That Tag Sticking Out: Should You Mention?

Ah, here’s a dilemma that all of us have dealt with at one time or another. If you see a stranger on the elevator with a tag sticking out of her jacket or someone whose bra is showing thanks to that missing button or someone who has a big piece of spinach lodged in her front tooth after lunch, what to do? Corporette digests it all here.

Office Romances: No Longer in Closet

Office romance is coming out of the closet, The Wall Street Journal’s Sue Shellenbarger reports. “More than any other time during my 19 years of writing this column, the workplace has become a place for courtship,” she writes. Some 67% of employees say they see no need to hide their office relationships, up from 54% in 2005, says a CareerBuilder survey of 5,231 employees.

Got an Office Pet Peeve?

If you hate the office, your co-workers are probably to blame, according to a new survey. Having “grumpy or moody” colleagues pushes people’s buttons even more than slow computers, a London-based market-research agency has found.

Some two-thirds of the nearly 2,000 British office workers surveyed said that workplace irritations boosted their stress levels, causing one in 10 to walk out the door. Among bothersome buzzwords that drive workers crazy: “thinking outside the box” and “let’s touch base.”
Are those Brits just a tad touchy or do you agree? What are your office pet peeves and who or what is driving you insane at work? Vent it all here.

A Company Where Telecommuting is Required

More than a third of companies allow some employees to work from home. As telecommuting becomes more mainstream, the Obama administration is pushing telecommuting and a handful of states provide tax credits to encourage it. This story profiles Fuentek, a firm which helps its clients commercialize new technology. There, all 40 employees must telecommute.

Has the Web Made Snow Days Obsolete?

Millions of workers in the mid-Atlantic can’t get to work thanks to a classic blizzard, but faster computers, broadband connections and free public Wi-Fi are taking the fun out of snow days, USA TODAY reports. “A snow day just means you don’t get to work at the office,” says one man who plans to work from home.

Have Mass Layoffs Been Necessary?

The majority of the layoffs that have taken place during this recession—at financial-services firms, retailers, technology companies, and many others—aren’t the result of a broken business model, Jeffrey Pfeffer writes in Newsweek. Many “firms expect to start growing (and hiring) again when the recession ends. They’re cutting jobs to minimize hits to profits, not to ensure their survival.”