Is a messy office hazardous to your career?

Ask Annie: Is a messy office hazardous to your career? – Mar. 27, 2006

“People often don’t realize that piles of paper, boxes in corners, and stacks of stuff behind the office door can affect one’s upward mobility,” she says. “Appearances are important.”

Why? “Your office is a reflection of your capabilities,” Reiter says. “Even though a messy desk isn’t a sign of a character flaw, it does tend to give your managers and peers the impression that the job is too much for you to handle, you can’t make decisions, you are not doing the job, or all of the above.”

Google Finance

Google Finance – Google Finance is an early beta product that offers a broad range of
information about North American stocks, mutual funds and public and
private companies along with charts, news and fundamental financial
data.

Public speaking do’s and don’t’s – Lifehacker

Public speaking do’s and don’t’s – Lifehacker

by Eszter Hargittai

As Jerry Seinfeld once noted, at a funeral, most people would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy, since public speaking stresses people out more than death. But giving talks doesn’t have to be such a frightening affair.
    ….read more at Lifehacker…

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Be smarter at work, slack off

 In a world of too much work and too much multitasking, the best way to beat the competition may be to do less.

Be smarter at work, slack off – Mar. 17, 2006

Remember the story of Archimedes lolling in his bathtub? To an observer, he’d have seemed to be wasting time. While ostensibly doing nothing, however, he discovered the principle of displacement, a cornerstone of physics. Would he have reached the same insight in a quick shower? Unlikely. And while you might say that’s ancient history, don’t be too sure.

H-1B visa cap increase sought in immigration bill

H-1B visa cap increase sought in immigration bill – Computerworld

MARCH 15, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) – A wide-ranging immigration-reform bill now being debated by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee would, if passed and signed into law, increase the H-1B visa cap from 65,000 to 115,000 and ease the permanent residency process for some foreign nationals with advanced degrees.

The 300-page bill, called the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, affects many aspects of immigration policy and security. And because the bill is so comprehensive and controversial, according to people on both sides of the issue, its fate doesn’t rest solely on the H-1B visa issue. The bill could reach the Senate for a vote by the end of the month.

Fight the Bull

Fight the Bull – Download Bullfighter

Bullfighter is the epoch-defining software that works with Microsoft Word and PowerPoint to help you find and eliminate jargon in your documents. It may look like a little toolbar with three buttons, but it’s actually much more. Bullfighter includes a jargon database and an exclusive Bull Composite Index calculator that will allow you to see — in an actual window, on your PC display, live — just how bad a document can be.

Have Desk, Will Travel

Real leaders go where the action is.

Have Desk, Will Travel

What if the boss didn’t always sit in the corner office, or on the top floor, or closest to the executive washroom? What if the boss made his office wherever the company’s biggest problem was?

Good to Great

Good to Great

Companies that make the change from good to great have no name for their transformation — and absolutely no program. They neither rant nor rave about a crisis — and they don’t manufacture one where none exists. They don’t “motivate” people — their people are self-motivated. There’s no evidence of a connection between money and change mastery. And fear doesn’t drive change — but it does perpetuate mediocrity. Nor can acquisitions provide a stimulus for greatness: Two mediocrities never make one great company. Technology is certainly important — but it comes into play only after change has already begun. And as for the final myth, dramatic results do not come from dramatic process — not if you want them to last, anyway. A serious revolution, one that feels like a revolution to those going through it, is highly unlikely to bring about a sustainable leap from being good to being great.

Premier 100: IT leaders aren’t just born, they’re made

Having the right leadership skills requires training and development, IT execs say

Premier 100: IT leaders aren’t just born, they’re made – Computerworld

MARCH 08, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) – PALM DESERT, Calif. — Promoting techies into IT management jobs solely because of their neat appearance and gregariousness isn’t the best way to pick the IT leaders of tomorrow. “Way too often you lose your best technician and only get a so-and-so manager,” said Kay Palmer, CIO at J.B. Hunt Transport Inc….