The state of Illinois has filed a lawsuit against payday lender Check Into Cash, but not for its short-term lending practices. Instead, the company is accused of exploiting its low-wage employees by forcing them to sign non-compete agreements that restrict their ability to find jobs elsewhere. [More]
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Half Of America Is Not Prepared For A $100 Emergency
If you opened your mailbox today and found that you owed the city $100 and you had to pay it right away, would you be able to? A new report claims that nearly half of us are not prepared to absorb this cost, and more than 1-in-4 Americans is up a creek if they have to unexpectedly pay as little as $10. [More]
Free WiFi Continues To Pop Up In Odd Places
These are boom times for heavy WiFi users. Free WiFi is so ubiquitous that it’s gotten to the point that it’s almost shocking to sit down in public and not be able to pick up a signal. [More]
What To Do If Your 1099 Is Wrong
It’s tough enough for freelancers to calculate and pay the taxes they owe on income from which no funds have been withheld, but even more difficult if their bosses screw up their tax info. If the company you work for incorrectly reports your income on a 1099 form, you’ll be on the hook for paying taxes on that amount unless you can set things straight. [More]
How To Reduce Eye Strain While You Read, Work And Watch
You spend all day at work staring at a computer monitor. Then you come home and relax by glaring at a TV screen or squinting at a book or laptop. That sort of routine doesn’t give your eyes much of a break, so it helps to take measures to make things easier on your beleaguered peepers. [More]
3 Ways To Work Faster On Your Computer
If you use your computer clumsily, you can end up wasting valuable time, mucking up your workflow. With a little focus and concentration, you can cut down on the time you waste on menial tasks and become more productive. [More]
Tips For Making Job Hunts Easier
Because of the difficult job market, many people who never expected to be scanning job ads and sending out resumes are doing exactly that. In order to streamline your search and spend as much time as possible chasing promising leads, you’ll need to be smart about the way you conduct your search. [More]
How Should Wait Staff Handle Rude Customers?
Anyone who’s worked on a wait staff looks at their dining out experiences in a totally different way than the uninitiated. Understanding the pressures and perspective of servers can give you a deeper understanding of how to handle disappointments. For starters, you realize that customers have just as significant a role as servers in making it a pleasant dining experience. That’s what I’m told, at least. Full disclosure: My food industry working experience is restricted to one hellish day working at a student union Chick-fil-A. [More]
Sitting Can Literally Kill You
If you’ve ever worried that you were slowly dying by spending your days trapped in cubicle-land, you don’t have to worry anymore. You’re right. And according to new research, the threat isn’t merely existential. Sitting for long periods of time set off a chain reaction of events that quicken your shuffle off this mortal coil. [More]
The 10 Retailers That Keep Their Employees Happiest
Maybe those smiles on Costco employees’ faces aren’t fake. According to an employer satisfaction survey, Costco is the retailer with the happiest employees. [More]
Walmart Uses 4,300 Unpaid Teenagers As Baggers In Its Mexican Stores
Walmart is Mexico’s largest private employer, according to Newsweek, and that doesn’t include the 4,300 unpaid teenagers that it lets “volunteer” to bag groceries at its Mexican stores.