A lot of advice about persuasion assumes a relatively equal power dynamic. But sometimes you need to persuade someone higher up than you in a hierarchy: your boss, their boss, a project leader. For that you need four specific strategies: focus on common goals, get to a neutral space, let them build your case with you, and know your next steps. This approach is effective in a workplace, or in any hierarchical organisation, as long as the participants have some common ground to build on.

I come from a quiet people. My classmates and I were always bad at asking questions of the teacher, or recognising that we had questions. I wish I’d had someone like historian and professor Jacqueline Antonovich, who recently tweeted a trick for encouraging her students to pipe up. She simply rephrases the prompt “Any questions?” to “What questions do you have for me?”

Remember during the summer, when your office building cranked the aircon to stupid low temperatures and you had to put on a beanie? Remember thinking "at least in the winter they will crank the heat"? We remember thinking that at Lifehacker. What a fun surprise to learn that our office is also frigid in the winter! Now we know what "Oh you sweet summer child" means!

Workplaces are funny little ecosystems. You spend all your time working and developing complex relationships with everyone from the security guard to your shared desk mate, but occasionally, these fragile work friendships can go south.

Workplace sexual harassment affects far more women than men, but men are the ones who bear responsibility for ending it. Besides, of course, not harassing women, we need to stand up for them, especially (and unfortunately) as we're more likely to be heard and respected than the victims themselves. Esquire has a guide to noticing, handling, and reporting sexual harassment, including how to escalate a complaint to a superior, HR, and even the press.

If you've ever gotten a job or a gig because someone "thought of you," you've benefited from networking. Good networking doesn't require anything slimy or selfish. It requires that you define yourself. And that means paying more attention to how you act when you meet or catch up with people.

It's Star Trek's 50th anniversary, and while I could wax rhapsodic about the impact the show had on me in general, one thing that persists, even now, every day, is how much I learned how to be a good leader by watching Starfleet captains. Sometimes they were exceptional. Other times they really weren't. I always learned something.

So, you need some help. It's okay, we all need a hand sometimes. Problem is, a lot of us don't know how to go about asking - so we don't. Well, according to a social psychologist, here's the simplest, most effective way to ask for a favour.

Open offices are a panopticon hellhole. They might make it easier to collaborate, and they might help your boss pack more workers into a smaller space, but they leave you in earshot of every little sound your co-workers make. (You get to see and smell them, too!)

Whether it's a hot new movie, a huge sports event, or a TV show that it feels like everyone is watching, it's no fun to be caught out of the loop during water cooler chats or party conversations. If you want to be a part of it all, let go of your pride and ask some dumb questions about it.

If you have a popular name combination, or just get a lot of email at work, you're bound to get an email that wasn't intended for you. You could ignore it, sure, but there are better ways to handle it.

When I joined the workplace Slack, I went in guns blazing. I posted too much, inserted myself into conversations, embarrassed myself in private channels. Don't be like me! But also don't be a terrified wallflower. Here's how to settle into a new Slack without embarrassing yourself.

If you work with someone who refuses to take a sick day, personal-finance site Money has a great idea: Take your own day off to avoid getting sick.

There's a lot to do. There always is. You sit at your desk well past quittin' time each day to ensure it gets all done, but in the end you suffer for it. It's OK to leave work on time, and these tips can help you make it a habit.

Men! Mule Design co-founder Erika Hall has seven ways for you to counteract sexism at work. Some will help you shut down overt sexism; some address more unconscious habits such as interrupting women. And you don't need to be in a position of power to use them. Hall's article is free of filler, so read it all, but here's our favourite tip.

Everyone made fun of the performative pep talk from that Ticketmaster bro who thinks working the holidays turns you into Usain Bolt, but he got one thing right: Most people, even if they're back in the office, aren't working hard between Christmas and New Year's Eve.

You might think that sending work emails is the worst. It's not. It's the second-worst. The worst is waiting for people to reply to your work emails. And some people just never reply, no matter how much you follow up. IT professional Antoinette Maria wrote about one of these problem co-workers, "Alex," a contact from another team who's holding up a whole project.

You have problems, I have advice. This advice isn't sugar-coated - in fact, it's sugar-free, and may even be a little bitter. Welcome to Tough Love.

You have problems, I have advice. This advice isn't sugar-coated -- in fact, it's sugar-free, and may even be a little bitter. Welcome to Tough Love.