Productivity

With more than two years of experience with the 52-week parental leave, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s chief human resources officer has said the policy change was a wise move. Read More

Goals are often used as benchmarks of progress. If you meet ’em, you might earn a raise, a title change or bargaining power to ask for more vacation or flexibility. If you don’t — it’s time to work on improving your performance. Read More

Are you older than 10? It’s too late for you to be perfectly fluent in a foreign language. Before you attempt to learn a new language as an adult, recognize the futility of your task. Read More

It can be difficult to work with a lazy employee, but new data shows just how much time managers have to spend cleaning up their messes. Research from global staffing firm Robert Half shows that managers spend more than 10 hours “coaching underperforming employees” during the workweek. Read More

If you have ever felt bad about coming home after work and collapsing on your couch to watch hours of reality TV, don’t. Simply look to New York Times best-selling author Jessica Knoll whose second novel, The Favorite Sister, is centered around the intriguing lives of reality TV stars. Knoll, who is a huge fan of The Real Housewives franchise and often binges on seasons, realized there were so many rich, story templates sitting right in front of her eyes that writing about this subject for her follow up book was a bit of a no brainer. And there is no doubt that this book will do as well as her first, The Luckiest Girl Alive, which sold over 450,000 copes and spent four months on the Times’ best-seller list. Oh and Reese Witherspoon bought the rights for the film. Read More

Packing, flights and last-minute changes to the itinerary are all part of going on a big vacation, but factors like these can make it hard to get work done. Here’s how to focus on work before going away. Read More

If you use Slack (a popular professional messaging system) for work, you may be familiar with how it works. The tool makes it possible to create specific discussion “channels,” chat with another team member directly or make a fun group chat with several of your bestie coworkers. But you probably didn’t know that Slack also hosts a ton of awesome apps that could make your workday that much more productive. Read More

You need to recast yourself as the hero of your career journey, while remaining honest with yourself, and lead your job search in a positive and proactive direction. Realize that you can take charge of your career journey, rather than playing into these six victim mentalities. Read More

Tom Peters is a leading business mind and the bestselling author of sixteen books, including In Search of Excellence (with Robert H. Waterman, Jr.), which is often cited among the best business books ever written. He recently joined Caroline Webb, CEO of Sevenshift and author of How to Have a Good Day, to discuss the timeless words and gestures that create excellence—and give you a serious edge—while on the job. Read More