How to quit your day job. Wait, you mean setting the office on fire as you walk away cackling isn’t actually a good idea? – Consumerist
The average American worker works 8.5 hours a week. So much for the 40 hour workweek. – Gawker
The real workplace battle is taking place and the battleground is the candy jar. Some say it makes everyone fat; some say it makes everyone happy. I say there’s a reason the phrase “fat and happy” exists. – Wall Street Journal
NOT winning – Charlie Sheen’s behavior of late provides some excellent tips for getting fired. – The Work Buzz
It may not be as obvious as Mad Men or The Office, but Discovery’s Deadliest Catch is a workplace show too. – Salon
Here’s how to explain to your parents why you’re unemployed – in handy infographic form! – I Love Charts
Can a fad diet help you get promoted? Yes, but not in the way you think. – Blisstree
When I think of Valentine’s Day I’ll tell you what I don’t think of: work. But in Japan, it’s becoming increasingly common for young women to buy “giri choco,” or “obligation chocolate,” for their (usually male) bosses and coworkers on Valentine’s Day. It’s more common for women to buy chocolate for their officemates than for their boyfriends or husbands, according to a new study, and the fact that Valentine’s was on a weekday this year only upped sales figures more.
If it feels weird to buy candy for your boss on a day about love (I’m guessing Japanese regulations about what constitutes workplace harassment are not as stringent as the ones here), you can purchase “sewa choco” (chocolate given to a man you respect) or “tomo choco” (chocolate given to female friends) instead. Lest it sound like women are buying a bunch of candy for ungrateful people, there’s a Japanese holiday called White Day exactly one month after Valentine’s where men buy sweets for women.
As a career admin, I’ve had different types of gifts…the personal (gorgeous pearls from a boss’ trip to Hong Kong) and the impersonal (company logo swag). But one year, I received a gift that was both, and the result was pure, unadulterated insult.
The year was 2003. I had undergone weight loss surgery in the spring and within a month of returning to work, my executive boss (in a 20-person department of a VERY large financial firm that is still in existence) took me out to lunch. We had always had a good line of communication so he was aware of the restrictions, rules, etc. of my new lifestyle.
That Christmas, the boss decided to give everyone in the department the same gift, even his assistant (that would be me). I was a little surprised as we worked very closely together but shrugged it off as “not playing favorites.” The gift? A box of Godiva milk chocolate cigars. Not a dozen…THREE cigars. (Did I mention he was an executive vice president at a financial firm?)
Knowing my dietary restrictions, you would think he would have perhaps come up with a slightly different gift for me (even sugar-free chocolates would have been better). Nope. But before anyone thinks I’m ungrateful…the kicker was the card that came with my trio of “treats”:
“I know these aren’t a part of your new diet, but if I ever want one, I’ll know where to find them.”
It was the one time chocolate left a REALLY bad taste in my mouth.
- Submitted by Aliza, New York
Is “take this job and shove it” not creative enough for you? Try out some of these more outrageous ways to quit. – AOL
Are your coworkers making you fat? This might be a sign that that chick in accounting needs to cool it with her brownie-baking experiments. – Lemondrop
Sometimes a job is so precise it requires an animal to do it instead of a person. It helps that the animal is cuter and will not drink the last of the coffee. – Blisstree
Remember Eloise? She downgraded from life at the Plaza to working as an intern at Conde Nast. – McSweeney’s
Here are ten things that will help you survive office life. No, they’re not coffee and painkillers – they’re ways to get other people to do your work without realizing it and tips for making small talk with just about anyone. – Lifehacker
Prettier people get ahead at work. There’s actually a lot more to it than that, but that’s why this is a link roundup and not a whole separate article. – Newsweek
Downside of being an intern at a fashion magazine: you don’t get paid. Upside: sometimes you get to be in a photo shoot styled by the Creative Director. – Elle
Anne Burrell hosts Secrets of a Restaurant Chef on the Food Network, and she has the skills to back it up – she was the executive chef at New York’s Centro Vinoteca restaurant. However, just because she made it to the top of her profession doesn’t mean she didn’t step on anyone to get there. Slashfood got their hands on documents relating to a lawsuit filed against Burrell by former employees:
According to the suit, rehashed in a dismissal motion, Burrell was hung up on Centro Vinoteca’s employees’ breasts; She told one employee that leaning over the bar was “slutty,” commented “repeatedly” on another employee’s cleavage and announced that a bartender had “saggy boobs,” creating a special “saggy boob” hand gesture to mock her. The complaint further states that Burrell suspended an employee for allegedly stealing a piece of cheese, claimed an employee faked an ovarian cyst and banged a pan when a manager urged her to be a better communicator.
