It's not the end of the world if you make a bad first impression on a co-worker or a manager. If possible, look for opportunities to collaborate with that person, or use the quality of your work to reverse a negative first encounter. Ladders (11/3) How serious is your career crisis? When considering the severity of a career crisis, ask yourself what bothers you about your current position and whether you're enduring physical or mental harm as a result, writes Ellen Huxtable. Always consider the worst possible outcome of staying in your current job as well as what might happen if you leave. Business 2 Community (11/5)
Making the Connection
Empower your network to help by making specific requests If you want to make connections that will help you reach particular career goals, be as specific as you can with existing networking partners about the people you'd like to meet, writes Dorie Clark. Remember that an introduction can be valuable even if you're still separated by a couple of degrees from the person with whom you're hoping to connect. Harvard Business Review online (tiered subscription model) (11/1)
The Landscape
House bill for workplace flexibility gains SHRM support The Society for Human Resource Management supports legislation to modernize the workforce through extended paid family leave and flexible work arrangements. The House bill has received praise from the Michigan Health & Hospital Association for support of workers who need nontraditional hours and telecommuting options. Society for Human Resource Management online (11/2)
To indicate that you're seeking a new job on LinkedIn without alerting your boss or others, use the "blocking and hiding" feature to keep followers within your company from seeing your public updates. Also, try to reach out to a few contacts before you make a lot of changes to your profile, writes Hallie Crawford. U.S. News & World Report (11/2)
Balancing Yourself
Why you should treat your brain like a muscle Just like your muscles, your brain needs to be exercised in different ways and needs to be rested when it's tired, writes Alyse Kalish. "Find your medium for giving your brain a chance to reflect, regroup and refresh," Kalish suggests. The Muse (11/3)
Report: Autonomous cars could make jaywalking safe The ability of self-driving cars to sense pedestrians crossing streets and subsequently slow down for them could make jaywalking a non-issue, according to a National Association of City Transportation Officials report. "The instinctive human act of walking straight to one's destination, pejoratively known as 'jaywalking,' becomes simply 'walking,'" wrote the report's authors. CNNMoney (11/5)
