Your Desk Speaks for You -- Even When You're Not There It speaks for you even when you're out of the office doing your thing to make the company wildly successful. Positive words? We hope. But it can also interrupt and speak out of turn, relaying completely unauthorized messages.Your desk. What does it say about you? Does it convey the message 'Respect the owner of this hallowed professional space?' or 'Attention: creativity in progress?' Or does it warn 'Caution: finding that file is going to take a while?'Your positive words & actions still speak loudest, but they'll have less impac... view article details

The proportion of older workers participating in the labor force is at an all-time high.The problem is, when this group of workers gets down-sized out of a job, they spend much longer looking for new employment than their younger colleagues. This article offers job search tips to help level the playing field and get older people re-employed as soon as possible.Tip 1: Cut years off your resume No matter what your age is, include only relevant experiences on your resume. Hiring managers don't want to wade through unrelated skills or positions to find why you're valuable to them.This als... view article details

Don't Become a Work Zombie Warning, this contains spoilers.Unfortunately for too many American workers, the feeling of being trapped for hours on end in a room full of undead souls from which there is seemingly no escape is an all-too-familiar sentiment. Perhaps that’s why millions of people have tuned in to AMC’s hit television show The Walking Dead.Although at first glance it doesn’t appear that a fictional TV show set in apocalyptic Georgia involving a small army of human survivors battling flesh-eating zombies has much to do with office life, a more thorough examination proves tha... view article details

Positive Conflict in the Workplace If everyone agreed all the time, there would be no reason to consider different perspectives or look for new ways to handle situations. The best ideas often emerge from the creative problem-solving process that has to occur to reach conflict resolution. Here are five benefits of conflict in the workplace: 1. As team members work through conflicts, they are able to make progress toward accomplishing goals that need to be reached. This is true in terms of project-specific goals, as well as the goal of becoming a stronger, more unified team. Team members ... view article details

Q: I am an accountant for a franchise owner and I am salaried. I understand that this means being exempt from the time clock, overtime, etc. There are times when I might work over the weekend or past the normal business day. My manager tells me there is no such thing as comp time and even that it is against the law to allow time off for extra time worked. This is the first I've heard of such nonsense.Are there laws on this subject for salaried employees? I've missed one day in the last six months, and I was docked a day's pay. How do you take away a day of earnings from someone who is salaried... view article details

Q: I am an HR professional who has had difficulty persuading managers to accept the HR team's job matching to salary surveys. How would you recommend I proceed to get them to buy into the results?A: For companies that have difficulty getting managers to buy into the process of job matching, it can be helpful to start by providing them with data. Ask your colleagues in the employment department how many offers of employment are rejected based on what your company can offer. And then find out how many employees leave the company for more money and/or better career opportunities. Then, armed with... view article details

Dear Annette,What is the best way for a new employee to remember the other employees' names? I will be starting a new job in a few weeks as the payroll manager so, of course, I have to get names down very quickly. I sometimes have a problem remembering names. Help! Guess WhoDear Guess Who,It's the sheer volume of people waiting inside the theater, not lack of confidence in the film, that makes a movie star's stomach flutter on the way to her premier.And so it is with a new job. You arrive, walk into the office, and notice that every coworker you meet has a nickname, first name, last name; some... view article details

Q:  Sometimes, as I arrive at a prospective employer's office for a first interview, the receptionist hands me an application that must be filled out before the HR manager interviews me. This protocol seems to take the focus of the interview away from my candidacy. I prefer not to disclose personal information such as salary history, age, Social Security Number, etc.before we've discussed my skills, my experience, and the benefits I can bring to the organization. How can I handle this situation tactfully without giving offense?A:  Organizations sometimes expect applicants to complete an applic... view article details

Dear Annette,My boss talks to other employees about employees. Is this an accepted practice? He claims to be quite educated in new management styles. However, I do not feel as though I should know that he is thinking about firing his secretary, also known as my coworker. Sincerely, Rather Not KnowDear Rather Not Know,Perhaps like me you recall the era when information was the currency of fabulousness. How much energy and time used to go into hiding and discovering secrets? How many Saturday and Sunday mornings has my dog Dickie spent sniffing around the back doors of my little Beverly Hills ne... view article details

North Dakota was the place to be in 2011, at least for people seeking work. The state ended last year much as it began: with the lowest unemployment rates in the country, according to numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to numbers released last week, the national, seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 8.3 percent. North Dakota, however, had a jobless rate of just 3.3 percent, down from 3.8 percent in December 2010, according to BLS data from December 2011 which focused on individual states. Two other states from the upper Midwest and a pair of New England states rou... view article details