A Workover: A Scientist/Professor Quits to Become a Caretaker

A caller to my show today quit being a health care professor to take care of her ill relative, whom she believes will likely live a few more years. She wants to take on a part-time activity that would enable her to change careers when that person dies. 

I used our exchange as my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: Tools to Aid Decision-Making

A caller wanted help identifying something new to study as an avocation. The edited transcript offers some tools for anyone trying to make a decision. I used that transcript as my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: Trying to Find the Right Volunteer Opportunity

A caller to my show was having trouble finding the right volunteer opportunity. The transcript of our exchange is my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: A B.A. in Psychology is Working at a Picker in a Warehouse.

A caller to my show is a recovering alcoholic with a BA in psychology and is working as a picker in a warehouse. He wants something better. 

The transcript of our exchange is my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: An Ad Saleman Wants to Change to a Creative Career

A caller to my show whose most recent job was selling newspaper ads but thinks of himself as A Creative and wants to make a living at that. I used our exchange as my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: A Long-Term Unemployed Person Comes Close to His Dream Job

A caller to my show has been looking for a job for a long time, without success. Finally, he got past three interviews for his dream job and didn't get it. As bad, they wouldn't even tell him why. The transcript of our exchange is my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: A Teacher Wants a Change

A caller to my show is a teacher who's ready for a change. The transcript of our exchange is my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: "I've Lost My Motivation to Work"

A caller to my show said she has lost the motivation to work. The transcript of our exchange is my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: "I'm Having Trouble With the Computer"

A caller to my show is having trouble at work "with the computer." The transcript of our exchange is my

PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: A Career Changer Wants into Alternative Energy

A caller to my show wants to change careers by getting into alternative energy. The transcript of our conversation is my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Two Workovers: Two older people who want a career change

Two older callers to my show want to make a career change. The edited transcript of our conversations are my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: "I Want to Use My Skill of Hypervigilance"

A caller to my show wants to use an unusual skill: hypervigilance. I used the transcript of our conversation as my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: "I'm Tired and Need an Easier Job"

A caller to my show is a manager, is tired, and wants an easier job. The transcript of our exchange is my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: "Should I stay at an elite company if I hate the job?"

A caller to my show took a job at a prestigious company but hates it and wonders if she should quit or stay a year so it looks good on her resume. The transcript of our exchange is my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: Bouncing Back from Getting Fired

A caller to my radio show had been a substitute instructor at a community college for 22 years. One day she got a call from an administrator who said that an unnamed student said the instructor was rude and would be taken off the call-to-substitute list. 

I used the exchange between her, my guest Dr. Mark Goulston, and me as my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: "Should I Try to be a Professional Writer?"

A caller to my show has mixed feelings about whether she should try to make a living as a writer. The edited transcript of our exchange is my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: An Activist Seeks Advice on How to Achieve a Big Goal

A caller to my radio shows said he wants to devote himself to making a conservative geographic area more liberal. 

I used the edited transcript of our exchange as my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: "What Should I Do?"

A caller to my radio show needed help figuring out what he wanted to do in retirement. My approach may be relevant to anyone trying to decide what to do in career or other big decision.

The transcript of our exchange is my PsychologyToday.com article today.

The Case for Honest Entertainment Reviews

College grades have lost much of their meaning because of grade inflation: Mean GPA is 3.22 despite students studying less than five hours a week.

Similarly, theatre and classical concert reviews have suffered from grade inflation. Reviewers are generally more concerned about saving those dying entertainments than providing their readers with honest reviews. That is short-sighted because those reviews then can't be used to discern good from bad performances and if a person thus attends a bad one, is more likely to be turned off to the entire enterprise. Imagine if all movie reviews were positive--The net effect would be to reduce movie-going.

I just wrote this review of the Berkeley Chamber Performances concert I attended last night. I like to think that, while I was unvarnishedly critical and praising as I believe was due, the net effect will be to increase chamber music attendance. Also, my praise will be deemed more credible than if I was monolithically laudatory. At minimum, it's more interesting reading than the Pollyannish pap that tends to pervade reviews in less-than-august publications.

THE GOOD

* Lovely venue.

* Excellent cellist, Susan Cook, successfully walked the tightrope of playing with deep feeling without being saccharine. Plus, her technique was flawless.

* Mainly excellent program (See below for the exception:) The early  (yet still more modern than Mozart) Beethoven Sonata and the rich Rachmaninoff Sonata were new to me and a pleasure to hear. But my fave was the varied, innovative yet accessible DeFalla, Suite Populaire Espagnole. It was a joy to listen to.

