Please take your PTO
PTO habits—and policies—vary widely depending on industry, company size and culture, and seniority, but one thing is clear: Americans value paid time off, but they aren’t taking enough of it. And things did get worse after the pandemic: In 2022, 55% of PTO went unused compared to 28% in 2019.
It’s time to rethink your 1:1 meetings
If you’re managing a remote team, your weekly 1:1s are more important than ever. Lara Hogan, a management coach, founder of Wherewithall, and author of Resilient Management, explains that while the goal of the 1:1 hasn’t changed since remote work became more common, the “emotional weight” of these meetings feels very different.
The big rocks
In the late ‘90s, I was an editor for a division of Time Inc. headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. How I ended up there is a very long story, but here’s what you need to know: We published lots of magazines, including Southern Living, Cooking Light, and Weight Watchers. And because so many of those magazines published recipes, we had our own test kitchens or TKs.
Behind closed doors
We spent Thanksgiving 2002 with my parents. My son Ned was two and had recently started sleeping in a twin bed. I was pregnant and napping…
You must remember this
I did not grow up in a family that took regular vacations. Maybe that’s why the few vacations we did take loom so large in our family lore. In 1974 and 1975, we drove three hours from Fort Leavenworth, KS, to Militar…
Let’s re-envision, not just remake
Theresa Okokon was six years old when she fell in love with Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” which inspired a main character moment for her.
When joy unexpectedly finds us
I celebrated July Fourth on the beach, where I spent a lot of time observing children explore the threshold between sea and shore. Watching them chase one wave out only to be chased back by the next coming in never gets old — at least when it’s not your kid, and you don’t have to enforce nap-time or reapply their sunscreen. I’m especially amused by the kids who spend hours rolling around and digging in the sand, unbothered by looking like a panko-crusted cutlet.
There’s no connection between how hard you fight and how well you fare
There’s no connection between how hard you fight and how well you fare