Blog Posts by ForbesWoman

The new boss's expectations are completely unrealistic. The office doomsayer is prophesying another round of layoffs. The client changed her mind. Again.

When workplace stress mounts, many of us turn to our office friends. After all, no one understands the pain of that inane personnel memo or time-wasting meeting better than the people in the surrounding cubicles or offices down the hall.

"When you have an authentic friend at work, you have a support system right there," says Susan Shapiro Brash, a professor of gender studies at Marymount Manhattan College and author of Toxic Friends: The Antidote for Women Stuck in Complicated Friendships. "You're talking the same language. You have the same currency."

And as unstable economic conditions continue to fray interdepartmental nerves, our office pals often provide welcome relief. In a survey of American workers released last month by the staffing firm Randstad, 67% of respondents said having friends at work makes their job

Julie Clark, now a Seattle-based business owner of real estate company SharedBusinessSpace.com, was unexpectedly laid off from her commercial real estate job in January 2009. The shocking loss of the position and income came with a second punch: She wouldn't be allowed back to her office to retrieve her contact database, which stored over 15 years of professional and personal information.

Like many on a career break--elected or imposed--Clark was faced with rebuilding her professional network from home. And in her case, rebuilding it from scratch.

She started by coming up with a short list of people with whom she wanted to remain in touch. Clark chose those that were influential in the industry, people she'd worked closely with in the past and others with whom she had a good rapport. She phoned each one and later followed up with an e-mail.

In the next several months, while also caring for her infant twins, Clark created an assertive networking strategy that combined online social

Before you say ''I do'' to a business partnership with your spouse, consider the pros and cons of this working relationship.

By Lori Murray

Given the slow rate of new job creation, an increasing number of Americans are jumping on the entrepreneur bandwagon, and many of them are forming partnerships with their spouse or significant other. And while every "copreneur" situation is unique, there are some common threads among couples that make it work.

First, it's important that the husband and wife have complementary skill sets. "I am more visionary, creative and future-thinking and my husband is more pragmatic, so we have different strengths," says Jane Wurwand, who owns Dermalogica, a Los Angeles-based skin care company with her husband, Raymond.

When they started the company in 1984, Jane wanted to be able to talk directly to their network of licensed skin therapists. Raymond acted on the idea by starting their bi-annual "Congress," which now draws over 2,000 salon owners and

Some affordable staples are loaded with the right nutrients. But can ground beef ever be a health food?

By Rebecca Ruiz

Every few months, the food cognoscenti start touting a new super food for its ability to ward off disease. Hot foods in recent years include wild salmon ($15 a pound and packed with omega-3 fatty acids), antioxidant-loaded leeks ($3 a bunch), and the exotic açaí and goji berries (as much as $20 and $40 per 16 ounces, respectively). These foods are packed with nutrients but can send your grocery bill into the stratosphere.

You can get all the nutrition you need for much less money if you shop carefully. A cup of cooked navy beans has a similar amount of protein as 3 ounces of salmon, and is loaded with more magnesium, phosphorous and potassium. One large orange has almost seven times the amount of vitamin C and more fiber than a cup of raw blueberries, at a small fraction the berries' price this time of year. A $3 bunch of dark green, leafy kale is a big nutritional

Retirement at 55? For many older women, that's no longer feasible. Here's how they're staying relevant and employable in today's tough job market.

By Judith Dobrzynski

In the summer of 2008 Patricia Daly, 56, was a managing director at Credit Suisse and when her department was reorganized, she was out of a job. "Retirement crossed my mind, but when I looked at our investments and at the economic uncertainties, retiring when I still had earning potential didn't seem smart," she recalls. After six months of traveling and enjoying time with her husband, who is retired, she started consulting from home. Her new career, however, did not produce a "livable wage."

Recently Daly accepted a job to be regional director of a science-education nonprofit. She knows she's lucky. She has friends who also worked in financial technology and are still unemployed. "They're not even getting interviews," she says. "There are a lot of younger people out there who are probably more current and have more of

Who's picking up the bill on dates these days and what it says about gender roles.

By Meghan Casserly

A man and a woman go out on a first date and each of them has two glasses of wine. Things are going well when the check arrives. "I think we should split this," the man says to the woman.

He's thinking he's in the right. He doesn't want his date to get the impression he's trying to buy her, or patronize her or take advantage of her in any way. Women want to be equals, right?

She's thinking: "What a turnoff."

The two never see each other again.

The moment of paying the bill on a first date can be rife with pressure for both parties. And while tradition holds that the man pays, now that women want to be treated as equals and are more financially independent, the issue has become muddied.

All of which begs the question, are times changing or are we stuck in a rut of tradition?

A recent poll by dating experts at Match.com showed that nearly 60% of daters agree that the guy should

Couples spend years getting to know each other emotionally. But getting to know your spouse's attitude towards money is just as important.

By Kiri Blakeley

When Richella Vincent and her boyfriend of almost a year, Lee, began discussing marriage, Vincent felt it was also time to talk about finances. After all, one day they would want to buy a house, have kids, and reach other goals that would require a good credit score and some cash in the bank. Vincent, 33, a former financial advisor in Jackson, Miss., who now manages finances at a bank, also enjoys reading personal finance books, and knows the importance of being fiscally responsible. "I was thinking I'm the big time expert," she says.

But to Vincent's surprise, it was her boyfriend who ended up being the more financially savvy of the two. While Vincent was carrying $5,000 in credit card debt and owed money on a car and student loans, Lee, who's in the Army, was debt-free. And he had some savings. "It was a shocker," she says. "I

Yes, you can love working, even if you don't particularly like your job.

By Jenna Goudreau

Achieving happiness at work is a skill that can be acquired, says Jane Howard, chief people officer of San Francisco-based Joie de Vivre Hotels. She flexed her happiness muscle recently--one cold February morning in a not-so-pleasant airport terminal.

Howard had woken at 3:30 a.m. to catch a flight to Los Angeles, which would be followed by an oft-contentious meeting with the leadership of a workers union. First on her agenda was to try to negotiate some $700,000 in concessions from the union leaders to help ensure the hotel partnership avoided bankruptcy. Previous union meetings had devolved into vulgar screaming matches, and Howard had every reason to believe this one would be the same, or worse.

So she changed her approach. While waiting to board, she pulled out her journal and reflected upon everything in her life she felt grateful for. She then extended those feelings to the union