Each year, Baltimore expands its reach and reputation as a key hub for business and innovation. In its 11th year, Baltimore Innovation Week celebrates that growth with a week-long showcase of the city’s entrepreneurial spirit.

Negotiation at work is constant – whether with customers, colleagues or bosses. Professionals at all levels should be ready to “think on their feet” when the next situation arises to negotiate – whether in product pricing, partnership agreements or the next job offer, says Professor of Management and Organization Vijaya Venkataramani at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

The Master of Science in Business and Management program felt like the best foundation for me to gain more business knowledge, while also easing back into talking to people face to face in a professional way again. I would have been too nervous about doing that if I’d chosen to work right after getting my bachelor’s degree.

Negotiation at work is constant – whether with customers, colleagues or bosses. Professionals at all levels should be ready to “think on their feet” when the next situation arises to negotiate – whether in product pricing, partnership agreements or the next job offer, says Professor of Management and Organization Vijaya Venkataramani at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

From the earliest weeks of the pandemic, Maryland Smith’s Nicole Coomber was noticing a worrying trend. Upwardly mobile professionals across her social media networks were opting to step back from their careers, overwhelmed by the new demands of their work lives and home lives.

In August alone, 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs, the most since the Labor Department began tracking these stats 20 years ago. They join the 16 million Americans who had handed in their resignations over the previous four months, another record. Some were burned out—exhausted by pandemic stresses and added workload at home and at work. Others were rejecting return-to-the-office mandates, seeking work with greater flexibility. After 18 months of toiling in a pandemic, expectations about what makes a good job had altered.

Why might asking about salary and benefits not land you a job? Why could it make you seem less motivated to employers? How does strict ethical behavior diminish creativity in the workplace? It all has to do with the zero-sum mindset, says Maryland Smith's Rellie Derfler-Rozin, and here's what you need to know about it.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — When employees break the rules at work, it might not be mischief. It might be monotony. A new study finds that employees whose tasks are organized in a more routine and repetitive way are more likely to fall prey to ethical lapses and break rules to make their workday easier. But there's good news. The researchers found that shaking up the order in which employees perform tasks — even without changing the tasks themselves — can reduce rule-breaking.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – When employees break the rules at work, it might not be mischief. It might be monotony.