Author: Abbey

Ever wonder why some homes sell in a day and others linger for months? We’ve got tips from the experts to get your place off the market, stat.

1. GET A NEW HUE FOR YOUR FRONT DOOR.

A fresh coat of paint for your front door sets the tone of a well kept, updated place, says Julea Joseph, lead stylist and owner of Reinventing Space, based in Palos Park, Illinois. Joseph likes a line of paint by Benjamin Moore called Grand Entrance (it comes in 11 colors), which was designed specifically for the front door. “I always choose a color that makes a bit of a statement, yet complements the home’s existing exterior colors,” she says.

First, prep the door by cleaning it and give it a light sanding to smooth out any old paint lines. Use a good brush to apply the paint.

2. UPDATE YOUR KITCHEN … A LITTLE.

Buying new cabinetry is expensive, and full custom cabinetry can take months to complete. But you can update your existing cabinets by painting them white, says Sheri Schueller, broker associate with Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty in Chicago. Schueller also suggests painting the island cabinetry gray (she recommends Benjamin Moore’s Kendall Grey), which will contrast nicely with the white.

The most luxurious homes have Calacatta gold marble kitchen countertops, but if you’re updating for a sale, Schueller says to consider swapping out old granite with less expensive marble that has a similar look. “Carrera marble is one of my favorites for a more reasonable cost,” she says.

3. CHANGE YOUR BEDDING.

The focal point of any master bedroom is the bed, and the bedding has to look magazine-worthy, like something you’d want to jump right into, Joseph says. “People buy homes because they fall in love with them, so make that master bedroom an emotional statement with an irresistible bed,” she says. A duvet cover set will allow you to slipcover your existing comforter and a few of your pillows.

To make your bed look irresistibly cozy, create layers by adding another comforter folded at the end of the bed, plenty of pillows, and a few accent pillows, Joseph says. If you don’t have a headboard, or if your headboard isn’t a statement maker, a few Euro-size pillows (26×25) will fill the gap. And Joseph says you should never be able to see under a bed or to see sheets hanging down, so if needed, use a bed-skirt and proper bed-styling on days your broker takes photos or shows the house.

4. LIST YOUR HOME ON THE RIGHT DAY.

Homes listed on Thursdays sell faster and for more money than homes listed on other days of the week, according to a 2015 study by Redfin. Redfin’s study shows homes listed on a Thursday have a 22 percent chance of selling above list price (compared to the 17.5 percent chance they have when listed on a Sunday).

5. DO THE DISHES DAILY.

You never know when your broker might call you about scheduling a last-minute showing, so you need to be prepared, says Greg Jaroszewski, real estate broker with Gagliardo Realty in Oak Park, Illinois. “The beds should always be made and the dishes should never be left in the sink,” he says.

6. HAVE AN OPEN HOUSE IMMEDIATELY.

If you’re willing to have an open house, do it within the first week: The Redfin study found that holding an open house during the first week that the home is listed will help your home sell for 2 percent more than what it would sell for if you held your open house later. It will also help you sell your home within 90 days.

7. HIRE A PHOTOGRAPHER.

Your home will sell up to three weeks faster if your pictures are amazing, and you’ll get $3400 more for it, according to Redfin.

8. TAKE COMMUNITY PICTURES.

Your photographer should take a minimum of 40 pictures, and some should include the community, says Michael Mahon, president of First Team Real Estate in California. For example, if your home is near a beach, make sure the photographer includes a picture of the surf. If it’s near a popular shopping mall, include a photo of the mall, Mahon says.

9. PRICE THE HOME CORRECTLY FROM THE START.

Your house will get five times more visits the first day it hits the market than it does a week later, which means everything has to be perfect the first day. Testing the waters with a higher price and planning on a price drop later could scare away prospective buyers.

It’s a near-universal truth that Monday is the worst day of the week (and we’ve got the Sunday Sads to prove it). According to research done by Stanford University, even unemployed people see their morale dip on weekdays. Happiness rises with the number of hours you spend with family and friends, the study says, so even if you aren’t working, Monday morning can still bum you out.

