Money magazine – Page 4

How to Unplug From Work

September 9, 2015September 9, 2015Posted in Money magazineTagged careers, email, technology, vacation

Bet you can’t remember the last time you worked a 35-hour week. Thanks to technology, “employees feel the need to do more, work harder, and put in longer hours to stay competitive,” says Texas A&M management professor Wendy Boswell, who studies work/life balance. Smartphone users spend five hours on work email each weekend, reports the Center for Creative Leadership. A poll by the employment website Glassdoor found that 61% of people have worked during a vacation.

Productivity falls sharply after a 50-hour workweek, found Stanford economics professor John Pencavel. So connecting less is good for you and your company—though your boss may need convincing.

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Make Your Boss Your BFF

June 1, 2015June 1, 2015Posted in Money magazineTagged boss, careers, manager, promotion, raise

Buddying up with the boss can pay off, literally.
In a study of executives done at Georgetown University, nine in 10 acknowledged that favoritism occurs in larger organizations, and 23% of them said they had personally practiced favoritism in making promotion decisions. Read: Getting more familiar with the person who signs off on your raises can help you make sure they’re bigger. Follow these tips to cozy up without crossing the line.

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How to Play the Just Right Market

April 22, 2015April 24, 2015Posted in Money magazineTagged homebuyer, housing, housing market, real estate

Too hot, too cold, too hot. For more than a decade the housing market has been nowhere near its Goldilocks moment, a just-right rate of growth that offers opportunities for both buyers and sellers. By certain markers, we’re finally starting to get there: Home prices nationwide are expected to rise 4.9% on average this year, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). That’s closer than we’ve been in a while to the long-term average of 3.3%—and a lot more manageable than either the sharp drops of the bust years or the 12% spike we saw in 2013.

What does it all mean for you? If you’re a buyer, you don’t have to worry as much today about being priced out in a bidding war or by all-cash offers. Sellers who didn’t have enough equity in their homes just a few years ago to justify a move could find themselves in a much better position now. And renovators can still get low rates on home-equity loans and lines of credit. In short: If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines, this may be the time to act—or at least to do some serious number crunching.

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Shifting From Buddy to Boss

February 26, 2015Posted in Money magazineTagged boss, career, coworkers, manager

Right after you celebrate that well-earned promotion, reality hits: You’re now the boss of people who had been your peers. “When you become a supervisor, the relationship structurally changes, whether you like it or not,” says Good Boss, Bad Boss author
Robert Sutton, a Stanford University professor who studies organizational behavior.

Going forward, your work will be judged on your ability to lead people with whom you used to consort and complain. If that’s not enough pressure, you’re now at risk of being the one complained about. Make the transition seamless with these steps.

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How to Take Advantage of Your Boss’s Biggest Fear

January 5, 2015October 2, 2016Posted in Money magazineTagged careers, customer retention, salary, talent

Star performers, rejoice. This is your year. More than three-quarters of human resources executives polled recently by Challenger Gray & Christmas report that they are struggling to fill open positions—and 91% say that if the economy keeps expanding at its current rate, the war for talent will worsen. Unemployment is in fact expected to continue its slow creep downward in 2015, to 5.7% from 5.9% this September, according to the Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s most recent forecast.

That means bad news ahead for employers but good news for top producers, who will have real leverage in the coming year. Turnover costs are especially high for positions that are significant contributors to revenue—sometimes 200% of a worker’s salary. So it’s no wonder that 57% of the 4,700 companies surveyed in PayScale.com’s recent “Compensation Best Practices Report” cited keeping high-performing workers as a top business concern, up from 20% in 2010. “Just about every HR department should be discussing talent retention,” says David Card, director at the Center for Labor Economics at the University of California at Berkeley.

You can turn your boss’s anxiety to your advantage. Click here to read the full story.

How to Compete for an Out-of-Town Job

December 9, 2014April 24, 2015Posted in Money magazineTagged careers, hiring, job search

Three out of four hiring managers recently surveyed by Challenger Gray & Christmas reported a shortage of local talent. So theoretically you could have better luck finding the job of your dreams if you’re willing and able to move.

Problem is, many companies are hesitant to hire out-of-towners because of concerns over relocation, money, and local knowledge. But you can put hiring managers at ease by preemptively addressing three key issues in your application.

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MONEY’s 2014 Best Places to Retire

November 12, 2014November 12, 2014Posted in Money magazineTagged affordability, best places, Florida, retirement

Thinking about retiring to sunny Florida? Or maybe Arizona? Well, prepare yourself: This year’s Best Places to Retire list may surprise you. None of the typical beach-and-golf spots appear here. The reason is simple. Most popular retiree destinations score surprisingly low in the factors that help guarantee a secure retirement.

Yes, that means focusing on some cold spots, but it seems safe to bet that, for many retirees, financial security still trumps weather. Plus, what better way to use the money you’ll save living in these affordable towns than on a tropical winter vacation?

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How to Ace the New Job Interview

October 19, 2014December 9, 2014Posted in Money magazineTagged careers, employment, job interview, jobs

Planning your next big career move? Get
going. Job openings climbed to 4.7 million in June, the highest level since 2001, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And in a recent survey by Challenger Gray & Christmas, 77% of hiring managers reported trouble filling slots because of a talent shortage.

To succeed in this sunnier market, though, you need a firm grasp on today’s hiring process, one that may be far different from what you faced the last time you hit the circuit. For starters, businesses are going slow, spending an average of 23 days to fill a slot in 2013, vs. 12 days in 2010, according to employer review website Glassdoor. And many are replacing antiquated hiring methods with more offbeat ways to vet job seekers.

“Companies are finding traditional job interviews aren’t identifying the high-quality candidates they need,” says Parker McKenna of the Society for Human Resource Management. Numerous academic studies have unearthed flaws in the process. A 2013 one co-written by psychologist Jason Dana at the Yale School of Management found that many hiring managers are mistakenly overconfident in their ability to assess how well a candidate will perform through a one-on-one interview. To get an edge on your competition, you should prepare for four types of tests.

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Good Ways to Deal With Bad Bosses

August 7, 2014August 19, 2014Posted in Money magazineTagged boss, career, jobs, manager, micromanager

The top reason people quit their jobs, according to a recent Gallup poll? A bad immediate supervisor. Bully for those who can—and want to—find another position elsewhere, but if you otherwise like the job or need it as a steppingstone, you’ll have to learn to live with that subpar superior. The right coping strategy depends on what kind of lousy your leader is.

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