As the economy has gotten worse, I’ve noticed an upswing in the number of people asking me to work for free.  I don’t think these organizations quite understand that I make my living writing and speaking, so when I do these things for no pay, I don’t eat.  They rationalize that they are paying me in exposure – meaning that more people ...

My friend and radio show co-host Lindsey Pollak has a brand new blog over at Fast Company.  Her first, post, 5 Ways to Take More Control of Your Career, comes at a perfect time as we all sit in shock over the demise of long-established, powerful financial institutions Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch.    Many people who would ...

Every year, I get asked by one media outlet or another how to handle the office holiday party.  This year, I decided to share the advice I and others provided to the Wall Street Journal last weekend:   “We spend so much time communicating on Blackberries and e-mail, the office party is a rare opportunity to really meet the people who ...

Expense reports are a reality of employment in Corporate America that most people tend not to think too much about.  You spend money on behalf of your company and HR pays you back ASAP, right?    However, once you go to actually submit your first expense report for a new job, you may realize that reimbursement is more complicated ...

[ImageAttachment]   What is with all of these high-profile people shooting their mouths off?  First there was Mel Gibson, then Michael Richards, and now uber-publisher Judith Regan.  What do these three have in common?  They let their guards down in the heat of the moment, and are living to regret it big time as their racist ...

Last week, Yahoo! ran a piece about people in the public eye who made big professional strides and damaging missteps during 2006, and how we can learn from their experiences.  Here are some of my thoughts on the subject, some of which were included in the article.   Amelie Mauresmo, who won two tennis majors this year after years of ...

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 ...

This is the first in a four-part series on business ethics. Hope you find it helpful!   According to our friend Webster’s, ethics is defined as the study of what is right and what is wrong.  Similarly, an ethical issue requires a person to choose among actions that may be evaluated as right or wrong.  In some situations, it’s ...

[ImageAttachment] In my excitement to get this blog up and running, last week's posts were a tad on the verbose side - which brings up an important point. Most people in Corporate America have a very short attention span and are way too busy for their own good.  When writing business communications, don't underestimate the importance of ...

[ImageAttachment]   It doesn’t add up.  The workday has been roughly the same length of time – eight hours – since the early part of this century.  Today, though, we have access to a variety of technological advances designed to increase our productivity, from fancy schmancy office software to search engines that supply a ...