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Most people think of the public library as a sanctuary where anyone can sit and read a book or look up information. For the librarians at Berkeley Public Library in California, however, the library isn't always a quiet refuge. One peaceful morning last summer, librarians were getting ready for the doors to open when a man pounded on the door, shouting for help. Moments after he was let inside, hi...

Tim Nesmith, a 23-year-old logger living in Greenough, Montana, keeps a dented hard hat in his bedroom. It's part conversation piece and part souvenir, a memento of the day he nearly had his head cracked open. Nesmith is one of the lucky ones. Every year, close to 100 loggers are killed on the job and thousands more are injured, making this one of the most dangerous lines of work in America. In 2...

You're pregnant! You probably feel like shouting it to the world, and nobody can blame you. But when it comes to telling your boss, experts advise that you strategize a bit before sharing the good news. A little preparation and forethought, they say, can guarantee that both your announcement and your maternity leave go smoothly. "The thing that working pregnant women worry most about, after the h...

These days, more mothers-to-be are working right up until a few days, or even a few hours, before they go into labor. The fact that fewer than 40 percent of working women in the United States get paid pregnancy leave may have something to do with this trend. That's the bad news. The good news is that most women, depending on a few key factors, can actually work through their pregnancies without je...

From secretaries to CEOs, workers face an epidemic of depression. At any given time, almost 7 percent of adults suffer from this disease, a fact that explains a lot of empty desks and unpunched time cards. Every year, depression causes 200 million lost days of work, and it is the leading cause of disability in the United States for 15- to 44-year-olds. In a way, everyone pays the bill. In fact, wo...

Two strangers' eyes meet over the brief flare of a freshly lit match. A jazz chanteuse croons through a haze of smoke. Around midnight, a bartender clears away the islands of empty cocktail glasses and lipstick-smudged cigarette butts left in the revelers' wake. For generations, immortalized in Edward Hopper paintings and Humphrey Bogart movies, inseparable from the sounds of Miles Davis and Sarah...

In this high-tech, high-pressure age, multitasking has become a national pastime. No matter where we are or what we're doing, we can always add one more ball to the juggling act. Many people regularly check emails on their Blackberry while talking on the cell phone, pausing only to yell at other drivers. "Because of all of the new electronic gadgets like cell phones, Palm Pilots, and other person...

I've been doing construction for years. But when it comes to working on roofs, I move slowly and hang on tight. That practice has earned me the nickname Rafter Sloth from my fellow crew members and kept me working mostly on the ground level. Keeping up the pace on a professional roofing crew, I found, requires that you walk that fine line between productivity and regard for your personal safety. ...

About 10 years ago, journalist Betsy Bayah noticed she was having an increasingly hard time hearing. At the time, Bayah, who was in her early 30s, was a staff reporter for the largest public radio station in Northern California. Her livelihood was directly tied to her hearing -- or so she thought. Bayah was devastated, but once she got over her initial panic, she did what any good reporter would: ...

As child protective services worker Denise Smernes walked into the home of her clients in Alameda County, California, she was shocked to see a teenager inside the house loading an automatic weapon. A shouting match erupted between the police officer accompanying Smernes and the woman who answered the door of the apartment. Emotions were escalating fast. In her mind, Smernes flashed through strateg...

Tips for working safely

  • Needlesticks. Health care workers have long fought for laws that would require hospitals and health care centers to use safe needles -- that is, needles with safety caps and other devices that prevent puncture wounds. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires gloves, gowns, masks, eye protection, and now needles to conform to the requirement...

On September 3, 1991, a hydraulic line burst in the Imperial Food Products Plant in Hamlet, North Carolina, spraying vaporized fluid into gas flames that were heating vats of frying oil. The workers were caught completely off guard and ran towards the doors. Many were unable to escape the flames because the fire exits were deadlocked from the outside. Rescue workers found lifeless bodies near the...

At a Kmart store in Honolulu, federal investigators with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission discovered a shocking case in which a worker's age was used to torment her. When a manager told the 70-year-old pharmacist she was "too old" for her job and criticized her for being "greedy" because she wanted to work, top Kmart managers failed to act. The manager continued to badger the pharmacist...

