Find Jobs

Life At Work

Help! My New Boss is Just a Kid

By: Donald Asher

Dear Guru Don: I am about to pull my hair out! My company just hired a kid to supervise me, and it's a disaster. I run a major warehouse system for a utility company. I'd been told for five years that I was next in line for promotion, and when it came up, wham, out of nowhere they hire this kid with a master's degree in logistics. What she doesn't know would fill a book.

By: Taunee Besson, CMF, CareerCast.com Senior Columnist

Having been a career planner for a number of years, my clients and I have gone through:

By: Douglas B. Richardson, Certified Master Coach

Let's say you want to figure out what to do with your life. Or, perhaps you detest your current job or have been fired six times in five years, and you've decided that some serious self-assessment is in order. Well, you're in luck.

By: Sue Shellenbarger

As layoffs spread, part-timers, flex-timers and telecommuters fear they'll be the first to go. Unfortunately, they're sometimes right. The outcome depends on where you work. At some employers, people on reduced-hours or work-at-home setups are the first to fall under the budget ax; other employers revert to an "all hands on deck" mode and revoke flexible arrangements. At other companies, however, oddball work setups are considered an advantage in the drive for efficiency. Either way, hanging onto a flexible work setup during a recession requires planning – and luck.

In tough times, many employers revert to thinking critical jobs can only be done full-time, flat-out and under the boss's nose. Hilary Achauer, a San Diego marketing specialist for a nonprofit concern, sought to return to work part-time from maternity leave last year, but was offered a full-time management job instead. When she passed it up, she was diverted to a marginal job, then axed in February, while the employee who took the full-time slot was spared. "When the going gets tough," she says, some employers say, "'That person is only part-time, let's get rid of them.'"

stack of research books with a pair of glasses resting on top

By: Eileen AJ Connelly

Losing a job can mean losing more than just a paycheck. Without some planning, an extended layoff can cause job skills to fade and make someone less attractive to potential employers. And it's not just the unemployed 8.5 percent of the work force that has to worry about a personal brain drain. Add in those working part time or who have given up looking for a job, and the Labor Department says 15.6 percent of the U.S. work force is "underutilized."

By: Dawn Klingensmith

Rich Gee once worked at a technology research company with a young subordinate who took charge of sending out a mass e-mail announcing the launch of a new Web site. The link in the e-mail contained a misspelling, though, and failed to deliver users to the site. Truly bewildered by Gee's chagrin, the sender shrugged it off as no big deal. After all, he could fix his mistake and resend the e-mail in 10 seconds flat.

Gee told him first impressions are important and the dead-end link had cost the company some credibility. When the younger employee insisted that a second e-mail would solve everything, "I suddenly realized I was old," said Gee, 46, now a career coach based in Stamford, Connecticut.