More and more workers are negotiating their job offers

More and more workers are negotiating their job offersMore and more workers are negotiating their job offersFifty-five percent of professionals asked for a higher salary the last time they got a job offer, a 16-point increase over a similar survey from last year, according to new research from staffing firm Robert Half. Finally, workers are breaking the trend that the majority dont negotiate over salary. (In February 2018, Robert Half found that 61% didnt negotiate a job offer, and a 2018 ZipRecruiter Annual Job Survey from December 2018 found that only 36% negotiated salary with a job offer).Its a tight labor market, as job seekers are hearing again and again, and perhaps thats making them bolder.Smart companies realize that winning over top candidates often comes down to moving quickly on hiring decisions and presenting a compensation and perks package thats at least on par with the competition, saidPaul McDonald, senior executive director for Robert Half.Men and younger workers we re the most likely to request more pay (ladies, get in there but as everyone knows, men and women negotiate differently.)Amongst professionals in the 28 U.S. cities polled, Miami, San Diego, and San Francisco all attempted to negotiate their salary the most. Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and Cleveland tried the least.Ask for moreDont be shy about asking for more managers are waiting for you to do it. Seventy percent of senior managers said they fully expected some pushback on the initial salary offered. About 62% of managers are more open to negotiating compensation as well as nonmonetary perks (like flexible time) and benefits (59%) than they were even a year ago.And if youre a worker with specialized skills, youve got even better chances at the negotiating table, from salary to perks.Job seekers with specialized skills are in high demand and may even be entertaining multiple offers, saidMcDonald.With the odds in their favor, its little wonder more professionals are comfortable nego tiating elend only salary but also nonmonetary benefits, such as vacation days, flexible schedules and professional development.

