You've been laid off and the severance agreement is in front of you. Severance packages have been common practice for a long time. A company fires you, but in exchange, you get a healthy severance package. All you have to do is sign this tiny little non-disclosure agreement. Seems like a fair trade, right? The National Labor Relations Board says, not so fast. [...]
Welcome to Day 1 of Q2! For my tax friends – only two more weeks until you get your well deserved break. Meantime, let’s talk about work! 1.99 million cumulative workdays were lost last year because of work stoppages in the US. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a “work stoppage” typically refers to a strike or a lockout that [...]
Is it all about the money? Is that what drives employees nowadays? Contrary to what you might think, comp & benefits are not always the biggest motivator when it comes to keeping good employees around. It’s a factor, but it’s not THE factor. THE factor is whether or not the employee has a good team leader or manager. We’ve all heard it before [...]
If you rely on the recent headlines, it seems there are layoffs happening across the board. While virtually every headline is about layoffs, I talk to hiring execs and CPA firm partners every day who are looking to make critical hires. Greenhouse Software recently conducted an online survey of 300 US based CEOs with a minimum of 100 employees to find out their [...]
Can a "family" culture be effective in the workplace? For a long time, it was a thing: “We treat our employees like family.” It was something companies liked to say, particularly when hiring. But we have to be brutally honest with ourselves: No matter how much we like our co-workers, and no matter how much they like us when push comes to shove, [...]
Are you aware of the importance of cybersecurity? Cybersecurity is a big deal to every company, at this point — not just the tech world. So it’s alarming to hear that 95% of the global cybersecurity incidents noted by the World Economic Forum were caused by human error — in other words, employees within a company divulging sensitive data or content to the [...]
How are you feeling this time of year? Renewed? Refreshed? Spring is at long last upon us, and with it, that itchiness to get out from behind a desk and get out to do something fun. But not everyone has that get-up-and-go feeling going on. A lot of people these days are feeling bored, stagnant and very nearly dreary in their jobs. It’s [...]
Is Hustle Culture Dead? Or thriving? You can find debate on this topic with ample discussion on both sides as well as right down the middle. From the Great Resignation to quiet quitting, we’ve seen a lot of terms being coined that essentially point to the same same question: Are people seeing return – spiritually, professionally and personally – from the Rise and [...]
What are employers looking for in candidates in 2023? LinkedIn’s “insider look” at the most sought-after skills is out, and the top skill this year is one that ChatGPT will probably never be very good at: managing people. Frankly I view management as a subset of leadership. Many “managers” fail as a result of not knowing how or failing to lead. Hovering over [...]
When you think of government agencies, do you think of "cutting edge"? Not too many folks think “modern” when they think of the Social Security Administration, but still, one would hope they’re at least in this century. Not so much, according to a recent Washington Post headline, which claims that the agency approves or denies disability benefits based on a list that hasn’t [...]