Office, Work | featured news

Ever worry about getting caught by police using your cellphone while driving? That was not enough of a risk for one German driver, who had an entire office installed in his FORD Mondeo station wagon. Undercover highway police in southern Germany on Monday pulled over a 34-year-old IT specialist after he conducted an illegal passing maneuver and was going 80 miles per hour in a reduced 62-mile-per-hour zone on Germany's infamous super highway, the autobahn.

Nearly every office dweller fantasizes about the joys of working from home: Dressing in PJs instead of suits. Eating from the fridge and not the vending machine. Listening to birds chirp instead of the boss bark.

If your office sometimes feels more like an Olympic boxing ring than the collaborative environment you hear about in human resources materials, you can at least take comfort that you’re not alone.

Talk of a paperless office has been around for well over 40 years. Articles about whether it would ever happen have been around for nearly as long - in magazines and newspapers and here from the BBC news website more than a decade ago.

...And yet — step for a moment into the chill. The outdoor climate of our sweltering city is a false climate. It is merely the swamp through which we must wade to get to our true environment, a land of recirculated cold, spare blazers on backs of chairs and frostbite. Inside weather is the weather of the office worker. It’s summer outside, but indoors, it’s winter.

All federal government organizations are potentially at risk for workplace violence, not just those in high-crime areas or dealing with violent members of the public, according to an agency studying the issue.

Thursday is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work day, although perhaps you didn't notice. The annual event, started 20 years ago as a way to expose girls and young women to workplace and career opportunities, has attracted less attention in recent years.

Beneath a veneer of professional collegiality, your co-workers are taking note of the mess on your desk, how loudly you chew, even your word choices. Obviously, serious misconduct such as discrimination and harassment can lead to a job loss. But small irritants can hurt productivity and build walls between co-workers.

Forget about seeing red. Managers at a Florida law firm reportedly saw orange and fired everyone wearing the color... Florida, among other states, is an at-will work state and that means employers can pretty much fire you for whatever reason, except when it comes to discriminating against a particular group.

In all the years I've been teaching and coaching managers, I've yet to meet one who wakes up each morning, thinking, "How can I make someone's life hell today?" Most bosses really want to do right by their people, knowing it's not always easy to juggle business objectives, constant ...