[Courtesy of Grantland Cartoons] There's something about an annoying co-worker that's like a Medieval form of torture. Unlike the persistent whistler in a department store, or the airline passenger seated next to you who insists on smacking her watermelon-scented bubblegum all the way from N...

If corporations were suitors, they would be the kind who would call at the last minute for dates, and show up  with tofu and tomato juice instead of chocolates and champagne. They'd give you just enough to sustain you for the night, but not enough to leave a pleasant impression, let alone ...

With the florescent lighting, and frequent references to "cutting the fat" from corporate operations, work at many companies these days is more reminiscent of a supermarket than an office. It sometimes feels as if company owners and investors are shopping at a large discount grocery store....

I’m writing this blog from Jury Room 1517 in Lower Manhattan.  As it required the threat of a monetary penalty and jail to get me here, it got me thinking about what it takes to get your employees to come to the office every day, and then what it takes to get them to work productively. ...

Thieves in the night is how most workforce managers I’ve observed run their layoffs. Even if the layoffs occur for no reason other than a corporate monetary shortage or restructuring, there is a pall of secrecy and shame that follows the departing employees. This shroud of silence, that’s ...

Who wouldn't want to be efficient and produce high-quality products and services?  It’s one of those idealistic goals, like exercising five days a week at dawn, cleaning the house before you leave each morning, or religiously staying within your personal budget, that’s hard to ar...

The middle is usually bad--as in the middle seat of an airplane, being placed in the "middle" of an argument, or being the middle child. There's an implication in all these scenarios of insufficient space and comfort, or being ignored in favor of those at the top and bottom. In the corpora...

"Performance Management" isn't my favorite term because it's too catch-all. It can mean anything from a bare bones employee appraisal process in which the goal is simply to determine if the worker should be promoted and/or receive a raise; stay where they are with or without a raise; or go...

More companies seem to be investing in their own 'cafes,' where workers can...do what?  Are they supposed to just get their coffee or hot chocolate and then flee back to the fortifications of their cubicles?  Is the whole cafe thing just for show so  your company looks good when busin...

As a well-documented, openly, unapologetically lazy person, I'm not a good judge of what can and can't be tolerated commuter-wise. I tried it (under duress) for a month while living in a suburb of NYC, and I can tell you the experience wasn't up to my standards. What?  You expect me to get up u...