Over the past 30 years, Chip Sterndahl has been the innocent target of curses, threats of beatings, and obscene gestures more times than he cares to remember. On one occasion, he was even deliberately swiped by a moving car. His crime? Working as a highway striper to make the California freeways and roads safer for motorists. As acting national president of American Traffic Safety Services Associ...

Although you can't control the occasional obnoxious motorist, you can take steps to help protect yourself on the road:

  • Ask that noise levels be monitored at all times to prevent hearing loss. Experts suggest workers wear earmuffs or earplugs to shield their eardrums from high decibels.
  • At a minimum, ask for training in how to set up a safe work zone -- an essential part of the job...

When 51-year-old Bob Lewis worked as a nursing assistant on the teen psychiatric unit at St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco for more than two decades, he was pushed, jumped, and pummeled on the back. And that's not the worst of it. Once a girl in a suicidal rage charged him, biting a nipple so hard it tore the skin and bled. As a precautionary measure, doctors gave him a tetanus shot that...

Hazards abound in the average hospital. Here are a few tips that can help prevent some common injuries:

  • Try not to strain when lifting. If you do have to lift patients or heavy equipment, bend with your knees, not with your back. If your job involves lots of lifting, you may do better to use mechanical lifts, pivot disks, and slide boards to transfer patients from place to place. Make sure...

A spate of workplace shootings by disgruntled postal workers in the 1980s and '90s resulted in a new phrase being added to the American lexicon: "going postal." "I think Webster was a little bit unfair to include 'going postal' in the dictionary," says Tom Andrew, a letter carrier for 15 years in a Chicago suburb. "Let's face it, you've got loose cannons in every industry." The rash of well-publ...

Fetid grease traps, backed-up toilets, overloaded sewers -- as a rule, you don't want to get a plumber started on war stories. But Mike Tehle, a Billings, Montana plumber and a 30-year veteran of the business, has a story worth telling. After all, not everyone can describe what it's like to be buried alive. In 1987 Tehle was laying sewer lines in a ditch 30 inches wide and 8 feet deep. After conn...

When Alofa Talivaa first became a nursing assistant, she didn't think of it as a dangerous profession. But after working in a San Jose, California nursing home for twenty years, she knows better. She's been kicked and she's been bitten. She's injured her back so many times she's lost count. Her back problems, she says, were caused by lifting frail elders many times a day -- "and because the elect...

In July 1998, Karen Daley was working as an emergency-room nurse in a Boston teaching hospital. With more than two dozen years of nursing experience behind her, Daley did something she had done at least thousands of times before without thinking: After drawing blood from an injured patient, she turned to throw the needle away. But this time was different -- the tip of the needle punctured Daley's ...

They put their wrists and fingers through as much strain as any secretary or computer programmer. They do the heavy lifting of a warehouse worker. Many of them breathe as much secondhand cigarette smoke as a bartender. And all too often, they do it without health insurance or regular medical care. Welcome to the carefree world of musicians. A musician's life may seem glamorous, but it's often a b...

When it comes to on-the-job dangers, movers -- those muscular, sweaty men who make their living hauling all the things we blithely call our "stuff" -- have something in common with victims of spousal abuse: their biggest fear is encountering an angry husband or boyfriend. "I know guys who've had guns pulled to their heads," says Domingo "Bingo" Reyes, a dispatcher at Irwindale, California-based E...

Stacey Kayden used to fantasize about massaging Olympic athletes. She blames her thumbs for derailing that ambition. "After three or four massages in a row, my thumb muscles would ache and throb and were sore to the touch," says Kayden, who was trained in deep tissue and sports massage. "I'd have five minutes between massages and would run my hands under cold water to reduce the swelling. I have ...

In the United States, each percentage rise in unemployment leads to 6,000 deaths. In her previous life, Ellen Rood watched over 3,000 head of Black Angus cattle on a sprawling ranch in central Montana. But even 50,000-acre spreads have to downsize sometimes, and Rood found herself laid off. Like so many other people who lose their jobs, Rood had to downsize her life. Now she lives in an Airstream ...