Burrell is about to get a second Food Network show – Worst Cooks in America. Perhaps she can also get a gig appearing on a spinoff about America’s worst bosses?
In my many office experiences, I’ve done everything from group yoga classes to company-wide ropes courses, all in the name of “bonding” or “boosting morale.” As lame as both those things were, they were the company’s idea and not something mandated by the government. Now, though, there is a new law in Japan regulating how much people can weigh and how big their waists can be. Additionally, companies are expected to keep their employees slim – and fire the ones who don’t make the cut.
Under Japan’s health care coverage, companies administer check-ups to employees once a year. Those who fail to meet the waistline requirement must undergo counseling. If companies do not reduce the number of overweight employees by 10 percent by 2012 and 25 percent by 2015, they could be required to pay more money into a health care program for the elderly. An estimated 56 million Japanese will have their waists measured this year.
Perhaps more astounding, even before Japanese lawmakers set the waistline limits last year, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) amended its recommended guidelines for the Japanese. The new IDF standard is 90 centimeters (35.4 inches) for men and 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) for women. But the Japanese government has yet to modify its limits.
If they tried to pull this shit in America, I feel like people would riot. My obsession with sour straws should be no one’s issue but mine.
Here’s another recession buzzword courtesy of RecessionWire, for the term “brokavore”:
Foodies who are low on cash aren’t just your ordinary brand of foodies: they’re “brokavores.” So says the brilliant new site Brokelyn, started by writer Faye Penn. A takeoff on “locavore,” someone who eats locally grown or produced food, a brokavore is “an obsessively cheap but highly discerning eater.”
ex. The brokavore sought out hot dog stands, pretzel vendors, shawarma trucks and taco joints for local delights.
I don’t care how much money I have, I will always eat food from the taco truck. Seriously, the one in my neighborhood is awesome.
Also, maybe the brokavores should check out Fancy Fast Food for ideas.
When bosses say they want their personal assistants to be available at any time, some of them really mean it. Jennifer LeRoy, who owns the popular New York restaurant Tavern On the Green, allegedly fired assistant Jamie Mora just a week after Mora told her boss she was pregnant. The New York Post reports that Mora is now suing LeRoy for back wages and damages.
The high-strung heiress hired Mora to handle her personal and business affairs in 2004 and to make herself “available to Ms. LeRoy 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout her tenure at Tavern,” according to court papers.
Who knows whether Mora could have worked during her pregnancy? I mean, Katherine Heigl’s assistant managed to fetch her boss Coke Zero while heavily pregnant, so there does seem to be a precedent.
“I went to my fridge the other day and was so angry there was no bread. I called my assistant and said, “what happened to the bread?” She said, “Your trainer told me to take it!”
- Gerard Butler, discussing his worst habit, in People magazine
Fox411 reports that Tyra Banks is on a diet, and she’s taking it so seriously that friends aren’t allowed to eat non-approved foods in her presence lest they tempt her to do the same.
Now, the Fox story doesn’t go this far, but I think it’s completely plausible to guess that her assistants and coworkers also can’t eat in her presence, unless it’s some weird “the rules don’t apply while working” diet (which is totally unlikely, considering how many projects Tyra is working on at any given time – if she didn’t diet while working, her diet would be irrelevant).
Lest you think our lady TyTy is starving her friends and coworkers, she is eating. The food she banned is only stuff that she also isn’t allowed to eat. According to the article, she’s permitted fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and lots of water. Mmmm, celery sticks for everyone!
