Do Just One Thing Differently – J.D. wrote a nice post on how committing to one small change everyday can change everything. I really enjoy his perspective on expanding the impact of the experiment, too. (Get Rich Slowly)
Follow Your Passion – Baker writes on the importance of finding your unique strengths and following what you feel genuinely passionate about. (Man Vs. Debt)
How to Focus Your Energy – Penelope wrote a great post on how to give attention to those things that are truly the most important in life. (Penelope Trunk)
How LinkedIn Pages Can Help Your Job Search – Check out Lindsey’s post on using a company’s LinkedIn information page to learn about a company you’re considering applying or interviewing for. She points out that these pages are a great source of centralized information and can prevent being unprepared. (Lindsey Pollak)
How to Find Legitimate Work From Home Opportunities – Maggie wrote an interesting piece on how to avoid dead end work at home opportunities and find truly legitimate ones. She also offers a few services who list quality work prospects. (Maggie Mistal)

Read up and let the good feeling of spring propel your career advancement!

1500-1770 - In their formative stages, offices were more like independent studies. Be glad you don’t have to wear a robe to work and write in ink-dipped pen.

1770-1880 – This era is represented by hand crafted furniture, specific attention to themed decoration, and shared workspaces. We also see our first signs of electricity, which would change life in the office forever.

1880′s – With the invention of the first commercial typewriter in 1870, many offices began to take advantage. Skilled typists could now transcribe information at 3-4 times the handwritten rate.

1890′s – The desire for personal comfort and more relaxed office rules made way for what would become the modern day “suit and tie.”

1900′s – The turn of the century began what is considered the first decade of materialism and consumerism. Men styled in long, slim suits while women wore dresses with broad shoulder pads. Doesn’t casual Friday sound fantastic now?

1910′s – With the invention of the electrical typewriter, hundreds of typewriter secretary positions were created. This decade also saw the men of many offices off to fight in WWI.

1920′s – Henry Ford’s studies of workflow and mass production had affects far beyond auto production. Offices were planned to promote maximum efficiency and minimize waste.

1930′s – Though women had been members of the American workforce for over 100 years, their inclusion became rapidly prevalent. In the 1930′s alone, the percentage of women in the workplace rose by 25%.

1940′s – World War II pulled the nation out of the Great Depression as women stepped up to fill the jobs vacated by men who went to war, while television became mainstream. The total number of TV sets grew from 5,000 to 17 million during the decade.

1950′s – With Europe decimated and American soldiers back from the war, industry and family creation exploded. Culture took a conservative turn, as the battle between capitalism and communism invaded every aspect of society.

1960′s - Style becomes a priority. Concepts such as spacing, color, and flow are given specific attention. And check out that hairstyle!

1970′s – The floppy disc arrived in 1970 and was soon followed by the microprocessor. The invention of jumbo jets revolutionized commercial flights and counter culture elements from the 60s like long haired men, bell bottoms, and platform shoes became mainstream.

1980′s – The personal computer, though expensive and limited in its functionality, begins to nudge its way onto desks across the country.

1990′s – Computers can be found on almost every desk. It’s interesting to note that the large stacks of paper almost vanish completely.

2000′s – Flat panel monitors allow for a lot more desk space, and rapidly blossoming technology allows creative new setups.

Bonus – The Future – Of course, these are only guesses, but the adaptation of evolving technology is already showing signs of multi-screen displays, complete wireless setups, and progressive, relaxed work environments that cater to their young and hip inhabitants.

Historical office images from OfficeMuseum.com.

The big winners of the recent Great Recession have been the largest U.S. corporations. This isn’t simply because they are greedy and rapacious, or because they can steamroller everything in their path. Rather, it reflects the fact that they are in a position to use the recession as a positive opportunity to restructure and become more efficient, while government, small businesses and most American households are forced by circumstances to play defense.

In every economic system, there have to be occasional corrective phases, where inefficient and uncompetitive businesses and services are eliminated, costs are lowered, and ground is cleared for new growth. But not every part of the economy is equally well positioned to do this. Government usually has to worry first about unemployment. It therefore tries to preserve current jobs and existing businesses, rather than focusing on restructuring government services to make them more effective or reforming social programs to lower their long-term costs. Most households and many small businesses give top priority to immediate concerns in a recession, because they have to respond to the short-term pain rather than the potential for long-term gain.

According to the article, the ways corporations have profited are:

• Reduced labor costs and increased productivity
• The ability to refinance debt at lower interest rates
• Continued increase in profits
• Large cash holdings

So apparently the recession has been a great excuse for large companies to fire people and increase their profit margins, they can borrow money at lower rates than ever while the average small business owner or individual can’t get credit, and their large cash holdings allow them to take advantage of numerous investment opportunities. It’s not easy to see why people are outraged that the government gave bailouts to large companies who are doing great anyways.

