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How Introverts Hide Behind Technology
Tweet Share on Facebook May 28, 2010 Comment (13)For many introverts, the work pattern is less one of "ready, aim, fire" than it is "ready, aim, ready, aim, ready, aim," then pretend to "fire."
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8 Questions to Ask When Your Career Plans Get Derailed
Tweet Share on Facebook May 27, 2010 Comment (2)One of the things I have learned from watching people pursue passion in their career is how incredibly common it is for those efforts to get derailed at some point along the way. There are a bazillion reasons why people’s efforts run off track. Sometimes the path gets unexpectedly challenging. Other times the demands of other parts of life get in the way. Sometime fear kicks in and takes over. Often, it’s just hard to stay focused on it for the long term, and people’s attention and action start to wander.
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Why You Don't Have to Explain Your Time Off From Work
Tweet Share on Facebook May 27, 2010 Comment (1)In a letter to Evil HR Lady, a reader asks: "If our company has lumped all time off into PTO [Paid Time Off] time, do they have the right to ask why an employee wants it off? Since we do not get 'sick days,' should an employee have to tell that they were having medical tests done?"
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How to Take (Smart) Risks
Tweet Share on Facebook May 26, 2010 Comment (2)We strive to build lives for ourselves that are safe and secure, but the fact is that life itself is inherently risky. You can’t completely avoid risk. What’s more, sometimes taking a chance on something new is the smartest move. Moving to a new city, going back to school, changing careers, quitting your job to start your own business—these may be the best decisions we will ever make. Indeed, sticking with a so-called “secure” status quo can in the long run be riskier than taking an intelligent risk.
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6 Ways to Keep Your Employees From Jumping Ship
Tweet Share on Facebook May 25, 2010 Comment (2)With layoffs declining to a number lower than that of employees quitting, companies are going to have another issue to face in the coming years. This is especially true for companies that have taken advantage of the recessionary employment situation in the handling of their own employees.
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5 Reasons Employers Don't Tell Why They Didn't Hire You
Tweet Share on Facebook May 24, 2010 Comment (9)No one likes the form letters that employers use to deliver the news that you didn't get the job: They're impersonal, they don't have any real information about why you lost out, they say you were impressive when obviously you weren't impressive enough, and so forth. How are job-seekers supposed to become better candidates when these canned letters don't give them any useful feedback?
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Nobody Knows Anything
Tweet Share on Facebook May 21, 2010 CommentPeter Lynch, who made an extremely successful career out of picking the right investments, once advised, “Go for a business that any idiot can run because sooner or later, any idiot probably is going to run it.”
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How to Use Your Negative Thoughts for Good
Tweet Share on Facebook May 20, 2010 Comment (3)Wouldn’t it be great if you could just wave a magic wand and banish negative thoughts from your head? Most of us have more than our fair share of critical, pessimistic, or fearful thoughts banging around in our brains. Sometimes they’re merited. Often they aren’t.
But merited or not, when it comes to pursuing passion in our careers, habitual negativity can be toxic. At best it contributes nothing to our well-being. At worst it blocks us from even attempting to take any kind of action.
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Can an Average Employee Change a Dysfunctional Company?
Tweet Share on Facebook May 20, 2010 CommentDear Evil HR Lady,
This is an issue with my current employment. I have been with the company for 11 years, and we lose a lot of good programmers to other local firms who pay better. I've stayed with my employer because they have the better contracts, and in some ways, better opportunities to program. However, they don't have great professional development, and I am paid about $30,000 less per annum than I would likely get elsewhere. The company is hemorrhaging good programmers, and we have three vacancies in my team alone (out of 7 positions for programmers). Obviously, the working environment is becoming untenable. I am about to take 3 months long service leave and no one is replacing my key position. The positions are at best being dispersed among the few who remain.
And so, the question. Can I, a humble programmer with no managerial responsibility or authority, actually do anything to change the situation?
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Dear New Grad: 15 Tips on Choosing a Career
Tweet Share on Facebook May 19, 2010 Comment (2)A friend’s son, recently graduated from college, has just moved back home. Surely this is a scenario being played out all over North America and beyond.
The son’s next task is to get a job, of course, but he faces a familiar problem: He doesn’t know what he wants to do.
