The Week: Most Recent U.S. Economy:Working in America

The most powerful handshake in the world

The Week — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:20:00 -0500

We've all been victims of a terrible handshake. Maybe it's a death-grip where you feel like you're shaking hands with a lobster. Maybe it's a limp, lifeless shake, like you're suddenly wagging a fern. Either way, if you're meeting someone for the first time, a bad shake can leave a lasting, negative impression — especially in the world of business.

It's almost become a truism, but that's because it's true: A great handshake can go a long way in earning respect from new colleagues or impressing a potential employer. People judge and are judged based on body language and physical social interactions...

$9 minimum wage: Poverty reducer or job killer?

The Week — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 11:00:00 -0500

In perhaps the "most controversial proposal" in Tuesday night's State of the Union address, President Obama called for raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour. "Even with the tax relief we've put in place, a family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still lives below the poverty line. That’s wrong," Obama said. "Let's declare that in the wealthiest nation on earth, no one who works full time should have to live in poverty." The White House says that raising the minimum wage would improve the lives of millions of people, from cooks to store clerks to health-care aides...

Working, but still poor

The Week — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:40:00 -0500

Who are the working poor?
They're the millions of people who have jobs that leave them mired at the edge of poverty. Their ranks include legions of retail clerks at chains like Walmart, fast-food workers, dishwashers, customer assistance representatives, home health-care aides, factory workers, and farm laborers. Some 46.2 million Americans now live in families where someone is working but earning less than the poverty line: $11,702 a year for an individual or $23,021 for a family of four. Many economists have a broader definition, saying that the working poor are those whose incomes do not cover...

Is this the most ridiculous job posting ever?

The Week — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:15:00 -0500

The Dalkey Archive Press is a renowned independent publisher that has been heaped with praise for printing the likes of William Gaddis, John Hawkes, Flann O'Brien, and other top-notch writers who have been pushed to the side by an industry increasingly betting its entire future on Fifty Shades of Grey and teen-vampire series. That being said, Dalkey Archive also sounds like a terrible place to work. A job posting for an unpaid position has attracted attention for its hilariously cumbersome demands, which seem unlikely to be met by most humans:

Any of the following will be grounds for immediate...

6 ways to tweet yourself out of a job

The Week — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:13:00 -0500

Step 1: Drunk tweet
As any Spring Break partier knows, drinking impairs your judgment. It seems to have also impaired the judgment of Major League pitcher-turned-sports-radio-host Mike Bacsik, who put on quite a show during a San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks NBA game in April 2010. While watching the game, Bacsik bragged that he was "About 12 deep and some shots." He proceeded to unleash a string of insults aimed at NBA commissioner David Stern, accused the refs of fixing the game, and even threatened to blow up the NBA's offices. But the one that really got people riled up came after the...

Facebook's new jobs board: Is LinkedIn toast?

The Week — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:40:00 -0500

On the lookout for a new job? Here's something to like: Facebook, with the enthusiastic backing of the Department of Labor, just revealed a new job-board application to help many of the social network's 1 billion-plus users get back to work. The platform — which partners with Monster.com, BranchOut, and Work4 Labs, among others — aggregates 1.7 million openings from recruiters, allowing job-hunters to sift through listings by location, industry, and skill, or share job openings through their network. Facebook insists that it's not entering the recruiting industry, a statement that ...

Why popular kids make more money as adults

The Week — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 17:00:00 -0400

Many a nerd has taken solace in the fact that the popular kids will one day bitterly rue not spending more time with their books, particularly when their geekier counterparts are swimming in dough and driving Ferraris. But that, sadly, is not the case, according to a new study released by the National Bureau of Economic Research. It turns out that 40 years after graduation, the most popular students earn about 10 percent more than the least popular, says Michael S. Derby at The Wall Street Journal:

Popularity pays because those who learn to play the game in high school are figuring out what...

Does a shaved head give you an advantage in corporate America?

The Week — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 11:03:00 -0400

While having no hair may seem to offer few advantages, a new study from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania begs to differ. Researchers found that men with shaved heads are perceived to be more masculine and dominant — not to mention "on average one inch taller, and able to bench press 15 more pounds than other men," says Eric McClaughlin at ABC News. Meanwhile men whose hair is thinning but not shaved off — those stuck in comb-over purgatory — were viewed as weak. How did Wharton come to these conclusions? Researchers conducted three experiments, says Rachel...

