Corporate Glossary: every Friday, learn the secret meaning of common corporate words — Every Friday, you get the real meaning behind padded corporate terms that get tossed around like the nice guy’s ball cap in study hall. Knowing the reality behind the sanitized words or phrases will help you protect yourself and avoid learning these for the first time when you’re experiencing them. …

Encouraging you to see this as a normal perk of success is as common as it is perverse — At the waning end of the tech bubble, I worked for a company striving like crazy to be … not great, not meaningful, not impactful, but definitely profitable. They built a fancy building in a hip, movers-and-shakers-work-here neighborhood with the requisite parking deck, which was packed from day one. Get…

How salary transparency and parity are changing and salary compression might be stuck. — When Netflix red envelopes were arriving in mailboxes, my friend Bess had a sweet job with a famous tech firm in Silicon Valley. Tech stock was frenzied. The first silicon valley millionaires were emerging, and Bess was smack in the middle of it all. …

Here’s why career change is hard and how to make it easier. — Courtney, I’ve got great experience and impressive credentials in my field, but I hate my job. I got here via the path of least resistance. My first job out of college was in this field, and you know how it is, one job led to another. Now here I am…

Learn how to spot this subtle toxic behavior and shut it down. — Windows down, radio up driving on a lonely road to a Colorado goldrush town, you could smell the evergreens on the hillsides rising sharply on either side of a creek below. Periodically, I’d see abandoned railroad tracks. If there’s a “miles from nowhere,” this was it. Rounding a corner, I’d…

And three truths you won’t read in marketing materials. — In 2013, I resigned from what had evolved into a fiscally cushy yet emotionally corrosive corporate career. At its start, it was a glorious ride that took me across Europe, Australia, and Japan. Yet, as the saying goes, all good things must end. Leadership churned, projects concluded, new faces replaced…

What it is and how to take it. — The dogs bark, but the caravan goes on — Turkish Proverb Recently, I learned a New York Times best-selling author grew up just down the road from where I grew up. In Manhattan, many are famous. …

And how you can escape the trap — Note: I'm not a lawyer, and no part of this article is intended as legal advice. When I saw the phone number on my ringing phone, I thought, "Must be a misdial." It was a client from years ago, and it was late, well past dinner. I answered. "Hey." Immediately…