"Sure, I love my family, but nothing will ever take the place of my job!" This was our first meeting and "Patti" was sitting in my psychotherapy office explaining to me that her life was over. She felt her boss had betrayed her; she had left work on disability; she no longer had an identity. I wasn't surprised. Over the past seven years I have met with dozens of women and men who seek out psychoth...

In 1986, nail technician Mary Vo began to suffer severe daily headaches accompanied by occasional nausea. A painful, persistent dryness in her nose propelled her into a round of fruitless visits to nose specialists. Finally, one of the many doctors who examined Vo diagnosed her problem as an allergy to an acrylic liquid and powder used in the manufacture of artificial nails. He advised her to give...

As most Americans crawl into bed for a good night's sleep, more than 2 million people are just punching the clock. Police officers, hospital workers, truck drivers, and factory workers are among those working the "third" or "graveyard" shift that keeps the country moving along 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They make up 3.2 percent of the work force, and they toil at night because it's a dream...

After a lifetime of denial, one pivotal moment forced Dan G. to confront a painful truth: He was addicted to his work. Exploding in rage after some bad news delivered by his boss, he snapped, screaming at his secretary and punching the walls of his office with his bare fists. "I knew I was cracking up," he says now. It was 1982, and Dan had been saddled with starting a new business venture for th...

In an economic downturn, people with jobs naturally feel cautious about complaining that they have too much work. If financial difficulties have led to layoffs at your job, you may find yourself picking up additional duties. With this in mind, what should you do when you find yourself overworked but nervous about negotiating a more reasonable and realistic work load with your boss? Is it safer to ...

It all started when Leslie Blevins was 45. Once hardy and energetic, she felt tired all the time. Just walking around the block near his Logan, West Virginia, home or strolling for a few minutes down the family's driveway defeated him. Pretty soon, he couldn't even make it from room to room inside the house without staggering. Even when he was finally hooked up to an oxygen machine, he was constan...

The one workplace shooting that would affect me profoundly was reported on the radio one evening in the fall of 1999: Someone had gunned down several coworkers in the middle of the day, this time in Seattle. I didn't pay close attention when the report first came on. What I didn't realize was that a close friend from high school was among those killed. My friend, Peter Giles, died on the spot, on ...

One muggy August day 10 summers ago, 16-year-old lifeguard Chris Davis was hot and bored. He and his friends were winding up the swim season at Orchard Beach in the Bronx and began entertaining themselves by seeing who could dive the furthest into the ocean off the tall lifeguard chairs. When Davis took his turn, he tucked his chin to his chest and dove, but forgot to push himself out into the dee...

Poor air quality and the depletion of the ozone layer is a constant focus of news -- and not always good. Fortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency says we're making progress in reducing the six key pollutants in our air, including carbon monoxide, lead, and ozone. The bad news is that while the outside air is improving, the air we breathe indoors may be getting worse. Workers have fallen...

Helen Burnett* starts each workday with 15 minutes of prayer and meditation. In her line of work, every moment of relaxation helps. As a nurse in a Midwestern psychiatric hospital, Burnett faces all of the typical hassles that can make the modern workplace so maddening: office politics, tedious paperwork, long hours, and a pace that barely gives her a chance to breathe. Throw in a steady stream of...

Henri is supposed to help you with this big project the boss requested. He gives you lots of his time and advice. He seems extremely helpful, particularly in correcting mistakes and oversights. You feel fortunate to have his assistance. However, a few days later the boss is giving you an inquisition about all the mistakes you made, how much time it is taking, and questioning the materials you are ...

Do you find yourself waiting until the last minute to finish a critical document? Are meetings often scheduled and announced just in the nick of time? Is the production of your work calendar a quarterly nightmare? If you recognize any of these scenarios, procrastination may be sneaking into your life, stealing valuable time, and eroding your productivity. Procrastination is the habitual delay in s...

