KPIs are an important part of business operations, ensuring that workers are on track. Still, you've probably heard about “SMART” goals before, and while the acronym itself might be a little bit dumb, it still stands to reason that the “A” in “SMART” stands for “Attainable”—and for good reason. There's nothing more demoralizing than when managers set staff an intentionally unattainable goal— The managers who set these types of goals usually take their methods to memoirs from 1980s business magn…

Let's face it: we all need a break from work. There's no way our brains can stay totally engrossed for 8+ hours while still producing our best quality work all day long. Whether it's stepping outside for a quick breath of fresh air or eating a snack, sometimes that mental break is really what an employee needs to power through the rest of the day's tasks. Well, this boss is trying to mandate a new break policy. He's only allowing his employees two 15-minute breaks a day due to the company being…

There's this weird thing that happens in employment, you're there to get a paycheck—no question about that. And while your employer will want to pay you (close) to market rate if they want to keep you they're always going to want to pay you as little as they possibly can get away with. You want more, they want to pay less, probably figuring that they'll get the same amount of work out of you regardless. This dynamic will hang over any employment agreement you enter into. There becomes a point t…

Time management is an important skill when it comes to your working life. It's a huge determining factor in ensuring that you get enough done and get it done on time. Prioritization and organization are key components here, preventing you from feeling overwhelmed even in the face of a long to-do list. Meanwhile, organization ensures that you can maintain efficiency without getting in the way of yourself, keeping stress at a minimum. Of course, it's only natural for your manager to share an inte…

Who says it's ever too late for a career change? In reality, we go through so much change in our lives. How can we expect to pick a career in our early 20s and be expected to love it until we retire? Sometimes, that is the case. But most times, you learn a lot of things in life that you couldn't have possibly known about yourself at a young age, and you shouldn't have to suffer at the hands of your younger self when you are, in fact, much wiser and more mature. The truth is, you can change path…

A surprising amount of experts and analysts get hired to improve the efficiency of businesses that they know nothing about, putting more effort into marketing themselves and trying to ensure corporate clients than into ensuring their analysis offers any actual value—or that their statistics hold any actual significance. At the end of the day, all they care about is that they're able to give the client some result, a result that the manager who hired them is going to take at face value since the…

People think that their managers don't do any work, merely attending an ever-increasing number of meetings every day, ad infinitum, pretending that they have enough on their plate that they couldn't possibly help you with anything else. But, one of the most challenging parts of a manager's job is ensuring that their team members have enough work to do themselves and not—you know—faffing around all day and enjoying a peaceable existence… All the while not doing a whole lot of actual work themsel…

It's often said that HR is never on your side, but is merely there to maintain an equilibrium that will prevent the organization from opening itself to vulnerability or liability. They are there to manage the “human” resources of the company, and—well, that's you . Still, in instances where you're dealing with someone in the organization—be it a boss, coworker, or other party—who is so incredibly off base with their actions or reasoning, then it just makes sense to go to HR and help them see yo…

We're almost there; the weekend is just around the corner! It's so much harder to enjoy work in the summer. Unlike winter, when everyone stays indoors due to the cold, in summer, we just want to be outside soaking up the sun. It's hard to be cooped up in the office all day, especially when the best weather has passed by the time we leave work at 5 p.m. We usually find ourselves staring out of the window, daydreaming about being outside, wishing we could spend the whole day in the sun instead...

Have you ever had a job you loved so much you wished you could go back? Maybe it was a summer job you had as a kid or a random contract that ended up being better than you expected. There are so many jobs out there that it's impossible to know about all of them. Well, these employees share the random odd jobs they had that ended up being the best jobs they ever had. Whether it was great because they had the best coworkers, the benefits were amazing, or they barely had to put in any time for wha…

We work to earn money to support ourselves and our families and to give ourselves a chance at a life of better comfort and the space to pursue our individual interests. Sure, some of us might be lucky enough to reasonably enjoy our work and even find fulfillment in it, but it still serves as the means to an end. In short, you work so that you can better enjoy the time spent not working. And in some sort of weirdly depressing poetic sort of sense, the two are permanently at odds with each other.…

It's ironic how the cubicle was the symbol of working-class oppression in the 80s, 90s, and 00s, with countless references in popular culture using it to establish the character's insignificant overlooked place in society. The cheap grey carpet and the temporariness of the fabrication reflected how the organizations viewed their lowest productive workers—too expendable to bother placing in an ordinary office.

Being overworked and understaffed, working long hours at odd hours, is no way to live your life. Still, many of us are doing so in order to eke out a living in this wild world. It can even seem manageable while you're in it, grinding out the hours to keep up with an ever-increasing workload to keep the bossman happy while seasonal demand runs its course or to cover for that vacant role that they've yet to see fit to fill. The reality is, by trying to do the right thing and keep everyone happy,…

Have you ever worked for a company that allowed you to donate your PTO to other coworkers? This new hire received an email from HR on his very first day asking him to donate PTO to two employees he didn't even know. The worst part is that he already doesn't like his new job and is taking a major pay cut after being laid off from his old job. It's understandable to donate hours to a coworker with whom you've developed a relationship, who may be in desperate need of PTO time due to family issue...

People will always be willing to better their own situation at the expense of others, whether it's that guy in front of you who sees fit to recline his seat for the entirety of a 15-hour flight despite having no one in front of or next to him, or something like cutting a queue in traffic or manipulating the schedule so that they don't have to work a shift that they find to be inconvenient. Everyone's the hero of their own story, so they, of course, won't see themselves as doing anything wrong.…

Another day, another eight hours spent in the office. There are some days when office life is a breeze. You get to hang out with your favorite coworkers, the workload is light, and you might even get to hit up your favorite lunch spot. Ah, the sweet taste of a midday burrito! Not all days are a grind. But then, there are the other days. The days where you're hanging on by a thread, furiously trying to chip away at the looming pile of work on your desk. You find yourself trapped in the endless s…