Tag: Money magazine

Make your desk impress

Posted in Money magazineTagged , , , ,

Appearance matters — and in the corporate his-productive-work-deskworld, that applies to your desktop as much as your dress attire.

“Your space speaks to your work mentality, creativity, and organizational skills,” says Sam Gosling, a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You.

And with 70% of American employees now working in open-plan offices, as the International Facility Management Association reports, desktops are more in the public eye than ever. Ensure that yours sends the right message.

Click here to read the full story.

Money: Talk Your Way to a Better Raise

Posted in MagazinesTagged , , , , Leave a comment

Another year, another piddling pay raise? For some, sure. The average increase is expected to be just 3% in 2012, up a hair from last year’s 2.9%, according to human resources consulting firm Mercer. Still, managers are concerned about retaining top talent, which explains why the best performers will see a brighter 4.6% (while the weakest links will get 0.4%).

For a Money magazine story, I talked with career coaches, management professors, and psychology experts to determine several strategies for talking your way to a raise. For starters, you’ll want to avoid beginning the conversation with money talk. Instead, emphasize your level of worth by writing on the left side of a piece of paper the things you were hired to do, and on the right, what you’re doing — then provide this as evidence of your growing role at the company. Learn more about these negotiation tactics in this month’s issue of Money.