Flip the script and make every day feel like Saturday (well, almost) with these expert tips.

1. BRING A PIECE OF YOUR WEEKEND INTO YOUR WEEK.

You don’t need to save all the fun stuff for the weekend, says Janet Zinn, a New York psychotherapist and coach. So get together with friends, try a new workout, go to early hours at a museum before work, or take yourself out to breakfast with a friend, Zinn suggests. “Anything that allows for some fun or feels restful during the week,” she says. “It could be a 20-minute shift in your schedule; or, if you have the flexibility, do something that takes at least an hour.”

2. WAKE UP EARLIER.

Weekend mornings are awesome because they’re quiet and relaxed, says Glen Stansberry, co-founder of Gentlemint.com. During the week, mornings tend to be rushed. Stansberry recommends you emulate your weekend mornings during the week by setting your alarm a little earlier. “It doesn’t have to be much, just try enough that it allows you to do something that you don’t normally get to do: drink your coffee slowly, take a nice, relaxed shower, even lounge around,” he says.

3. UNPLUG DURING THE WEEK.

One of the best parts of the weekend is that you can give yourself a break from business-related email, says Stansberry. But you can set limits on email during the week, too. “Make it a point—unless your job explicitly requires it—to turn off email for periods of time,” Stansberry says. “Check it in intervals instead of having it constantly on, and reply to messages in batches, which is actually much more efficient anyway.”

4. DO SOME LIGHT WORK ON THE WEEKEND.

Most likely, part of the reason you’re so stressed during the week is that you’re overloaded with work. But if you do a small amount of work on the weekend, you’ll free up some time during the week to do something fun, says Carole Lieberman, a Beverly Hills psychiatrist.

But this doesn’t mean you have to drag yourself to the office on a Saturday. “If you have reading to catch up on, you can use this as motivation to go someplace relaxing, like a park or the beach, where you can lay out a blanket, read, and have a little picnic,” Lieberman says. “If the weather doesn’t permit outdoor relaxation, you can take it inside to your favorite coffee ship or cozy bookstore.”

5. GET A NEW JOB.

A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that those who love their job and their boss had a much smaller—and sometimes even a non-existent—”weekend effect” on their moods. One of the major reasons why people look forward to the weekend is to get away from their jobs; but if you love your job, then you’ll be happier during the week, the study found.

If you can’t switch your job, you can find little ways to boost your mood at the office, says Gini Graham Scott, author of Enjoy! New Ways to Add Fun to Your Work Every Day. She suggests making more of an effort to become friends with your co-workers, including planning post-work socials, potluck lunches in the cafeteria, and coffee outings.

Don’t underestimate the importance of taking time between jobs. While the last few weeks in your old position can be a scramble of tying up projects and training a replacement, you’re also expected to hit the ground running and prove yourself in your new post. The stress and scrutiny can be incredibly taxing—even more so when you realize it might be six months or more before you can take vacation at your new company.

“The mistake so many people make is saying they can start Monday after leaving a job Friday,” says Robin Ryan, a career counselor and author of 60 Seconds and You’re Hired. “But building in even a few days—ideally a week—can be so helpful to get you rejuvenated and ready to start your new job.”

Of course, getting (and affording) a week-long buffer isn’t always as easy as asking for it. But there are smart strategies to blow past the hurdles keeping you from some well-deserved R&R.

HURDLE 1: THE OFFER LETTER LISTS A START DATE THAT IS PAINFULLY SOON.

SOLUTION: This is absolutely the right time to talk about start dates, says Ryan, so go ahead and gently push back on whatever date the company suggests. It might be that the hiring manager defaults to setting starts two weeks in the future (to accommodate the usual notice most new hires need to give their old jobs). Or it could be that there’s some pressing project or reason that start date is crucial. You won’t know unless you ask.

“You don’t need to give them an explanation,” says Ryan. “When you accept the offer, say that you’d prefer to start on X date instead and see what they say.” Most companies are more flexible than new employees fear, she says.

