We know the daily work grind can wear us down, but many of us don't know that office life is causing significant physical hardships for many professionals, according to recent research from the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). There's a perception that this is all just part of the job and that we must simply tough it out, but chronic pain is a serious health issue that affects an estimated 100 million Americans, the AOA reports. With this in mind, the organization is promoting its "Break Through Your Pain" campaign to raise awareness about this problem with the following survey findings and some best-practices recommendations. "Sitting at a desk all day can take a serious toll on your body," says Rob Danoff, an AOA board-certified family physician, doctor of osteopathic medicine and co-spokesperson for the campaign. "Many office workers don't seek help to prevent or treat it until it reaches the point where it interferes with their ability to do their job. I want to encourage everyone to get up, stretch and move. Making small changes now will have a great impact on your overall health." More than 1,000 American office workers took part in the research, which was conducted by Kelton Global.

Do you find yourself going to one professional networking event after another, only to get very little out of your efforts? Sure, your e-rolodex now contains dozens or even hundreds of contacts that you'd never have otherwise. But if you fail to keep these connections active and productive, you'll reap few rewards from them. With this in mind, we present the following 10 classic mistakes of professional networking that focus on the quantity of your relationships, rather than the quality. In fact, recent research from Robert Half Technology reveals that IT professionals place far greater value on quality relationships. "Knowing someone professionally and being willing to go to bat for that person are two different things," says John Reed, senior executive director of Robert Half Technology. "You may have hundreds of connections, but if the relationships are superficial, your contacts may not be very helpful when you're seeking advice or assistance with a job search." More than 7,500 IT workers took part in this research. The networking mistakes were gathered from Robert Half Technology and TheWisdomJournal.com.

Here's a not-so-well-kept secret about bosses that every worker should know: They suffer from the same human failings that everyone else does. Sometimes, these flaws emerge because there is so much about department success or failure that they can't control, and they feel helpless. At other times, there are inner impulses that lead them away from core qualities that respected leaders exhibit. Either way, these traits will drag down your team's performance. The book, HeadTrash: Cleaning Out the Junk that Stands Between You and Success (Emerald Book Company/Available in May), examines the following six "sins" of managers—specifically, how bosses convey them to the staff and the resulting damage they cause. Every action triggers a reaction, after all. In this case, co-authors Tish Squillaro and Tim Thomas illustrate how these sins hurt employee performance, which may eventually derail the career of the boss. Squillaro is an executive coach and CEO of Candor Consulting. Thomas is a leadership coach and founding partner at Makarios Consulting.

Are you and your tech team members out of sync? Perhaps it's the classic "right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing" trap. Or maybe a colleague or two has an agenda that conflicts with the greater mission of the group or your enterprise. Unfortunately, these issues surface all the time at companies. However, a section of the book 9 Powerful Practices of Really Great Teams (Career Press/available now) provides an in-depth perspective on how teams can incorporate norms that set best-practices guidelines and policies to ensure that all individual team members are working for the good of the whole. Authors Stephen Kohn and Vincent O'Connell indicate that team successes do not require an iron-fist approach, and that each norm is adaptable to changing circumstances and business conditions. But they do stress that teams must establish a foundation of working processes and protocols to fuel success. Kohn is president of Work and People Solutions, specializing in executive coaching, management, training and organizational development. O'Connell is the Asia regional director for the Globecon Institute, which also focuses on training and performance management.

In the continuing seesaw ride that has defined the present job economy, IT employment opportunities appear to be on the wane, according to research published by Janco Associates. While 78,900 tech jobs have been added in the last 12 months, there was only a net increase of 5,400 positions in March. That's a steep decline from the 9,800 added in January and essentially the same as the numbers from February. This means you should continually strive to increase your value in the workplace, regardless of whether you are looking for a new job or are happy where you are. To help the situation, Janco has come up with the following nine best practices for advancing your career. Some of them address the need to sharpen your tech insight. But it's not just about the knowledge you accumulate. It's important to use that knowledge to benefit your peers, management and the company. It also helps to avoid being the office hermit who hides in his or her office. Instead, go out and look for new ways to benefit the users in your enterprise.

