10 Things Every Employee Should Know

Congrats on your new job offer!

But before you settle into your new role, there are some critical decisions you must make.  From negotiating your salary to understanding what happens to benefits when you leave your job, this episode will cover 10 critical things every employee should know. 

Tip #1: How to negotiate wisely

Two things you must carefully negotiate when considering a job offer are salary and, if available, stock options. Be sure to spend some time researching what you should ask for and preparing your talking points for the best outcome. 

Note that smaller companies may be more flexible with offering benefits, but negotiating them may not be as easy if you're applying to work for a larger firm. Working with a professional recruiter or negotiator may be worthwhile if you're up for a high-level job, especially if negotiating is not your strong suit. 

Working with a professional recruiter or negotiator may be worthwhile if you're up for a high-level job, especially if negotiating is not your strong suit.

The time to negotiate your salary is before you accept an employment offer. Avoid agreeing to a conditional salary offer, such as getting a six-month review and a potential salary bump down the road. Unfortunately, those offers may not pan out due to changes in the economy, management, or company financials.

But don't negotiate your salary too early, such as while you're still interviewing for a role. If you receive a verbal salary offer, request it in writing so you can carefully review it. Then, use these tips for a successful negotiation:

• Research average salaries for people in your field who have the same level of education, experience, and skills, and figure a range you'd consider accepting.
• Allow a potential employer to make the first offer just in case it exceeds the salary range you had in mind. 
• If a firm presses you for your desired salary, always propose a range that exceeds average salaries for similar people in your field, so you have room to negotiate if needed.
• Make a list of specific reasons why you deserve the salary you want, such as impressive results you've achieved in past positions, your years of experience, and any in-demand certifications or skills you possess.
• Get your final salary and benefits agreement in writing so it can't be disputed later. 

If your potential employer offers salary plus stock options, be sure you understand their value. Some companies, such as startups, provide stock options to sweeten the deal when they don't offer competitive salaries.

Agreeing to a lower salary in return for stock options can be risky...

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Foraging for Fun and Nutrition

Walking has many benefits, everything from strengthening your bones and muscles to brightening your mood. And with a little guidance and practice, walking can even improve your nutrition.

Whether you walk in urban parks, suburban neighborhoods, or forest trails, chances are that edible plants are growing along your route. Learning to find and identify them can turn a walk into a fun and nutritious treasure hunt. 

John Kallas is the author of a multivolume book series called Edible Wild Plants, and the owner of Wild Food Aventures outdoor school in Portland, Oregon, where he oversees a wide range of research and educational programming. John has degrees in biology, zoology, education, and nutrition, and a lifelong passion for wild plants. He joins the Nutrition Diva podcast today to talk about the art and science of foraging.

In our conversation, John shares:

• Why someone with regular access to a supermarket (or farmer's market) might go looking for edible wild plants
• The best types of environments for beginners to forage in 
• Plants you probably didn't realize were edible
• The nutritional value of wild foods
• Safety concerns
• Tips for successful foraging

Click the player above to hear the entire interview.

You can learn more about John's research, educational programs and books at WildFoodAdventures.com

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20 Easy Ways to Pest Proof Your Yard

Peppermint for pests

Mice, moles, squirrels, gophers, and even rats hate the aroma of peppermint. Try planting mint near your home—chances are you will never see one of these pests again!

For a preexisting gopher problem, soak cotton balls in peppermint oil and then drop them down a gopher hole.

Hide away the sandbox

Cats trying to make a sandbox a litterbox? Design a more protected play area by setting up a small tent, then cover the bottom with sand. Comb a cup or so of ground cinnamon into the sand to keep out ants, centipedes, and other pests, and zip up after each use.

Use human hair to fool a snake

Believe it or not, snakes dislike humans just as much as we dislike them. To keep snakes out of your yard, it can be as easy as letting them know humans live there! To do this, save the hair from your hairbrush, and sprinkle it around the perimeter of your property. Snakes will smell the hair and keep away.

Recycle dog hair

Have a dog that sheds like crazy? Save the clumps and poke them into an old grapevine wreath. Hang it (and its repellent scent!) on a stake in the garden to chase away rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, and other unwanted creatures.

A “fresh” way to fight squirrels

Squirrels can be one of the trickiest garden pests to deal with. They chomp on flower bulbs and other leaves, dig up your favorite plants, and otherwise wreak havoc. Protect your garden by grating some Irish Spring soap around your plants. Squirrels can’t stand the smell of it and will stay away.

