The customer is always right. Greet every customer with a smile. Always greet your employees enthusiastically. Always go to the office holiday party. The American work experience is riddled with these tiny moments of insincerity that are often scripted or actively encouraged by employers. But is exhibiting insincerity with customers or co-workers helping or hurting an employee’s chances of success […]
The signs are all there: Lack of positive reinforcement. Bad blood with managers. A general cloud of unhappiness descends over the workplace… The diagnosis? Toxic workplace culture. How do workplaces end up here? There are many factors that can create a toxic culture in the workplace, including: Lack of clear expectations and incentives No sense of community Demands that exceed […]
How does the ideal employee respond to problems? Most hiring managers would tell you: with a steady hand and a level head. In a culture that values confidence, hiring managers may see social anxiety and self-doubt as a recipe for disaster. But they might be wrong. A growing body of research suggests that, in many situations, a neurotic employee is […]
Confident. Resilient. Charming. For many hiring managers, these words evoke an image of the perfect employee — a true “go-getter” — self-assured in a crisis, but also likable. They favor people who exhibit these qualities in interviews and are more likely to promote them. Unfortunately, these qualities may come with a hidden price. Confidence, resilience, and charm are also key […]
When faced with the choice between technical expertise or intangible personality traits, hiring managers choose the former. This preference is amplified in more technical fields like engineering, programming, and project management. Unfortunately, this approach is unsustainable. Why? First, millennials are career-hoppers. Recent studies have found that millennials change jobs four times during their first decade after college — often from […]