If there's anything this pandemic has taught us, it's that going forward the perk most requested by job applicants may not be a robust salary and benefits package (which remains crucial, of course), but the flexibility to telecommute. Gone are the days where employees were perfectly content sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic to make it to a pointless 9 a.m. meeting that could have just as easily been handled via Microsoft Teams or Zoom.  If there's anyone who can attest to the misery of an agonizingly long commute, it's yours truly.  I work a mere 8.2 miles away from home, but my morning and evening commute during the school year runs anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour! (And if there's an accident, I flirt with an hour and a half.) Blame it on antiquated infrastructure and a city population bursting at the seams.  You can imagine what a wonderful respite working from home has been for people like myself who have to contend with clogged streets and jam-packed highw...

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." - Dolly Parton What Dolly is essentially saying is that nothing in life worth having comes easily.  You have to work for it, and that often includes having to put up with others' BS for a while. For example, you've had it up to here with your boss's toxic ways and have set a goal of bolting to another employer before year's end. However, to realize this plan, you'll have to continue enduring his nasty tantrums -- if you haven't already called him out on such behavior -- until you find a new job, as the food has to be put on the table and the rent isn't going to pay itself.  Or perhaps you're reeling from the fallout of a terrible breakup. Life may seem bleak today -- especially after having to pull the plug on a relationship you once envisioned lasting your whole life.  But rest assured that the day you find yourself with someone far better th...

I've gone to more job interviews than I can count with my hands and toes. Over the years, I've observed signals conveying that the interviewer isn't sufficiently interested in me as a candidate, whether it's because they've already chosen an internal candidate for the job, feel I'm asking for too much money, or think I lack job experience. Such signs may include wrapping up the interview quickly. For example, I was once invited to an interview for a job with my alma mater. It lasted a whopping five minutes, leading me to assume that job had someone else's name on it and they were just going through the motions to conform to hiring regulations. It's also not a good sign when I'm not asked any questions, when the interviewer arrives late/doesn't seem prepared for the interview, or when they're blatantly rude or disrespectful. Employers who are genuinely interested in you don't stoop to this level; they care about the impression th...

I've noticed that many employers couldn't care less about your educational background these days. I've gone to myriad interviews thus far in my career. From what I can remember, only one has ever commented on or raised questions about my degree. I wouldn't be surprised if many crafty people who don't hold a bachelor's degree fudge their resumes to include one and end up getting away with it. Large, structured organizations (e.g., Fortune 500 companies, the federal government, etc.) are more likely to conduct background checks to verify that you earned one, but many small businesses and start-ups that watch every penny don't bother. Everyone and his brother has a bachelor's degree, which is why many people say the bachelor's degree is the new high school diploma. In general, job seekers need to rely on more than the degree to set themselves apart. Indeed, recruiters tend to zero in on two particular things that they see as being far more valu...

The notion that there's a perfect job out there for everyone is, in a word, absurd. Sure, there are jobs that would suit us far better than others, but that in no way means they're perfect in every way. There's always at least one thing about every job that we wish we could change. Many employees can't stand their boss or at least one fellow coworker. Others are paid poorly, work ridiculous hours, have a nightmare of a commute to contend with each day, or just don't feel inspired or challenged anymore. If work were perfect, we really wouldn't be able to call it work, would we? It'd be more like a hobby. Like everything else in life, work is a definite trade-off: we give an employer our time in exchange for money with which we support ourselves and our families. As part of the deal, we consent to adhering to the employer's policies and working with other employees to advance the company's mission and meet or exceed its goals. However, at...

I went to the doctor's office today for a follow-up. While there, I couldn't help but notice how chaotic the environment was. All three ladies at reception seemed to be tending to three things at once, leaving me to wonder when I was finally going to be attended. We try to adjust our working style and personality  to fit the nature and pressures of our job, sometimes with no success. Some of us work in fast-paced environments where having to meet multiple deadlines within a short time frame is par for the course. Others might work in, say, a government agency where the tempo is much slower, people have the breathing room to tackle one thing at a time, and projects might take weeks if not months to be finalized. I find myself in the latter camp. While my job tends to get boring sometimes because of endless red tape slowing things to a crawl, I prefer this to a position where I feel overwhelmed -- with too much work but too little of me to go around. I've been in th...

A JCPenney employee was sent home from work for wearing shorts that the company deemed too revealing. But wait, it gets better. Get this: She purchased the shorts at none other than JCPenney!  Her employer didn't seem to care where the clothes came from -- only that it violated the dress code. The woman, Sylva Stoel of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, said she never learned at the company orientation that dressing in this way wasn't in keeping with dress policy. After being asked repeatedly to go home and change, the self-proclaimed feminist decided to quit instead. Stoel asserted that she's fed up with dress codes that target women, adding that such codes tend to be sexist. She said she bought the shorts thinking they were professional, considering they showed nothing but her legs. My view: I don't think she was being dishonest when she said she had no clue wearing shorts went against the dress code. However, once Stoel was told it did and was asked to go home and c...

Full-time professionals in the U.S. work at least 40 hours a day, five days a week. A five-day work week (Monday-Friday) consists of 120 hours, meaning that we spend at least 33% of our time in the office. To put it another way, on average, we work 22 out of 30 days each month. And that doesn't even include the time we spend driving to and from work. Needless to say, when you consider how many of our waking hours are spent at work compared to the time we have off on the weekends, it's easy to see that we give away a hefty chunk of our lives to our employers. Save for the few vacations, if any, we take each year, weekends are usually our only time to: Relax Get more sleep Run errands we don't have time to do in the week Enjoy dining and entertainment with our partners, friends or families Do groceries Pay bills Mow the lawn and handle other home maintenance And more Let's face it: We don't have time to do all of the above every weekend. Just like wit...