Articles by Dan Bowling

Whether you are happy in your working life is up to YOU — not your boss, the HR department, the engagement task force or the bartender at Pete's Tavern. This is perhaps the most important lesson the burgeoning science of happiness has taught us. Hap...

There are a lot of lists on how to be happy. I did a quick Internet search on “how to be happy” and Google provided literally millions of links - just in English. Don’t look for any consistency or universal truths in these lists. They tend to be a ph...

Sure, MBA programs train the future leaders of corporate America. Toga party leaders apparently, according to a New York Times front page article on Harvard Business School, or HBS. The article ostensibly focused on the attempts of HBS to introduce g...

During the past month, scores of fast food workers have walked off the job to protest for a higher minimum wage. It became a national story last Thursday, when workers at 1,000 stores across the country walked out on the same day. The whole thing is ...

I just heard that my favorite editor, Deanna Hartley, is leaving Talent Management magazine for a new job at CareerBuilder, the job search behemoth. Although I have only met her once, I will miss her very much; as an editor she gets my sense of “humo...

If Dante were alive today, one of his circles of hell would be a call center. Low-slung buildings in forgettable office parks in places where unions are scarce and land is cheap, the only thing missing are the demons and pitchforks. "Abandon all hope...

Some thoughts, advice and questions for a midsummer day. Corporate directors give talent managers an “F.” The Harvard Business Review is reporting that corporate directors give talent managers failing grades. Yep, big fat F's, according to resear...

Flying into Los Angeles with its final approach nestled between mountain and sea, I was reminded of how much I love L.A. It is truly a beautiful place, one bathed in light. Driving downtown during the soul-sucking rush hour on a crowded bus, I was re...

One would think after all these years of talking about engagement, retention and morale, we HR types would have moved the needle on workplace happiness. Nope. Gallup recently released its annual report on employee engagement, and its findings are gri...

Stuff or vision? Money or meaning? These are the questions every leader needs to ponder when trying to motivate employees. Last week Talent Management kicked off a series of reports exploring whether satisfying employees or engaging them drives th...

By Elizabeth Bowling We have a guest blogger this week at "Psychology at Work."  She is a recent honors graduate from Duke University and is preparing to move to Manhattan to start a new life and career. I asked her whether Sheryl Sandburg's  well...

Talent Management is focusing on HR technology in the current issue. Here is what "Psychology at Work" had to say about technology and HR in a provocative post earlier this year. Engagement survey, meet the 21st century. With the explosive grow...

Yesterday, I  was talking to a bright young man from California on the phone. Let’s call him Dave. Dave has a law degree from a fine California university. He is outgoing and personable, and wants to use his law degree as a springboard to an HR ca...

Have I been deceiving you, dear reader? All the years, all the columns, pounding the same message: happiness at work comes from a variety of factors, not just money or perks. In fact, sometimes income is the worst predictor imaginable for life satisf...

Tiger copped a plea. Given the opportunity to conduct a gentlemanly withdrawal from the Masters after a serious rules violation - and do much to rehabilitate his battered image as club-tossing, F-bomb dropping philanderer - he hid behind a technicali...