CHICAGO — Every time the Veldman brothers attempted to grow their franchise, Ron Veldman said, a fight with corporate ensued. The franchiser said “no” to expanding the business into cleaning and repairing homes damaged by fire or flood. It said “no” to packing and storing customers’ clothes and furniture. And it said “no” to owning
Q: A supervisor who reports to me never gives more than the minimum effort. “Rick” is so lazy that his emails don’t even contain complete sentences. Despite being a salaried employee, he refuses to work more than eight hours per day. If it’s time for his shift to end, he will walk out in the
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is turning to another asset in addition to its strategic oil reserve to help pay for a budget deal: Congress and the Obama administration want to sell federal airwaves after an auction earlier this year set records. The Federal Communications Commission needs to begin an auction of 30 megahertz of airwaves
Who doesn’t dream of their first real job after graduating? Images of lavish break rooms, high-powered suits and corporate ladders often dance in the heads of recent grads, but scaling down those first-job dreams just might be the smartest career move you’ll ever make. If you’re a new grad that’s about to enter the workforce,
No matter how much you love your job, you’ve likely suffered from cube life fatigue at some point or another. The truth is, spending extended periods of time in an artificially-lit, stale office can really take a toll on your spirit – and this is especially true for young professionals who are still making the
Question: Do you feel excited and happy to go to work every day? Sure, we all have our off days – you know, the ones where we’d rather spend the day hiding in bed instead of sitting at a desk. However, if the thought of going to work fills you with dread more often than
Congratulations – you’ve landed a new job! It’s easy to think that after having aced the interview, negotiated a great package and set your start date that the hard work is done. Of course you should celebrate your victory, but don’t spend too long basking in the glory of your success because there is still
Many of us, if not all of us, share the desire to reach our full potential and work our way up the business ladder. It is most definitely not ideal to all of us to stay stationary at work and never move our way along to greater success. Success at work counts for a variety
HARTFORD, Conn. — Richard Trusz, a former UBS employee in Hartford who sued after he was fired in 2008, won a victory at the State Supreme Court Monday. The court, in a unanimous decision, ruled that employees who make arguments at work about matters of public concern are protected by state law against retaliation —
How Income Inequality Affects Us All — And Why Companies Should Care Introduction Recently, we looked at some numbers that suggested the gap between rich and poor in the United States is growing. Then, we considered some possible reasons for this growing inequality. Now, we answer perhaps the most important question: So what? The numbers suggest
New Year, New Job? If you saw the number of workers looking for new jobs has risen, you’d probably think it’s because employers are withholding raises and making workers unhappy where they are. But you’d be wrong. An annual survey by Salary.com found there was a sharp increase in employee satisfaction in 2013, yet the
Even the Most Well-Intentioned Managers Commit These Cardinal Sins Are You Guilty Of Any of These? Contrary to popular belief, most managers aren’t ineffective because they’re monsters lording their power over underlings. Most of the time, it’s because they’re making mistakes — just like the rest of us. It’s true that for every mistake you
A Checklist of Attributes to Consider Before Handing Out Pay Bumps Know What to Look For So your employees want a raise? That’s understandable and expected. But do they DESERVE a raise? Too many employees only think about things from their own perspectives. But if you want to determine which ones are truly deserving of
Has Your Company Become Well Known As a Terrible Place to Work? It’s Time to Face Some Ugly Truths Maybe you don’t realize it. Or maybe you do and you just don’t care because you think you’re too busy. But somewhere along the line, it seems you created a monster. Your company is now a
Let Common Sense Dictate Your Sick Leave Policy How Does Your Sick Leave Policy Work? Depending on the philosophy your company takes, the issue of sick leave can be pretty contentious. Do you keep your sick leave separate from other time off? Do you hire someone specifically to track it? Or do you lump sick
Handled the Right Way, Problem Employees Can Become Valuable Contributors Fix the Problem the Right Way For the most part, your team is great. They like to collaborate and share ideas, they’re supportive, and they’re (fairly) punctual. (They even got you a Happy Birthday Colossal Crumbs cupcake for your birthday!) But there is one employee
How to Constructively Turn Down Someone Who Doesn’t Deserve a Raise What to Do When Average Doesn’t Cut It No doubt about it, your team is working hard. But one day, an employee pops into your office and subsequently asks for a raise. He’s a fairly good worker, but frankly he hasn’t done anything extraordinary
Telecommuting Can Be a Win-Win As an employer, you might be tempted to go the traditional route of having all your employees in the office all the time. But even though it’s tempting and understandable to want to keep an eye on the people you’re paying, businesses can benefit greatly when their workers telecommute. Here’s
The intent of this article is to explain the components of an Employee Stock Option Plan to Human Resources professionals and managers that may need to explain the complexities of a plan to employees. Stock option plans are the large contracts that govern stock options programs. Stock option agreements are the individual options grants, vesting
About Stock Options One of the biggest challenges facing employers is recruiting and retaining qualified, dedicated employees. Over the past decade, with unemployment levels low and the economy doing well, one of the ways businesses in many industries were recruiting the best possible talent and keeping those employees happy was by offering stock options. For
