How to Stage a Vacation Coup

If you want to please your co-workers, stop complaining

(NEWSER) - LinkedIn asked more than 17,000 professionals around the globe to name their biggest workplace pet peeve—and, surprisingly, the top spot went to something a bit more serious than leaving your smelly food in the office fridge. The top five:

1. Those who don’t take ownership of their actions.
2. Co-workers who complain too much.

To get ahead, steer clear of religion, politics, and 'The Office'

(NEWSER) - A thoughtful holiday gift for your boss can smooth out your workday and even help your career. But not all gifts are created equal. David Seaman of The Street lists some to avoid:

• The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: A self-help or management book "implies that you don't think they are at all effective at what they do."
• "A creepy holiday card": It "could get forwarded straight to HR and then you've got a real problem on your hands."

Time explores the origin of a long-standing faux pas

(NEWSER) - Everyone knows the style rule that you're not supposed to wear white after Labor Day. But why? The rule’s origins are surprisingly difficult to pin down, writes Laura Fitzpatrick for Time. The most conventional explanation has it as a practical matter: white fabric was cooler than the relatively heavy clothing worn in the first part of the 20th century, before air-conditioning. Big-city fashion editors lived in the cities during the summer in those days and thus wore white to stay cool, a trend that carried into their magazines. More»

It's time to bring back the men's summer suit

(NEWSER) - “Having a distinct summer wardrobe was once the mark of a man in the know,” writes Eric Felten in the Wall Street Journal. A seersucker suit Harry Truman wore in June 1945 led reporters to call him “confident” and “optimistic.” Damon Runyon once wrote, “Only very rich men ever wear seersucker clothes.” Nowadays, wearing a suit that’s not dark and formal is seen as odd. “What a shame,” Felten laments. More»

Wine panel rates the best from South America

(NEWSER) - We have reached “the vast plateau in the middle of summer,” the time when “one of wine’s primary purposes is to offer relief from the daily bout with seasonal oppression,” writes Eric Asimov in the New York Times. Summer wines, “like a good beach read, should be engaging enough to retain interest but not heavy.” Sauvignon blancs fit perfectly, so his tasting panel sampled a variety from South America: More»