Smart weekend rituals to make your workweek less anxious

Smart weekend rituals to make yur workweek less anxiousSmart weekend rituals to make yur workweek less anxiousA classic weekend spent lounging around the house and meeting with family can be the giftstoff we all deserve after a long week. But it always feels like the weekend is over way too soon, and we spend the next week scrambling to catch up on the things we stepped away from.That creates its own anxiety, and we like to avoid unnecessary anxiety around here. Here are a few things you can do to get ahead before Monday comes around.Write down your weekly goals and limit them to only six thingsJames Clear writes about the Ivy Lee method- reportedly used by Charles M. Schwab after meeting with the productivity consultant in the early 1900s- which can also be applied to planning on the weekend.Clear includes a step-by-step numbered list, starting with at the end of each work day, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. Do not write down mora than six tasks. The second is, prioritize those six items in order of their true importance, and the third is when you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the second task.The fourth step involves doing the same thing for the rest of the list, and when you make tomorrows list of six items at the end of the work day, include the ones you didnt complete that day. The fifth and final step is to use this method every working day.Give batching a tryWhen it comes to your to-do list, you could also try planning to do things that are alike within the same time period.Paul Jarvis writes about batching in an article for The Musecalled4 Ways to Focus When Your Minds bedrngnis in the Mood.Batching builds off the idea of only working on one kind of task at a time. Rather that jumping from one project to another, you do all related tasks in a set amount of time. By batching the work you have to accomplish, you dont have to constant ly shift gears. So, grouping all the writing I have to do into a morning means I can write five to six articles in one fell swoop. Perfect. Then Ill typically spend the afternoon programming websites for clients, moving my brain into that mode for hours at a time, Jarvis writes.Similarly, some organizational plans recommend that you list your tasks by where you will be taking care of them a list of home tasks, computer tasks, office tasks, and so on. Working that way lets your brain function more smoothly since things are categorized together.Dont obsess over what hasnt worked out for youIts natural to spend Sundays thinking not only about the week ahead, but also what we screwed up the week before and how to fix it. One thing to note the more we think about something, the more we attract the emotions around it into our minds and our lives. So if youre dwelling on negative emotions, youll feel even more negative emotions.Martha Beck writes about the law of attracting Trojan horses i n an article. She advises anyone who is worried about a situation to rewrite the story of what is happening. We often prepare ourselves for the worst possible outcomes by linking together different incidents into one big, negative story that we use to torture ourselves.Becks advice just stop telling yourself that story.Ive binnenseen that what were most afraid to lose is never a thing, person, or situation, but our story about how that thing will make us happy, conform to our egos desires, and remain forever unchanging. This is true even when the thing is our own body. Ive seen that when we relinquish our stories- when the truth of our soul kills the narrative were spinning out to impress ourselves and others- we reach acceptance and suffering ends. Beck writes.Pick out a couple of work outfits to make your life easierSort through your closet to see what outfits you think you want to wear during the week.Also, take out Mondays clothes ahead of time (along with an accessories you pla n to wear), and iron or steam them if necessary so you dont have to do that before running out the door that morning.Free up your living spaceClear your head by spending a little time organizing your living space so youre not as mentally bogged down when you get home after work on next week.Give yourself the time to do things you feel too busy to do during the week, like clearing off your desk and weeding through your file cabinet, and get rid of baggage by letting go of old things you dont need anymore.Prepare meals ahead of timeThis will help you save time during the week and use it to attend to other things you have going on outside of work.Real Simpleprovides a PDF guide called Sunday Prep School with recipes you can make and more.Set aside a couple of hours on Sunday to follow the steps on these pages Wash and chop vegetables cook some versatile ingredients, plus a few fully ready-to go dishes and make some cold items that you can use multiple ways- on a salad, in a sandwich, o r as a game-changing topping the document says.Getting ahead on the weekend can help you start the following week feeling lighter and more focused.Smart weekend rituals to make your workweek less anxiousA classic weekend spent lounging around the house and meeting with family can be the gift we all deserve after a long week. But it always feels like the weekend is over way too soon, and we spend the next week scrambling to catch up on the things we stepped away from.That creates its own anxiety, and we like to avoid unnecessary anxiety around here. Here are a few things you can do to get ahead before Monday comes around.Write down your weekly goals and limit them to only six thingsJames Clear writes about the Ivy Lee method - reportedly used by Charles M. Schwab after meeting with the productivity consultant in the early 1900s - which can also be applied to planning on the weekend.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreClear includes a step-by-step numbered list, starting with at the end of each workday, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. Do not write down more than six tasks. The second is, prioritize those six items in order of their true importance, and the third is when you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the second task.The fourth step involves doing the same thing for the rest of the list, and when you make tomorrows list of six items at the end of the workday, include the ones you didnt complete that day. The fifth and final step is to use this method every working day.Give batching a tryWhen it comes to your to-do list, you could also try planning to do things that are alike within the same time period.Paul Jarvis writes about batching in an article for The Musecalled4 Ways to Focus When Your Minds Not in the Mood.Batching builds off the idea of only working on one kind of task at a time. Rather than jumping from one project to another, you do all related tasks in a set amount of time. By batching the work you have to accomplish, you dont have to constantly shift gears. So, grouping all the writing I have to do into a morning means I can write five to six articles in one fell swoop. Perfect. Then Ill typically spend the afternoon programming websites for clients, moving my brain into that mode for hours at a time, Jarvis writes.Similarly, some organizational plans recommend that you list your tasks by where you will be taking care of them a list of home tasks, computer tasks, office tasks, and so on. Working that way lets your brain function more smoothly since things are categorized together.Dont obsess over what hasnt worked out for youIts natural to spend Sundays thinking not only about the week ahead but also what we screwed up the week before and how to fix it. One thing to note the more we think about somethi ng, the more we attract the emotions around it into our minds and our lives. So if youre dwelling on negative emotions, youll feel even more negative emotions.Martha Beck writes about the law of attracting Trojan horses in an article. She advises anyone who is worried about a situation to rewrite the story of what is happening. We often prepare ourselves for the worst possible outcomes by linking together different incidents into one big, negative story that we use to torture ourselves.Becks advice just stop telling yourself that story.Ive seen that what were most afraid to lose is never a thing, person, or situation, but our story about how that thing will make us happy, conform to our egos desires, and remain forever unchanging. This is true even when the thing is our own body. Ive seen that when we relinquish our stories- when the truth of our soul kills the narrative were spinning out to impress ourselves and others- we reach acceptance and suffering ends. Beck writes.Pick out a couple of work outfits to make your life easierSort through your closet to see what outfits you think you want to wear during the week.Also, take out Mondays clothes ahead of time (along with any accessories you plan to wear), and iron or steam them if necessary so you dont have to do that before running out the door that morning.Free up your living spaceClear your head by spending a little time organizing your living space so youre not as mentally bogged down when you get home after work on next week.Give yourself the time to do things you feel too busy to do during the week, like clearing off your desk and weeding through your file cabinet, and get rid of baggage by letting go of old things you dont need anymore.Prepare meals ahead of timeThis will help you save time during the week and use it to attend to other things you have going on outside of work.Real Simpleprovides a PDF guide called Sunday Prep School with recipes you can make and more.Set aside a couple of hours on Sunda y to follow the steps on these pages Wash and chop vegetables cook some versatile ingredients, plus a few fully ready-to-go dishes and make some cold items that you can use multiple ways - on a salad, in a sandwich, or as a game-changing topping the document says.Getting ahead on the weekend can help you start the following week feeling lighter and more focused.This article was first published on July 21, 2017.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from kleine Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people