How millennials are transforming the workplace

The Week — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 07:38:00 -0400

Millennials — the generation born in the 1980s and '90s — have often been "criticized as spoiled, impatient, and most of all, entitled," says Leslie Kwoh at The Wall Street Journal. Instead of being hammered into shape once they graduate from college and enter the workforce, these young whippersnappers are making demands of their new bosses — and, surprisingly enough, "companies are jumping through hoops to accommodate" them, says Kwoh. Here, a guide to how millennials, also known as Generation Y, are transforming the workplace:

What kind of changes do they want?
Millennials...

The latest corporate bonding trend: Group juice cleanses?

The Week — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 06:40:00 -0400

In the somewhat fictional 1960s of TV shows like Mad Men, or even on the very real Wall Street of the 1980s, companies encouraged coworker camaraderie with seven-martini lunches and after-work highballs. But these days, the big new thing in corporate bonding, according to Courtney Rubin in The New York Times, is group juice cleanses. The fad is reportedly all the rage at among financial-services powerhouses, ad and TV production companies, and fashion houses. Here's what you should know:

What is a corporate juice cleanse?
Juice cleanses are a form of fasting and detoxification in which you get...

The man charged with secretly filming his breast-pumping co-worker

The Week — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:04:00 -0400

A Pennsylvania man, John Bednarik II, was arrested last week and charged with secretly videotaping a co-worker while she pumped breast milk in her office. Even more disturbing? There have been a smattering of similar arrests around the world. What's behind this blatant invasion of privacy? Here, a brief guide to this creepy practice:

What happened in the latest case?
A woman who works at DeSales University in Center Valley, Pa., had taken off her shirt in her office, and was using her breast pump when she heard a noise. She looked up, and saw a hole in a ceiling tile directly above her desk...

A day in the life of a warehouse wage slave

The Week — Fri, 18 May 2012 10:32:00 -0400

THE PLACE IS immense. Cold, cavernous. Silent, despite thousands of people quietly picking items, or standing along the conveyors quietly packing or box-taping, nothing noisy but the occasional whir of a passing forklift. I have just been hired as a picker, which means my job is to find, scan, place in a plastic tote, and send away via conveyor whatever item within the multiple stories of this several-hundred-thousand-square-foot warehouse my scanner tells me to.

My scanner tells me in what exact section — there are nine merchandise sections, so sprawling that there's a map attached...

The 'Anger Room': The new way to blow off steam after work

The Week — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:40:00 -0400

While stress is an unfortunate and unhealthy part of modern life, going on a destructive rampage isn't usually a socially acceptable way of dealing with it. Enter the Anger Room, an inconspicuous storefront in a Dallas strip mall where fed-up Americans can act out. Inside, proprietor and founder Donna Alexander and her staff offer up rooms of stuff — TVs, office furniture, glassware — for patrons to smash. (Watch a therapeutic session below.) Here, a brief guide:

How does the Anger Room work?
The rooms are filled with donated or found items from garage sales or dumpsters. When...

Time to cap the workweek at 40 hours?

The Week — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:09:00 -0400

Sheryl Sandberg, the second-in-command at social networking giant Facebook, admitted this month that she leaves work at 5:30 on the dot, and has done so ever since she had children. "It's not until the last year, two years, that I'm brave enough to talk about it publicly," she said. Her work habits stand in stark contrast to the all-consuming efforts of other high-powered executives, particularly in the hyper-competitive tech industry, where people often work 50, 60, or 70 — or more — hours a week. Should there be a 40-hour limit?

Yes. Working more than 40 hours hurts productivity...

'Welcome back to work' baby bonuses: Good for business?

The Week — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:16:00 -0400

For many new moms, returning to a job after maternity leave can play havoc with their emotions. But now, an Australian company has introduced a policy designed to make the decision a little easier: "Welcome back to work" bonuses. Is it good business to lure new moms back to the workplace with financial incentives? Here, a brief guide:

How much do these new mothers get?
The company, Insurance Australia Group, gives new moms 14 weeks of paid maternity leave, on top of a government payment of up to 18 weeks at the country's minimum wage of $16 an hour. And now, IAG is paying returning...

Is the office cubicle dead?

The Week — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:41:00 -0400

The office cubicle might be one of the most potent symbols of modern atomization, segregating individuals inside vast honeycomb structures. But workers could come to miss those flimsy, chest-high partitions, as cost-cutting companies increasingly replace cubicles with communal areas that can accommodate more workers per square foot. Whether you call them "free address" floor plans or "nonterritorial offices," it's clear the open workspace is spreading beyond newsrooms and cool internet start-ups. Here, a guide:

Are open workspaces really on the rise?
Yes. About "70 percent" of workers now...