Careers: Employers Coping With Office Romances | Newsweek Business

CAREERS
Pink Slip Survival Plan
Gwen Moran 10/7/2008 12:00:00 AM
Fallout from the financial crisis on Wall Street, Hurricane Ike and the bleak economic outlook has sent 159,000 new swimmers into the nation's pool of unemployed workers, according to Department of Labor data. With long-term unemployment growing, there's an even darker side—nearly 800,000 workers will be left without unemployment benefits by the end of this month, according to the National Employment Law Project.
GOOD LIFE
The Maximalist
9/20/2008 12:00:00 AM
Meeting deadlines is just a little bit easier when you work from home on the sleek and stylish Bottega Veneta desk in leather. Accented with matte metal trim and adorned with leather handles on the drawers as well as on the sides, this luxury office furnishing dresses up any workspace. The desk is available in five colors—nero, ebano, noce, uniform and pergamena—to fit any decorating scheme. With such an elegant workspace, why bother going to the office (¤13,700; bottegaveneta.com)?
Sucker or Saint?
Wray Herbert 8/6/2008 12:00:00 AM
Think about this workplace scenario: You're a skilled professional, well regarded in your organization. One day your boss swings by your desk and asks if you'd mind putting aside your work for a couple hours. He'd like you to help the clerical staff collate some documents. It's an unorthodox request, and not a job you'd enjoy doing. You pause, but you're a team player, so sure.
THE MILITARY
It’s All About the Rank
Sarah Kliff 6/12/2008 12:00:00 AM
For 25 years Lory Manning lived in an alternate universe. She watched as most of her classmates in 1969 headed to further education, became teachers or homemakers. Manning did something a little different: participated in international negotiations and managed $3 million budgets. "At that time there weren't as many options for women," says Manning. "I wanted to travel, I wanted an adventure, and I wanted to do something where I could get paid just like the men."
BOOKS
Hamlet at the Water Cooler
Kathryn Joyce 5/27/2008 12:00:00 AM
"Random poignancy circa 2:30," reads one of the subheds in Ed Park's new office life novel, "Personal Days." "Is Excel crashing everyone's computer?" Reprising the theme throughout the book, it's the fixtures of work life, particularly the koanlike dialogue boxes that pop up on office computer screens, that provide such incidental profundity and wisdom. "I don't understand," computers tell their operators, or halt employees in their tracks with the poetic-sounding verdict "Invalid Command." Or best of all, to the despairing amusement of the young set of office workers huddling aboard a slowly sinking company ship, is the closing pop-up question of each work week, when they shut off their computers to embark on "modest hopes" for the weekend: "Are you sure you want to quit?"
CAREERS
Working it Out
4/21/2008 12:00:00 AM
Whether we're actually in a recession or not is the subject of debate.