Work in Progress - Time
A daily look at life on the job by TIME's Lisa Takeuchi Cullen
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Who needs a bonus? In fact, who needs pay?
Goldman Sachs' top executives recently made the news for refusing to take bonuses this year. Hear that? It's the sound of me clapping really slowly. Bravo, fellows. Bravo. Your stock is down 60% this year, and your firm is expected to announce its first quarterly loss as a public company in December. But you're going to bite your lips and — deep breath — take home only your annual salaries of $600,000. Heroes. True heroes. UBS and Barclays are following suit, and New York Attorney General... |
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Holiday party tips for dummies
Honestly. We're grown-ups here. Aren't we? So how come every year around this time, I get a barrage of tips from experts about how to conduct ourselves at the annual holiday party? The answer is that despite exterior appearances, we all still act like tweens when given the opportunity. So the following nine tips come from Barbara Pachter, whom I quoted in an article on how (not) to dress at work. I didn't agree with her on the issue of wearing pantyhose to the office, and I think a lot of younger... |
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How and when to leave a job
I had lunch yesterday with Carolyn Kepcher. She's a businesswoman and author and mother of two and, oh, the onetime sidekick of Donald Trump in the TV show "The Apprentice." We met a few months ago on the set of the Today show, where we were to appear on the same segment. The woman portrayed on Trump's show as an ice queen turned out to be this warm, funny working mom. We promised to try for lunch and, months later, we made a date. I wanted to talk to Carolyn now because, in the two years since... |
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A quantum of solace in this economy: Plan B
...by which I don't mean the morning-after pill. I was talking to my friend Penelope Trunk, CEO of Brazen Careerist and the bluntest career expert I know, and it seemed evident to me after our conversation that in this economy, we all need a Plan B. That's right: an actionable, practical strategy to fire up if and when Plan A goes kerplooey. Don't have a Plan B? Here's how to create one: 1. Assess your skills. Figure out what you're good at, then list everything else you can reasonably do on a... |
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You'll get your work-life balance now, you lazy...
Now is probably not the time to saunter into your boss's office and demand a flexible work arrangement involving telecommuting or job-sharing or scaling back to part-time. Or is it? I've been getting and making a lot of calls from colleagues since my company announced layoffs this month. One thing I learned from an off-the-record source is that some of our magazine titles want people to go part-time. But they aren't explicitly offering part-time jobs, mainly because they hope workers who might... |
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Drinking and e-mailing? Google to the rescue
As the pink slips start appearing on workers' desks, many of us are likely to stomp home and mix ourselves something good and stiff from the part of the liquor cabinet that normally gathers dust. On our third whiskey sour, the probability of snapping open our laptops and firing off a pissed-off e-mail to our bosses goes up about threefold. EWI—e-mailing while inebriated—is not a crime, but it should be, seeing as a message crafted when you're so drunk you're drooling can murder your career. Thank... |
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How long till universal healthcare?
This question is taking on some urgency for me and the thousands of other American workers facing layoffs. Because the only thing that scares me more than not having an income is not having health insurance. "Not to worry," said my husband, cheerfully. "Obama will get us universal healthcare." There's talk that healthcare is bumping its way down the to-do list for the president-elect, though, with the economy taking precedence. Let me tell you something, Mr. President. The economy and healthcare... |
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Where I'll be working when I'm laid off
WaPo has a great article about Japanese convenience stores, where you can buy fresh sushi and carbon offsets, pay income tax and change diapers, book airplane tickets and sip vodka coolers. There's hot soup, cold beer, fresh bread, clean toilets, french fries, earwax remover, spotless floors, and a broadband-empowered machine that will order home appliances, book concert tickets and sign you up for driver's ed. At a Lawson's in Yokohama, you can apparently drop off luggage for the bullet train... |
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Even layoff survivors suffer
They announced layoffs in my division this morning. I'm still on maternity leave and therefore out of the corridors, but here's what I know is going on: staffers are clustering in offices and cubicles, arms crossed and heads down, sharing rumors and hearsay, making predictions about who'll stay and who'll go. Layoff announcements don't tend to boost productivity. Research says post-layoffs aren't exactly nirvana for workers, even those who survive. According to Sirota Survey Intelligence, survivors... |
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The layoffs are here
This morning, at 10:48 a.m., an e-mail arrived in our inboxes from our boss: the layoffs were here. In previous weeks, the memos had come fast and furious from corporate announcing impending cuts along with dramatic reorganization at our company. Top editors and business managers at Time Inc. were being replaced or moved around. Each memo sounded to me like dinosaur footsteps falling closer and closer. And now: boom. I just got off a conference call on which our editor explained the details of... |
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Younger workers will survive? No kidding.
