Nov. 30, 2014: Most Expensive Homes Sold In Metro Phoenix This Past Week

Optimists are wealthier, live longer, and are more successful in life, work, and relationships. Here’s how to change your mindset if you are naturally pessimistic. Welcome to Work Smarter, Fast Company‘s newsletter on career, leadership, and productivity advice. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here.

Any workplace can fall prey to chaos. It’s up to leaders to put reasonable rules of conduct in place. You’ve just settled into your office chair one morning when you get called away for a not-so-quick conversation.  By the time you get back to your desk, your coffee is cold. 

If you’ve been avoiding a hard conversation with a direct report, you could be hurting them—and the rest of your team. We’ve seen it happen before—to ourselves or to others. Your boss begins taking away projects you’ve typically owned, or stops commenting on your work on a consistent basis. Maybe they even hire someone to do a similar job as you without outlining how your role will evolve.

UNICEF said more resilient energy supplies for Pakistan’s schools would reduce dropout rates and improve children’s learning so they can earn more in the future. A new study by the United Nations children’s agency says developing resilient energy systems to power health facilities in Pakistan could avert over 175,000 deaths by 2030.

Few homes in metro Denver can claim to have a million-dollar view. But a listing about to hit the market near Morrison’s Willowbrook neighborhood will test how much Colorado buyers are willing to pay up to be able to look down. In whatever direction Liz Wilson looks out from the home she and her husband Rick built on Lyons Ridge, just north of West Belleview Avenue, she is met with amazing views and recollections that span decades. Directly to the south, Wilson can see the home where she was born and raised and beyond that, the rolling hills leading into the Ken Caryl area.

Christopher Fazzari has fired off more than 200 job applications since graduating from the University of Denver last year. The 23-year-old would at least like to receive the occasional rejection notice. Most of the time, he never hears anything from employers after uploading his credentials into an online abyss where algorithms — not humans — often get the first crack at whittling down hundreds of job candidates. Fazzari, a Denver resident, wants to break into media or communications to write, podcast and inform people about education policy and news relevant to teachers.