HURDLE 2: YOUR DATE IS SET IN STONE.

SOLUTION: If your new position absolutely has to start on a certain date, because of a big work event or pressing project, you might want to shorten the notice you give your current company. While two weeks is the standard across all industries, some managers will welcome the chance to cut your notice short, says Ryan. Position it as a request rather than an ultimatum, though, or you risk souring your relationship with the company. “You want to do everything you can to be gracious and nice on the way out,” says Ryan. “You never know if you might want to return there some day or use a reference from there, so you don’t want to burn any bridges on your way out the door.”

HURDLE 3: YOU HAVE A VACATION PLANNED JUST A FEW WEEKS LATER.

SOLUTION: Be upfront with the hiring manager. While most companies won’t want you to plan time off in the first few months of a new post, it’s not uncommon to have a long-planned wedding or family reunion already on the books. It could be that the hiring manager wants to push back your start date to the other side of that vacation—which will naturally give you a week between gigs. Or the hiring manager may ask you to go ahead and start now, then enjoy the time off as planned—and vacation a few weeks into a new gig is almost as good as R&R beforehand. This is another situation where Ryan recommends being both gracious and upfront. Hiring managers are human, after all, and they’ll understand that you don’t want to cancel traveling to your sister’s wedding just to accommodate a start date.

HURDLE 4: YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO MISS A PAYCHECK.

SOLUTION: Before you think a week off is out of the question, tally up your PTO and look at your company’s employee handbook. If your employer pays out for unused vacation or sick days, you may have money coming your way that can offset the days off. If not—or if you decide to be super-responsible and put that chunk of change towards savings goals—well, then you might have to shrink your time-off dreams. A week can do wonders, says Ryan, but even a long weekend helps. Can you afford to have your last day be a Wednesday or Thursday, to give yourself four days to recharge? Losing a day or two of pay may be worth the mental break before you dive in on Monday.

Anyone who’s ever worked in an office can tell you that liking your cubicle-mates can make going to work a significantly more enjoyable experience, but new research says identifying with and feeling a strong connection to the people you work with has actually been shown to improve your overall health and sense of well-being. According to an international meta-analysis of 58 studies involving more than 19,000 people published in the academic journal Personality and Social Psychology Review, feeling like you and your colleagues are on the same team, and, maybe more importantly, feeling like your colleagues feel the same way, isn’t just good for workplace productivity, it’s good for workers’ mental and physiological states, too.

Niklas Steffens, the analysis’s University of Queensland-based lead researcher, says his team’s key findings suggest that when people are particularly invested in their social relationships at work, there’s more evidence of health benefits and lower levels of burnout.

“When we identify with our workgroup and organization, this provides us with a sense of ‘we-ness’— which is a basis for a sense of belonging, agency and social support, and a sense of meaning and purpose,” Steffens told mental_floss in an email.

To make their conclusions, Steffens and his team (which included researchers from China, Germany, and Norway as well as Australia) carefully reviewed dozens of previous studies from the past two decades that examined the relationship between group social identification and health within organizations. Overall, the team found that workplaces that allow workers to feel “at home” and that facilitate lower-level workgroups that employees can identify with socially are the most likely to create a workforce that feels invigorated instead of burned out. This kind of staff in turn tends to be more successful and satisfied with their work, and less likely to experience physical symptoms like back problems or poor cortisol levels. The sharing aspect, or knowing that fellow colleagues also feel the same sense of office unity, is particularly important, the research showed.

Surprisingly, the analysis found that these benefits tend to be stronger when more of the participants in the studies were men, a counterintuitive piece of information considering women tend to have stronger social networks. Steffens and his team hypothesized that this might be because many workplaces are still stereotypically masculine, leaving women to feel left out of the organization’s inner circle.

Another area the study points out may need more examination is how much of an impact it can have when an employee actively distances him or herself from an office social group. “It is conceivable,” the study says, “that increasing levels of disidentification … are more strongly related to the presence of unease, discomfort, and stress than to the absence of ease, comfort, and well-being.”

