The Vulture Swoops In
Our department is great about sharing food with each other. What we hate are colleagues from other departments grabbing our food before everyone on our team has had a bite. Q: I read your advice about the food pushers, those…
Author: Powell Berger
Career Advice: My Divorced Boss is on the Make
She is looking but I need to focus on my job. How do I say no and still stay on her good side? Q: My boss recently finalized her divorce and she’s now back looking for love. I wish her luck,…
My Company’s Bennies Only Cater to Old Folks
Reader asks why local companies don’t offer the 21st century benefits offered by progressive Mainland companies Q: I’m back from college and grad school on the Mainland and really trying to make my way in Hawaii. I turned down better-paying…
How to Beat the Troll In the Nearby Cubicle
Q: I’m coming up on my first annual review in my new job and I’m really nervous. I’ve got a good relationship with my boss and our clients, and delivered on the projects I worked on. But there’s one guy…
“Networking’s for Suckers, Not Me”
Q: I swear I hear the word “networking” a hundred times a week. My co-workers insist it’s the only way to climb the business ladder. My parents tell me it’s how to meet friends. My boss tells me it’s a…
Pot is Legal in Many Places but Workplace Testing is Legal Everywhere
Q: My girlfriend and I spent our vacation in Colorado, skiing, hanging out with family and smoking some of their legal and beautifully packaged weed. Back home now, I heard my company is doing random drug testing this week. I’m…
Time Warp: My Boss is Half My Age
Q: I’ve been in banking for over 30 years and worked with all sorts of people, all kinds of bosses. But I think I’ve met my match with my current boss. He doesn’t seem to think it matters that he…
The Careerist: Don’t Tell Anyone, but I’m Terrified I’ve Been Promoted Too Quickly
Q: I’m one of the lucky ones. While so many of my friends came home after college with lots of debt and no job, I got through school with minimal debt and landed a sweet job with the company I’d…
The Careerist: You’ll Live, Despite No-Phone Meeting
Q: I run weekly team meetings with our field staff so we can stay abreast of everyone’s projects, deadlines and possible crossovers. It’s one hour, and I try to run a tight agenda that covers all the ground without bogging…
The Careerist: The Strange Case of the Disappearing Boss
Q: My current boss has this persistent habit of disappearing during the few days before a big deadline, leaving us worker bees to do all the work and (of course) take all the blame. If the project goes well, he…
The Careerist: Help! Gift Collectors Are After Me Again
Q: What’s with obligatory office gifts? I love my job, but it seems like I get a couple of emails every month “asking” me to donate money for the office gift for someone’s shower – bridal, baby or whatever. Often,…
The Careerist: Toughest Interview Question: “What are your salary requirements?”
Q: Help! I changed jobs recently and now I work from home three days a week. I thought it would be amazing, staying in my pajamas, working on my own schedule, tossing a load of laundry in occasionally. But the…
The Careerist: Help! Food Pushers Are Stalking Me!
Q: I’m a vegetarian in an office that worships food. Daily spreads of manapua, brownies (not the kind from college), casseroles with ingredients I don’t recognize, and slow cookers of kalua pork (with a rice cooker on the side) fill…
The Careerist: Am I Too Old to Change From White Collar to Blue?
Q: I’ve been in middle management for 25 years, and I have a closet filled with aloha shirts, khaki pants and work shoes to prove it. I’m good at what I do, but I’m bored. And I worry, that as…
The Careerist: Mentors Are Real, Not Mythological
Q: I just landed my first professional job, and I love my work and colleagues. Now that I’ve settled in, I want to set a career path and goals, but feel I could really use a mentor to help me…
The Careerist: Are We Never Ever Getting Back Together?
Q: I’m a freelance graphic arts designer who is completely baffled. One of my best clients has gone radio silent, ghosting me without even so much as a “I’m just not that into you.” I’ve done all the standard stuff…
The Careerist: The Dreaded Christmas Party
Q: The dreaded holiday party is upon me, and I’m panicking. My boss is a great guy, but he can get a little flirty. I usually just ignore it and go about my job, but I’m worried that at the…
The Careerist: I Screwed Up – What Do I Do Next?
Q: I’ve got a great job with a real estate development company, but I’m afraid I’m about to get fired. I screwed up a project, missing a deadline, mixing up job orders and costing the company real money. I’ve done…
The Careerist: Should I Jump Into the Gig Economy?
