Are your coworkers driving you crazy? You are not alone! A recent study showed that almost 40% of workers feel out of place in the office. We have assembled a list of the most annoying coworker types. Anyone sounds familiar?
Note: This advice is purely for entertainment purposes and is not intended to solve serious problems!
10. The Obnoxious One
An obnoxious coworker repeatedly bangs on the table for no apparent reason, cracks knuckles and whistles eight hours a day. All this is between thunderous phone conversations. These coworkers have no secrets. They prefer discussing them with a door open and over a speakerphone with the whole office listening. By now you’ve learnt about their bonuses, medical problems, and heard plenty of baby talk with the spouse.
How to deal with them: Hum show tunes every time they get on the phone while hanging around their office and waiting for them to finish the phone call. Better yet, give them a portable phone booth.
Losing a job always brings financial hardship. Many who are unemployed struggle with paying bills on time, often ignoring them, not realizing that their tarnished credit history could become a barrier to finding a new job.
A recent study (conducted by the Society of Human Resource Management) has found that nearly 60% of employers run credit checks on job candidates. This is almost a 20% increase from just six years ago.
Many employers have been relying on credit histories in hiring decisions as indicators of a job candidate’s reliability. Even though there is little research showing a correlation between bad credit and poor job performance, an increased number of employers resort to credit checks.
Are you afraid that your less-than-perfect credit history may affect your job search? What can you do?
If you are unemployed and filing tax returns, you want to make sure not to miss out on many deductions available to job seekers. We have recently published Tax Tips to Maximize Your Refund This Year and by popular request decided to continue on that subject, putting together a list of job related expenses that you can and can’t write off this year:
The Ground Rules
In order to maximize your deductions and not get in trouble with IRS, it is important to understand the ground rules:
• You can only write off expenses for a job search in the same field in which you were formerly employed. In other words, you can’t write off job search expenses if you decide to switch to a different career.
• Unfortunately, if you just recently graduated and/or haven’t held a full time position, you are not entitled to writing off expenses associated with your first job search. The tax law only allows you to write off expenses incurred in searching for a position in your present occupation.
Jobs picture brightens a little with some companies now posting more ads seeking employees. Indeed.com, one of the largest jobs aggregators on the Internet, is keeping records on job postings and has seen the strongest gain in January of 2010.
The following are some of the industries with the strongest gains (when compared to January of last year):
Polls and recent election results in Massachusetts are showing that Americans are gradually losing trust in government to fix the unemployment problem. Many Americans consider Washington too preoccupied with partisan politics, where positions or a political party are often put before the issues that really matter to the American people.
The recent loss of the Massachusetts Senate seat may be a wakeup call for Democrats and President Obama in particular, who campaigned on a slogan of change in Washington. Most Americans agree that there hasn’t been much of a change when it comes to bipartisanship on Capitol Hill.
With Democrats loosing their super-majority in Senate, we may now be seeing attempts to change the course. Leading Senate Democrats have just unveiled a new agenda to focus on job creation with first votes on additional legislation expected on Monday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) did not elaborate on the details of the legislation but emphasized that Democrats are seeking bipartisan support: “We don’t agree on everything, but we certainly agree on the fact that we’re going to move forward on a jobs agenda. That’s why we’re here and we will have a vote on a jobs bill on Monday.” Reid said.
With the tax season kicking off, if you are unemployed or were unemployed in 2009, you want to make sure not to miss out on many deductions and exemptions available this year. To help you navigate this year’s returns, we have put together this checklist of things to keep in mind. We recommend that you carefully study this list of the deductions and credits to which you may be entitled because of your unemployed status, before filing tax returns this year.
Here are some of the things to keep in mind:
2009 Stimulus Package for Unemployed
This year you can enjoy reduced taxes on unemployment income. Normally, individuals receiving unemployment benefits must report them as income and pay income tax on them. The 2009 bill signed by President Obama makes the first $2,400 of unemployment income nontaxable.
