Since renaming my blog Career Muse, I've become increasingly concerned that I haven't posted anything that even remotely qualifies as musing.  My thoughts have been far too focused and orderly, my topics have been much too centered on practical advice and reasonable issues, and my very language has been way too logical and structured.  I vow to do better, to meander more in my writing, to be more impractical, and to venture into the realm of the ambiguous more frequently. 

So, as a first,...

I love puzzles.  One of the most challenging puzzles on which I worked is called "Little Red Riding Hood's Hood".  Yes, you guessed it, it is completely red, and to make it even more difficult, it is round. Diabolical. Any puzzle fan worth his salt knows that fundamental puzzle-solving theory is based on starting with the corners, so here we are, faced with a round sea of red, not even a tone-on-tone or a gradient in sight to show us the way.  

What a wonderful, enticing challenge: a puzzle...

Under the heading of the best laid plans… September flew by before I knew it and I missed my chance to post anything to my blog. It was a month of many events, including celebrating 15 years at Right Management. If you've looked at my Career Timeline on this website, you may have noticed that I've had lots of jobs at lots of companies. They were all full of surprises, variety and challenges: just the way I like it. No one is more surprised than I am at how this anniversary came to be. I must...

Is it June already?  Is it really time for mid-year performance reviews? Why is no one ever ready (including me)? Why does everyone find performance review writing an onerous task, even if we intellectually recogize there is merit in the process?  Good thing that as Career Muse  I can merely muse without feeling an obligation to respond to all these pesky questions.  Instead, I have a little performance review story for you... with a very happy ending.

Some years ago in another phase of my...

Mashable reports that 144.8 billion emails are sent each day.  The Huffington Post reports that we spend an average of 28% of our work week reading, sorting and responding to emails.  (They suggest we should stop doing that and use that time to watch a movie on Netflix.) The Radicati Group states the average office worker sends or receives 120 emails per day.   

Whether you spend more or less time dealing with your emails than average, you are probably spending a significant portion of time...