Careers: The Workplace

The Question That Sounds Simpler Than It Is Imagine sitting across from someone in Human Resources and hearing these words: “You have two choices. You can resign, or we can terminate you.” My first instinct might be to resign. Being able to say “I resigned” certainly sounds better than saying “I was fired.” It feels

Why a Strong First Interview Can Still Go Nowhere Sometimes you walk out of an interview knowing you did well and still never get invited back. That can leave you confused because you replay the conversation and cannot identify anything that went terribly wrong. You answered the questions, connected with the interviewer, explained your experience,

The Job Search Has Changed I keep hearing from people who have sent one hundred, two hundred, and sometimes even more applications and still cannot understand why nobody is calling. After enough rejection or silence, a person naturally begins thinking something must be wrong with them. Maybe they are too old, too experienced, underqualified, overqualified,

The First Reaction Is Usually Emotional If my boss comes to me and says, “It has been brought to my attention that you did X, Y, and Z,” my first instinct may be to defend myself immediately. That reaction is human because nobody likes being accused of something they believe they did not do. The

When Rejection Starts Feeling Personal I have heard from people who became convinced they were being blacklisted because the same pattern kept happening over and over. They applied for jobs they were clearly qualified to perform, sometimes inside the same company and sometimes throughout the same industry. Their résumé looked strong, their experience matched the

When Everybody Starts Coming to You There comes a point at work when you may look around and realize everybody seems to be coming to you. Your supervisor comes to you when something needs fixing because they trust you to handle it. Coworkers ask for your help, and before long, other departments begin depending on

The Number That Caught My Attention A new report caught my attention because it says nearly one-fourth of the American labor force is what researchers call functionally unemployed. That number sounds almost unbelievable when the official unemployment rate is only a little over four percent. In July 2026, the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity

What At-Will Employment Really Means I have heard people use the term at-will employment as though those three words give an employer unlimited power over a worker. The usual explanation goes something like this: your employer can fire you at any time, for any reason, and there is nothing you can do about it. That