advice

Workplace advice for any issue, problem, or concern; from changing careers to co-working advice and decorating needs.

IKEA’s Matter Bulbs Are Coming to China. Getting Them Online Is the Hard Part.
I screwed the KAJPLATS bulb I’d bought through an overseas proxy into the E27 socket in my living room. Scan, Bluetooth pairing, enter WiFi password. Twenty seconds, the light turns on. I glanced at the stomach medicine on the coffee table and went back to writing.
By Jin2 months ago in Journal
Thirty Years of Bad Presents, and the Small Bottle That Finally Made Sense. AI-Generated.
I am an electrician by trade, and I have wired half the houses in my part of Pietermaritzburg over the last thirty years. Give me a fault behind a wall and I will find it. Give me a distribution board that somebody's brother-in-law has butchered and I will make it safe by lunchtime. But for thirty years of marriage, ask me to buy my wife a present and I would freeze like a learner driver at a busy circle.
By Josh Maraney2 months ago in Journal
The Spring My Mother Decided She Was Done Being Married. AI-Generated.
My mother rang me on a Tuesday in September, the week the cherry blossom comes out in our part of the Free State, and told me over the phone that she was leaving my father. She said it the way she used to tell me supper was ready, plainly, with no wobble in her voice, and then she asked whether I could come through on the weekend because she wanted my help with something and did not want to explain it to my brother yet.
By Josh Maraney2 months ago in Journal
Startup Investment Due Diligence Checklist
A startup investment should be reviewed as a specific legal and economic deal, not simply as a company story. Before committing capital, an investor needs to understand what security is being purchased, who legally owns it, the valuation or conversion terms, existing shareholders, investor rights, fees, dilution risk, use of proceeds, disclosure quality and the realistic path to liquidity. Private-market investments can be highly illiquid and can result in a total loss, so the deal documents should take priority over marketing summaries.
By Susan Scava2 months ago in Journal
Payout Methods for Online Businesses
Payouts are not the same as customer payments. A payment flow collects money from a customer; a payout flow sends money from a business or platform to another party such as a seller, contractor, driver, creator, supplier or customer receiving a refund. The best payout method depends on where the recipient is located, what account details are available, how quickly funds need to arrive, how the business reconciles transactions and which compliance obligations apply.
By Susan Scava2 months ago in Journal
I Brought an Iced Coffee to a Job Interview. A Recruiter Called It a Red Flag.
A recruiter named Caitlin posted a TikTok. She says she has spent 16 years hiring for Fortune 500 companies. Her point: when a candidate walks into an interview holding an iced latte, the interview can look like one stop in a day. Not the main event. The video drew responses on TikTok and LinkedIn. Some recruiters agreed. Some candidates pushed back.
By Jin2 months ago in Journal
The 3-Minute Rule and 9 Other Tiny Habits That Quietly Change Everything
At 6:40 the alarm goes off across the room. She gets up. Crosses the cold floor. Turns it off. The phone stays on the dresser. She drinks a glass of water. Opens the blinds. Light hits the wall. Then she sits at the desk, opens one document, sets a timer for twenty-five minutes, and writes one sentence. The sentence is not good. She keeps going.
By Jin2 months ago in Journal
I Got Promoted. Then I Learned Why Being Good at Your Job Makes People Hate You.
Leave Some Soup The day Alex Hale got promoted, the admin pointed him to a desk by the window. He set the cardboard box on the desk and didn’t unpack it. At noon, he stood in the cafeteria line, then carried his tray back to his old table. The people there made room for him. Frank asked, “You’re not going to sit in your corner office?” Alex said, “First, lunch.”
By Jin2 months ago in Journal
I Quit Every Beauty Hack on the Internet and Did 9 Boring Things Instead
On the bathroom sink: a tube of hand cream, a bottle of glycerin enema, a half-used bottle of vitamin C serum. Someone on the internet said to mix all three, put on gloves, and wait. You did. Your hands turned red and tight. The next morning, the skin between your fingers peeled. That is the first rule. If a beauty tip sounds like a pharmacy accident, it is.
By Jin2 months ago in Journal
I Stopped Perfecting My Slides at 2 A.M. and Learned the Only Rule That Matters at Work
At 11:40 p.m., Emily Hart changed the chart on slide three. Again. Navy to slate. Legend from right to bottom. Gridlines lighter by half a shade. Her eyes burned. On the corner of her desk, a bottle of Tums had one tablet left. Her succulent had a yellow tip. She had not watered it in two weeks.
By Jin2 months ago in Journal
The Undergraduate Field: Why Your 18-Year-Old Self Still Shows Up in Every Job Application
The Undergraduate Field In the recruiting dashboard, the undergraduate institution field sits open by default. The HR person checks 985/211. Then checks master’s or above. Clicks. The page refreshes. Eight hundred resumes become one hundred twenty. She picks up her cup. The water is cold. She does not drink. The next field is highest degree. She clicks again. Sixty-seven remain.
By Jin2 months ago in Journal
Creed and Nickelback Paid the Bills. That Is Part of the Story
The polite history of late 90s and early 2000s rock has a punch line ready before the needle drops. Creed. Nickelback. The format villains. The bands you are supposed to apologize for knowing. That punch line is easy and incomplete. Active rock after Seattle still needed songs that could live on a shop radio, a night shift, and a daytime hour. These two paid those bills. The sneer never killed the catalog because the catalog was never asking the sneer for permission.
By Overdrive Records2 months ago in Journal