Experts generally tell you not to accept a counteroffer that your job extends in an effort to keep you from taking a new job. After all, there was some reason you looked elsewhere for employment. And research shows that more than half of those who accept a counteroffer end up leaving within two years anyway. … Read more
Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone thought and reacted like you? Well . . . maybe not. As challenging as it can be to work with people with different approaches to work, innovation and creativity can only come from a diversity of thought and experience. Still, on a practical level it can make communication and … Read more
I’ve worked at Fast Company for more than a decade. My colleague Lydia Dishman, one of the other authors of Work Smarter, has been here for more than 15 years. In a career landscape where many switch jobs every few years, clearly we’ve found something about our jobs that has made us stay. For many … Read more
There are a lot of ways to mess up an apology. You can avoid taking any blame. You can go into too much—or not enough—detail about what you did wrong. Or you can appear too scripted and inauthentic in your delivery. That was one mistake Kyte Baby founder and CEO Ying Liu made this past … Read more
Last week, Brittany Pietsch had a bad feeling she was about to get laid off. So the Cloudflare employee composed herself and secretly pressed record. Her subsequent conversation with two members of Cloudflare’s human resources team went viral, with a number of viewers commending Pietsch for sticking up for herself after the HR employees told … Read more
“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask . . . for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” So said Albert Einstein, arguably one … Read more
It’s only been a few days since the new year began and many people are feeling that special sort of deflated that comes after the festive holiday season and the zeal to stick with resolutions. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s also not helping that daylight is scarce. Thankfully, science has the … Read more
Nothing really changes on New Year’s day. Still, January always feels like the opportunity for a fresh start. In fact, humans have been making New Year’s resolutions for more than 4,000 years. While surveys suggest that around 40% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, less than 10% of us stick with them. There are a … Read more
We’ve made it past the darkest day of the year, and as we all—hopefully!—take a pause during this last week of 2023, it’s a good time to look back and assess the year’s work. Fast Company’s most-read Work Life stories from 2023 give a glimpse into our collective struggles when it comes to what we … Read more
In high-stakes situations, like when you’re asking your boss for a raise, paying attention to what’s not being said can make all the difference. “Forensic listening is the art of finding and listening to clues,” Chip Massey, a former FBI hostage negotiator, told Fast Company writer Stephanie Vozza earlier this month. “It’s when and how … Read more