Q: I’ve got a steady job making decent money, but it’s 40 hours/week in a cubicle. Some of my buddies are skipping the “office grind” for freelance work or are jumping on with Uber and Lyft. They’ve got flexibility and…
The Careerist On: Bring Your Own Device? Hillary Did and It Hurt Her
Q: I just interviewed for a job and was told the company has a strict policy against BYOD. I nodded sagely as though I understood, but what is that and why should I care? A: If you take the job,…
The Careerist: Policies Evolving on Kids at Work
Expert careerist, Powell Berger, gives her input answering questions about kids at work, fancy fundraisers and unlimited vacation. Q: There’s a single dad who occasionally brings his two kids to our office. I feel for him, but I don’t think…
Can The Boss Vet My Facebook?
Q: My boss and I have very different views, and I’ve discovered he’s monitoring my Facebook posts and tweets. He came to my cubicle yesterday and said, “You’d better watch that stuff you post online.” These are my personal views and my…
Did You Know?: Shearwater Protection Extends Out to Sea
YOU PROBABLY KNOW THAT Newell’s shearwaters, the birds native to Hawaii that are also known as Hawaiian shearwaters, are a protected species. But did you know their protection extends beyond the shore, including enforcement on Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of…
Still Cruise’n
10 years after Norwegian Cruise Lines went all-American with its around-the-Islands cruises, the Pride of America still sails every week, each time at…
Did You Know: Size Matters
The Hawaii Community Development Authority, the agency that oversees development in Kakaako and a few other places on Oahu, runs its shop with a mountain of rules and regulations, as you might expect. Whether you agree with HCDA’s rules or…
Yes, Locals Live in Kakaako
Count the cranes popping up along or near Ala Moana Boulevard…
Did You Know: Ahead of Its Time
It’s true,” says David Striph, senior VP for the Howard Hughes Corp. and the man occupying a corner office with two walls of windows framed by the iconic concrete arches of Honolulu’s IBM Building. “I sit here every day and…
Kakaako’s Affordable Housing Rarely Is
After all the hullabaloo, the hearings, legislation, planning, permits and protests, the concept of an urban, gentrified Kakaako is now an urban reality in progress. Cranes fill the skyline from one end of Kakaako to the other, with at least…
Kahala Renaissance
If your realtor suggest you buy on a street now vibrating with jack hammers, buzz saws, chain saws and tree grinders – including the requisite oversize, loud-mouth backhoes and flatbeds, blackdust barricades and…
How Does Hawaii’s 529 Plan Rate?
HI529, Hawaii’s College Savings Program, now boasts assets of $67 million and some 4,260 participants – an average of about $16,000 per investor set aside for a keiki’s education. National analysts give Hawaii’s program good marks on the investment returns…
Actors Make Good Medicine
Did you know that some of Hawaii’s best acting goes on at UH’s schools of medicine and nursing? At UH-Manoa’s School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, a creative partnership with the Theatre Department has aspiring actors practicing their improvisational skills…
Kakaako: Remade for the 21st Century
No matter which lens you use, Kakaako is where the transformations in Hawaii’s 21st-century life are most clear. The demographic lens: You already know there are more older people today, while young people are delaying both marriage and their families,…
Divorce Is Big Business
Divorce is big business – maybe even bigger than the wedding business in America. That’s because contested divorces involve more than just lawyers. There are also accountants, parenting consultants and other niche specialists to be paid, plus the money spent…
SBA Award Winners 2014
Each year, the Hawaiʻi region of the federal Small Business Administration gives out awards that celebrate some of the state’s best small businesses and small-business advocates. Hawaii Business is proud to profile the 2014 winners.
Leasehold Properties: A Deal or a Drain?
While most of the state’s leasehold single-family properties have converted to fee simple ownership over the past few decades, the leasehold option remains alive in the condo market.
Some Vacationers Wonder: Is It Possible to be a Good Tourist in Hawai‘i, or Should I Just Stay Away?
Globally, many popular destinations are experiencing a backlash against tourism. Here are multiple perspectives on the message that Hawai‘i should send to potential visitors.
B. Hayman Offers Industrial Mowers and Strong Customer Service
2025 SmallBiz Editor’s Choice Award winner: President Al Kakazu says his main job is to make the customers’ job easier.