Josselyne Herman Saccio, a communication expert who was not involved in the study, but who leads seminars for personal and professional growth firm Landmark, says that feeling of “we-ness” among office social groups can also feed a poor mental state if those groups indulge in negative behaviors like complaining and gossip.

“When you’re in complaint mode at work and other people agree with you, you end up getting stuck,” Saccio said. The beefs you have seem more real, she said, when others you identify with reinforce them. This can lead to bad feelings, poor work performance, and burnout as you internalize each complaint. Instead, Saccio recommends reframing complaints in the form of requests so things actually get done and channeling that social connection with colleagues through a more positive filter. Talking with work friends about the aspects of your job or organization that originally attracted you to it can shift those mentalities.

“You might end up reigniting other people’s passions,” she says.

From a hiring manager’s point of view, deciding that a candidate is the right fit for your workforce social culture should be a matter of whether that person is one the other workers can identify with, Steffens said. (The same can be said of a prospective employee trying to gauge whether he will fit in with a new company.) Based on his team’s research, Steffens said that a shared social bond is a crucial factor in someone’s overall sense of satisfaction and contentment.

“Hiring managers may want to look out for individuals who are likely to actively undermine a sense of unity in a team or organization and to jeopardize other members’ social identification with the workplace,” Steffens said. “Moreover, managers may also want to look out for individuals who are likely to place their own personal interests above the interests of other members of the team and the organization that they will be part of. Instead, hiring managers may want to seek individuals who are likely to be able and willing to contribute to a meaningful and healthy group life at work.”

All in all, feeling a sense of belonging with the people you work with matters. So maybe think about that the next time you’re deciding whether to attend that office happy hour.

There are some people who will finish a race, even if they can barely stand by the time they reach the finish line. They’re the same people who never give up in the middle of a book and see a challenging course to its completion. Essentially, they’ve got grit.

If you’re someone who tends to get going when the going gets tough, we’ve got some good news: If you aren’t born with grit, you can develop it. Here are a few ways to become gritty.

1. SET REASONABLE GOALS.

Once you set these goals, write them down where you can see them often, says Zoe McKey, communication coach and author of Build Grit. McKey, for instance, keeps her goals on Post-it notes that she sticks to her wardrobe.

McKey also makes sure not to set too many goals at once. Instead, she breaks down her goals into daily and hourly tasks so she has a clear picture of what she needs to do to achieve them.

2. FIND A MOTIVATION TRIGGER.

A “motivation trigger” is something that keeps you on track, even when you’d like to quit or procrastinate, McKey says. “If you feel highly motivated by others’ praise, make sure to tell people about your accomplishments so they can praise you,” McKey says. “If a productive day gives you deep self-satisfaction in the evening, remind yourself every time you feel like doing nothing how good it is to go to sleep with peace of mind—or how bad it is without.”

3. MAKE IT FUN AND DIVERSE.

There’s always a way to make something fun, McKey says. “If you have to repeat the same thing day by day—for example, you’re writing your thesis for your senior year—go to different cafes or libraries to make it more interesting,” she says. If your goal is a solitary action, listen to music or an audiobook while you work; or, if someone is working with you, add an element of friendly competition to help stay engaged.

4. CONTINUE TO CONNECT WITH YOUR PURPOSE.

The people we look to as examples of grittiness personified do not necessarily show tenacity and perseverance in everything they do, says John Welch IV, author of Mastering the Power of Grit. “The grit comes when they are working on tasks and responsibilities that are directly aligned with their purpose and goals,” Welch says. “Thus, one of the keys to grit is to begin with a clear and compelling vision of your future—something that excites you, a dream that gets you up early—with goals that keep you up late, and then draw clear connections between what you are doing now and those dreams and goals at the end of the road.”

Let’s say your dream is to be governor. To accomplish this, you spend your afternoons knocking on doors. It’s hard not to feel like quitting after you’ve had yet another door slammed in your face. But, instead of giving up and going home, you need to return to your purpose. “Spend a few minutes re-imagining what it would be like to be the governor of your state,” Welch says. “Imagine all the good work you could do, or the thrill of holding the reins of power.” Then, you should remind yourself that the knocking on the doors is the road to your dream.

