Chances are that at some point in your life you have been subjected to horrible customer service. From clueless salespeople to snippy flight attendants to repairmen who apparently never actually learned the meaning of the word “repair.” If at all possible, I avoid these offending businesses at all costs. And I am not alone.

According to a recent survey by Greenfield Online, bad customer service costs businesses as much as $338.5 billion a year in lost revenues globally. Ouch.

Bad customer service doesn’t always manifest itself in egregious ways; but the damage that can be done by simple inattention to detail should not be discounted in terms of how it can affect your business.

Click here to read a wonderful article by Dave Logan entitled “How to Turn Loyal Customers into Hate-Filled Villagers with Pitchforks” on CBSNews.com

Getting the richest experiences from life’s little moments.

I remember as a child, my mother clipping out an Ann Landers column which featured a poem by Veronica A. Shoffstall entitled After a While. If you are not familiar with this little tidbit of Americana (known by many as “Grow Your Own Garden”), it deals with the simple yet essential need for people to seed happiness into their own lives. And that doesn’t mean going shopping.

“Materialism is toxic for happiness,” says University of Illinois psychologist Ed Diener in an article in USA Today by Marylin Elias. “Even rich materialists aren’t as happy as those who care less about getting and spending.”

So what is the secret to happiness and what can you do to achieve it?

Click here to read “10 Things Science Says Will Make You Happy” at YesMagazine.org.

Recently, this question appeared on LinkedIn:

This is the answer that was given:
I can’t think of a reason to put someone on W2 instead of a 1099. If the need is for a permanent, full time position, then W2 is generally the way to go. If the work doesn’t fit this category, I can’t think of a reason to use a W2 employee.

Well, they kind of got it right.
It seems there is a trend to move more and more work to Independent Contractors rather than hire employees directly onto payroll. The answer above is missing a few very critical points, particularly what is the legal definition of a contractor; and can my job be filled by a 1099 worker or must I use a W2 employee?

The answer here is as simple as two little words. A Duck. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. In other words, if the position requires the employee to be directed as to how, when, where and with what to do the job, then get quacking… he is a W2 employee. If however, the job will be done independently, then a 1099 may be the way to go.

Think of a roofer. If you call someone to fix your roof you don’t tell them what size nails to use, how to swing the hammer, which guys will work and when lunch break is. That is because they are independent (AKA 1099) contractors. Now if you have an administrative assistant who is required to be at the office at 9am, dress according to code, take lunch at noon, use Microsoft Word on an office computer and report to a supervisor, that’s a W2 employee.

This is serious stuff.

Employee misclassification is something that the Feds aren’t messing with. From large businesses to mom-and-pop shops , the fines are everywhere and they’re not cheap. Take a look:

• After five years of litigation, The Orange County Register in California agreed to pay $22 million to settle a suit involving the misclassification of workers as independent contractors.
• The Department of Labor ordered three construction companies to pay $491,100 in back wages and damages to 99 employees who were misclassified as independent contractors, in addition to another $108,900 in civil fines.
• A prominent shipping company settled a series of class action lawsuits alleging worker misclassification in the tune of $27 million. Previously, the IRS had already ordered the company to pay $319 million in back taxes and penalties.

Estimates are that 20% of businesses misclassify workers; so make sure your business isn’t included in this nasty statistic. Click here to read “Independent Contractor (Self-Employed) or Employee?” on the IRS website; and don’t forget that to be safe on the 1099 issue, you can always use a 10 til 2 employee.

Dear Pat: I currently work 32 hours a week for a company I’ve been with for several years. I no longer like my job, but am having a tough time figuring out how to have similar flexibility in a new job. It seems I would need to go back to 40+ hours per week until they get to know me and I can then negotiate more flexible hours. Do you have any suggestions for how to handle the job search and ultimately negotiate flexible hours in a brand new job? ~ Moving On

Dear Moving On: As you recognize, the fastest way to flex for most professionals is to negotiate it at their current job after a sufficient time working a traditional schedule. In your case, it’s the job, not the schedule, that needs changing.

Most employers don’t offer a flexible schedule or telecommuting arrangement from day one.

But some do. Below are several viable options for finding or accessing flexible employers and jobs.

Click here to read Pat Katepoo’s answer, including 10 til 2, on WorkOptions.com.

Sure, there are reasons (mostly salary concerns) that might make you reluctant to hire a former bigwig; but these experienced, successful job candidates might not be expecting the compensation packages that you think. And they usually need less training. And they’re often a treasure trove of fresh ideas. And they have a history of success. And… you get the picture.

Still not convinced that an overqualified job candidate may be your next star employee?

Click here to read “5 Tips on How to Approach ‘Overqualified’ Job Candidates” by Don Tennant on ITBusinessEdge.com.

Four years prior, my husband and I had realized that, guess what, our daughter was only going to get one shot at childhood and that at least one of us should be home during the day to witness it. I postponed my advertising career and became a full-time mommy, with the assumption that I would go back to work when Sassy Pants started school.

So today was the day. There I stood, mouth half-opened, staring at the back of the school bus chugging down the road. A million thoughts went through my head and, to be honest, many of them had more to do with me than my daughter. Why hadn’t I been better about keeping in touch with my business contacts? Why hadn’t I taken some extra time to take an extension course or a new computer class? Why hadn’t I kept my finger on the pulse of the industry by subscribing to a relevant monthly publication or trade paper? Why, during those precious years, did I not once think ahead to the hurdles I might face reentering the workforce? So I went home, blubbered like a baby and then hopped on the internet and began doing a full scale job search. I was going to enter the world of nine-to-five, bygone it.

