by Laura Stack, MBA, CSP, CPAE  "The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."—Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist, in War and Peace. Late in June 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the results of the previous year’s American Time Use Study (ATUS), as it has annually since 2003. I've reported on it each year for more than a decade. The ATUS data for 2020, released in 2021, reflected significant effects from the COVID-19 pandemic that has gripped the nation since March 2020. Fortunately, during 2021, the crisis loosened its stranglehold on the economy, allowing it to bounce back to pre-plague levels. However, the economy has since fallen behind again due to the rise of the worst inflation since the 1980s (sure to be a significant factor in next year's report). A … [Read more...]

"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible."—Francis of Assisi, Catholic saint Have you ever been faced with a large task, whereupon you dismissed everything else from your mind, put your head down, and got to work? How often have you "come to" later, only to find your task is done or near-done—and hours have passed almost without you noticing? I suspect it's happened to you more than once. It tends to happen fairly regularly to those of us engaged with our jobs and genuinely interested in doing well. It's kind of like highway hypnosis, except that instead of just going on autopilot, your mind and body have melded in such a way that you tap into what I call "super-productivity." Here are five ways to enter…The Super-Productivity … [Read more...]

"I see sick parents and kids every day. I also know many people who go to work sick because they don't have paid sick days. Having paid sick days would prevent the spread of illness and make sure people are not penalized for staying home when they are sick." — Dr. Ben Danielson, Seattle pediatrician. Although it would be awesome to actually stay home sick whenever you feel bad, it's not always possible. PTO tends to be limited in even the best of companies, and it takes just one bout of the flu to wipe it out. Many supervisors also look askance at people calling in sick, suspicious of faking, resulting in a chilling effect on the truly ill. And many people simply have no choice but to go in no matter how we feel, because our teams depend on us—and there's always some deadline bearing … [Read more...]