Have you ever found yourself facing a person who needs you to volunteer for something when you do not want to? You find yourself agreeing, and later you kick yourself for doing so. This is probably not the first time it has happened, either. Saying "no" to others who ask for your help, information, or resources is often difficult. Saying "no" may conflict with your genuine desire to help and be se...

Walking along briskly and bantering with regular customers, letter carriers have a job that many people envy. It keeps them in good shape as well: Carriers can feasibly cover 10 miles in the course of one shift. But not all the residents are welcoming (think: dogs), and hauling around a full mailbag is equivalent to going hiking with a barbell attached to your shoulder. Over the past 10 years, th...

It takes a strong stomach to spend even a little while in a soil room of a laundry that handles medical waste, according to Eric Frumin, health and safety director of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees. Laundry worker Marino Morel Polanco of the Bronx couldn't agree more. At the laundry where he works, linens soiled with blood and fecal matter are an everyday occurrence, ...

Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl had already decided against traveling to Afghanistan to cover the story on terrorism. His wife was expecting their first child, and by all accounts, the Journal's 38-year-old bureau chief in South Asia believed he was less of a target in Pakistan. To many reporters, his choice to meet a Muslim militant in a Karachi restaurant in early 2002 would have seem...

Mariana Wong is sick of vacations -- not her own holidays, but those taken by guests staying at the San Francisco Hilton. New Year's Eve, Christmas, summertime, and special events inevitably mean extra scrubbing for her and her fellow hotel cleaners. The holidays, she says, put hotel guests in feisty spirits: They decorate their rooms with tinsel, confetti, and balloons, and gorge on gourmet food ...

Has this ever happened to you? You enter your colleague's office and ask for a piece of information. This produces a long wait filled with frantic paper shuffling and nervous comments like, "I just know it's here somewhere," or "I just saw it a minute ago." It's not unusual for the colleague, amidst heavy sighs, to ask you to return later once the errant item has been unearthed. Vexing, isn't it? ...

You want a raise. After all, every employee in the history of industrialized civilization has wanted a little more take-home pay, and some even deserved it. If your employer isn't giving you what you're worth, it may be time to ask for a bump in salary. Countless workers have gone down this road before, and many have hit a dead end. But with the right preparation, the right timing, and the right a...

You get the news Wednesday morning. A colleague has just experienced a death in her family. What should you do or say? What is the correct etiquette in the workplace, and what can you do to ease the pain and transition for your fellow worker? You might send a card or say something to express sympathy. Try to avoid platitudes. It will be better received if you sincerely express your concern or, bet...

You are the owner of a 15-person travel agency, and you have survived radical industry-wide changes, including the loss of commissions on airline tickets, the reduction in corporate travel accounts, and the general fluctuation and upheaval in the industry overall. It has been a tough six years, but you have restructured and built up a new portion of your business focused on high-end leisure travel...

At age 55, Ray had sailed to his fourth promotion -- senior account manager for an office equipment company -- and was being eyed for an even higher level job, when he began to get vicious headaches. Although he denied he was struggling on the job, Ray was experiencing enough stress for his doctor to advise him to exercise and get some counseling. Ray did neither. As a result, he had such severe a...

Overwork, job stress, layoffs, mandatory overtime, and lack of control over the job: these are some of the biggest reasons that employees get burned out on their work. Reducing job stress, getting rid of forced overtime, and improving workplace culture will help. Sometimes people just need to look for another kind of profession for personal reasons. But if your employee is trying to stay in the jo...

Marilyn is irritated at the way Robert presents new projects. Juan sighs heavily and shakes his head when work is added to his in-box. Karl, an older worker, is resentful when a younger colleague calls him by his first name. Carla frequently takes long breaks and manages to extend her lunch hour far beyond the allotted time --which angers her coworkers. Sharena seems moody and unpredictable. Sean ...

Between 2000 and 2010 the number of U.S workers employed part-time but wanting to work full-time increased by about 300 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. With so many people in this category -- about 9 million in 2010 -- it's important to keep part-time workers motivated and excited about their responsibilities. This can sometimes be a challenge, because part-timers are often n...

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