This AI chatbot can help you anonymously report harassment in the workplace

This AI chatinternet bot can help you anonymously report harassment in the workplaceThis AI chatbot can help you anonymously report harassment in the workplaceThe tools of anonymously reporting harassment in your workplace are limited and ineffective.The silence around workplace harassment is a widespread problem. One Equal Employment Opportunity Commission report found that, on average,94% of individuals affected by workplace harassment didbedrngnisfile a formal complaint when warranted. When asked why they did leid report their story, employees said they did not think their story would be believed or acted upon.If you feel uncomfortable telling your story to a human on the other line (as many do Hotlines have been listed as the least popular method of reporting harassment), one new tech service has a solution free from the bureaucracy of human resources - a chatbot.Spot is a free app backed by artificial intelligence that applies the same memory science techniques police and psych ologists use in their interviews. What makes this cognitive interview more effective than a regular interview is that it is designed to ask you the right questions to extract the most important details out of emotional events,Dr. Julia Shaw, a memory researcher who is one of Spots co-founders, told Ladders. As soon as you experience inappropriate workplace behavior, you can use Spot to discreetly document and report what happened to you while the memory is still fresh.How you can chat with a bot about workplace harassmentThrough its cognitive interview technique, Shaw explained that Spot will first walk a person through open-ended, tell me everything you can remember questions, followed by what are called probes that prompt them to go into more detail about the memory without accidentally leading the person down a certain path, or giving them details that they didnt recall themselves.Thats the advantage of an artificial listener. Unlike some human interviewers, Spot wont go off scri pt.Human beings are likely to come to interviews with biases and preconceived notions, Shaw told Ladders. This bot was constructed to stick to the script, always ask the right questions, and be there just to help.Once your interview is completed, Spot can create an encrypted portable document format version of your story with time stamps that you can use as evidence. You can choose to remain anonymous or not with your story. If you choose to anonymously file your report to your employer, Spot will protect your identity by sending the PDF report through its email server. After you download the report, Spot said it will delete your story from its servers after 30 days. According to its privacy page, Spot said it will never share your Spot interview, reports, or other private data with anyone outside of Spot unless you explicitly ask us to do so or we are legally obligated to.A pioneering technology prompts new kinds of questionsSpot is designed to help employees report their story to employers, but if the situation escalates to one that gets your story before a judge, the legal questions get interesting. Will a judge take a statement collected by a bot as seriously as one by a human? Shaw thinks so.Both our lawyer and also other lawyers have at this point said that its likely that a judge would accept this as evidence, Shaw said, though of course, we dont know, because its never been used.Shaw said they are looking to use Spot with companies who are committed to improving their company culture in the future. One potential drawback with Spots current system of reporting is that human resources officials could be getting reports that they cannot verify are coming from employees. For those who dont know whether or not to take anonymous reports seriously, Shaw argues there is still value for employers seeing anonymous Spot reports.Spot reports arent intended as definitive proof that something happened, but they should be treated seriously, and companies are actually legally liable quite often if they ignore these reports for not doing something, Shaw told us. If small events that are happening, as a company, you should want to hear about them.You should want to know that a certain joke was inappropriate or that a certain behavior is perceived as inappropriate by parts of the company. Those kinds of small things should really be part of the conversation, and should really be encouraged by companies, and we can help companies do that.