Culture and Trends

The unemployment/underemployment problem facing millennials predates the great recession. It goes back to the early programming they received from their parents when the economy was booming in the early 2000’s. And parents haven't let up. Dreams? Passion? Love? Sounds more like the teaser copy on the back of a smutty romance novel than sage career advice. The mindset of today’s parents is all about getting their kid to aim for the stars, to believe their dream, and to

With roots steeped rich in Celtic, Roman Catholic, and Protestant tradition, the annual Trick‑or‑Treat ritual that takes place this week can be traced back centuries. Originally, children would adorn hand‑made ceremonial costumes and go door‑to‑door singing out “a trick a treat!" Then they’d entertain their neighbors with carefully rehearsed songs, skits, and dances. If they performed well, the neighbor might reward them with some bread, fruit, or nuts. This encouraged the

You invested a lot of time, energy, and money bringing on that new employee. They show up on that first day ready for your orientation doing their best to disguise their nervous anxiety. Feeling a bit anxious yourself, you want to get them up and running as quickly as possible so as to maximize your ROI. After all, you need to prove to yourself and your team that you made a great hire. As the day draws to an end, you begin to reflect on how things went on Day #1. But it's

Imagine walking into a room where you are invited to play a game where you could win $1000 or more. In front of you is a large bulletin board that has pinned to it the logos of twenty large well-known companies; brands most everyone is familiar with. Next to this is another large board pinned with twenty white index cards, each imprinted with the mission statement and core values of one of those companies. The object of the game is to correctly match each logo to the index

Firing an employee is a task that no manager enjoys, but one that often appears inevitable. Yet it's a proven fact that hiring a replacement employee will cost a great deal more than retaining the one you have, if that individual can be deemed salvageable. That's why it's imperative to have a checklist of questions you ask yourself prior to pulling the trigger on your expensive turnover revolver. Here are five introspective considerations to include on your checklist: Wer

My last day of teaching high school and coaching football was June 3, 1986. Due to declining enrollment of the school district where I was employed, my position was being eliminated. I didn't know it at the time, but looking back, I think I escaped just before the Apocalypse. Back then, I never feared parental retribution by giving a student a bad grade or by getting up in a player's facemask and yelling "Dammit Johnson, you're not giving 100%!" In all but a few isolated

Ever have a job where you felt picked-on, intimidated, harassed, and micro-managed by a tyrant boss? Most of us can recall working for a real jerk at some point in our job history, most likely when we were just entering the workplace and at the bottom of the totem pole. And maybe the way you were being unfairly treated made you want to 'get even' with your boss, so you called in sick on a day when you knew you were desperately needed, or you found a quiet corner to take per

Michele Klein, HR Manager for Fidelity Exploration and Production (a large player in the booming oil and gas industry) was doing an exit interview with an engineer who was leaving to take a similar job with a competitor. As her final question, she asked, "If we had known that you were thinking about leaving several months ago, would there have been anything we could have done to keep you?""Absolutely." the engineer replied. "I didn't realize that you had bigger plans for me.

It made for a dreadful commute. The crater-like potholes dotting the main thoroughfare near my office were wreaking havoc on my car's alignment. I wasn't the only unhappy camper. The city was inundated with complaints from angry neighbors and shopkeepers who demanded repairs. Finally, a road-crew was sent to fill the gaping cavities and restore drivability to the busy street, and they did a very nice job. Do you think the city has received any thank you calls from the neigh

There is an epic war being fought along the front lines of every business in the world. Business owners and managers across all industries are engaged in heavy conflict with employees who aren't able to get through a shift without checking the screen on their smart phones, many of whom check it every couple of minutes. To the manager, the almost ubiquitous smart phone has become a distraction that limits performance and interferes with customer service. To a young employee

This isn't just another one of the thousands of articles, blogs, and stories sharing personal feelings of betrayal in light of Lance Armstrong's recent confession to Oprah. There's already been so much public outrage that anything I add about him would be redundant. This is about something bigger and infinitely more important. I'm more concerned about how I should frame this to my own kids. Not that I have to frame anything, mind you. My kids are now grown and gone; youn

The phrase "Coffee is for Closers" resonates with anyone who's seen the classic film, Glengarry Glen Ross. This 1992 movie stars six Hollywood A-list leading men as salesman who work for an unethical real estate outfit. The actors portray fast-talking hucksters who lie, exaggerate, and use a series of con games to goad unwitting prospects into signing on the dotted line for overpriced real estate. (If you haven't seen the movie, and you have a high tolerance for foul languag

In this new economy, time is the commodity that is the most prized. Seldom do you run into a colleague or associate who has a wide-open schedule or is looking for a way to fill some empty or idle time in their day. Forced to do more with less, time-crunched leaders push their people to find the fast-n-easy solution when they encounter a problem such as an equipment breakdown or a customer service complaint. But the quick fix is seldom the right fix, and the Band-Aid approa

The employment landscape in America for 16- to 24-year-olds is abysmal; the worst it's been in more than 50 years. So if you've got a teen or a young adult on your holiday gift list, don't head to the mall or to your nearest big box retailer. What they need most from you cannot be found in stores. According to Opportunity Nation, 5, 527,000 young adults (or one in 7 young adults ages 16-24) are not in school or working. Unemployment rates for youth ages 16-24 are double the

Checking my personal Facebook account as I was helping my wife prepare for our Thanksgiving feast, I marveled at how many of my “friends” (most whom I’ve never met) had posted a ‘Happy Thanksgiving’ message intended for anyone who might happen upon it. Same thing was happening on Twitter, LinkedIn, and dozens of other social media sites. Instead of making me feel warm and tingly inside, I was agitated. I began to wonder… Is this how impersonal, and even, how self-involved

Bodybuilding is the most narcissistic, self-absorbed ‘sport’ ever conceived. I can offer that critique as a former competitor, promoter of numerous state bodybuilding championships, emcee of the Mr. & Ms. Universe competition, and color analyst for ESPN’s bodybuilding coverage. (All of these things took place before Bill Clinton was sworn in, but my opinion has not changed much over the years.) That being said, I owe a great deal of my own work ethic to the principles I lea

How strong is your voice? How convincing is your argument? When your words aren't scripted for you --- when your notes have blown away --- when you're in the spotlight and all eyes are on you --- when the pressure is on and it's do or die --- ...can you deliver? Can you lead, inspire, direct, convince, persuade, motivate, and rally the troops to get behind you -- take up their swords -- and fight for your cause? The litmus test of leadership is believability. For others to

Every company that employs teens and young adults wrestles with the boundaries of professionalism. How do you get the emerging workforce to set aside, if only temporarily, the supposed “personal right of individual expression” in favor of representing you and your organization without completely zapping them of their enthusiasm, creativity, and energy? Sometimes their personal preferences line up squarely with your organization’s needs, but often, especially for the emerging

It should come as no great surprise to any business owner or manager that employees tend to stay where they feel appreciated and they are prone to leave when they don't. Following that same logic, smart employers also realize that people will perform better when they feel that their efforts are recognized and appreciated and will become complacent when their efforts go unnoticed. Until now, tying a bottom line dollar figure to the importance of employee appreciation has been

This headline makes absolutely no sense, but please don't shoot the messenger just yet. If you're confused about what's really going in with regards to Generation Y/Millennials in the workforce, turn off the news and stop reading the papers. The media is more confused than you are. Either that, or they're purposely trying to confuse you to force you to buy more papers to get unconfused. Yesterday, a story appeared in USA Today under the headline "Gen Y Most Likely to Hold L