Halloween costumes at work: Yea or nay?
With Halloween fast approaching, ghosts, goblins, witches and warlocks will soon be taking to the streets with the hopes of filling bags with candy and other treats. But kids aren’t the only ones who like to don costumes and take on the guise of monsters, comic book heroes and science fiction characters.
Some workplaces have parties, allow decorations and encourage employees to wear costumes to celebrate Halloween. It can be a fun way to boost morale and let workers enjoy a day away from the mundane.
Other workplaces, however, frown on the idea and forbid employees from dressing up for Halloween. While that may be understandable in some work settings – nobody wants to walk into a funeral home and see someone dressed as the Grim Reaper – what’s the harm in letting employees get into the spirit of Halloween?
What’s the Halloween policy in your workplace? Will you be wearing a costume this year? If so, what will you dress as? Give us some creative ideas.
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Social media at work: Does it help or hurt productivity?
Facebook. Twitter. MySpace. LinkedIn. In just a few years time, social media has become a part of almost everyone’s world. With so many people using computers at work, social media is also firmly entrenched in the workplace.
We’ve all seen them. The co-worker who seems to spend most of the day checking out his Facebook page or the underling who has traded her Solitaire-playing time for hours spent tweeting about playing solitaire.
Using social media also has entered the work part of the work day for some people. Increasing the number of “followers,” “friends,” “fans” and “likes” is now part of some job descriptions.
There’s a debate going on about the effect of social media on worker productivity. Some say it steals too much time from the job at hand during work hours. Others say the quick mental break helps workers refocus so they get on with their tasks.
Do you log in to Facebook or Twitter at work? Does it lower productivity or does it help you get through the day? Where do …
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What would you do for money?
KFC has a new marketing scheme that may have Col. Sanders turning in his grave. As part of its campaign to promote the Double Down sandwich – and attract the attention of male students – the chicken chain is paying coeds at several colleges $500 to wear customized sweat pants emblazoned with an ad on the backside. All coeds have to do is contact KFC’s Facebook page to get outfitted so they can hand out KFC gift checks and use their buns to sell the bunless sandwiches
In a press release, KFC admits to using the “human billboards” to reach its “key target of young men.” While nobody is forcing the young ladies to get involved in the campaign, some of their fathers might not be too happy about it.
But, hey, 500 bucks is 500 bucks. In this economy – and especially for college students – that’s nothing to cluck at. When it comes to making a buck, people often do things they might be too proud of later. When I was in college I joined Skid Row denizens and donated plasma for cash – …
Is your workplace the best? Nominate it!
Mary Kay Ash knew a thing or two about the importance of employee satisfaction.
“People are definitely a company’s greatest asset,” she once said. “It doesn’t make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps.”
Her business, Mary Kay Inc., needs little introduction as it remains one of the most profitable cosmetic companies in the world.
Metro Atlanta is home to many amazing companies. Next April, the AJC will publish a special section recognizing metro Atlanta’s best places to work. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Top Workplaces 2011 will evaluate the area’s best organizations based on feedback from employees of those companies.
If you think your workplace is one of Atlanta’s best, we want to hear about it. Go to ajc.com/go/topworkplaces or call 404-671-9425 to nominate your company. Participation in the survey is free and takes just a few minutes.
• Nominations are open to any business, including nonprofits, …
Tell us about your bad boss
Everybody’s been there. You drag yourself to work, pour a cup of coffee, sit at your desk, gird yourself for another day and there he is – the boss. No, not Bruce Springsteen; this one’s a nightmare – a George Steinbrenner, Donald Trump and Mr. Burns all rolled into one.
This guy wasn’t good at the job when he was a rank-and-file worker. He backstabbed, played cut-throat office politics and smooched a bevy of backsides on his way to the top. He doesn’t have a clue about how to get the job done well and now he manages you.
Downsizing, budget cuts and increasing pressure to do more with less has made the workplace tough enough without having to deal with an overbearing boss. The fear of losing your job and looking for another one in this tough job market means you’ll just have to deal with your bully boss.