5. ANTICIPATE AND PREPARE FOR PROBLEMS.

The more trained and prepared you are, and the more you understand what you’re getting into, the more willing and able you’ll be to see things through, Welch says. For example, the success of the Roman army is consistently attributed to their discipline and persistence, which was developed through rigorous physical and mental training, Welch says. “The key is to remain optimistic while understanding that obstacles and setbacks are inevitable—and to be ready to take action to surmount them when they come,” he says.

6. HAVE A POWERFUL START.

A surprising number of people fail to achieve their goals simply because they fail to take any action at all, Welch says. It’s very important to take one or two steps as soon as you possibly can. “Maybe you can’t find the motivation to write a 30-page paper for school, but you have no problem committing to read over the instructions for the assignment,” he says. “At the very least, you can take five minutes to write out all the steps involved in completing the assignment.” And before you set the project aside, be sure to make a quick written note of precisely what small, manageable task you will do next and when you will do it.

7. DON’T QUIT WHEN IT GETS TOUGH.

Gritty people have developed the habit of talking themselves into staying focused and committed when they are emotionally or physically exhausted, says Caroline Miller, speaker and author of Getting Grit. When you’re thinking about quitting, or when you’re feeling bad, visualize something that will motivate you—or think of a phrase or a song lyric that will give you the push you need to continue, such as “I am a finisher” or “I am making progress,” she says.

8. BUILD PATIENCE.

Gritty people have patience because they often have to work very hard over a long period of time to accomplish their goals, Miller says. One exercise you can practice to help improve your patience is to sit quietly and just observe something: a scene out the window, a piece of fruit. Take notes about what you see for 30 minutes. “We are so accustomed to doing things quickly that we miss the nuances in what we see and what we feel, so taking time doing this teaches us the value of waiting and letting things unfold, as opposed to expecting everything to happen instantaneously.”

The “references” section of a job application is often skimmed over by job seekers who are eager to relay the finer details of their past job descriptions. But recent research shows applicants shouldn’t be so hasty: Your references can make or break your ability to get the gig. According to a 2012 CareerBuilder survey, 80 percent of hiring managers confirmed that they check references before extending a job offer. And hiring managers reported in an Addison Group survey that references are nearly as important as a resume when considering a candidate. In fact, twice as many hiring managers emphasize references as cover letters.

But the time to get your references ready is long before the hiring manager asks for names and numbers, says Connie Thanasoulis-Cerrachio, a career coach and cofounder of SixFigureStart. She walks us through what to do before, during, and after you apply for a job to make sure your references sing your praises.

1. BEFORE YOU APPLY: MAKE YOUR PICKS.

“Identify potential references way before you even have an interview,” says Thanasoulis-Cerrachio. If you’re on the job hunt, reach out to coworkers, previous managers, mentors, and clients who have worked with you closely. “You should be 100 percent confident that they will give you a good reference when asked to, so don’t ask people if you’ve had a substantial disagreement with them or you’re unsure about what they’ll say,” she says.

The CareerBuilder survey found that 62 percent of execs had received negative information when reaching out to a reference. “Rather than asking ‘Would you serve as a reference for me?’ ask: ‘Would you be able to give me a positive reference?’” says Thanasoulis-Cerrachio. Any sign of hesitation means you might want to consider other options.

Before you hand your list of references over to HR, Thanasoulis-Cerrachio also recommends asking your potential picks to write you a LinkedIn recommendation. Reading their comments will give you an immediate sense of what qualities each person is likely to speak to and how effusive they are. And LinkedIn recommendations can also better your odds of getting seen by a hiring manager in the first place: Passive recruitment is on the rise, with 84 percent of organizations now using social media to search for candidates who haven’t actively applied for a position. Public, well-polished recommendations can help you catch the eye of a hiring manager.

