Real-life Leaders, Their Shortcomings, and How They Overcame Them "A business owner has to realize that, as the saying goes, 'A skunk stinks from the head down,' and a business does too," writes Bill McBean in his book The Facts of Business Life. That’s why, McBean posits, behind every great leader is a successful business. But just because you’re sitting in the leader’s chair doesn’t mean you excel at managing and motivating a team. Plenty of highly-placed executives lack essential people skills, or worse, rule with a bully’s iron fist -- it’s their way or the highway, a la TV bosses Donald T... 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

Learn Which Hiring Red Flags to Spot During the Job Interview Process If you're a hiring manager or a small business owner who has gone through the hiring and job interview process, you know how difficult it can be finding the right person. Mainly because you first have to sort through all the wrong people. But how can you tell right from wrong? While there's no secret code or magic bullet to figure out the good from the bad, there are some general tricks and hints to point you in the right direction. And if you're a grizzled veteran of conducting job interviews, you probably already know some... view article details

Let’s get a few things straight from the start:My kids (ages 18, 16, 7) are the most important thing, along with my wife, in my life. I love them so much it hurtsI work damn hard to make a lot of moneyI really don't care what anyone else thinksIt has taken me decades to understand the importance of #3As 21st century fathers we are in a double bind. We are suppose to be providers, making tons of money, and yet at the same time be hands-on dads. If feminism was born out of the desire of women to leave home and be treated equally in the workplace, giving rise to the Super Woman phenomenon in whic... view article details

Vacationing for a Living When you're lying on the white sands of the Mexican Riviera, the stresses of the world seem a million miles away. Hey, snap out of it! This is no vacation - you have a deadline to meet! Therein lies the dilemma for travel writer and food critic Edie Jarolim. "I always loved traveling and always like to eat, but it never occurred to me that I could make money doing both of those things," Jarolim said. Now you can read her travel advice everywhere - in Arts and Antiques, in Brides, or in one of her three published books, including The Complete Idiot's Travel Guide to Me... view article details

Steer Clear of These Careers on the Verge of Extinction The Future Looks Grim For Some Occupations Remember those men who went door-to-door selling vacuums, encyclopedias and other wares? Today, they are thing of movies and memories. The simple fact of the matter is some careers are fleeting, and aren't good bets for the future. Whether made obsolete by innovation or invention, it's important to take what information we currently have an apply it to the future when making decisions that will have lasting impacts. With that in mind, here are six jobs and careers about to go the way of the do... view article details

Most people who find themselves surrounded by 40 tons of ice have likely endured an arctic expedition gone horribly wrong. But for ice sculptor Don Chapelle, that's the amount of ice he handles on a daily basis.Chapelle is the owner and sculptor behind Brilliant Ice Sculpture, New England's prime outlet for fine ice art. He tackles sculptures both large and small with expertise, passion and precision, which has led to his name being synonymous with the ice carving scene of Greater Boston and beyond.Though Chapelle has been sculpting for 33 years, it took some time for the craft to make him a p... view article details

Additional insights from the 2006 Stay at Home/Working Mom study include:Working moms get less sleep.Working Moms reported getting only 6.4 hours of sleep per night, versus 6.7 for the Stay at Home Moms.The study suggests that in a week, the extra 2 hours that the Working Moms devote to their two jobs results in 2 fewer hours of sleep.Working Moms and Stay at Home moms both spend roughly 4 hours per week nurturing the emotional needs of their kids in the “mom job” of psychologist. The big difference appears to be in the “mom job” of day care center teacher, with Stay at Home Moms reporting an ... view article details

Annoying Coworkers Make Office Life Miserable You know who they are.Maybe it was something as huge as taking all the credit for a game-changing business idea, or something as small as chewing gum too loudly at their desks. But whatever the reason, we all have coworkers we absolutely hate. And some of us are that coworker -- whether we realize it or not.It's inevitable really. After all, you can't spend 40 hours a week with the same people day in and day out, trapped together in a confined area and forced to share space and resources, without developing a little bit of acrimony from ti... view article details

Once upon a time good employees updated their job skills and advanced to the next career level with the regularity of Mario questing for Princess Peach.But then technology proliferated, and the well-read encyclopedia salesman, savvy VCR repairman and worldly travel agent either faded away or morphed into updated versions of their former selves.Are you prepared for an evolving work environment or, worse, job extinction? Don't be the Cro Magnon who creates trendy CD artwork in an MP3 world.Check out these jobs on the brink and remember,clever and creative are transferable skills -- if you're ada... view article details