Workplace Wisdom...
Discover Fulfillment in Life and Work
with Michelle Y. Drake

The hands of the clock are moving so slowly they actually appear to be going backwards. You start to wonder how many ceiling tiles there are above you and decide to count them. The files and papers on your desk get shuffled around, but you can't bring yourself to really work on them. Good thing you don't have a window or you'd be staring out of it for hours on end. Instead, you squirm in your seat, listen to the fluorescent lights hum and silently count the minutes until the end of the day.

In short, you're bored to tears, and some days it feels like work is sucking the life right out of you.

Brody from Uniondale knows what I'm talking about:

Dear Michelle,

Sometimes at work I feel like a little kid ready to throw a tantrum because he's bored. Every day it's the same tasks over and over again, and I'm beginning to dread working here. When I first started, everything was new and challenging, and I was so excited. Now it's all the same old, same old.

Please give me some ideas on how to inject a little life back into my job.

Okay Brody, I'll start by giving you my favorite piece of advice...

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For more FREE tips on advancing your career and navigating the workplace, sign up for my FREE e-zine "Lipstick Leadership" at LipstickLeadership.com today! And check out the products I've developed to guide you toward the success you deserve!

Labels: workplace-survival

I don't know about you, but every once in a while, I have a hard time resisting temptation.

Hand me a chocolate bar and I'll hand you back an empty wrapper.

Say the four little words every woman loves to hear ("Free Gift with Purchase") and I'll buy that stinky perfume or hideous lipstick.

Give me a little spare time and a super fast Internet connection at work, and I'll be sneaking a peek at my personal e-mail before you can say, "Not on company time."

But who hasn't taken an exit off the Information Superhighway and veered into the website of their favorite store or personal blog or private e-mail account?

It's no big deal, right?

WRONG.

To most employers, it's a VERY big deal. And they've taken steps to curtail this kind of behavior - steps that make "online privacy" an oxymoron in the workplace.

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For more FREE tips on advancing your career and navigating the workplace, sign up for my FREE e-zine "Lipstick Leadership" at LipstickLeadership.com today! And check out the products I've developed to guide you toward the success you deserve!

Labels: workplace-survival

You've heard the old cliche: "You never get a second chance to make a first impression."

That's a scary enough thought in your personal life, but in your professional life, it's downright terrifying. If you meet a stranger at a party and act like a goofball, it's usually pretty easy to shrug it off. You just move on to the next party-goer and hope you don't run into that person again.

But make a bad first impression with a potential employer, VIP clients, or new co-workers and it can send ripples of damage through your career. Kiss that job, that multi-million dollar deal, and any respect good-bye.

So how do you MAKE SURE that the first impression you make is a positive one?

Labels: career-advancement

I've been having One of Those Days. You know the kind I'm talking about.

Missed the morning client meeting that I don't remember noticing on the calendar before.
Accidentally hung up on an important media contact while fumbling with the phone.
Could've sworn that I dropped that VERY IMPORTANT, DUE TODAY bill in the mail...and yet here it sits on my desk under a pile of unfiled files.

Sounds familiar, right?

The best remedy I can think of for a day like this is to go home, curl up on the sofa with a glass of wine, and blot out the memory of today with mindless TV (too bad "America's Next Top Model" is on tomorrow night!).

But unfortunately, professionals like us can't handle mistakes like that (at least not all the time).
So how do we recover from the mistakes that ding our days and, in some cases, can even damage our reputations and our careers?

Labels: workplace-survival

I have been working with an amazing young filmmaker, Shalini Kantayya of 7th Empire Media, for the past year and a half...coaching and mentoring her. She has submitted a film to a new reality show concept--On The Lot--that is selecting contestants for a spring airing.

From Mark Burnett, Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks Television, ON THE LOT affords aspiring filmmakers the opportunity of a lifetime: a $1-million DreamWorks development deal. Over the season, the 16 filmmakers will produce short films in every genre every week and the viewers will vote on who gets eliminated. The show will premiere with a one-hour auditions episode on Wednesday, May 16.

Shalini's work is amazing and her rating for her first submitted work is 4 1/2 stars out of 5. Check out her film and give your 2 cents at the link below...

A Drop of Life by Shalini Kantaya

Labels: inspiration, news, success-stories