So says a new article in CIO Magazine. Meridith Levinson, a self-described "scrappy, do-it-yourself latch-key kid," lists five reasons why Gen Y will do okay in the coming economic kaboom. Hard to believe, considering According to a CareerBuilder survey from 2007, 74 percent of employers say Gen Y workers expect to be paid more; 56 percent of employers say Gen Y workers expect to be promoted within a year; and half say Gen Y professionals expect more vacation and personal time than older generations. Her... |
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Five things I'll miss about the elections
1. CNN's bizarro holograms. I'm the only one alive who thought they were neat-o. 2. Tina Fey. I could watch her all day, and, ever since she became Sarah Palin, I did. They should create a Tina Fey network so she'd be on 24/7. Maybe she could start practicing her Rahm Emanuel impression. Tina can do anything. I love me my Tina. 3. Robocalls. I'm lonely. 4. Hillary. I miss Hillary. I'm sorry, Obamas...I think you're fab. But I still love me my Hillary. 5. This funny feeling in the pit of my stomach... |
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How the president's job is just like ours
In all the hoopla surrounding the election of our next president, it occurs to me that what Barack Obama won is a job. The world's most powerful job, yes. But it's a job like yours and mine. He'll wake up in the morning (even after a 3 a.m. call on a red phone), get dressed, eat breakfast, and go to work. Just like you and me. He'll get paid, just like us (not that I make what he does: $400,000, says Wikipedia). He faces possible unemployment, though not for another four years. I'm being facetious... |
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Even Vatican workers have to clock in
From the Italian news service ANSA: The tiny state on the Tiber has issued new cards to all employees from the lowest office staff to the grandest heads of departments - even if they are priests or bishops. The swipe cards have reportedly been received without complaint by the lay staff but some older clerics have been heard grumbling that Pope John XXII abolished timekeeping in the early '60s. Apparently, the timekeeping is part of a new "meritocracy drive at the Vatican, which is set... |
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They're doing yoga in the office
Sounds like a perfectly nice idea, right? We're all too busy to exercise, too stressed to function, desperately in need of a sun salutation. So why not a yoga class right here in the office? Me, I'm still on maternity leave, so I don't have to respond to the friendly e-mails inviting one and all to join in. But I'll be frank. I don't want to mix work and namaste. If I'm going to do a downward dog, the last thing I need is a colleague five inches from my upended butt. I don't even want people I... |
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The layoffs have begun
I voted this morning. By sometime tonight, if democracy functions, we should have a new president-elect. And none too soon. The economy's in the Dumpster, and our employers need to know someone out there has a plan to fish us out. I write this as I hear from a dear friend that she's been laid off. Time Inc. announced impending changes recently (here on All Things Digital's Media Memo), including a reported 600 layoffs. Since then, the company-wide memos have arrived with creepy frequency in our... |
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If kids could vote...
...apparently, they would. A lot. For Obama. Check out Time for Kids' election webtravaganza. Here's what I learned on the Electionary: Ballot initiative (n) A proposed law or policy that is voted on directly by the public. It is also sometimes called a referendum, proposition, or ballot measure. Ballot initiatives are different in each state and give voters a chance to express themselves on a variety of issues. Got that? More than 2 million kids voted for president on Nick.com, and the winner... |
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Looking into the abyss: the future of journalism
If you've been reading the articles in your dead-tree newspapers and magazines, you know it's a terrifying time to be the one writing them. The L.A. Times is snipping its already decimated staff. Gannett is cutting 10% of its workforce. The Christian Science Monitor is killing its print publication. My own employer, Time Inc., is reported to plan up to 600 layoffs. When I dropped by our headquarters last week, everyone I saw looked like that Munch painting: we're all screaming inside our heads. What... |
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"Sunlighting": the new work trend
Heard of moonlighting? Yeah. Now you get the picture. Iconoculture says it's the new trend (they call it "daylighting," but I thought my term was cleverer...I'm trademarking). Iconoculture says: Consumers who have gotten used to a certain lifestyle may take drastic measures to maintain that lifestyle, even when the economy tanks. It's not exactly ethical, since most company's ask for 100% engagement, but some white-collar workers are finding a way to double up on their work hours (CNN.com 9.23.08).... |
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Getting ready to be sandwiched
My recently widowed Dad moves in this Friday. We've prepared the house: Chris has put in safety bars in the bathrooms and a bannister on the stoop. Right now he's installing a new sink with an easy-to-use faucet. We've cleared out the downstairs playroom and moved in a bed, a comfy reading chair, a smoke alarm. We're stocked up on Campbell's tomato soup and Kellogg's cornflakes. We're prepared. But I'm not prepared. I'm not prepared. Like many American workers—10 million of us, according to... |