Work Place

A Pain in the Neck – Literally! Neck pain can be caused by any workplace activity that strains your neck and you might feel pain at the base of your skull and down into your shoulders, or you might just feel a knot in your neck. You may also develop a headache. Serious neck pain can limit your ability to …

Why We Get Sleepy in the Afternoon. If you tend to suffer a sleepiness attack in the mid-afternoon, well it’s not all that odd. Many people experience a noticeable dip in their alertness, attention, creativity, energy level, and ability to concentrate in the mid-afternoon. It’s true, the majority of us have been there: after an awesomely kick-ass, productive morning of …

How to Prepare For and Return From a Vacation. With the 24/7-ness of our culture, it is becoming more and more difficult for employees to ever feel they that have all their work done. Plus today’s work ethic of “more, bigger, faster, busier” creates a trap for all of us making us fearful of taking vacations or even days-off. Here …

When and How to ask for Feedback. After the recent podcast episode about How to Ask For and Get a Raise I got some feedback from people looking for more information on how they can really hone in on being the kind of employee who actually deserves and gets a raise. Some of the questions and comments I received reminded …

How to Ask For and Get a Raise. The four most common reasons that people don’t get a raise are: You Don’t Know the Going Rate, You Don’t Know Your Value, You Can’t Justify Your Value, and You Never Ask. The last one is the reason that I have seen the most often. So many great employees, busting their butt, …

Sick: Dealing with Illness in the Workplace. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says people with the flu can spread it to others up to about six feet away, mainly by droplets made when they cough, sneeze or talk. A person can also get the flu by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it …

How and When to Say No. I don’t know who actually said it first but I first heard it from Derek Sivers (the guy who started CD Baby and then later sold it for like a bazillion dollars). He wrote in Aug 2009: There is no “yes.” It’s either “HELL YEAH!” or “no.” Every event you get invited to. Every request to …

Announcing the Change Academy podcast. After a nearly two-year hiatus, I am back with an exciting announcement! I have a new podcast called Change Academy and in this short episode of Workplace Hero, I explain what the new show is all about and play you a snippet from Episode #1 of Change Academy. You can find Change Academy at changeacademypodcast.com and (of …

Telecommuting – The Art of Working At Home. Working from home is great on so many levels. Not having to commute saves money and time and can actually make you happier. A plethora of free tools make it super simple to check in with a decentralized office or teammates that may also be working in their homes, scattered around the …

Ergonomics w/ Elle Russ. Guest Hero: Elle Russ, writer, actor, life coach and host of The Primal Blueprint Podcast. Human-factors engineering, also called ergonomics or human engineering, is the science dealing with the application of information on physical and psychological characteristics to the design of devices and systems for human use. Over at WorkSafeBC.com (the Workers’ Compensation Board in the Canadian province of …