I have recently written about employment discrimination and found that my explanations regarding age discrimination became a subject of many heated discussions and controversy. Needless to say, it is a very sensitive subject. The purpose of my article was to help those who are being discriminated against by shedding some light on how employers look at things and why discrimination takes place. In my opinion, Job Seekers who have this understanding are better equipped for dealing with discrimination.
I am going to attempt to do this again. This time I will be focusing specifically on Age Discrimination and on myths and facts surrounding it:
What is Discrimination?
Princeton Dictionary defines discrimination as “unfair treatment of a person or group on the basis of prejudice rather than individual merit”. I strongly feel that treating job seekers unfairly simply because of their age is wrong and unjustified. At the same time, however, I feel that it is in an employer’s right to test job seekers’ abilities in order to determine if they are fit to perform duties as required by the job. I think it is wrong to require an employer to hire someone because of anti-discrimination laws if such individual is not the best choice for the job. To me, this is actually discrimination in reverse. For example, hiring a candidate to satisfy diversity requirement and simply because of their race and not their abilities, is actually discriminatory against other better-qualified candidates.
With family budgets especially tight this winter, homeowners are looking for new ways to save money on their utilities bills. We have put together a list of the most efficient ways to do just that. Follow these simple steps to lower your monthly bills by as much as 20%. That may turn into hundreds or even thousands of dollars in savings:
1. Furnace & Heating
The rule of thumb is that you can save about 3% on your heating bill for every degree you set back on your thermostat. Consider lowering the temperature and using small space heaters for some rooms, if necessary, as opposed to heating the entire house (but do keep in mind that space heaters consume a lot of energy). Programming your thermostat to reduce energy when none is at home or everyone’s asleep, is the single best thing you can do. If you don’t have a programmable thermostat, it the best investment you can make to save money on your energy bills.
Also, have your furnace cleaned once a year. Replace filters at least once every three months (or more often if you have pets). Clogged filters will cause your furnace work harder to heat the same amount of space. Keep all air vents and radiators unrestricted by furniture and rugs. Make sure that the air flows more easily. If you have unused rooms – close them off and shut the vents inside. Projected savings: $40 - $100 / month Read this »
Are your coworkers driving you crazy? You are not alone! A recent study showed that almost 40% of workers feel out of place in the office. We have assembled a list of the most annoying coworker types. Anyone sounds familiar?
Losing a job always brings financial hardship. Many who are unemployed struggle with paying bills on time, often ignoring them, not realizing that their tarnished credit history could become a barrier to finding a new job.
If you are unemployed and filing tax returns, you want to make sure not to miss out on many deductions available to job seekers. We have recently published 
Jobs picture brightens a little with some companies now posting more ads seeking employees. Indeed.com, one of the largest jobs aggregators on the Internet, is keeping records on job postings and has seen the strongest gain in January of 2010.
Polls and recent election results in Massachusetts are showing that Americans are gradually losing trust in government to fix the unemployment problem. Many Americans consider Washington too preoccupied with partisan politics, where positions or a political party are often put before the issues that really matter to the American people.
The recent loss of the Massachusetts Senate seat may be a wakeup call for Democrats and President Obama in particular, who campaigned on a slogan of change in Washington. Most Americans agree that there hasn’t been much of a change when it comes to bipartisanship on Capitol Hill.
With the tax season kicking off, if you are unemployed or were unemployed in 2009, you want to make sure not to miss out on many deductions and exemptions available this year. To help you navigate this year’s returns, we have put together this checklist of things to keep in mind. We recommend that you carefully study this list of the deductions and credits to which you may be entitled because of your unemployed status, before filing tax returns this year.
I have recently written about 
With family budgets especially tight this winter, homeowners are looking for new ways to save money on their utilities bills. We have put together a list of the most efficient ways to do just that. Follow these simple steps to lower your monthly bills by as much as 20%. That may turn into hundreds or even thousands of dollars in savings:
