From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together

The New York Times Bestelling guide for managers and executives. Introducing the new, realistic loyalty pact between employer and employee. The employer-employee relationship is broken, and managers face a seemingly impossible dilemma: the old model of guaranteed long-term employment no longer works in a business environment defined by continuous change, but neither does a system in which every employee acts like a free agent. The solution? Stop thinking of employees as either family or as free agents. Think of them instead as allies. As a manager you want your employees to help transform the company for the future. And your employees want the company to help transform their careers for the long term. But this win-win scenario will happen only if both sides trust each other enough to commit to mutual investment and mutual benefit. Sadly, trust in the business world is hovering at an all-time low. We can rebuild that lost trust with straight talk that recognizes the realities of the modern economy. So, paradoxically, the alliance begins with managers acknowledging that great employees might leave the company, and with employees being honest about their own career aspirations. By putting this new alliance at the heart of your talent management strategy, you’ll not only bring back trust, you’ll be able to recruit and retain the entrepreneurial individuals you need to adapt to a fast-changing world. These individuals, flexible, creative, and with a bias toward action, thrive when they’re on a specific “tour of duty”—when they have a mission that’s mutually beneficial to employee and company that can be completed in a realistic period of time. Coauthored by the founder of LinkedIn, this bold but practical guide for managers and executives will give you the tools you need to recruit, manage, and retain the kind of employees who will make your company thrive in today’s world of constant innovation and fast-paced change.

The signs of discontent are all there, yet they are ignored. Workplaces are suffering from unnecessary turnover, unfilled positions, lost customers, overworked staff, and compromised profit. Taking the guesswork out of engagement and retention, EmployER Engagement is the fresh and dissenting voice on the employment relationship. You’ve heard it too many times: “I’ve got to update my résumé.” “I can’t work for that jerk anymore.” “I’m sick of having that carrot dangling in my face.” “This is a dead-end job; I’m out.” It happens every day. The signs of discontent are all there, yet they are ignored. Workplaces are suffering from unnecessary turnover, unfilled positions, lost customers, overworked staff, and compromised profit. Employee morale is flat, clever but empty perks continue to fail, and everyone knows that employee engagement scores are a joke. Poaching is the new best practice, and employees are bailing. Like it or not, employees have control in this high-stakes, employee-in-control market. And this employee market will continue for some time. It’s simple demographic science. US workers will hold the hammer for years to come. Here’s the deal, employer: There are plenty of people to do all the work that needs to be done; they’re just working somewhere else. Employees don’t need you; you need them. So how can you recruit the best employees and keep them working for you? The answer is clear: companies CAN and MUST become better employers. Taking the guesswork out of engagement and retention, EmployER Engagement is the fresh and dissenting voice on the employment relationship.

The only book that addresses the specific needs of anyone who is seeking that all-important Employee No. 1. Hiring anyone can be intimidating but this is especially true if you're running one of the 20 million U.S. businesses that is considering hiring its first employee. A new level of laws and regulations kick in, not to mention all the costs involved.Fortunately, Hiring Your First Employee provides a complete, easy-to-read overview of hiring an employee, as well as legal and practical advice at every step. Readers will skip the mystery, avoid problems and feel assured they've done everything correctly.Written by bestselling business author and attorney Fred Steingold, this tightly focused book will help any entrepreneur: figure out if it's the right to time to hire determine the salary or wage consider benefits to offer obtain an employee identification number write a job description find and screen applicants prepare the necessary paperwork maintain employee files deal with health and safety issues deposit payroll taxes deduct employment expenses troubleshoot employee problems Hiring Your First Employee provides 50-state legal summaries in plain English, sample forms and charts that compare the pros and cons when making decisions about hiring someone.

"The United States Code is the official codification of the general and permanent laws of the United States of America. The Code was first published in 1926, and a new edition of the code has been published every six years since 1934. The 2012 edition of the Code incorporates laws enacted through the One Hundred Twelfth Congress, Second Session, the last of which was signed by the President on January 15, 2013. It does not include laws of the One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Session, enacted between January 2, 2013, the date it convened, and January 15, 2013. By statutory authority this edition may be cited "U.S.C. 2012 ed." As adopted in 1926, the Code established prima facie the general and permanent laws of the United States. The underlying statutes reprinted in the Code remained in effect and controlled over the Code in case of any discrepancy. In 1947, Congress began enacting individual titles of the Code into positive law. When a title is enacted into positive law, the underlying statutes are repealed and the title then becomes legal evidence of the law. Currently, 26 of the 51 titles in the Code have been so enacted. These are identified in the table of titles near the beginning of each volume. The Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives continues to prepare legislation pursuant to 2 U.S.C. 285b to enact the remainder of the Code, on a title-by-title basis, into positive law. The 2012 edition of the Code was prepared and published under the supervision of Ralph V. Seep, Law Revision Counsel. Grateful acknowledgment is made of the contributions by all who helped in this work, particularly the staffs of the Office of the Law Revision Counsel and the Government Printing Office"--Preface.