2. DURING THE APPLICATION PROCESS: REACH OUT.

You might be tempted to share the full job description with each reference or to go into deep notes about how the actual interview went—but resist, says Thanasoulis-Cerrachio. “People are busy and don’t want this level of detail,” she says. But do send each reference a short note, thanking them again for agreeing to be a reference and giving them a heads up that they can expect a call or email for a particular position.

And go ahead and jog the person’s memory about a specific project or accomplishment that they might want to focus on, Thanasoulis-Cerrachio says. At first blush it may sound pushy or tacky, but your references will appreciate that they don’t have to prep for the call, and the examples they give will show off the skills the hiring manager is after.

For example, you could send an email that says: “Thanks, Jane, for agreeing to serve as my reference. I appreciate it very much! By way of background, this position requires especially strong leadership and communication skills. Would you mind giving them the example of when I led the cross-function team of 12 in four countries to create and deliver the new intranet site for our department?”

3. AFTER THE HIRING DECISION IS MADE: FOLLOW UP.

Is there anything more awkward than circling back with a reference to say that you didn’t get the gig? Sure: never following up after that person took the time to endorse you. “You should absolutely let your reference know the outcome,” says Thanasoulis-Cerrachio. That doesn’t have to mean a play-by-play or a lengthy list of reasons you got passed over or decided not to accept a position. Just a simple outcome is fine, along with another thanks for helping you with the reference.

“Whether you got the job or not, they know you’re always focused on your career and it makes you look professional and considerate,” she says. Not bad traits, considering you’ll likely be getting in touch for another reference at some point in the future.

Fall’s cooler temperatures are great for cozy sweaters, butternut squash, and hot mulled cider—but the transitional weather is not so great for that chronic pain in your knee. Studies show that falling barometric pressure, increased precipitation, and lower temperatures can trigger arthritis flare-ups and headaches.

Cold weather can also increase the likelihood of injuring yourself during a routine workout. “Anything cold causes muscles, ligaments and tendons to sort of tighten up, and that makes them stiffer,” Dr. James Gladstone, an orthopaedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital, told weather.com in 2014. “So if you’re going to be doing stuff in cold weather, you want to make sure you warm up well first, and as importantly, have protective clothing on, so you don’t get too cold.”

But let’s say you forgot to warm up or pushed yourself a bit too far during your outdoor run—how do you soothe your aching muscles and sore joints? The below infographic, created by the Cleveland Clinic, tells you whether you should reach for the ice pack or heating pad.

The first two episodes of HBO’s new sci-fi series Westworld offer more questions than answers: Where is the park located? Could a park guest harm another guest (with something other than a gun)? How does Dolores’s hair stay so perfect without hairspray? One of the biggest mysteries, though, is the identity of a character known only as “the Man in Black” (played by Ed Harris). After watching “Chestnut,” the second episode, some fans think they’ve figured it out.

(This is where you stop reading if you’re not interested in theories and don’t want any spoilers…)

One popular fan theory making the rounds posits that William, the park newbie introduced in “Chestnut” (played by Jimmi Simpson) is a younger version of the Man in Black. This would mean that, despite some clever editing, the scenes featuring William take place 30 years before the show’s main action (because in Episode 1, the Man in Black tells Dolores, “I’ve been coming here for 30 years”).

Here’s the evidence fans claim supports this theory (much of which Business Insider has compiled in a helpful video):

– The Westworld William and Logan visit looks different than the one we’re used to: Namely, the Westworld logo William walks by in the main lobby is not the one we’ve seen in the Delos offices; Teddy (James Marsden) doesn’t appear to be on the train to the park; and a group of Union soldiers, rather than the Sheriff, is looking for volunteers in the town square.

– The gleaming escalators leading from the train platform were shown in the first episode—as decrepit and long out of service (see below).

