close more sales? Hold your horses. Before you call the whole team for a brainstorming and planning session, you should first look…

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The Best Way to Handle Inappropriate Co-worker Behavior without Stooping Down to their Level

When a co-worker is unnecessarily mean, flirtatious, or inappropriate, it’s sometimes hard to know how to respond professionally. HOW you respond can literally mean your career. You don’t want to look like a stick-in-the-mud, but you also don’t want to feel uncomfortable at work. You don’t want to be seen as a complainer, but it’s just as important to stand…

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Career Stress

4 Ways to Celebrate Stress Awareness Month even if You’re Super Busy at Work

Have you heard? April is National Stress Awareness Month. Rightfully so, I think, because it’s also the deadline for filing taxes. I’m guessing a lot of you are stressed out right now. Have you ever felt that even just trying to relax is making you more stressed out? You’re busy and unnecessarily stressing yourself, even while you’re relaxing. You plan…

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ALERT: Read this if You Don’t Want to Ruin Your Reputation at the Office Party this Year

It’s that time of the year again! Parties and gatherings everywhere, which means another Holiday party at the office. Don’t think of this as a perfect opportunity to wine and dine, or flirt with that cute guy from accounting. It’s not your family or friends holiday reunion after all. Office Party Etiquette Guide 101 Don’t Bring a “Plus One,” Unless…

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Does Your Boss Secretly Hate You?

I was eating at a restaurant when I overheard this woman complaining about her boss to a friend. After ranting, her friend said, “Suck it up, you’re lucky to have a job.” After hearing this conversation, I realized that sometimes, no matter how nice and polite you are; your boss just doesn’t care. After all your effort, he can’t even…

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Is Texting Your Boss Professional?

I found this Wall Street Journal article by Lauren Weber, “Text From the Boss: U R Fired,” interesting on many levels. While I agree that firing via text message is hardly a trend, it does beg the question of how today’s new technologies may contribute to individuals compromising on professionalism. Is texting your boss professional? How about texting a person…

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Is it Okay to Ask for Help at Your Job?

You got the job and want to show them you can do it on your own – but now you see you’re going to  need a little help. Read about 6 ways to go about it and keep your dignity in Jenny Treanor’s LiveCareer article, “Ask for Help on the Job (Without Feeling Weak).”