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…

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…

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…

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama took ping-pong diplomacy to a new level on Friday on her weeklong tour of China as the two countries try a new tactic to build trust in a often tense relationship. diplomacy:外交           tactic:策略,战略 More than 40 years…

'What's celebrity sex, Dad?' It was my 7-year-old son, who had been looking over my shoulder at my computer screen. He mispronounced 'celebrity' but spoke the word 'sex' as if he had been using it all his life. 'Celebrity six,' I said, abruptly closi…

Feeling the pinch of work stress in the evening? Before heading home for the night, take a moment to savor the day's wins. savor:尽情享受,滋味 Forthcoming research from the Academy of Management Journal shows that workers reported lower stress levels in th…

As the head of the entertainment division of a major public-relations firm in New York, Janelle was in charge of no fewer than 15 junior publicists. She knew that she shouldn't play favorites, but she couldn't help it. Some employees were just better…

AT THE ACADEMY AWARDS earlier this month, Kerry Washington, the star of the ABC-TV series 'Scandal,' wore a lilac Jason Wu gown, tailor-made to accommodate what she playfully called her little 'accessory'-a growing baby bump. These days, that's just…

[Confident girls are often called the other B-word, and it can keep them from reaching their full potential, write Sheryl Sandberg and Anna Maria Chavez.] Sheryl: When my brother and sister describe our childhood, they will say that I never actually…

Is your desktop or laptop computer starting to feel a little poky? Even after just a few months of use, your PC or Mac may start to lose steam thanks to a fragmented hard drive, too many programs running in the background, or even a rogue piece of ma…