Marco Buscaglia

<img data-reference=“image” data-document-id=“cms/api/amp/image/AA1j1mhx” /><p>We all have coworkers who aren’t exactly our favorites. Consider the person who won’t make coffee when the pot is empty, the gossip-monger who would rather dish the dirt on Susan from accounting than do their job and the guy working in the cubicle around the corner with the diabolical laugh, to name a few. But what about those coworkers who make you feel a little uncomfortable — not in a dangerous way, just uncomforta…

<img data-reference=“image” data-document-id=“cms/api/amp/image/AA1dV9vD” /><p>Sure, you’re there to visit the doctor but before you grab that gown, you’ll need to check in with some of healthcare’s most valuable workers: the assistants: While the title may imply secondary status, the roles are anything but. In fact, for some healthcare facilities, the role of the medical assistant is absolutely essential. Depending on their training, today’s medical assistant can play numerous roles, including…

<img data-reference=“image” data-document-id=“cms/api/amp/image/AA1harWs” /><p>It’s getting harder to find a job these days.</p> <p>Unlike the past couple of years, when opportunities seemingly jumped off your screen into your lap, things have slowed down. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, it now takes the average job-seeker 19.5 weeks — about five months — to take a new job. And it’s not just the search that’s taking longer; it’s the hiring process itself. If you land an interview, it…

<img data-reference=“image” data-document-id=“cms/api/amp/image/AA19DEJg” /><p>Quiet quitting — the long-time but recently named phenomenon that describes workers who do the bare minimum to keep their jobs — is one thing but for some employees, the very act of doing less and less at the office wasn’t a reaction to boredom, complacency or a revised consideration of work/life balance. Instead, for some, it’s about “suppression,” according to Nolan Quinn, who says he first realized he wasn’t giving…

<img data-reference=“image” data-document-id=“cms/api/amp/image/AA1jMtHe” /><p>Mistakes happen.</p> <p>They can be as harmless as emailing your entire firm an invitation to lunch meant for one coworker or as harmful as messing up an order from your company’s largest customer.</p> <p>It happens. What happens next, though, may determine whether or not you have a job the next day. Whether you blew a sure sale, missed an important deadline or went one joke too far with the VP of finance, it’s poss…

As the workplace dynamics and locations continue to ebb and flow, it’s becoming more obvious that some supervisors have problems connecting their in-house persona to their online actions. And if those supervisors are weak to begin with, then forget it. “Some people just aren’t cut out to be managers,” says James Trindle, a social worker in San Jose...

Discussed by numerous organizations, social activists, job-rights advocates and people who perhaps just don’t want to work on Friday, the four-day workweek is an idea that won’t quite go away, even if the reality never lived up to the hype. And in recent months, the conversation about the merits and drawbacks of four-days-on, three-days-off seems t...

We are hammered with nostalgia these days. Lists on Facebook about someone’s favorite childhood toys; why the ’90s were the best decade; photos of restaurants long gone. But there are few things that prompt more nostalgia than summer. For many, the memories — time spent with friends, hanging out at the beach, causing trouble after dark — are a dire...

We are hammered with nostalgia these days. Lists on Facebook about someone’s favorite childhood toys; why the ’90s were the best decade; photos of restaurants long gone. But there are few things that prompt more nostalgia than summer. For many, the memories — time spent with friends, hanging out at the beach, causing trouble after dark — are a dire...

Tired of doing all of the work and getting none of the credit? Maybe you’re sick of working from home or you’re depressed because you had to head back to the office. Maybe daycare costs keep you up at night. Or maybe it’s becoming increasingly difficult to pay the mortgage. If these or any other issues feel like they’re weighing you down, perhaps i...

Careers: Classic careers: Opportunities for senior care specialists continue to climb

Numerous teachers across the country will soon be faced with the prospect of returning to the classroom this fall, even though they feel their health may be at risk. In many cases, teachers with co…

For years, her incoming Facetimes went unanswered and her Skype requests unreturned. To say Chicago resident Mary C., who asked that her real name not be used, didn’t want her face online would be an understatement. “Why would I want anyone to see me?” she says. And then the coronavirus hit. And with it, Zoom meetings, video chats, Google Groups and more. For Mary, 51, a Chicago Public Schools’ teacher, the ensuing work-from-home protocol meant video conferences with her principal, her fellow te…

Martha Gomez says she and the friends she grew up with in Rockford, Illinois, still joke around about a certain fast-food restaurant manager they worked for while in high school. “The manager was a real dirtbag and I’m being kind,” says the 53-year-old paralegal, who lives in Naperville with her husband and two sons. “He was always hitting on us, and we were 16, 17. And he slept in his car when he was supposed to be working and he said awful things to the customers when they complained.” But Gom…

Good things come to those who wait. The problem is that bad things come, too. So, if you’re waiting on a job offer, a promotion or a pink slip, the waiting — to paraphrase Tom Petty — may be the hardest part. But there are ways to minimize the anxiety that work-related waits can cause. Using the above three scenarios — job offer, promotion and layoff — we’ve tried to identify strategies to help cope with the purgatorial gaps in your career. Aaron Brent, a career coach in San Diego, says the most…

Those burgers and fries you’ve dined on during post-work traffic may be long gone, but the compounded odor of dozens of in-car meals lives on. Now, add a couple of sweaty kids after soccer practice and a pile of towels from a day at the beach last summer and you’ve got yourself of a potpourri of sti…

It’s easy to take medical equipment for granted. The ultrasound goes off without a hitch, blood pressure monitors behave as expected, surgical robots do their thing. Until they don’t. “If one or two machines aren’t working on a floor, that can completely change the course of your day,” says Lisa Carlos, a recently-retired registered nurse who worked at several Chicago area hospitals, including Mercy Hospital in Chicago and the Edward Hines, Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital, Hines, Ill. “Ins…

Paramedics often have memories from childhood that help explain their interest in emergency services -- the larger-than-life firefighter who climbed off the truck at the fire down the block, the soft-spoken paramedic who helped ease a child’s fear when a grandparent was about to be taken to the hospital. Paramedic Field Chief Donna Murphy, 44, one of a handful of paramedic chiefs in the city of Chicago, doesn’t claim such a storybook start down her professional path. “I was planning on becomin…

When Adam Kaplan was growing up in Palatine, Ill., he says he was more into skateboarding then cycling, but that changed when he went away to college in Madison, Wis. “I bought a bike to get around campus and to ride the trails, and I just fell in love with it,” says Kaplan, 41. Today, Kaplan’s the co-owner and head bicycle fit technician at Get A Grip Cycles, 4359 W. Irving Park Rd., in Chicago. Kaplan, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1996 with a bachelor of fine arts degree,…