‘Avatar’ or ‘The Hurt Locker:’ What’s Your Performance Style?

March 8, 2010 – 7:28 am
It isn't a secret that I really hated Avatar. (No seriously. I even blogged about it here.) That said, I was shocked that the James Cameron Pocahontas-meets-Fern-Gully-meets-The-Smurfs-meets-good-old-fashioned-racism three-hour waste of my time didn't win best picture at last night's Oscar ceremony. Why? Because it's made several billion dollars. I'm not even exaggerating. It made billions. That, and everyone assumed it would win. Because it used new technology. And it was in 3-D. And, it seemed like it was campaigning the hardest for the best picture win. Where's Gargamel? But, no. The big winner of the Oscars was The Hurt Locker. A little film that could, which wasn't even originally put out in theaters in wide release. (I haven't even seen it yet, although it's going to be next on my Netflix. Is it even on Netflix yet?) Substance won over style? Form over fashion? Quality over...crap? While we can learn things from the Oscars (I learned that ...

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

5 Things They Should’ve Taught in School to Prepare Us for Work

March 4, 2010 – 7:18 am
Remember when you were in high school, getting pummeled by dodge balls while you were rocking in the fetal position and asking your higher power of choice when you would ever need this skill in real life? Well, the truth is, you don't need that skill in real life. There is no possible way being good at dodge ball could help your career. (And no, not even if you're a gym teacher. Because then you get to inflict the pain, not be on the receiving end.) And, actually, there are a lot of things you learned in high school that aren't actually useful. I'm not knocking high school (although I try not to think about high school too much. I still get Vietnam-like flashbacks. *shudder*). It's important to be a well-rounded person and all that. Little Timmy is ready to be CEO...of cuteness. But would it have killed them, in between teaching the three ...

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

How to Get Hired

March 1, 2010 – 9:23 am
Have you ever had a really awesome interviewee? Like, so awesome that you hired the guy on the spot (and subsequently cursed yourself for not thinking of doing what he did when you were looking for a job)? This might work too. But probably not. Now, it's not necessarily a good thing to be completely out there during interviews. If you had an interviewee come in wearing a bathrobe or with a resume written in crayon, she'd certainly stand out, but she probably wouldn't get the job. (Unless you worked for a bathrobe company or Crayola...or the interviewee was the daughter of the CEO or something.) Of course, as the interviewer, maybe you shouldn't be too out there either, as was the case for the woman I wrote about awhile ago who came to an interview and had an employee burst in brandishing a chainsaw. Anyway, I was talking to the marketing manager here, Jaime, who ...

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Six Ways to Deal When Coworkers Lie, Steal, or Take Credit for Your Work (or When They’re Just Jerks)

February 24, 2010 – 6:11 am
Ah, the frenemy. These people who disguise themselves as friends but are actually looking to do us harm are everywhere, especially in the workplace. (And thank you, Sex and the City, for giving us the vernacular. Before "frenemy," we were stuck with "backstabber," although, we must admit, that is equally as fitting.) Like this, only more evil. Why do people pretend to be a friend but then do everything to take credit for your work, make themselves look better, or drag you down? Simple. Most people do not care about you. They are looking out for number one (while subsequently acting like a big number two). There are plenty of ways to deal with frenemies in the office. There's a great article on Human Resources IQ by Nicole Williams called "Six Tips to Deal with a Heinous Coworker." I also recently read a blog on the Harvard Business Review that offered tips. And, of course, I came ...

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Learning From Tiger Woods’ Apology

February 19, 2010 – 11:17 am
So Tiger Woods has pulled a Hugh Grant ("I think you know in life what's a good thing to do and what's a bad thing, and I did a bad thing. And there you have it," Grant explained to Jay Leno about being caught with a prostitute). Tiger Woods gave a public apology today for his multiple affairs with multiple people. According to Tiger, he knows he has disappointed us all. Tiger Woods: Very sorry Well, not really. I didn't really care about him one way or the other before until he had this affair (in my opinion, it's not really golf unless there's a windmill or a pirate ship on the course). But anyway... Tiger Woods apologized. And now he's going to go back to playing golf, and making quadrillions of dollars. Have you ever made a big boo-boo at work? We all have. When you did, you probably got in trouble. But, as Tiger has shown, the ...

