Let’s Eliminate Employee Probation

“Probation” has a couple of meanings, including one from our criminal justice system. Its technical definition is “the release of an offender from detention, subject to a period of good behavior under supervision.” We also use it for newly hired employees, making their first few months feel like a presumption of incompetence until proven otherwise.

Red Flags in the Interview Process

I’ve written many times that interviewing is very much like dating. You go through the same phases: attraction, flirtation, getting-to-know-you meetings, and finally, a proposal and moving in together. And as in dating, the early days of the hiring process are when recruiters and applicants are on their best behavior. That’s why red flags during … Continue reading Red Flags in the Interview Process

What Nick Foles Can Teach Us about Character

2019 update: Welcome to Jacksonville, Nick Foles!  We’re so proud to have you wear number 7 for the Jags. Here’s a reprint of the post I wrote about you after your Super Bowl victory. You’re an inspiration.  Nick Foles is the man of the hour. A second string quarterback who took down the best quarterback … Continue reading What Nick Foles Can Teach Us about Character

Dressing for Confidence

Let’s face it; after you’ve been job searching for a while, your confidence takes a beating.  You may feel invisible; especially if your job search is mostly online, you may feel like no one knows you’re there.  It may be tempting to go for comfort over style when you do venture out.  After all, who cares what you wear to the grocery store, right?

I Woke Up This Way

If you feel a little groggy as you’re reading this, Dr. Michael Breus, who bills himself as “The Sleep Doctor,” feels your pain. His Los Angeles-based clinical psychology practice is dedicated to helping people understand their chronotypes and learn to manage them better. Your chronotype is your biological predisposition to be a morning person, an evening person, or somewhere in between.

Give up Survival Skills for Living Skills

“A child comes to think of himself as the personality he gets recognition for or, in other words, as the set of patterns of action and habits of thought that get him out of childhood in one piece. That set, raised to adulthood, is what we are calling the calculating self.”