November 2, 2009
From California to the Streets of New York: Tory Johnson Sees Everything is Possible
From LA…
What impressed me the most last week at Maria Shriver’s California Women’s Conference was not the star power—CBS anchor Katie Couric, White House advisor Valerie Jarrett and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, among others—but the positive and upbeat mood among the thousands of women who attended this estrogen expo.
These smart women are clearly looking forward—not back—and seem anything but depressed, despite their state’s hard hit economy. I could feel it in the room as I spoke to them about my own fired to hired story and then afterward in their thoughtful and probing questions about today’s job market.
October 19, 2009
What do YOU really want at work?
In several recent interviews about his new book, What Americans Really Want…Really, renowned pollster Frank Luntz spells out what his research has uncovered.
Luntz says in general Americans want more money, more time, more choices, less hassles and no worries. From our employers, he says we want more respect.
Health Insurance Coverage Cuts to Come?
This week The Wall Street Journal reports that since the start of the recession, “thousands of employers have cut pay, increased workers' share of health-care costs or reduced the employer contribution to retirement plans.” While many workers may have believed this to be a temporary move, consulting firm Watson Wyatt found that two-thirds of big companies that cut health-care benefits don't plan to restore them to pre-recession levels, according to the paper.
October 14, 2009
SHOUT OUT on healthcare
Not only is healthcare the hot topic in Congress, it’s also the big discussion in workplaces everywhere. That’s because it’s open enrollment time when businesses select insurance policies for the year ahead. The decisions are harder than ever because premiums are skyrocketing--rising an average of more than ten percent from this year.
October 7, 2009
Love Your Job But Hate the Boss? Read This
Katherine Crowley and Kathi Elster are the authors of Working for You Isn’t Working for Me – The Ultimate Guide to Managing Your Boss. (Portfolio). Their company, K Squared Enterprises, provides consulting and public speaking on workplace relationships. Women For Hire asked them Five Questions. 1) In this economy many people are probably working in jobs they like but for bosses they loathe. Yet they can't afford to quit. If you had one single bit of advice for them, what would it be? Kathi E – In this tough economy we can’t afford to take our boss’s bad behavior personally. The greatest gift we can give ourselves is to detach and depersonalize from the boss.
October 5, 2009
Can an Affair With The Boss Ever Work?
Like him or not, David Letterman’s confession that he has slept with various women who work for him on CBS’ Late Show has prompted a flood of water cooler chatter. It is also raising questions about when – if ever – is it appropriate for the boss to have sex with an employee. We’ve heard from some of you who say your marriage has been ruined by women cooing to your husband -- who just so happens to be the boss. But others have written in to say they met their life partner on the job and have been together happily ever since.
September 30, 2009
Yes, I'm The Seminar Queen
I admit it. I absolutely love seminars. Some people get why I love them. Some don’t. A lot of people make fun of me, think I’m weak or who knows what else they’re thinking. Let me explain. I have a vision of who and what I want to be, but I’m not sure how to get there. Growing up, my parents didn’t give me the tools to cultivate my strengths and weaknesses. For better or worse, I didn’t know what they were, either. Thus, my love of seminars.
September 22, 2009
Recession: Tough on Working Couples
The economy is making life more difficult for working couples, The Wall Street Journal reports, particularly when one person gets a job offer out of town. The search for work is forcing more couples into long-distant relationships. A survey of 1,450 job seekers found 18% relocated in the second quarter, up from 11% last year.
September 21, 2009
Were You Happier A Decade Ago?
Back in the 60s an iconic cigarette ad for Virginia Slims proclaimed to women, “You’ve come a long way, baby.” Yet despite all the advances that women have achieved since then, some people think it has been downhill ever since. One of them is Arianna Huffington, the successful pundit/web entrepreneur who on the surface seems like a poster child for happiness. “Women around the world are in a funk,” she writes. “It doesn’t matter what their marital status is, how much money they make, whether or not they have children, their ethnic background, or the country they live in.”
September 18, 2009
When the Boss is a Bully -- and a Woman
When dealing with a workplace bully who is female, document, document, document, says Bret L. Simmons, a University of Nevada management professor. Confront the bully about her behavior as soon as it happens -- don't wait -- and "stay focused on the purpose." Have you been bullied at work by another woman? What has worked for you?
Tory Johnson