Aluminum Foil

Bamboo

Bathroom

Camouflage

Cardboard

Casino

Caution Tape

Plastic Cups

A Portrait

Gift Wrapping

Golf Course

Some Cubicles at Google

Summer Barbeque

Hot Wheels

Keyboard Impaled in Desk

Getting Back to Nature

Newspaper

Packing Peanuts

Pink Bunnies

Plants

Plastic Wrap

Post-It Notes

Red Balloons

Shreddings

Stuffed Chinchillas

Tiki Bar

Toilet Paper

Trash

Tropical Vacation

Twinkies

Luxury Wood Paneling

Wine Bar

1. Before you begin a task, imagine the stereotype of people who excel at that task.
2. Need to make a complex presentation to your boss? Do it in the morning. Save the fluffy stuff for the afternoon.
3. Make hand gestures while learning to improve your memory.
4. Use fictional narratives making a point to become more persuasive.
5. Hold off on threats unless your negotiation opponent is unresponsive and does not show any negative affect from your points.
6. Be more persuasive by piling up the evidence in support of your claims.
7. Use front vowel sounds (long a, e, i) and fricatives (f, s, and z) if your prices to make them seem smaller.
8. Don’t put yourself into competition with a large number of people because it lowers your motivation.
9. Present your best product or service first because the order of presentation makes a difference in purchasing behavior.
10. Make sure some of your products are sold out or unavailable, because it will lead customers to believe your other products are more desirable.
11. Bring coffee to all your meetings, presentations, and sales calls to become more persuasive and ensure your message sticks.
12. When negotiating on price, the higher you start, the higher the final price will likely be. The opposite is true for auctions.
13. Don’t brown nose your boss if you aren’t good at it because it will only work against you.
14. Avoid name dropping because it makes a bad first impression.
15. Show anger when you make complaints, especially if your complaint is somewhat dubious.
16. Work on your networking because it’s the key to finding a job and advancing once you have one.
17. Use routine to automate as many daily task as possible so they become easier to complete and less taxing on your will power.
18. Use numbers, whenever possible, when presenting information to your boss.
19. Let employees control their own work schedule to prevent mental fatigue.
20. Hire managers who believe that personality traits are malleable because they’ll be better equipped to spot changes in employee productivity.

As you might expect, careers in law and medicine are among the most common. So are management positions and executives. One aspect of the chart that I’ve seen many people question is that it uses top 1% of income earners, rather than net worth which is a better representation of wealth. It also includes spouses of high income earners, which allows careers like teaching and administrative jobs to make the list.

While this graphic probably won’t get you any closer to the top 1%, it’s interesting to see how the rich people of the country make a living.

Many different individuals and groups surmise as to why this particular disparity exists; for instance, many people blame cultural stereotypes that dictate which careers are acceptable for males and females. Other people believe that certain negative social issues deter women from succeeding in these fields, while there is also the popular argument that women tend to shy away from scientific careers due to socialization. For instance, the career interests of children are directly tied to parental expectations. In fact, studies reveal that the gender-related parental expectations of teenagers positively correlate with their future career choices.

Biology Determines Occupational Choices?

According to psychology researchers at Penn State University, specific sex hormones directly influence people’s general interests. In turn, these specific interests directly affect which careers these individuals choose to pursue.

“Our results provide strong support for hormonal influences on interest in occupations characterized by working with things versus people,” said Adriene M. Beltz, a graduate student in Psychology working directly with Sheri A. Berenbaum, a Professor of Psychology and Pediatrics at Penn State University.

With respect to the study itself, Berenbaum and her associates looked into people’s interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers. More specifically, the researchers studied young adults and teenagers that suffer from a genetic condition called congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) – and their siblings that do not suffer from this condition.

What is Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia?

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia, a rare enzyme deficiency, is a condition that begins in uteri and causes the adrenal glands to over secrete androgens. Androgens, themselves, are steroid hormones – such as androsterone or testosterone – that control both the maintenance and development of masculine characteristics in individuals. In some cases, when a baby is born, there can even be confusion over the gender of that child. However, when there is an issue, females do usually have corrective surgery while they are still infants – and then they are raised as females by their parents.

Research Findings

Previous findings noted that while females with CAH are genetically female, they do tend to display more traditionally male-oriented interests. The current research conducted by Berenbaum and others discovered that females with this condition were more interested in careers that involved “things” instead of careers that involved “people”. Further, the more androgens that these CAH women were exposed to, the more interested they were in careers that involved “things” over “people”.

“We took advantage of a natural experiment,” said Berenbaum. “We’re suggesting that these interests are pretty early developing.”

