Employment

With the explosion of smartphones and tablets, it should come as no surprise to find out that we spend a lot of time checking our work email when we’re not even in the office. But just how much do we do it?

The economy is continuing its long, slow recovery from the massive financial crisis and recession just a few years ago, and the labor market is improving. But one problem above all can prevent you from getting a new job: If you've been out of work for six months or more, it makes it much harder to get hired. We've gathered a few ways to help you navigate this problem:

You think your boss is bad?

We recently looked at some bad habits workers have that annoy their bosses, reduce productivity and prevent them from advancing up the career ladder. Now it's time to examine how bosses can spoil the workplace environment for their employees.

Sure, we all get annoyed at the boss from time to time, but keep in mind that that frustration can go both ways. If you want to excel at work, get promotions, get raises, have good things happen to you and such, take a look at these five things that really annoy bosses and don’t do them:

It’s difficult to ask for and get a raise these days, and unfortunately it can be just as tough to get a promotion. We've put together a few simple ways to help you get that position bump you want and deserve.

Some fields are better than others. And some you may want to think about avoiding altogether.

We’ve been going through a pretty rough economy these last few years, but you’ve been working hard, so why not ask for that raise? It may or may not work, but if you do decide to ask (and you should), you should be prepared to ask for it in the right way.

Running a business is expensive, starting with paying your employees' salaries. Providing benefits to those employees is even more expensive. But if a company wants to stay competitive and appeal to top professionals in its industry, or if it just wants to improve morale and reduce turnover, then it must provide benefits to employees above and beyond their salaries.

We saw this amazing resignation cake and got inspired. Not to quit our jobs, but to admire the ways others have in the past. Our most "creative" quit was telling the owner of a Chinese buffet over the phone that they couldn't yell at us anymore, because we quit so there. Compared to these, that just isn't that impressive.

The job market is pretty tight right now, so most days you’re probably thankful just to have a job that pays. But somewhere down the road that may not be enough. You may find yourself looking for a new position, even as you continue to hold down your current one. There are certain things you should keep in mind when that time comes.

After last week's disappointing March jobs report, the Department of Labor released some rather encouraging news on Thursday.