Toy with squirrels

You can buy expensive baffles to keep squirrels from climbing poles to your bird feeder. But there’s a simple solution you may already have around the house: a slinky! Just wrap it around the top of the pole so that it extends down around it and creates a bouncy obstacle.

See also: How to Get Rid of Raccoons, Possums, and Skunks in Your Yard

So long, squirrels

If squirrels are making a nuisance of themselves around your home, keep them away with a homemade pepper spray. Take a cup of your favorite hot sauce, add a spoonful of cayenne pepper and a capful of Murphy’s Oil Soap, and mix together. Spray the mixture in whatever areas you want the squirrels to steer clear of.

Out with opossums

If possums are a problem in your yard, mix together camphor oil with enough petroleum jelly to make a paste, and spread it around the base of trees. The smell should keep them away.

Rabbit-repelling plants

If rabbits eat your garden year after year, try planting plants that repel...

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Grammar Quirks: Sara Fujimura on Writing Bicultural Characters

Grammar Girl: What’s your favorite word and why?

Sara Fujimura: "Awesome"! I am a teen of the 1980s, so that word is entrenched in my vocabulary. Thank you, "Lego Movie," for making my teenage slang relevant again. Also, my apologies for the earworm from that movie, which is now undoubtedly playing in your head.

GG: What’s a word you dislike (either because it’s overused or misused) and why?

SF: "Literally," because it is overused and often misused on top of it.

GG: What word will you always misspell?

Good grammar is important, but it’s the tone that gives your work voice.

SF: "Hors d’oeuvres." “Horse doovers!” I had to look it up yet again just now.

GG: What word (or semblance of a word) would you like to see added to the dictionary? Why?

SF: "Sugoi"! Like “wow” in English, this Japanese word can be used in several different ways, but I like to use it in response to positive surprises.

GG: Any grammar pet peeves we should know about?

SF: Incorrect apostrophe usage. “Womens Restroom” makes me cringe. Also, when people use an apostrophe to make things plural. Like, “I ate four Oreo’s.” It’s "Oreos." I may or may not carry a Sharpie around in my purse and correct signage on the sly. I can’t help myself.

GG: To what extent does grammar play a role in character development and voice?

SF: For those who don’t know me, I am the American half of our bicultural/biracial Japanese-American family. So you won’t be surprised to hear that my contemporary young adult novels feature mixed Asian teens as the main character and/or the love interest. Even though I have been studying Japanese on-and-off for twenty years, I still ask several of my Japanese friends to look at the Japanese-specific parts of my books. Though my Japanese might be technically correct, it’s often not realistic. Why? Because I speak/write textbook Japanese which tends to be ultra-polite. A teen boy wouldn’t speak that way to his best friend.

Writers: Do NOT rely on Google translate. Make sure you have a native speaker check it for both accuracy and tone.

Even if you only write in English, know that good grammar is important, but it’s the tone that gives your work voice. Tone is the thing I help my Japanese friends with the most. Again, their word choice may be technically correct, but if they are writing about a sensitive issue, I help them soften the...

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How Intrinsic Motivation Will Get You Fit

Motivation is such a tricky topic.  How we get motivated, stay motivated, create motivation, and recreate motivation is and always has been a hot topic in the world of exercise and fitness. Trust me, you are not the only one who doesn’t feel motivated every single morning to lace up your runners and get your heart rate up. Even professional athletes occasionally have to drag their butts to practice. 

So, with that in mind...

What is motivation?

In 1993, French researchers Vallerand and Thill wrote a paper called "Introduction à la psychologie de la motivation," in which they described motivation as a “Hypothetical construct used to describe the internal and/or external forces that produce initiation, direction, intensity, and persistence of behaviour.” That is quite a brain teaser so let’s break it down. 

The main reason why I like this definition is that right out of the gate it states that motivation is a “hypothetical construct.” It’s not a fixed state. It’s not measurable or provable. It’s not something you can purchase or borrow. It’s not even something you can store for later. And, most importantly, it may not even exist. 

Like the proverbial tree falling in an empty forest, if there is no one around to enjoy the motivation, is it still there?

The other reason I like this definition is because it identifies that the forces that drive us to feel this hypothetical construct are both internal and external. You may have heard of this referred to as Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation. We’ll get back to that in a moment. 

The final reason I like this definition is because of how motivation can manifest itself and be used. For example:

• It can be the reason you actually hit the gym. 
• It can be the reason you choose to do a particular workout over another. 
• It can be the reason you push yourself harder than you did the day before. 
• It can also be the reason that you are consistent in your exercise routine. 