After several hours of “hey-I-can-do-that” responses to job postings that I was probably overqualified for, I had an epiphany. If I am hauling myself downtown to bust my tail for eight to ten hours a day, who will be there to meet Sassy at the bus stop? Who will attend her Halloween Costume Party or chaperone her field trip to Emma Crumby’s Apple Orchard? My laundry list of fears about returning to the workforce, some more rational than others, went on and on:

• Would my salary be worth my time away from my family?
• Had I forgotten how to use my brain cells and lost my creative muse (who was sort of a creepy cross between Gwen Stefani and Charles Nelson Riley)?
• What if the school called and Sassy was sick or had a boo-boo?
• How would I navigate winter breaks and summer vacations? Hey, nannies cost a lot of dough.
• How much money would it cost to update my work wardrobe, most of which was pretty hip a decade ago; ten years later… not so much?
• A million other little things that whizzed through my troubled brain.

There was a chink in my working mama resolve the size of a McDonald’s Playland. Now what? I would like to say that I immediately came up with the perfect solution to attaining that elusive work-life balance. I didn’t. I spent weeks scouring websites for jobs with a flexible schedule. I stared at the phone pondering a call to an old contact that might have the perfect fit for me. I played a little computer solitaire… all the while knowing that it simply wasn’t going to work. I could not be in two places at one time and the place that I still really wanted to be was with my child.

So I volunteered at the elementary school in the lunchroom, stuffing folders, reading stories, you name it. Let me just interject here that the nation’s school system should thank their lucky stars that the marketplace is still mostly disobliging to working moms, allowing thousands of school districts across the country access to countless eager, educated and incredibly capable women who are willing to work gratis cutting out 32 identical construction paper leprechaun hats or printing out dozens of copies of “I am a Lucky-Plucky-Gobble-Gobble Turkey.” Suffice to say, the work at the school was mind-numbing, but at least I was still a part of Sassy’s daily life.

While talking with the stay-at-home moms in my neighborhood, I would often unload about how I found it hard to believe that “in this day and age the working world is still so unaccommodating to mothers who want a career.” To which they, all of whom were degreed former professional one-thing-or-anothers, would say, “Um… Yeah.”

So I spent nearly two years in this working-mommy-purgatory. Then our family moved halfway across the country. With a new home, a new state and a new attitude I decided it was time for a fresh start on my career path. I immediately began asking questions of the secretary at my daughter’s new school, of people I met in the supermarket checkout line, of just about everyone I met.

One evening I found myself at a Friday night block party with a garage full of my new neighbors. I was asked by one gal if I was a stay-at-home-mom. I told her yes, but that I planned to get back into advertising. I also mentioned how I was skeptical I would ever find a job that would allow me to see my daughter off in the morning and be there when she returned home. The woman replied, “Hey, have you met the neighbor down the street? She owns a staffing service that caters to ‘mothers and others’ looking for long-term, flexible, part-time career work. If you’d consider a part-time job, you should definitely check it out.”

What luck! Someone had come up with “the answer” (visualize cumulus clouds parting in the sky with golden beams of sunshine streaming down upon me) to my working mommy dreams. If I could find the right fit through the part-time placement service, I would be able to get back to the career I love and still give my kid a smooch when she hopped off the bus! I went to the company’s website, peeked around at the job openings and… voila… the placement service had several postings that were a perfect match to my skill set. And they offered a flexible, part-time schedule.

I uploaded my resume, applied for the positions and (I swear this is true) got a phone call two hours later. They wanted to interview me. Yee-haw! So the happy ending to my story is this: I got a flexible, part-time job in advertising that I love, my new position has allowed me to stretch my creative wings and expand my portfolio… and Sassy and I have a standing after-school date playing with her plastic jungle animals and eating cookies. It’s a good gig if you can get it.

While few know the inner workings of the Kohl’s marketing department, it is probably safe to wager that all of the media attention was the product of a well-written, well-timed, pertinent press release. To the countless part-time job seekers, the story was great news and to the rest of us it acted as a hopeful harbinger of better times to come. For Kohl’s, it was nothing less than PR genius.

When seeking press coverage for your own business, it is important to keep the Kohl’s example in mind. A press release is only as good as it is pertinent and interesting.

For insightful tips on garnering media coverage for your company, click here to read a great article on The Wall Street Journal’s website entitled “How to Score Press Coverage.”

A recent article written by Clive Thompson of The New York Times entitled “Are Your Friends Making You Fat?” examines the effect that your social circle has on your lifestyle. Thompson cites a study conducted by a social scientists, Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler, that suggests “good behaviors — like quitting smoking or staying slender or being happy — pass from friend to friend almost as if they were contagious viruses.”

The contagiousness of behavior has long been suspected by sociologists; and the new age of booming viral media only underscores “the power of your people.”

Click here to read “Are Your Friends Making You Fat?” at thenewyorktimes.com.

What employees really want and how it will alter your HR

For the last several years, there has been something other than a pot of strong coffee brewing in America’s collective workplace; namely the emerging trend of career professionals seeking a more satisfying work-life balance. Gone is the willingness of many to work 60 to 80 hours per week while missing out on virtually every aspect of a robust family life. And this doesn’t only refer to Baby Boomers and Gen X-ers, but also the up-and-coming Generation Y, who have collectively positioned themselves as an educated and formidable body of labor who refuse to accept the old-school-rat-race paradigm.

Businesses and HR Departments are continuing to rethink their hiring practices, job descriptions and work weeks to embrace this budding phenomenon and to continue to attract and secure top talent.
To learn more about these emerging employment dynamics, click here to read “We’re Getting Off the Ladder” by Laura Fitzpatrick, part of the series “The Future of Work: The New Work Order” featured on TIME.com.