ArcaMax

The question for today is, "What do you do?"

If you answer dentistry, plumbing, teaching the tango or any other noble profession, you're wrong.

The right answer is, "I do nothing."

Writer Olga Mecking does not do nothing, yet she is the author of "The Case for Doing Nothing," an article in The New York Times.

It is Mecking's opinion that a...Read more

What's better: a really great job where you have to go into an office every day or a really awful job you can do from home?

Maybe it's just me, but it's difficult to imagine a job so terrific that it's worth dealing with commutes that are too long, meetings that are too frequent and managers who multiply like cockroaches. (How does a ...Read more

I won't be writing my column today. I'm turning that privilege over to a 6-foot-tall, electric green chipmunk, whose name, according to his business card, is Chippy C. Chipmunk.

If you find it strange for a serious and respected guru of the workplace, like me, to partner up with a giant green chipmunk, like Chippy, I can quickly calm your ...Read more

For many people, every new morning is an occasion to celebrate all the wonderful opportunities in the day ahead. These energetic, optimistic human people wake up ready to jump out of bed and jump into their lives.

And then there's you.

You lie in your bed, mentally surveying all the potential snares and unredeemable disasters that surely lie...Read more

The first month of the new year is almost over, and I have to say you've made amazing strides in maximizing your productivity.

I have to say it, but it isn't true.

You're the same sluggish, distracted underperformer you were in 2019, maybe even worse. This isn't the productivity boost you resolved to achieve, nor is it what your managers ...Read more

How can so many potential employers smart enough to invite you to a job interview turn out to be dumb enough to reject you? No doubt, they made a big mistake. Unless, of course, it turns out that the person making the mistakes is you.

"13 Mistakes That Could Ruin Your Job Interview, According To Hiring Managers" is the title of an article by ...Read more

Thinking about quitting your job?

Dumb question. You've been thinking about quitting from the day you started.

You remember that fateful day, of course. "It's a great opportunity," you told everyone. "It's not a huge salary, but I'll be making a boatload of money eventually. My co-workers seem really nice, and my boss really cares. It's a ...Read more

Remember way back in 2019? You made a bold resolution -- a promise to yourself that you would stop being a wimp at work. Instead, you would gird your loins and loin your girds and finally ask for that promotion you so richly deserve.

And you did it! You cornered your slippery sleaze of a manager and made your demands known in no uncertain terms...Read more

It's 2020. Do you know where your next job is?

Or are you one of those very special people who love their current job and would never ever thinking of changing? We have a name for people like this. We call them "weirdos."

For everyone else, the idea of a new job or even a totally new career is always simmering right below the surface. What can...Read more

There's no place like home for holidays.

So says the song.

But being home for the holidays may not be quite so wonderful if work starts pounding on the front door, demanding to be let in.

Let's face it -- with all the ways work can worm its way into our holidays -- emails, texts, the head of HR coming down the chimney -- it takes effort to ...Read more

It's always been your dream. Someday, somehow, somewhere, you are going to be a manager.

There are two ways this is going to happen. You will either find a company so completely screwed up they will view you as management material. Or, you will look deep into yourself and diligently make the changes in education and attitude that will qualify ...Read more

You're very smart. You're extremely loyal. You even work hard at your job (on occasion).

Yet, your career is going nowhere. You're not advancing in your company. You're not getting job offers from outside your company. On LinkedIn, you're Linked Out.

Do you know what's missing?

Charm! You don't got no charm.

Charm is a squishy attribute, I...Read more

I know it seems impossible, but there's a chance that somewhere out there an employer wants to offer you an amazing job.

I didn't say there was a big chance, but when you're stuck in the mud, career-wise, it's good to entertain the thought that there is a teensy-weensy, itsy-bitsy possibility the phone will ring and you will be offered a ...Read more