Why You Should Bank on Taking It to the Bank When asking for a raise or promotion, many people ask the wrong way and ask for the wrong reasons.The wrong way to ask is to walk into your boss’ office and beg for a raise, demand a raise, or give an ultimatum. The wrong reasons to justify an increase are excuses like you need the money for rent, you heard that a friend of yours makes more than you, or you want to buy that new Jaguar convertible you saw on TV.In fact, if you’re like many Americans, even if you get that raise, you’ve already spent the additional money before it even clears ... view article details

How was your day at work today?Odds are, it was pretty routine. It doesn’t matter if you’re reading this on a Monday or Tuesday or Friday, chances are that you did mostly the same thing… answered a bunch of emails (that looked like the same emails you answered last week), went to some meetings, talked to your boss about that project, and maybe met with some clients. Routine.The problem with having a hamster-wheel routine, is that you look back in a few months or a few years and find that you’re stuck doing the same exact thing every single day.However, if you ask a mentor or an older professio... view article details

Like many sports fans, Shaun Wyman spends his days keeping up with news about teams, players and trades. But Wyman gets paid to be a sports fanatic.As a talent producer for the ESPN Radio Network, Wyman produces a national three-hour radio show and a weekly original podcast. He spends his days fielding emails, phone calls, and texts with sports agents, team PR people and athletes to coordinate interviews for guest appearances for the entire ESPN Radio Network. It's a fast-paced job that requires not only a love of sports, but also doing the non-stop work it takes to produce a national radio sh... view article details

When my wife and I began to gather receipts and other scraps of paper for our taxes this year, I called our long-time accountant with a routine request for an organizer to help us make sense of all the numbers. 'I already sent it to you,' the accountant hissed. But no matter how disorganized my wife and I may be, we knew we had not received that vital piece of mail.I called her back a few weeks later with a follow-up query. 'I don't really have time to handle individual tax returns this year. I've got all the business I need,' she snarled. 'I can't find any trained people to help me.'And so, w... view article details

There is always a temptation to over spend during the holidays. In light of the current economic situation it is more important than ever to avoid getting deeper in to debt in order to satisfy gift-giving obligations. Don't despair. Salary.com has put together a few ideas to help you shift your focus and have a happy holiday season.Develop a plan Decide ahead of time how much you can afford to spend and on whom you plan to spend it. By looking at your entire planned gift giving at once, you'll make better decisions once you get into the thick of holiday shopping. Once y... view article details

You Might Want to Avoid These Jobs Years ago, Bobby McFerrin told us all to “don’t worry, be happy.” Clearly he wasn’t working in one of the careers on this list.The work website Careerbliss has come out with a survey detailing which careers feature workers who are the unhappiest. After analyzing more than 25,000 independent company reviews, these 10 jobs are the ones which feature the largest amounts of employee discontent. In order to compile these rankings, CareerBliss data evaluates the key factors that affect work happiness including: bosses, support and incentives, growth opport... view article details

In the early evening on a recent Thursday, Kiran Arora, a consultant at the compensation firm Watson & Wyatt Worldwide, was getting ready to leave for the weekend. No, it wasn't a holiday or a long weekend. Her work week runs Mondays through Thursdays. Arora traded in that one extra day each week to spend time with her family and her children.In a 2000 poll of more than 3,500 company executives by recruiting firm Management Recruiters International, Inc., 61 percent of the participants believed the 9-to-5 workday will disappear in the next 10 years.According to a 1998 study by the Employment P... view article details

Survey Analyzes a Year's Worth of Tweets & Finds the 10 Most Hated Jobs Let the Hate Flow Through You If you hate your job and like to complain about it on social media, you’re probably a man living on the East Coast and working in retail. So says a recent study courtesy of Brandwatch and Monster, which analyzed more than 1 million tweets over the course of one year, from March 2014 to March 2015. Attention was paid to how many people tweeted about loving and hating their jobs, with states such as Hawaii, Oregon, and California ranking high on the “love my job” list, while workers in Florid... view article details

Look Beyond Salary & Benefits Before Accepting a New Job Evaluating the Intangibles You finally have the formal job offer in hand. But wait! Suddenly, out of nowhere, that long-shot interview you went on paid off. Now you've got not one, but two job offers in hand and you need to make a decision. Granted we're talking champagne problems here, but this is a decision that will affect you for years to come, so you'd better look at every aspect of both jobs and examine everything carefully. This will be your home away from home for the foreseeable future and a lot is riding on your decision. He... view article details

13 Best Business Books to Boost Business Acumen Think you need an MBA from a top school to gain business smarts? What follows is a list of the 13 best business books, some old, some new, to have you thinking like a top business major in no time. Even if your career isn't focused on business or entrepreneurship every employee can use tips and advice from business experts and thought-leaders to be a better worker. Check out these titles to boost your business acumen and possibly improve your life. 1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. C... view article details