Feature Update: Improved 'Review Averages' Display

When viewing a person's profile page, the rating summary in the upper left hand corner now offers more detail regarding how the rating has been calculated. The layout now does a better job at displaying the three types of reviews one can receive, and how they influence an average rating:

1. "Signed": a review submitted by, and identified with, a registered user of Coworkers.com
2. "Anonymous": a review by a registered user of Coworkers.com, who has chosen not to be identified
3. "Unverified": a review that was created by an unknown person, not logged in as a user of Coworkers.com

7 Tips for Resolving Conflicts Quickly and Peacefully

"Everyone has to deal with difficult people, whether they are argumentative, abusive, stubborn, or combative. The question is, how can you assert your own rights without creating an unnecessary incident?

In most cases, angry people are screaming to be heard. They want to be valued, loved, and listened to. They want to feel important but aren’t able to express themselves constructively. With the right attitude, it’s possible to get past these insecurities and reach an understanding. These 7 strategies will help you setting disputes quickly and peacefully for the benefit of everyone involved..."

See the list at PickTheBrain.com

Skip work, make babies, governor says

Now here is a politician everyone can get behind... In a bid to increase Russia's low birth rate, governor Yelena Yakovleva is urging couples to work it instead of work. No word on whether employers were forced to pay for this time off, or whether the workers were too happy to care.

Tips to become an early riser

As many of our users are entrepreneurs/freelancers like us, we thought we would share this list of tips for getting out of bed. They range from the obvious - "Get enough sleep" - to the thought provoking - "Find an accountability partner".

You may find yourself disagreeing with the overall premise, "getting up is crucial to success as an entrepreneur". If you never see your clients in person, and they're 12 time zones away, who cares if it's 2 AM or 2 PM? If you are truly independent and don't need to get up early for meetings or whatever, the key is to find your most productive time of day, and fit sleep and other activities around that. But given the realities of life, not too many of us can pull that off.

Companies try to retain older workers

Hey everyone, hope you had a great Labor Day. Now get back to work!

The LA Times has a story that will be of interest to the older part of our demographic. Along with the aging of our population, older workers are more in demand than ever. Anyone who has ever tried to debug PL1 code or fix a car from the 1970's certainly understands why this is the case...