All is not lost. There are plenty of books on the subject. Here are a few that might help: “A Survival Guide for Working With Bad Bosses: Dealing With Bullies, Idiots, …
Forgettable first jobs
With exceptions of the Paris Hiltons and Athina Onassises of the world, most of us probably kicked off our professional lives doing something we’d rather forget. Like shoveling chicken coops, as Matthew McConaughey once did. Or chasing rats from a movie theater like Warren Beatty did when he was a struggling actor. Rod Stewart worked as a grave digger between jobs at a funeral parlor and as a newspaper delivery boy.
Not that there’s anything wrong with those occupations. The jobs we take as teens and young professionals tend to fall outside the interests that later guide us to the careers we’re really after.
No matter the job – or how little it paid – it nonetheless may have provided at least a modicum of value to you later on. Michael Dell, founder and chairman of Dell Computer Corp., earned $2.30 per hour washing dishes at a Chinese restaurant. Of that experience, he said, “The best part was the wisdom of the restaurant owner, which I could capture if I came to work a little …
Are you ready for some fantasy football?
It’s that time again. Football junkies have studied reams of stats, drafted players, sweated out injury reports and set their lineups for the opening of the NFL season on Thursday night.
I’m not talking about the select group of NFL coaches and general managers who do that for a living; I’m referring to the millions of fantasy football players who live and die with the performance of their teams each week. To the uninitiated, fantasy football allows participants to draft NFL players and play opponents in games where the outcome is based on player statistics for each week.
What was once regarded as a hobby for dateless football geeks has become a burgeoning industry. Fantasy football is big business, with a host of TV shows, magazines and Web sites devoted to the “sport.”
Many fanatics play in leagues that are organized among co-workers. Although playing fantasy football can distract workers from their tasks, it’s a great way to bond, compete and talk trash with the folks in …
Do you feel safe at your workplace?
Think your day at the office was tough? Count your blessings you weren’t among the hostages at Discovery Channel’s headquarters or a crew member on board Mariner Energy’s sunken oil platform this week. Or worse, among those who worked with Omar Thornton at the Connecticut beverage distributorship last month.
Most people will likely never have to deal with traumatic events such as those at work. Although they remain terrifying reminders of what can happen, often without warning and in spite of better training, tighter security and more rigid safety protocols, the majority of us probably still feel safe at work.
What’s the most frightening thing that’s ever happened at your office? Do you feel like your company does enough to protect its employees? Has news coverage of workplace incidents impacted your decision to work somewhere or pursue a career in a certain industry?
Follow AJC Jobs on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ajcjobs.
Jabberwocky in the workplace
We’ve all heard them – workplace clichés and annoying phrases that turn normally articulate people into pabulum-spewing corporate robots. Many of us have even used the buzzwords that permeate office culture and rob language of meaning and clarity.
Have you ever gotten an e-mail that sounds like this? “At the end of the day, this project has plenty of moving parts and we need to think outside the box so we can achieve the synergy required to reach our vertical metrics.”
How about this? “Do you have the bandwidth to discuss this issue now or do we need to take it offline and interface when we can get some face-time and circle back?”
Does anyone speak this way when they leave the office? It’s as if ladder-climbers are convinced they have to take some phrase they heard at a seminar and repeat it as often as possible so their manager is impressed with their business acumen.
Some former colleagues created a game called Buzzword Bingo, in which they counted how many times their boss …
Dealing with rush-hour traffic: What’s your solution?
With most students back in school, the summertime break from peak rush-hour traffic is over. As the roads fill with school buses and parents driving their kids to school, drivers in metro Atlanta must once again endure the traffic nightmare that comes with living here.
All that time spent in a car as it crawls along in bumper-to-bumper traffic is enough to make many commuters consider other options. Despite metro Atlanta’s reputation as a city in love with its cars, there are other ways to get to work. MARTA provides services to about 142,000 passengers every day and keeps thousands of cars off the roads. Cobb Community Transit, Gwinnett County Transit, car pools and even folks who ride bicycles to work also help alleviate traffic.
Then there are the environmental benefits. The more cars that are off the road, the less smog and pollution we all have to breathe in. Organizations like the Clean Air Campaign provide services, information and resources to help people do their …
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