* I really enjoyed that there was a reception afterwards, and the audience members as well as the performers were lovely to talk with. (And, surprisingly, the cheeses served were elite deliciosos, not the usual cheap cheddar, jack, and swiss.)

THE BAD

* Unlike the cellist, the pianist, Gayle Blankenburg's playing was somewhat sterile: While that was true even in some slow passages, the problem was most evident in fast sections, which were sometimes muddy and lacking in sensitivity. Yes, sometimes, she'd use techniques in an attempt to add feeling, for example, lay behind the beat of an important note, but even that felt mechanical. It's hard to describe "feeling," but you know it when you hear it and with Blankenburg, I didn't often enough hear it.

Pianists that play with exquisite feeling include Martha Argerich, Helene Grimaud, and Evgeny Kissin. Of course, one cannot expect that level in local performances such as this but that gives you a sense of what I'm referring to.

For example, when you have time, listen to Argerich's Gaspard de la Nuit,  Grimaud's magical performance of Beethoven's Sonata, Opus 110  or Kissin's Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto: Life doesn't get much better.

* The "modern"/atonal piece (Ross Bauer,) an amalgam of John Cage, Schoenberg, and Thelonious Monk, was emblematic of the kind of music only a theoretical, out-of-touch, ear-free academic could create. Perhaps intellectually "cutting-edge" but to most listeners honest enough to admit it, it was annoying and impenetrable.

* The seats are hard. If you don't have a fat tush, bring a cushion. Really.

IN SUM
This was my first time at a Berkeley Chamber Performances concert and I now plan to subscribe: Chamber music is one of humankind's most beautiful contributions. While the cellist was a 10 and the pianist a 6, that still averages an 8, and one can derive great pleasure from life's 8's. Plus, the next season sounds excellent. The price ($25, scheduled to increase to $30) is fair. I'm grateful it's in the East Bay so it's geographically accessible and one can even find a parking spot! I also appreciated the vibe among the audience members: enthusiastic, intelligent, friendly. Loved the reception. So if you haven't attended a Berkeley Chamber Performance concert, I encourage you to try one.

A Workover: An Employee is Tired of Not Getting Praised

A caller to my radio show was tired of not getting praise from her boss. The transcript of our conversation is my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: A Boomer in a Field Filled With Millennials

A caller has been a computer chip designer for 30 years and wants a radical change. 

The edited transcript of our conversation is my PsychologyToday.com article today. 

A Workover: A High Performer Feels Inadequate

A caller to my radio program does a good but not great job in her work as a computer security specialist. 

The edited transcript of our exchange is my PsychologyToday.com article today.

A Workover: An Overwhelmed Nurse

A nurse called into my radio show because she's overwhelmed by her caseload.  

Here, as my PsychologyToday.com article today, is an edited transcript of our exchange.

A Workover: "Why Am I Not Getting Promoted?"

I help a caller to my radio show understand why she's not getting promoted.  My PsychologyToday.com article today offers an edited transcript of our exchange.

A Workover: A Caller Has a Stale Skill Set Yet Wants Higher Salary

A caller to my radio program had a stale skill set yet wants higher salary. Here's an edited transcript of our conversation. At the end there also was an interesting point about the art of communication.

A Helpful Way to Become Resilient, Avoid Getting Stuck

Key to professional and personal success is how well you can bounce back from adversity. 

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers what many of my clients have found to be a powerful way to go from a person who stays stuck to one who's resilient.

Workover: "How do I get into non-profit PR?"

A caller to my radio show wants to turn a volunteer gig into paid work. Making it more difficult, his work experience is mainly in broadcasting. Here's the edited transcript of our interaction.

Two Workovers: Should I Get a Graduate Degree? Should I Start a Business?

Here are edited transcripts of two calls to my radio show. One is deciding whether she should go back for a graduate degree. The other is thinking of starting a business making key chains. Here's what I said to them.

A Workover: A Nurse Wants a Raise

Here's an edited transcript of a caller to my radio show who wants to negotiate for a raise.
 

A Workover: "Do I Need to Be Completely Honest on My Resume?"

Here's the latest edited transcript of a Workover on my radio program. The caller asked if one needs be completely honest on a resume.

A Workover: Coping with a Co-Worker Who Drives You Nuts

On my KALW-FM (NPR-San Francisco) radio program, I do Workovers: People phone in with their work problem and I try to help.

On PsychologyToday.com I'm posting edited transcripts of some Workovers. Here's today's offering:

A Workover: A Liberal Arts B.A. Wants to Make a Difference While Making a Living

Daily on PsychologyToday.com now I'm posting edited transcripts of Workovers I've done on my radio program. Here's today's offering.