I don’t know how to hold a grudge.  I’ve never met anyone who has done something so terrible to me (killed or seriously hurt someone I love on purpose) that it warrants harboring an extremely negative opinion of them for months or years on end.  Even when a person does something that I consider rude, mean, or inconsiderate, my ...

We’ve spent some time on this blog discussing the warning signs that you may be in firing range at work, or that you’re unhappy in your current job situation.  This week, CNN.com has an interesting piece on ways we might unknowingly sabotage our own efforts at a successful career.  Among the highlights: Not keeping your skill set ...

Over at 45 Things, Anita Bruzzese talks about coping with a demotion at work.  I was particularly interested in this post, because while I frequently discuss how to overcome work setbacks in general, I’ve never focused on the specific issue of demotion.  Here’s what Anita has to say: Whatever the reason, being demoted is something no ...

A few days ago, I was scheduled to be on a local NPR radio show with one of my biggest and longstanding influencers, Bruce Tulgan.  For those of you who might not know, Bruce is internationally recognized as a leading expert on young people in the workplace and has his own consulting firm, Rainmaker Thinking, that has trained employees in ...

Corporate hierarchies are out.  Organizations are flatter than ever.  Entrepreneurialism is the new best practice.  The newest college grads are railing against the establishment, saying they don’t want to “pay their dues” in order to climb the corporate ladder rung by rung, and that they want to do meaningful work right away.  ...

The following is an e-mail that came my way this week.  Dear Alexandra: I graduated from college last year, so I’m still at the bottom of the totem pole at my company.  I have four senior colleagues who delegate work to me, and they have no problem doing so…all day long.  Trouble is, there aren’t enough hours in the day to do ...

[ImageAttachment] A topic that’s been coming up a lot in my discussions with twenty and thirty-something employees is empowerment.  Today’s younger workers want to come into a job and have the autonomy to take hold of projects and run with them self-sufficiently.  However, their baby boomer managers, more often than not, hold them back ...

I still remember the day six months ago when a good friend of mine called me up to tell me about this new junior-level employee she wanted to hire.  I had never heard my friend, the director of the tourism division at a global advertising agency, sound this jazzed about a potential new employee.    Apparently, at twenty-four, the ...