Reaping the Benefits Every morning Jay Fox wakes up at 4:30 to tend his 20-acre farm. Cleaning chicken coops, tilling fields, and hand-weeding three large gardens can't wait for the sunrise. There's no snooze button and hardly any sick or vacation days when it comes to working with nature. "It's all seasonal work. What you do on the farm depends on the season," said Fox. "You can be doing anything from spreading manure to weeding a garden to baling hay depending on the time of the year." Although Fox works long hours practically every day, he gets to enjoy the many perks of tilling the beautif... view article details

Creatures of the Deep Two hundred miles out to sea, Tonie Chute checks that she is tethered securely to her research vessel and then goes to the deck's edge to help guide an 800-pound sampling net into the water. The net's fine mesh traps the tiny plankton, samples of which Chute and other marine biologists will analyze in the National Marine Fisheries Service laboratory back on shore as they investigate the effects of global warming on fish populations. . . "I chose this work because I wanted to be outside and get really dirty, something I try to remember when I'm cold and frightened," said C... view article details

Spin Doctor The flight leaves in an hour. One journalist is on the line while another is on hold. Red-eyed from lack of sleep, you put your reading glasses back on as an aide hands you the results of the latest poll. It's the life of communications consultant Michael Goldman, who has advised many of the Democratic presidential candidates of the last few decades. After years of serving politicians including Pres. Clinton, Sen. Bill Bradley, and Sen. Ted Kennedy, Goldman is rarely starstruck. Ironically, it's heroes from earlier in life who have provided Goldman the rare thrill on meeting for t... view article details

It is perhaps the most popular New Year's resolution, right up there with losing weight, quitting smoking and going back to school. And right now your current employees are attempting to upgrade to greener pasture. As the calendar turns to a new year, many people set their sights on job-hunting. But why? We've compiled a list of reasons for leaving a job below. A recent Salary.com survey, taken by more than 2,400 people, sheds some light on why employees leave and who will be job searching this January and why. See what you're up against as an employer and use this information to understand ... view article details

Figuring Out What You Want to Do Figuring out what you want to do and what you are good at is something we’re asked to do from the time we are little, and people start asking: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Most of us may have answered that question with a job or a title. And we never stop wondering if we got it right. Careers As Incremental Goals? The other day, I had a great conversation with someone who is building an app that helps you manage your career. I asked him to tell me about it. His story is worth understanding. “Careers,” he said, “are a combination of short term, ... view article details

If you had a dollar for every time you’ve heard or read that human beings spend too much time on social media, you might be able to afford back row tickets to Hamilton or even a fluffy pony. You know the routine: a jolt of self-esteem from folks you haven’t spoken to since high school because they liked your beach picture, an argument with total strangers in the comments of some politically-charged meme, or a laughing emoji for grumpy old man Wonkers who said something snarky about all those damn millennials. Put aside the tropes and consider this alarming data: teenagers spend an average of s... view article details

Ways to Gain Negotiating Leverage Even When the Salary is Fixed Is it fair for a company to offer a job with a non-negotiable salary? Sometimes life isn’t fair. This is especially true in the job market, where one person might quickly land their dream job and increase their salary by $10,000, while the next person might be unemployed for months, be forced to tap into their savings, before finally taking an unfulfilling job at a low salary. I recently came across the following question: “How fair is it for a company to offer a job with a non-negotiable salary? It is considered an entry-lev... view article details

Industries in the US Strongly Affected by Coronavirus A lot of industries are severely impacted by Coronavirus and this directly affects the employment market. By the end of April 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has reduced two-thirds of the industries. 30 percent of jobs that are used to bring salaries now face the dilemma of wage suspension. Wage suspension, or wage withheld, is the pause of paying wages to an employee for a period of time while the employee is still in the status of being hired by the company. Wage suspension happens when the employees make mistak... view article details

If You Want a Signing Bonus, Try a Little Honesty Negotiating, in and of itself, can often be difficult and unpleasant for many. But if your financial situation is dire and you desperately need money, it becomes even more tenuous. So what do you do when a company finally shows interest, but you need upfront cash for a variety of reasons? Should you just keep quiet and thank your lucky stars you have an offer, or is it reasonable to attempt to negotiate a signing bonus? Jack Chapman, our salary negotiation expert, fields this real-life question this week and comes up with an unexpected, yet sim... view article details

Women are far less likely than men to negotiate at work, which typically costs women more than half a million dollars in earnings over the course of their respective careers, according to Linda Babcock and Sara Lashever, authors of the book Women Don’t Ask.The authors conducted multiple studies that found women miss out by failing to negotiate salary, promotions and other advancement opportunities that men commonly and aggressively pursue. The reluctance of female employees to advocate for themselves is often the difference between climbing the career ladder at a healthy pace and not climbing ... view article details