Are you getting the idea that we have wrapped far too many complicated things into one overly simplistic term? I am. But let’s keep going. 

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

In the 2011 book Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology, authors Weinberg and Gould made this distinction: 

• Intrinsic motivation is the drive from your inner self to be successful, because of the enjoyment or pride you feel when performing or improving your skill level....

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4 Tips to Stand Out at Work

I once worked for a true genius. He was an ideas man – an innovator. He could see things in ways no one else could, envisioning products, partnerships, and solutions that wowed people. In theory. But his ultimate downfall (because, spoiler alert, he did fall down) was his inability to master the basics of the job.

Words like innovation, agility, digital – they often make a hiring leader’s mouth water. But the best ideas in the world are worthless if you can’t execute them. 

I often talk to leaders who are frustrated by things like team members missing deadlines or being unreliable. And it leaves me wondering if we’ve started to over-index on the sexy and lost sight of the basics.

If you’re striving to be a superstar at work, before you start innovating in an agile and digital manner, take a moment to take stock of how you’re landing the basics. Because if you’re not getting the essentials done, you’re not adding your truest value. No one wants to hire an idea-maker who doesn’t deliver on the promise.

Here are four of the essentials that will help shoot you to the top.

If you’re not getting the essentials done, you’re not adding your truest value. No one wants to hire an idea-maker who doesn’t deliver on the promise.

Tip #1: Be reliable

A former boss once told me “Rachel, when I ask you to take something on – getting a project finished, a question answered, a memo written – I know that as soon as you put it on your list, I can cross it off of mine.”

As compliments go, that one was pretty unsexy. But over time, I came to realize that she tended to give the juiciest assignments – the most important, the most visible – to me because I was her most reliable team member. Once I said I would do something, she never had to worry or chase it down. And that was incredibly valuable to her as a busy leader. 

Don’t underestimate the power of being someone who does what you’ve said you’ll do. It builds trust, credibility, and may earn you access to the work that matters most.

Tip #2: Be a team player

You’ve got a job to do – as do each of your colleagues. As a general rule, it’s not your responsibility to pick up someone else’s slack. That said, there are always moments of exception. And sometimes the very thing to do is step outside of your “official” job description and just get the thing over the finish line.

Maybe you notice a colleague struggling with overwhelm and you see something on their plate that you know you could knock out...

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3 Strategies for Becoming a Better Parent

Welcome to the Project Parenthood podcast! I’m Dr. Nanika Coor, a clinical psychologist and respectful parenting therapist. This podcast is for parents who want to experience more peace, connection, ease, flexibility, and fun with their kids, and have less conflict and struggle in their relationships with their children - no matter how old they are.

While my expertise is in child psychology, one of the main aspects of helping parents nurture their children is providing care and encouragement to the parents themselves as they grow into the kind of parent they really want to be. A parent who feels emotionally starved is going to have a very hard time nurturing a child. A nurtured parent is better equipped to nurture a child. So today, we are going to discuss several strategies you can implement to help you become a better parent.

Strategy #1: Radical Acceptance

Radical acceptance is a Buddhist concept I learned from the work of Marsha Linehan, creator of Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT. It’s about letting go of what you want to happen, and accepting what actually is happening. In order to actively let something go, you have to acknowledge having it in the first place. Sometimes the truth is that you want something that isn’t actually occurring in the moment. When things don’t go our way, it can cause us pain. But experiencing suffering in that pain is optional. The first time I read about radical acceptance I came up with two equations to help myself remember:

• Pain + Resistance = Suffering
• Pain + Radical Acceptance = Ordinary Pain

Early in my parenting journey I remember a day when I was trying to get myself and my toddler to an appointment. My rushing her pushed her to the brink and she ended up on the floor crying. I am not proud of it, but my own internal narrator sounded like this:

“Now we are going to be late! Why does this have to be so hard? Is it going to be like this forever? What’s the deal with toddlers? Ugh - this is the absolute worst!”

But then suddenly I remembered the idea of radical acceptance and I took a deep breath and said to myself: “Well, this is actually happening. I wish it weren’t, but it is. So let’s figure this out.” After I accepted reality, I was able to deal with the ordinary pain that can sometimes come with raising kids. I managed to get us out of the door with a lot less reactivity than I might have if I hadn’t remembered radical acceptance. It allowed me to stay calm, which helped me take actions that were in line with my parenting values rather than have my own temper tantrum which would have made things...

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