Tuesday, 22 Jan 2013 | 11:48 AM ET
Paul Taylor | Stone | Getty Images
"How would you like a job where, when you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and eighteen thousand people boo?" — Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender, Jacques Plante
Imagine your next performance review — they're booing.
Management thinks you screwed up, big-time, so they're taking away half your pay. And they've got a report describing your mistakes — it's over 100 pages.
That's what happened recently to JPMorgan Chase's star CEO, Jamie Dimon.
Mistakes. Who doesn't hate making them?
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Thursday, 6 Dec 2012 | 10:10 AM ET
Thomas Schmidt | Stone | Getty Images
An engineer is dying to tell her boss: "STOP sending me so many emails!"
Ever try to reform your boss?
You know it's risky. Maybe your boss doesn't want to be changed. Maybe, if there's a problem, your boss thinks the problem is you.
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Wednesday, 28 Nov 2012 | 2:57 PM ET
Merce Bellera | E+ | Getty Images
No matter how many times people tell you not to drink too much and photocopy your butt at the office holiday party, some people just won't listen.
Here are some of the most outrageous things people have done at office parties, according to a survey of marketing and advertising executives by staffing firm The Creative Group:
"An employee threw his coworker in a lagoon!"
"A person rode naked on a ferris wheel."
"An employee dressed up as a wrestler."
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Tuesday, 20 Nov 2012 | 11:46 AM ET
Nick Dolding | Digital Vision | Getty Images
Feedback is like death -
1) You receive a 360 feedback report, describing what everyone at work really thinks about you.
Your first reaction: shock.
You see yourself one way, others another. That's the human condition.
I used to lead management workshops for a large consulting company, the Forum Corp, that included 360 feedback reports. Before distributing the feedback, we'd warn participants:
"You may not believe it's really your report," we'd say.
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Thursday, 15 Nov 2012 | 1:35 PM ET
Dieter Spears | Vetta | Getty Images
Workers confessed to professional-networking site LinkedIn what they always wanted to be when they grew up.
Of course, astronaut is on the list.
Here were the Top 5 dream jobs among the men, according to the survey from LinkedIn :
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Thursday, 15 Nov 2012 | 10:54 AM ET
Vincent Besnault | Stone | Getty Images
Many workers used to take their health benefits for granted but cutbacks or outright elimination of care has everyone white-knuckling those benefits – just try to pry our fingers off!
A new survey puts it all in perspective: Most people would rather spend a night in jail than lose their benefits.
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Friday, 19 Oct 2012 | 9:55 AM ET
Jamie Grill | Getty Images
On a 1-10 scale: how do you respond to problems? Try this technique.
Whenever there's an earthquake—there was one here a few days ago—the first thing you wonder is, "How bad was it on the Richter scale?"
I'm a big fan of the Richter scale, even though I don't really understand it. The scale goes from 1-10, but the smallest earthquake "that can be felt" (Webster's), only gets a 2.
If I were in an earthquake that could be felt and it only got a 2, I'd be extremely disappointed.
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Thursday, 11 Oct 2012 | 11:36 AM ET
Posted By: Allison Linn | TODAY, NBCNews.com
Forget face time, meetings and spending your nights and weekends in the office. There's a growing movement to dump the stereotypical signs that you're working hard in favor of actually working hard – and getting stuff done.
WB Digital | Ojo Images | Getty Images
Multitasking
"The majority of companies believe you have to be there from 9 to 6 or 8 to 5, " said Bob Pozen, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "But it really doesn't make sense to say a person who is in the office 40 hours a week is more productive than someone who is in the office 20 hours."
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Wednesday, 10 Oct 2012 | 10:20 AM ET
Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images
When Obama watched video of the debate, "he grimaced. 'It's worse than I thought' ran through his mind."
That was 2008. Obama had begun his run for president ("Game Change," John Heilemann, Mark Halperin).
Four years later, after his first debate with Mitt Romney , President Obama was probably thinking the same thing.
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Monday, 8 Oct 2012 | 4:02 PM ET
Napping has been endorsed by everyone from NASA to the NBA. Studies have shown it can boost your brainpower, improve performance, help with weight loss and even enhance your libido!
But as compelling as all that is who has time for a nap?
Enter the Ostrich Pillow , an invention out of a Madrid architecture and design studio that basically allows a human to do the equivalent of an ostrich putting their head in the sand in order to create a quiet space anywhere to nap from the office to an airport.
The product, which has been called everything from super cool (The next Web ) to the most ridiculous idea ever to get funded on Kickstarter (BusinessInsider.com ) was born from the fact that its creators themselves worked long hours, had peaks and troughs in productivity and creativity and learned that a nap could make a huge difference.
The product makes you laugh the minute you see it (hence the ridiculous description) and makes whoever is wearing it look like a hammerhead shark. The pillow slips over the nappers head, with a breathing hole around the face and two holes in the sides above the head to put your hands which makes sense when youre lying face down on the desk not so much when youre sitting upright at the airport.
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