What do you do when you think your 9-5 can’t possibly get any worse?  When your boss makes rude comments?  When you work hard and don’t get a raise?  When you can’t find your desk under the pile of papers colleagues keep delivering to your office?  When you feel like every “secret caller” is testing [...]

6:00 am:  I’m going to start the day early and get my entire “to do list” accomplished by 5pm!
6:30am:  I should really stop for coffee on my way to the office so I have energy to start the day.
7:00am:  Arrive at office … open inbox … wow 37 emails overnight!?!  I’ll start responding…maybe I’ll finish [...]

There are two schools of thought on whether or not you should be “friends” with your co-workers.
On one hand, you typically spend more time (at least while you’re AWAKE) with your colleagues at the office than you do with your family.  You work together, have lunch together, attend professional development seminars together, and get chewed [...]

Travelling to new cities.  Hotels with nice lobbies and king size beds.  Fancy meals.  Room service at the touch of a button.  Site seeing.  Enjoying drinks at an early happy hour … and with dinner … and a couple more later that night.  Music.  Dancing.  Staying up late.
This may sound like the beginning of your “to do list” [...]

In the economy today, it may be difficult to ask your boss for a raise … even if it’s well-deserved.  Even if you do have the opportunity to pitch a salary increase to your boss, and even if your boss sincerely wants to reward you with that raise, he or she may not be able [...]

What is one simple thing you can do each day at the office to help you sleep better at night?

Before you leave the office, spend 5-10 minutes to “O&P” (organize & prioritize)!

At the end of the day, it’s usually a little quieter and allows you a few minutes to spend time on O&P.  If not [...]

Imaging walking into your office in the morning … a calm start to your “9-5″ with a simple list of calls to return from the day before … marked with notes from your dedicated and detailed assistant regarding how urgent a call was, if it was someone important (to you), or if it was a [...]

Has your supervisor ever given you negative feedback that seems a bit … ironic?

He arrives at work just in time for lunch, but complains that you’re consistently tardy.
She books every “working lunch” at the most expensive restaurant, and accuses you of being careless with the budget.
He misspells words in every email, but [...]

I am in the middle of a ten-day vacation (I did not travel anywhere, but have guests in town, time off work, and feel great!)  I thought I would share some of the observations I’ve had in my first break from the so-called rat race of 2009.

I am not supposed to be exhausted.  Allowing myself [...]

Most advertisements focus on going from 0 to 60:  promoting everything from cars to energy supplements.  Wake up earlier!  Work out harder!  Lasting energy!
How do you reverse that?  Going from 60 to 0 … otherwise known as “flipping the switch off” after work and letting go of your work stress and office anxiety before you [...]