Conversely, women without CAH displayed less interest than men in careers dealing with “things”. Instead, these women were more interested in more social and more stereotypical female careers such as teachers or nurses. That said, with respect to the males involved in this study, it was discovered that there was no significant difference between males without CAH and males with CAH.

Occupational Interests of CAH Females & Non-CAH Females

Research Study Details

The study, itself, involved asking 125 research participants to rate items in a list of sixty-four occupations as to whether or not they would dislike, like, or were indifferent to doing a particular career-related job. Specifically, forty-six females with CAH, twenty-one non-CAH females, twenty-seven males with CAH, and thirty-one non-CAH males took part in this study. Further, participants came from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. The types of careers involved in the study included social, enterprising, conventional, realistic, artistic, and investigative career types. Since career counselors utilize these categories on a regular basis, this system was a well-established one.

With respect to ratings, investigative and realistic careers were referred to as “thing” related careers, artistic and social careers were noted as being “people” oriented careers while enterprising careers offered more “middle-ground” as these types of careers involved primarily working with both “things” and “people”.
Important Considerations

Berenbaum wanted to stress that choosing a career is a complex process, and there can be a variety of factors that affect people’s career choices. In addition, personal interests are only one contributor when it comes to choosing an occupation.
Moreover, while there may be biological roots, socialization can magnify these once minor differences over time until these differences become larger. Further, just because biology may influence certain behavior, it does not mean that certain behavioral and cognitive skills cannot be learned.

“I would argue that if we know the genes that influence a certain behavior, it might be easier to change them with an environmental intervention because we would know what we’d be targeting,” said Berenbaum.

In addition, due to the findings that career choices have early roots in both biological and early social development processes, Berenbaum suggests that society should emphasize the “people aspect” of scientific careers in order to encourage more women to become involved in these types of occupations.

Overall, the issue of gender and career choice is an extremely controversial – yet important – issue. What are your thoughts on this matter?

Sources:

• http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0018506X11001292
• http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2006-22337-000
• http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13803610600765851

Here are 30 of my favorites:

Smile for the office picture:

All cups filled with water:

I imagine this cubicle owner to be very macho:

Hope you can type without looking:

Mission Impossible:

And you think your inbox is backed up?

Look at the bright side, free lunch:

Can’t be bored in a ball pit!

An ice cube?!

Trash? This is just mean:

Probably because he spends most of his time on the golf course.

Probably because he spends all his time in the bathroom:

And perhaps my favorite. You’ve been pink’d!

I hope you’ve enjoyed these! They are just meant to bring share April Fools Day fun. Hope you have a great day and a great weekend!

15. Angus Jones, 17: Two and a Half Men

14. Jaden Smith, 12: The Karate Kid

13. The Jackson Kids, 8, 12, 13: Michael Jackson

NET WORTH: $33 Million Each

HOW THEY MADE IT: At the time of his tragic death, the King of Pop was worth an estimated $300 million.  Via trust fund, Prince (13), Paris (12), and Blanket (8) will receive a combined 40% of his estate.

WHAT’S NEXT: As future MJ merchandise sales help fortunes grow, Prince and Paris have vowed to reclaim Neverland Ranch as a shrine for their father and make it a “community park and center for animals.”  What sweethearts.

12. Rico Rodriguez, 12: Modern Family

11. Miranda Cosgrove, 17: iCarly

10. Fatima Ptacek, 10: Fasion Model

NET WORTH: $1 Million

HOW SHE MADE IT: Fatima makes $250,000 a year modeling for Ralph Lauren, Benetton, and The Gap.   She’s starred in over 50 television commercials and even appeared on Saturday Night Live and alongside Michelle Obama on Sesame Street.

WHAT’S NEXT: Along with modeling, the “Princess of New York” is the’s 15th ranked gymnast in New York state and dreams of someday competing in the Olympics.

9. Nick Jonas, 18: Jonas Brothers

8. Selena Gomez, 18: Wizards of Waverly Place

7. The Sprouse Twins, 18: The Suite Life of Zack & Cody

6. Tyler James Williams, 18: Everybody Hates Chris

5. Abigail Breslin, 14: Little Miss Sunshine

4. India Rose James, 18: Granddaughter

NET WORTH: $58 Million

HOW SHE MADE IT: When English pornography publisher Paul Raymond passed in 2008, India and her sister Fawn became the primary beneficiaries of his billion dollar estate.

WHAT’S NEXT: On her 21st birthday India will receive $230,000, and the rest will be held in a trust fun until she’s 25, when she will become one of Britain’s richest women.   She and Fawn plan to use the riches for charity projects.  Making up for all that porn are we?

3. Dakota Fanning, 16: War of the Worlds

2. Justin Beiber, 16: My World 2.0

1. Miley Cyrus, 18: Hannah Montana