My last name has been the butt of jokes and a general curiosity to people all my life. But I never thought of it as a career liability, until now!

I just read through a study by professors at a trio of universities titled “The name-pronunciation effect: Why people like Mr. Smith more than Mr. Colquhoun” and it’s not good news for the Tahminicioglus of the world.

Turns out, people with hard-to-pronounce names are judged more negatively than the Jones and Smiths out there; and, the easy to pronounce among us are more apt to have higher-ranking positions.

The report by researchers at the University of Melbourne, Australia; University of Leuven, Belgium; and New York University found: (more…)

There is no other workplace ritual that inspires dread and disdain like the performance review. For years, I’ve been hearing from employees and managers who just hate the process.

According to a Workforce Management article, most of you don’t even agree with them.

More than half (51 percent) of 631 respondents believe reviews don’t provide accurate appraisals of their work, and nearly one-fourth dread them, according to the 2011 Globoforce Workforce Mood Tracker, a new semiannual online survey conducted by Globoforce, a business software developer with headquarters in Southborough, Massachusetts, and Dublin, Ireland.

I’ve written before about how some management gurus are waging war on the practice, but this morning I got an email from an expert who says employees should welcome reviews. (more…)

Tonight the starlets are coming out in full force. One TV commentator just commented on how flawless one actress’ skin was.

Well folks, that ain’t the reality for many of us out there, including yours truly. I battled acne all my life, and the worst of it came when I was a naive teen trying to get affirmation from a bunch of other naive teens. Well, it never came. I was made fun of instead.

But now, in my forties, I’m able to let people look straight at my face. Yes, it’s still a bit scary to do that, but it’s me. I often wear makeup to hide my flaws. But I’m baring it all in this post. (more…)

This week, the federal government said it found major safety violations at a key Hershey plant in Pennsylvania.

But guess what? Hershey isn’t in trouble.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited two Hershey contractors — Exel Inc. and SHS Staffing Solutions — for the violations. The charges are serious including everything from willful thwarting of U.S. safety laws to the failure to keep tabs on worker injuries, and the fine was high, nearly $290,000.

Even though the workers at the plant make Hershey products and the company profits from those Kisses and Kit-Kats, the company pretty much gets to wash its hands of the whole thing.

A reporter for the New York Times, Julia Preston, rightly called Hershey after news of the fine came out, and the company took a pass:

A spokesman for the Hershey Company, Jeff Beckman, noted that Hershey had not been cited by OSHA, and he said he could not speak for Exel.

But what about Hershey’s role in this? I asked Labor Department spokeswoman Joanna Hawkins why Hershey wasn’t cited, and she said, (more…)

Asking for a raise is dreaded by most employees, but many women seem to have a particular aversion to the workplace ritual. It’s not lady like to ask for money, right? WRONG! Gals need money just as much as men.

A producer with a TV station in Philadelphia recently asked me to be a guest on the show to discuss this problem because she’s seen the raise-asking fear among women as well.

Here’s the clip from the show. (more…)

Jen from Chicago got laid off from her job in marketing on Oct. 25 and gave birth to her son on Nov. 3.

It was odd, and potentially illegal, timing. You see, you can’t just get rid of an employee because she’s pregnant. I know some of you are thinking, “Duh Eve, tell me something new.” But pregnancy bias is still a big problem in this country, even prompting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to hold a special meeting on the issue last week, which I covered and wrote about.

I’m not saying everyone who gets canned while their pregnant is a victim of discrimination. But Jen had worked for the company for two years and even though the firm was recently acquired by a larger company she was surprised to get the ax.

Jen’s boss didn’t tell her he was showing her to door because of pregnancy. This is how it went down: (more…)

Yesterday I wrote about Apple’s announcement that it enlisted a labor group to probe harsh conditions at the company’s manufacturing operations in China.

It’s unclear if this is a real attempt to deal with mass suicides and child labor violations, among other horrors at the facilities, or just a PR stunt. But what we do know is the company felt compelled to do something.

Why? It turns out, the iPhone and iPad devotees out there aren’t all drinking the Apple Kool-Aid.

I know Apple products are great. I’m typing this post on a MacBook Pro right now. But how will Corporate America ever clean up its act if we, the consumers, don’t take a stand against unethical things companies do? I have written in the past about how so many of us, especially Apple fanatics, don’t even care about labor violations. I’m glad to say today that I’m eating my words. An Apple zealot should get a lot of credit for forcing the company’s hand. (more…)

I’ve written endless stories about how tough hiring managers and HR folks have become when it comes to job applicants. They don’t want smokers, fatsos, people with bad credit, excons, and too old or too young workers. And forget about landing a job if you’re unemployed.

I know all this makes you grumpy, but you’ve got to get happy, and fast.

A job requirement that seems to be showing up in more help wanted ads lately is — NICE. Yes, employers are now looking for nice people to fill their ranks.

The TED conference company is seeking a production editor for its offices in New York and in addition to needing “Comfort with HTML” and “an ability to listen deeply and critically”, you better not be a jerk. (more…)

Among the quirky and sexy Superbowl commercials yesterday, were two ads hawking an unusual commodity — American workers.

The ads didn’t get as much attention among my chili-gorging guests as the commercial with David Beckham in his underwear; but hey, can you blame them?

But we should all sit up and take notice that the idea of bringing jobs back to the United States is going mainstream.

Here’s one by Chrysler with Clint Eastwood: (Sorry folks, the NFL forced Chrysler to pull this YouTube video. I’ll post a link the second I find it.)

And here’s another from GE:

There’s been a lot of talk lately about “insourcing” jobs, as the Obama administration puts it, but bringing back jobs to the U.S. is going to be a hell of an uphill battle. (more…)

Snap out of it!

The employment report this morning showed a slight dip in the jobless rate to 8.3 percent, and a solid number of new jobs, 243,000 created in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That’s great news for people who are out there pounding the pavement trying to find work. But the jobs’ data showed there’s a big group of jobless folks who may not even care.

The number of discouraged workers topped 1 million in January from 993,000 in the same month last year. Those figures are worse than what supposedly was the job-market bottom in 2009 when only 778,000 of your were discouraged. And it’s way more than ten years ago, right after Sept. 11, when 369,000 of you were job disheartened.

The BLS definition of a discouraged is: “persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.” And the numbers paint a sad picture of how the Great Recession has beaten many of you down. (more…)