The big push in office design is forcing co-workers to interact more. Cubicle walls are lower, office doors are no more and communal cafes and snack bars abound. cubicle:小卧室,小隔间 communal:公共的,公社的 Like most grand social experiments, though, open-plan o…

Despite some hype and a few regional exceptions, the construction of office towers and suburban office parks has not made a significant resurgence in the current recovery. After a century in which office space expanded nationally with every uptick in…

Margot Carmichael Lester loves making good-natured jokes at work. As owner of The Word Factory, a Carrboro, N.C., content-creation company, she looks for employees with a sense of humor. 'I only want to work with people who can take a joke.' Sometime…

In Asia, middle managers such as department heads make more than 14 times as much as operational employees such as clerical workers--the biggest such pay disparity in the world, according to a report by global management consulting firm Hay Group. de…

The conference call is one of the most familiar rituals of office life -- and one of the most hated. ritual:典礼,宗教仪式 Abuses are rife. People on the line interrupt others, zone out or multitask, forgetting to hit 'mute' while talking to kids or slurpin…

If you find yourself needing to sit down to take off your shoes, it might be time to start paying attention to your sense of balance. People don't usually think about balance until they fall, but little signs such as relying on handrails to go up and…

Nelson Mandela, who rose from militant antiapartheid activist to become the unifying president of a democratic South Africa and a global symbol of racial reconciliation, died at his Johannesburg home following a lengthy stay at a Pretoria hospital, t…

Welcome to Monday morning at the office. Did you have trouble sleeping last night? Was your stomach bothering you? Did you feel a sense of dread about heading into work? dread:恐惧,担心 Could be that you have a case of the Sunday blues - and you're not t…

I'm not a hugger. When I see a registered personal-space invader coming my way at a party, the music from 'Jaws' plays in my head. And there are lots of people like me -- reasonably comfortable in social situations, no particular phobias, just a bit…

Apple Inc. 's answer to the increasingly cutthroat tablet-computer market: more product choices and free software. cutthroat:残酷的,剧烈的,凶手 At an event here Tuesday, Apple showed off a new full-size tablet--now called iPad Air--that is thinner and slimme…