Welcome to the World of Sleep Disorders Not everybody is cut out for the 9-to-5 workaday world.Mounting evidence demonstrates half a million Americans have biological reasons for needing to work alternative shifts. In this fourth story (read Part I, Part II, and Part III here) about delayed sleep phase syndrome (also DSPS, or delayed sleep), you’ll meet Julie Peggar, an ethnographer who suffers from this type of circadian rhythm disorder. Peggar, the president and chief storyteller at Gaze Ethnographic Consulting, Inc., shares insights from her world as a highly functional night owl w... view article details

Be Prepared You definitely don’t want to get caught speechless in an interview if you are surprised by a tough question. Prepare yourself by developing possible responses before you are in the interview, and you’ll amaze the hiring manager with your ability to remain poised under pressure.Sticky topics can range from awkward questions about your career choices and uncomfortable personal issues that approach the limits of legal interview topics to hypothetical questions about challenging office politics.Review the questions below to see how you might respond and then consider the sugge... view article details

Can You Learn from Your Cell? Back in the dark ages when cells were molecular and phones were for spoken communication, it may not have been simple but it was predictably segmented. Tasks were sequential, not simultaneous. People could disappear for minutes at a time and emails could languish undetected for whole afternoons when a recipient was off grid. Smartphone technology created expectations for increased and untethered productivity, because they allow us to engage in extreme multi-tasking. But, how well do you do it? Is your smartphone-ish office efficiency truly effective?Find ... view article details

Avoid Them at All Costs You’re presented with a choice by your employer. You can work at home, where you may be distracted by children, laundry, dogs barking or the neighbor cutting his grass. Or you can work at the corporate office in that most glorious of settings - the cubicle.Invented in the 1960s by Robert Propst, the idea was to give individual workers an autonomous workspace. The reality? Well, that’s something very different.There are few things that evoke fear in the hearts and minds of workers like those geometrically-connected, modular desk units that are the model of offic... view article details

What are the Most Stressful Jobs in America? “My job is SO stressful!” Most people think they have the most stressful job – that’s only natural. And without a doubt, almost every job has unique brands of stress. But let’s face it, there are some jobs that are just way more taxing than others. What are the most stressful jobs? We did a bunch of research on stressful occupations and there are tons of opinions. Many publications publish annual lists on the topic, and some even reach out to experts who examine factors such as hours, working conditions, and consequences of mistakes. We examined... view article details

5 things you need to know about employment background checks Nowadays, Human Resource departments are facing a series of risks caused by carelessness. This is simply because some candidates are not reliable enough to take a position within the hiring organization. With senior management often spread thin, promoting the company's interests can become less evident. This can run the risk of people leaving the company to form their own, similar company – providing them higher salary and personal gain. So employment background check is an important step before salary negotiation.... view article details

Is This Scenario Familiar? Don stood by, riveted by the wreckage. 'It’s a burning platform, Jim.''We’ve gotta make hay, Don! Why weren’t we leveraged for this?'Grimly, the two office warriors surveyed the damage laid out in grids on a six-page spreadsheet. 'No warning, Jim. Last week we were talking foursomes and fourth quarter. At this juncture, he’s out-of-pocket for the long haul.'Excel-shocked, the two men stared down a bleak future in utter silence, until inspiration struck. 'Better bring Diane in for this. She can handle it.' Don shrugged, 'Sounds like a plan.'Jim smiled. 'Wanna... view article details

How to Prevent Coronavirus when Shopping in a Supermarket? Coronavirus is spreading all over the world. Some office workers have started to work from home, while some people still have to go out to work. Either way, everyone has to eat, and most people still frequent the supermarket for food. 1. Avoid direct contact with objects and others When shopping for vegetables, fruits, and meat products, using disposable gloves can help prevent direct contact with possible fomites until the actual product or packaging can be washed. Bringing personal shopping bags w... view article details

Think Ahead While there are no ways to guarantee that a negotiation will succeed, there’s one way that will pretty much ensure that a negotiation will fail, and that’s to go in without any kind of plan.Common errors include entering a negotiation without doing research of your value on the market, not role-playing the conversation in advance to make sure your selling points are on target (and preparing for pushback on those selling points), and the least effective technique: barging into your boss’ office randomly and deciding to demand a raise or promotion.I recently came across a ve... view article details

This Job is a Blast! Everything’s been planned, down to the tiniest detail. Sketched. Built. Tested. Tested again. Cameras roll…"Fire in the hole!" You turn a key, sending an electric current from a briefcase containing a battery to the explosive device, and then…KABOOM! A cheer goes up from the crew. The place: the set of an upcoming action movie. You: the pyrotechnician, a highly trained expert in the art of explosives technologies. In short, the guy who blows things up for a living. Okay, so it isn’t a Wile E. Coyote box of TNT with a two-mile fuse, but what kid doesn’t love playing with fi... view article details