Working with a “Master Manipulator”

Guest Blogger, Savvy Working Gal The Finishing School welcomes Savvy as this week's guest blogger.  We began following Savvy very recently as we discovered some collective conscious around topics such as organizational politics and the strange games manipulators play, especially when it happens between women. We invited Savvy to give today's lecture, including links back to her own manipulation story, as it unfolded over this past year.  You will also meet Anita Bruzzese, who writes 45things.com.  She is also the author of 45 Things You Do That Drive Your Boss Crazy (check it out in our carousel at right)  Enjoy.  We...

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Salary Negotiations

Instructors: Caroline Bender Guest Lecturer: WEBB, Gardener/Blogger, It’s My Garden At a recent faculty meeting, we presented a short video from a WKMG (Orlando, FL) news story about salary negotiations and differences between male and female styles, showing 2 female candidates blowing the opportunity to define their worth, and the male candidate taking control of the interview to his own advantage. Contributor “Webb,” commented, “Doesn't it … tick you off that we are so poor at negotiating salary. We turn to mush. Can't tell you how many times I've done it.” We immediately gave her the floor. “My first job out of grad school was as a counselor...

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Ask the Readers: What do women do to sabotage their careers?

Miss Minchin, Dean of Students Sometimes we women can't get out of our own way. What are the worst moves women make (or don't make) to sabotage their own careers? Is it selling ourselves short by not negotiating salary offers? Do we avoid risk and therefore lose out on the rewards? Do we treat our workplace like our extended family and get too involved in co-workers' issues? Do we hold ourselves back by having children? (Why does it never seem to hold back the fathers?) Post your thoughts in the commen...

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Holiday Shopping online? Find coupon codes for great deals

Social club meeting minutes by Miss Minchin If you still have online holiday shopping to do, don't forget to check the web for coupon codes before you make your purchase. There are several good Coupon aggregator sites but I recently discovered RetailMeNot. Features of the site include success ranking and comments from other shoppers who report back on how well the code worked. You can share shopping tips and even retailers share their own coupons. There are also printable coupons for "offline" shopping, grocery coupons, and a community feature. I used a coupon code I found here to get 10% off my husband's home soda making machine (that's...

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My Color-Coded Calendar or... Keep killing trees so I can keep track of my life

Instructor, Betsy Boesel Sagges, Independent Public Relations and Communications Professional In today’s fiercely competitive market, we are busier and busier, and working harder and harder to keep afloat. There’s a myriad of influences on our lives, and the critical need to plan, organize and track our hectic days to ensure we meet all the demands on our time. Has technology driven this feverish activity? It surely has propelled multi-tasking to a whole new level. My Blackberry is a constant beacon of lights and sounds --  my personal connection to the outside world through alerts, messages, notices, feedback, and, every so often......

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Take This Book to Work (book review)

I stumbled onto this book accidentally, looking for a different Tory Johnson reference for an article we are working on about slary negotiations (coming soon).  The library did not have Johnson's newest work, Fired to Hired, but this volume was available, so I took a look. Take this Book to Work: How to Ask For (and Get) Money, Fulfillment, and Advancement, was co-written with Robyn Freedman Spizman, known for her advice on creative gift-giving (Giftionary and Make it Memorable).  What began as a poll of working women to discover the "hot-button" issues they face revealed a pattern of reluctance on the part of respondents in all industries, at all levels and ages, to simply ask for the things they want to change.  So much of the frustration underlying workplace issues pointed...

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Creative Uses for Commuting Time

guest lecurer, Nadia K.G., corporate executive and blogger For those of us who are proficient multi-taskers, have poor attention spans, or simply can't deal with down time, I'm here to let you know that minutes and hours logged in your vehicle can be re-purposed for a wide range of activities.   Having spent 10 years with daily commutes exceeding two hours, I've gone from doing nothing-but-driving to coming up with a number of ways to make good use of the time. Here are the 10 driving activities that top my list:   #10 - Listening to the radio (satellite or old fashioned "terrestrial"). Only music for me, thanks. Talk radio gives...

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Ask a Manager: What does my title-only promotion really mean?

Guest Lecturer, Dick Whitman, Manager in Residence  Dear Manager, My company recently opened up a new office in the city about 30 miles from where we work. They moved my group to the new building, which requires us to pay for parking ($200/month) or take the commuter train & subway (about $300 / month). This has created a hardship for many, and at the least is creating a new cost just to keep showing up to work. Many important people are starting to give notice, and many more are looking. Upper management has said they are working to get us some kind of stipend, but that was a couple mponths ago and I'm losing hope in that. This...

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Weekly roundup 12-4-2009

Some 2nd and 3rd opinions on topics we covered this week: Waggleforce is a network of career clubs that provide a 10-week course of action for managing your job search.  If you are feeling lost and un-energized, if you have tried the local job center and found it wanting, find a local Waggleforce to connect with.  You will need to register before you can explore the tools, and most clubs will charge a fee for pay for materials.  You may also find success forming a club of your own with former colleagues, alumni, sorority sisters, even your book club has some percentage of members "in transition."  We have not talked about the Jobs Summit in the space, but we can connect you to a couple of sites that are.  One CEO's open letter to the President was published on the...

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Workplace Dangers - Manipulative people

Freshman seminar with Miss Minchin Required Reading: In Sheep's Clothing: Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People George K. Simon, Jr., Ph. D. The most dangerous of all workplace dangers, the manipulative coworker has mastered the art of aggression disguised as helpfulness, good intentions, or working "for the good of the company". These people are brilliant at hiding their true motives, while making you look incompetent, uncooperative, or self-centered. They can make you lose your job, do their job for them, or even get you to apologize to *them* for trying to confront them about their own bad behavior. As Dr George K. Simon explains...

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