Interpersonal EDGE

By Dr. Daneen Skube

Tribune Media Services

 

 Q. Seems like every day I have 90 items on my to-do list and nothing gets done. Instead, my boss, coworkers and clients end up giving me 90 more tasks. I feel completely overwhelmed. Is there any trick to time management in the workplace?

By Dr. Daneen Skube

Tribune Media Services

 

Q. I’m attempting to do career planning. However, every time I think I have a plan, something changes in my industry. How do you plan when you have no way of knowing what changes are going to occur in your organization and field?

By Dr. Daneen Skube

Tribune Media Services

 

Q. I have to work with another team and manager who treats me and my team badly. I keep trying to get him and his team members to see that the way they act is unprofessional. The manager gets huffy and his team members get hostile. How can I get them to behave appropriately?

By Dr. Daneen Skube

Tribune Media Services

 

 Q. The last few years have been really hard in my industry. I find myself increasingly daydreaming about opening a surf shop on some distant tropical island or a restaurant anywhere but here. My friends tell me I’m having a mid-career crisis. Is there any way to check out daydreams to see if they are ridiculous fantasies or possible careers?

By Dr. Daneen Skube

Tribune Media Services

 

Q. I started out young and idealistic, but I am finding I have had so many disappointments that I just don’t care about much anyone. How do you keep caring about your job when retirement is far away and you are burned out?

By Dr. Daneen Skube

Tribune Media Services

 

 Q. Everything I have tried in the last few years professionally seems to have crashed and burned. I am tired, discouraged and out of great ideas. What do you tell your clients who have tried everything and failed?

By Dr. Daneen Skube

Tribune Media Services

 

Q. I’ve been in my field for 25 years, and it is going the way of the dinosaurs. With the economy as it is, there is no way I can afford to retire. Do you have ideas about how to stay employable when your old industry is dying?

By Dr. Daneen Skube

Tribune Media Services

 

Q. The people I work for are crazy. The decisions they make are consistently irrational, abusive and unpredictable. I’ve been here four years, and my health has gone downhill. Can stress make you sick? And is there anything I can do?

By Dr. Daneen Skube

Tribune Media Services

 

  Q. I have a friend who is very religious and believes that if you are a member of her religion, nothing bad should happen to you. I have had a string of bad luck in my career this year, and she keeps telling me this is proof God is punishing me. Is God out to get me, or do bad things happen to good people?

By Dr. Daneen Skube

Tribune Media Services

 

  Q. What kind of opinion does my boss have of me when anytime I have a conversation with him he either laughs at me or contradicts me?  Consequently, I don’t ask him questions or speak to him unless I really have to. How do I know what he thinks?