Office Diaries

An insider's guide to success in the workplace

by Donna Flagg

Is There Any Way to Get Congress to Look Within?

Wouldn't it be nice if we could put Congress "on the couch?" Read More

How to Tell Someone at Work That He or She Smells

It is perhaps the most dreaded conversation managers face. Their brains race and their lips freeze because they have to tell someone with whom they work that he or she is emitting an odor that is creating a problem. Read More

Life Online: Has Pushback Begun?

Does social media make life incompatible with living? Read More

Gender Differences in Tipping

I had a fascinating conversation yesterday about the differences between how men and women tip. It wasn't the fact that there is a difference. Rather, it was how extreme they were that shocked me. Read More

One Thing You Need to Know to Communicate Effectively

What I find utterly remarkable, is that people do know exactly what to say. They just don't know it, but I do every time they ask, "How do I say....?" Read More

Why Do Men Need to Rank Women’s Attractiveness?

At first, I found the attempt to divide women into either attractive or not, by virtue of their curves, or lack thereof, absurd. But that wasn't even the half of it. Read More

The Abuser and His Press Conference

From Spitzer and Schwarzenegger to the priests, teachers and now Cain, Sandusky and Fine, their speech writers should be fired. Read More

The Mysteries of Knowing vs. Doing

Why is it so difficult for people to do for themselves what they do for others? Read More

Increase Your Personal & Professional Effectiveness

It doesn't matter where you sit functionally within the business line. To be effective in one is to be effective in all. Read More

Finding Out Your Date Wants to Be "Just Friends"

I talk a lot about communications in the workplace, but why shouldn't the same rules apply to dating? Read More

When Did Smart Become So Dumb?

It's time to pause for a minute and think about how we define "smart" in this country. Read More

In Fairness to Single Men Everywhere

One stereotype that gets less attention, but is as unforgiving as the rest, is the assumption that something is "wrong" with single men. Read More

The Answer to the World’s Problems in a Word

The bullies, warmongers and narcissists all have one thing in common. They are playing a game, not with other people, but with themselves. Unfortunately, the rest of the world gets caught in the crosshairs. Read More

Communication Styles: What Flavor are You?

It is impossible to control how someone else is going to process and interpret our words and how we say them. That in the trade is what we call "baggage," and it belongs solely to the person who is carrying it. Read More

This Country is Being Run Like a Cult

If intentions are not pure, people infuse their toxic effects into the system. Before you know it, a so-called democracy is operating more like a cult. Read More

Propofol and Plastic Surgery: The Chicken or the Egg?

What if Michael Jackson's addiction wasn't plastic surgery after all? Read More

Is Managing People a Popularity Contest?

Do you need to be liked? Read More

Does Obama Know Something We Don’t?

What if there is a strategy lurking behind the failures? Read More

Vows of Remembrance and Then They Forget

Taking the day to remember and vowing to never forget. But what about the other 364 days of the year? Read More

High Maintenance Men

I think it's time that the high-maintenance men of the world get the credit and recognition they deserve for being as difficult as their female counterparts. Read More

Top Five Therapeutic Effects of Facebook

Let's not overlook Facebook's ability to work therapeutic wonders. It really is a fascinating study in human nature. Read More

In the Dark

My mom still agonizes over how I went through living hell in school as a result of being dyslexic and undiagnosed. I try to tell her that it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Read More

The Trend in Straight but Really Gay Politicians

What is it with these guys? I know multiple personality disorder gets a bad wrap, and schizophrenia, even worse. But frankly, I see similarities. Read More

It's Time to Redefine Insanity

They're drinking the Kool-Aid and we're listening as we watch. So tell me again. Who's crazy? Read More

Six Reasons & One Cause for Cheating

It's as complicated as we make it. Read More

Turning Food from Foe to Friend

Do our bodies know what they want and do our minds help or hurt the process? Read More

Managing Difficult People

We think that by taking disciplinary action, creating performance development plans or engaging in corrective counseling we will be able to instill incentives in employees that make them want to change. But deep down, we know better. Read More

The Psychology of Comment Boards

There is a strange pattern that I have yet to figure out. It occurs only in the slightest minority, but nonetheless, it happens enough for me to notice and wonder what is up with some people. Read More