August 2007 - Posts

• Trigger Happy at the Entry Level

  One of my favorite career writers, Annie Fisher at Fortune , received the following e-mail from a reader: Dear Annie : I never expected to find myself asking you for advice, but I'm really stuck. I was an 'A' student in college and always found ways to Read More... Posted Friday, August 31, 2007 7:00 AM by AlexandraLevit | 1 Comments Filed under: Entry Level, Personal Development, Work, School, Plans, Hopes, Goals

• Premature Escalation

  This week, I was finishing up a project at the agency where I work part time. My colleague and I have been working closely with another internal team on this initiative since May, and fortunately, things have gone relatively smoothly. As the vice president Read More... Posted Wednesday, August 29, 2007 7:00 AM by AlexandraLevit | 3 Comments Filed under: Communication, Office Politics, People Skills, Project Management, Professionalism

• 3 Signs of a Miserable Job

  This week, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen over at the Time: Work in Progress blog talked to Pat Lencioni, author of the new book Three Signs of a Miserable Job . Here are the goods: The first is anonymity , which is the feeling that employees get when they realize Read More... Posted Monday, August 27, 2007 7:00 AM by AlexandraLevit | 1 Comments Filed under: Attitude & Motivation, Management, Reviews & Promotions, Troubleshooting, Plans, Hopes, Goals

• Weighing Two Offers: What Would YOU Do?

  One of my friends, Mike, who has been on the job market a while, faced a tough dilemma this week. He received two fairly attractive offers in the same geographic location and had to decide on one of them within a few days. Mike got Job Offer #1, which Read More... Posted Friday, August 24, 2007 7:00 AM by AlexandraLevit | 2 Comments Filed under: Job Hunting, Life Balance, Personal Development, Work, Plans, Hopes, Goals

• Career Changers Are Everywhere!

  I’m really interested in the topic of career change, so I was intrigued by this new study by Career Builder and Harris Interactive , which showed that fully one-third of employed workers are seeking a change. According to the survey, nearly three-quarters Read More... Posted Wednesday, August 22, 2007 7:00 AM by AlexandraLevit | 1 Comments Filed under: Career Change, Employment Trends, Job Hunting, News and Politics

• How to Respond to Racism at Work

  Penelope Trunk has an interesting post on responding to racist comments in a work situation, and she links over to a brilliant entry on the very useful blog, Race in the Workplace . The author, Carmen Van Kerckhove, is a consultant for New Demographic Read More... Posted Monday, August 20, 2007 7:00 AM by AlexandraLevit | 2 Comments Filed under: Best Practices, Ethics, HR Issues, Professionalism, Troubleshooting

• "Desk Rage" from "Work Weirdos"

  Patricia Kitchen at Newsday writes about a new phenomenon known as “desk rage.” Rising stress can lead to nervous tics and habits, often with the offender unaware, says Zachary Meyer, senior vice president with Ceridian LifeWorks , a Minneapolis-based Read More... Posted Friday, August 17, 2007 7:00 AM by AlexandraLevit | 0 Comments Filed under: Professionalism, Daily Life, Workplace Humor

• It Seems the Theme This Week is Respect

  I recently wrote a few career advice articles for Yahoo!, and on Friday one of them was on the home page. I’ve talked a bit with my colleague Penelope Trunk about the joys and perils of writing for Yahoo!, and the “spirited” conversations that take place Read More... Posted Wednesday, August 15, 2007 7:00 AM by AlexandraLevit | 0 Comments Filed under: Communication, Emotional Intelligence, People Skills, Blogging

• 5 Ways to Get Respect Despite Your Youth

  One of my favorite new blogs is Employee Evolution (check out my recent guest post over there!), and this week, contributor Chuck Westbrook (who has just started his own blog, I Hate Your Job ) has a great post on ways to get respect quickly despite your Read More... Posted Monday, August 13, 2007 7:00 AM by AlexandraLevit | 0 Comments Filed under: Entry Level, Communication, Ownership & Initiative, Personal Development, Productivity, Work

• Beware of Misplaced Frustration

  This week I was in San Francisco, and while I was there I took my grandmother to a hair salon that had just opened in her town. We’d made an appointment for 10:30, and we waited and waited until 10:45 and then 11:00 had come and gone. There was only one Read More... Posted Friday, August 10, 2007 7:00 AM by AlexandraLevit | 0 Comments Filed under: Communication, Emotional Intelligence, People Skills

• Why You Should Take Solicited Advice

  Many of us have friends and relatives who like to offer their advice on absolutely everything from home buying and child rearing to cell phones and wedding favors – without being asked. It’s these people who have caused us to naturally tune out anyone Read More... Posted Wednesday, August 08, 2007 7:00 AM by AlexandraLevit | 0 Comments Filed under: Communication, Mentoring, Project Management

• Should Chivalry Be Dead?

  Last weekend, my friend from Michigan was visiting us in Chicago. She works in finance, which is still an industry made up predominantly of men, and she asked me what I thought about the role of traditional chivalry in the modern workplace. My friend Read More... Posted Monday, August 06, 2007 7:00 PM by AlexandraLevit | 2 Comments Filed under: Current Affairs, HR Issues, Professionalism, Work

• It's All a Matter of Priorities

  Since you guys seemed to like my post on relationship laziness , I thought I’d do a follow up on prioritization. Have you ever noticed that people generally do what they want to do? Life is a matter of deciding what’s important, and then spending your Read More... Posted Saturday, August 04, 2007 7:00 AM by AlexandraLevit | 2 Comments Filed under: Life Balance, Productivity, Plans, Hopes, Goals

• If You Must Complain, Please Be Discreet

  Over at Slacker Manager (which has a bunch of great new authors), managers are discussing a post from Ask a Manager . One boss isn’t sure what to do about an employee complained about him on her blog. Says the boss in question: Last year, when she was Read More... Posted Wednesday, August 01, 2007 7:00 AM by AlexandraLevit | 0 Comments Filed under: Communication, Emotional Intelligence, HR Issues, Reviews & Promotions, Technology