@slashfilm Could William as MIB merely be misdirection? I like this comparison photo from @MessyPandas pic.twitter.com/TD1fgTOYz6

— J. Smith (@AlgonquinDude) October 11, 2016

Naysayers of this theory put forth as counter evidence that the hosts were much cruder at the park’s inception (for example, Old Bill, whom Dr. Robert Ford talks to in the first episode), and the ones in William’s present are difficult to distinguish from real people. This might be true, but we don’t actually know how old the park is. The Man in Black has been visiting for 30 years, but Westworld could very well be much older than that. If the park is 50 years old, for instance, Ford and his team would have been updating the hosts for two decades before William/the Man in Black first arrives. And, since we know that Dolores was the park’s first host, we know that Ford likes to improve existing hosts, rather than swap them out with new ones.

If this theory is true, it means we can look forward to watching William devolve from the white hat-wearing hero to a cruel and violent gunslinger.

[h/t: Business Insider]

Pay transparency is a hot topic for today’s start-ups, with some entrepreneurs arguing that it fosters healthier workplaces and fairer compensation. But what if you’re one of the vast majority of people who doesn’t work in such an open office? There are still ways to gauge how much your cubemates are getting paid—and whether it’s time to ask for a raise.

The key is to be strategic in how you get the info, says Connie Thanasoulis-Cerrachio, a career coach and cofounder of SixFigureStart. “You must be careful because management never wants you to ask, and it can look unprofessional when this information bubbles to top management,” she says. Rather than accost folks at the water cooler, try sleuthing out salary info this way:

1. YOUR ALMA MATER

“Even if it’s been years since you graduated, your university can be a good source of information for you,” says Thanasoulis-Cerrachio. That’s because many college career offices survey alumni about salary info and also compile industry data. Get in touch with a career counselor to get ahold of those stats: If alumni work at your organization, you may get company-specific details, but even if you’re the lone alum at your company you can get a snapshot of what people make in your industry.

2. THE HR DEPARTMENT

In general, the smaller the company, the more likely HR is to be reticent about revealing what certain positions pay. (When the graphic design department is just one person, connecting the dots isn’t too hard.) “But if you work for a large company, you can always ask someone in HR to give you the salary ranges for different positions,” says Thanasoulis-Cerrachio.

And at some companies, compensation is a cut-and-dry formula, and sharing those salary levels isn’t taboo. “Of course, the friendlier you are when you ask, the better,” she says. “It’s always helpful to make a friend in HR!”

3. PUBLIC RECORDS

Private companies are typically tight-lipped about salary info. But if you work for the federal government, those pay grades are published by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. If you’re at a not-for-profit, you can sleuth out salaries for high-level employees by peeking at the organization’s tax returns (form 990). Start with GuideStar, which has info on thousands of not-for-profits. Don’t think the info is only limited to the director, either: The IRS requires nonprofits to share salary details about its officers, directors, key employees, and the five highest-compensated employees making more than $50,000. In a smaller nonprofit, that might mean details on most of the staff.

4. PAY SITES

Glassdoor.com is the go-to for most salary sleuths, but it’s not the only resource. Thanasoulis-Cerrachio recommends also checking out Payscale.com, GetRaised.com, Vault.com and Wetfeet.com. “People are very willing to share, because it’s so anonymous,” she says. Just keep in mind that the info may skew toward forward employees, so casting a wide net across multiple sites will give you more data points to compare.

5. JOB LISTINGS

Odds are, you aren’t scouring your company’s help wanted ads. But if you’re curious about compensation, you’re missing a big opportunity for clues. Many listings will include a salary range, and if the company is hiring in your department or for a similar position, that’s a good indicator of what your coworkers are probably earning.

6. YOUR COWORKERS

Yes, talking about salary is still taboo in most offices, but that doesn’t mean you can’t query a trustworthy coworker. “Don’t ask someone you barely know or you’ll look very unprofessional,” says Thanasoulis-Cerrachio. “Instead, trust your gut about who you can ask directly.” She recommends acknowledging that salary isn’t typical office chatter, but then plunging ahead anyway: “You could say something like: ‘We’re not supposed to talk about compensation, but do you think we could share with each other what our base is or give a range?’” If the coworker bristles, drop it, of course. And if you do get the info, be ready to share your own salary in exchange.