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Buying References for a Resume?

February 16, 2010 – 11:47 am
I am appalled! (And no, not over the travesty that is Valentine's Day, which I dragged my boyfriend to this weekend. Seriously, in a movie with three or four Oscar winners, how was it that Ashton "Punk'd" Kutcher gave the best performance? But I digress...) No, what is so appalling is an article I read on cnn.com. Apparently, there is a company that will, for a fee, create fake job references for you. And I don't think it's just a number perspective employers will call that will have someone on the other end singing your praises. (If that was all I needed for a job, then my mom would be very busy...) The company creates a fake website, logo, Linkedin profile... Wow, seems like more of a hassle then, I don't know, actually doing a real job and having that as a reference. Talk about unethical! Yes, I can vouch for Bob. He was an ...

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Employee to Boss: “You stink!” Literally.

February 10, 2010 – 6:27 am
And you thought that the perfume your coworker wears was bad. According to an article in the New York Post (which is clearly the bastion for journalistic integrity), a former employee of the Jewish Theological Seminary is suing her boss over flatulence, at least according to the title of the article, "Unholy 'gasbag' boss sued for reeking havoc." Of course, if you actually read the article, it turns out the lawsuit is because the 67-year-old employee was fired after her boss sent out a mass e-mail saying that Baby Boomers should retire because they create a "bottleneck in the work world. The frustration this poses for the young and talented should be obvious." Dress code requirements So the former employee is suing because she feels she was discriminated against because of her age. What the fact that the boss farts a lot has to do with anything, I don't know. Actually, I do. I bet ...

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Super Bowl 2010: Career Round Up

February 8, 2010 – 6:16 am
So, last night the Saints sure came marching in. Or something. I couldn't really follow the Super Bowl, no matter how many times my boyfriend and my friend's fiance tried to explain to me that the blue and orange lines on the field weren't actually there. I still don't get those lines... But what I could follow, of course, was the awesome Who concert ("Babba O'Riley" and "Who Are You?"--nice!) and the commercials. And in my opinion, the best commercials were the Careerbuilder.com and Monster.com commercials. (As my coworker professed, Careerbuilder vs. Monster is the new Coke vs. Pepsi.) The Careerbuilder.com commercial, called "Casual Friday," featured an employee lamenting his coworkers' maybe too casual attire: They were in their underwear. The Monster.com commercial was called "Fiddling Beaver." (Paging Dr. Freud!) In this ad, a beaver plays the fiddle in the swamp, and then uses the site to find better and better positions until he gets to play on ...

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

The Super Bowl, and Why You Should Relax at Work

February 5, 2010 – 7:15 am
For a non-sports fan, the Super Bowl provides a surprising amount of pressure for me. Not over who wins. Frankly, I couldn't care less (could care less?). The pressure actually comes in the act of watching. Several years ago, as a single woman living in New York City, my friend and I decided to go to a bar to watch the game. It was the year the Giants were playing, and I was told by many people that it would be insane in New York. But, I didn't want to make a fool of myself. It's that time of year again. Yay? "Just make sure you root for the Giants," another friend offered. And, I knew that the Giants wore blue uniforms. (I was actually very proud that I knew that.) At the bar, I must have looked perplexed. "You seem confused," a guy said to me. "I'm just trying to figure out what's going on," I said. "Just ...

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Would you hire someone willing to relocate?

February 3, 2010 – 11:41 am
We've all dreamed of landing that magical job in Paris. Or Hawaii. Or New Jersey. (Don't judge me.) Just picking up from the current drudgery and leaving for some fantastic opportunity. And, now that job openings are so scarce, some people are casting a wide application net and hoping that they'll get some bites, anywhere. According to an article on cnnmoney.com, with the job unemployment rate what it currently is, many workers are looking to relocate for work, and are willing to move their entire families if they find a position somewhere else. While this sounds good in theory, because, if you can't work where you live, live where you can work. (Unless, of course, you have teenagers and have to pull Matilda out of her current school and move her away from her friends and the love of her life Sam who rides a motorcycle and plays in a band, and seriously, why do ...

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »