How to identify and deal with insubordination

Dear WW: I have an employee who never listens to what he’s told to do. I’m tired of it and feel that this is blatant insubordination, but our company personnel policies don’t specifically define what constitutes insubordination. Can you offer one? Beleaguered
Dear Beleaguered,
Your email reminded me of Lawrence Omansky. This New York businessman was charged [...]

How to reduce the odds of being laid off a second time

Dear WW: I just got a new job after being unemployed for a long period after my last job. What can I do to prevent the same thing from happening again? BACK IN THE SADDLE
Dear BACK,
A Massapequa, NY, high school student set a fire to burn some school papers in which he’d done poorly. As [...]

Who should be blamed for corporate layoffs

Dear Readers: Recently I received an email which criticized me for the advice that I gave to someone who was about to be laid off. He felt I wasn’t focusing on the real problem-the corporate greed that created the layoff in the first place. There is value in giving people strategies to cope, but I [...]

What to say if you are suddenly laid off

Dear WW: Out of nowhere my husband was called into his boss’s office and told that he no longer had a job. This is the last thing we ever thought would happen. Now he’s so bummed out he’s paralyzed and doesn’t know what to do. NEW STATISTIC
Dear STATISTIC,
Did you know that a thousand years ago, [...]

How to survive tough times without laying people off

Dear WW: The need to lay-off employees has finally hit our company. We’re worried about the morale of the people left behind. How can we do it in a way that causes the least damage? PINCHING PENNIES
Dear PINCHING,
Last summer’s fires in the west were some of the worst anyone has ever seen, and water trucks [...]

What to say if you are suddenly laid off

Dear WW: Out of nowhere my husband was called into his boss’s office and told that he no longer had a job. You hear so much about how great the economy is, this is the last thing we ever thought would happen. Now he’s so bummed out he’s paralyzed and doesn’t know what to do. [...]

How to tell if your company’s headed for trouble

Dear WW: My company says it’s doing fine. But I know other companies are doing big layoffs, which makes me nervous that we could be facing layoff-city and not even know. How can you tell if your company’s in trouble? SINKING SHIP?
Dear SINKING,
Every industry has its own way of spelling trouble. In TV, for instance, [...]