At first everything’s great. You talk all the time, set life goals together, exchange notes. One day you notice the conversations have gotten shorter, the notes less frequent. Calls go unanswered. Maybe you two aren’t such a great fit after all. The problem is, this person manages your life savings. 

We sat down recently with Erica Taylor, Golden 1 Vice President of Communications & Community Relations and last year’s Young Professional of the Year, to talk about the credit union’s efforts to attract and retain younger employees and customers.

Today’s jobs report confirms much of what we already know: Workers are finding employment at a steady but unspectacular rate, private-sector job creation is good but not great, hours worked are ever so slowly ticking up and wage increases are pretty much nonexistent.

It’s a funny thing, to hear the word “employed” in tandem with comic books, says Eben Burgoon, creator of the local comic B-Squad. He and Sean Sutter, lead artist on the project, explain that many artists and writers — even at the highest levels of comic book creation — often have to work for free or in trade. And as Burgoon points out, free beer and exposure don’t pay the rent.

Call it the tale of two turfs. In summer 2014, 27-year-old Benjamin Triffo wanted to do something about his dry, unattractive yard. He owns a four-bedroom, four-bath duplex in Elk Grove that he’d bought in 2011, and his sprinkler lines were broken. But with the state passing rules last July that would allow fines for overwatering, Triffo quickly figured out that replacing his system and re-sodding would be like attaching a drain line to his checkbook.

Last summer, Magpie Café in midtown Sacramento added a line on their customers’ checks. It gave them the option to tip the cooks separately from the servers. It gave diners what they universally say they want: more control.

Congratulations sub-par workers, even you can expect a bonus for a mediocre year of work.

If there is any advice businesses can glean from the often surprising research and real life stories about our oddly emotional connection to tipping, it’s this: Don’t mess if you don’t have to.

Think about it like a dating site, except members are looking for loans instead of love. The matchmaker is Magilla Loans, a free, anonymous search engine that helps small business owners to find loans directly from reputable banks across the country. 

While most workers don’t expect to get a little extra something from their bosses this year, many companies are, in fact, doling out holiday bonuses. Of 368 human resource professionals and executives surveyed in Bloomberg BNA’s annual Year End-Holiday Practices survey, 42 percent said that they planned to give end-of-year bonuses, with most employers opting for cash over gifts.