When Play Works
Why working harder sometimes means playing more
In the business world, we win some, and we lose some — it’s the nature of the game. Learning how to have fun within the process can result in a better outcome and keep managers and employees sane and engaged.
Dilemma of the Month: Are Perks and Benefits Negotiable With Salary?
There’s always someone in the office counting the number of vacation days each person takes, which makes extra paid vacation days a tricky thing to offer.
What Being a Leader Means to Me
We learn through life and career experiences — whether through our own experiences in a leadership role, or by watching others lead or watching them fail.
In Transition: Leaving a Career to Follow a Passion
Catherine la O’s Sacramento-based business blends yoga and body integration classes
Armed with airline miles and money, Catherine la O’ took a girlfriend to Costa Rica to relax — and soon realized she could not.
Dilemma of the Month: Using a Coworker’s Salary as Leverage
The National Labor Relations Act protects your right to discuss working conditions with your coworkers, and that includes salaries.
What If You Don’t Have a Pension?
Only about 13 percent of private-sector workers are covered by a pension, a dramatic fall from the peak of 46 percent in 1980.
Success by Design
Design thinking is one of the hottest workplace trends, but not everyone is a fan
Design thinking is embraced by leaders as a way to deal with the complex and competitive 21st-century workplace. But there are critics who say the process can be misunderstood or misused by those who don’t complete the required deep dives to arrive at new and profound solutions.
No Easy Fix
Changing an organization’s culture takes time and effort — and always starts at the top
Organizational culture is the values, beliefs and behaviors practiced in an organization formed over time because they are rewarded or punished by formal and informal rules, rituals and behaviors. Or, to oversimplify it, culture is “the way we do things around here.”
Dilemma of the Month: Employees Taking on New Work for Extra Pay
“Can full-time, permanent employees do freelance work for our California-based company if that work falls outside their job description?”
In Transition: From Hard Times to Healing
Mike Shaldone uses his own experience with alcoholism to help others
In 2003, Mike Shaldone was so broken down, he had to ask for help — admittedly, a practice not within his skill set, he says. He knew he needed to enter rehab to address his issues with alcoholism.