If you had the chance to pick the brain of the executive chairman of Google, you'd leap at the opportunity, wouldn't you? What about a consultant who's worked with leaders from organizations such as Ernst & Young, DuPont and BMW USA? Or a Harvard Business School professor who has designed a company evaluation tool that has been praised by business giants such as Mobil and Sears? Because our goal is to help you in your career, we're happy to get you "in the room" with these and other business leaders—in a figurative sense, of course—with this spring books preview. This collection covers a vast range of topics and skills that will help you step up your game in terms of day-to-day job performance and overall career accomplishments and satisfaction. You can discover more about the tech innovations that are bringing the world closer together, and how a sense of purpose can eliminate "bad karma" in the office. You can also find out how to improve your professional network, lead IT teams more effectively, increase project focus and remove what one author refers to as "headtrash." (Publication dates are subject to change, so please check the site links we've provided for every book.)

A new public-private initiative spearheaded by First Lady Michelle Obama and involving tech vendors aims to retrain vets for careers in the IT industry.

It seems that employees behave in far more environmentally friendly ways when working from home than they do in the office, according to a recent survey from TeamViewer. They're more likely to save on paper and power when telecommuting, and they recycle more frequently, findings show. As for the biggest offenders? Look no further than our bosses, survey participants say, as midlevel and senior managers are more likely to use more paper than they need. So why do workers seem to do a "greener" job at home? It could simply boil down to personal finance, as paper and power consumption have a direct impact on household expenses. Clearly, many professionals aren't quite as motivated to conduct the same environmentally friendly practices in the corporate office, since it's not coming out of their pocket. (Sounds like an opportunity for a cost-savings incentive rewards program.) The survey also breaks down practices between men and women, and, across the board, female employees demonstrate greater willingness to recycle and reduce energy and paper waste. An estimated 500 American office workers took part in the TeamViewer research.

The vast majority of IT administrators are so stressed that they are facing personal consequences with respect to health issues and other woes, according to a recent survey from GFI Software. And clueless and sometimes outrageous behavior on the part of users is contributing to the problem. On the bright side, the number of IT admins who are considering leaving their job due to workplace stress has declined to 57 percent, compared to 67 percent last year. Still, that's a lot of talented tech workers who are on the fence about whether to stick around. As for leading stress contributors outside of user-caused issues, survey participants cite a lack of staffing (24 percent) and tight deadlines (20 percent). "The increasing importance of IT in the workplace and the 24/7 availability paradigm obviously create a stressful atmosphere for many IT administrators," says Phil Bousfield, general manager of IT operations at GFI Software. "Companies are more reliant than ever on IT for innovation, uptime and speed of deployment. Thus, IT staff members are under extreme pressure to deliver for the benefit of the whole business." More than 200 U.S. IT administrators took part in the research.

The spring is always the beginning of another baseball season. Arguably more than any other sport, baseball involves strategies and execution that readily translate into insightful workplace lessons. Each team member, for example, must understand his role and constantly seek improvement within his skill set. On the field, all players have to work in a very unified manner: They know what the current situation is and how to respond to events in a coordinated, seamless way. Achieving a winning play requires great anticipation and foresight, with the ability to think two, three or more moves ahead of the competition. With this in mind, consider these nine lessons learned from Dave Kerpen, chairman of Likeable Media, a social media and marketing firm. Kerpen is a diehard baseball fan who has been to 45 Major League Baseball stadiums, and is also the co-author of Likeable Business: Why Today's Consumers Demand More and How Leaders Can Deliver (McGraw-Hill/available now).  Face it: Whether it's in baseball or at work, striking out stinks. But if you follow this guide, you'll make the most out of your opportunities "at the plate."

"I read the news today, oh boy. About a lucky man who made the grade ..." Does that memorable opening line from the classic Beatles song, "A Day in the Life," describe your typical Monday through Friday? Or are your daily pursuits a bit more routine and sometimes even mundane? Unless your job description closely resembles that of James Bond's, you can't realistically expect your career to offer nonstop excitement. With this in mind, the following "day in the life" snapshot of U.S. employees' behaviors sheds an interesting perspective on the way we live and work. What's passé? For many professionals, this would include eating breakfast, wearing a suit, going out for lunch and working an honest full day of work. What's popular? Taking stairs instead of elevators, intra-office dating and opting for a beer instead of something nonalcoholic during those happy hours with the office gang. More than 3,990 U.S. employees took part in the research, which was conducted online by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder.

A significant number of American workers are feeling constant—even chronic—stress at work. They say they're underappreciated and underpaid for all that they do, and they believe that managers aren't listening to their input. These and other recent survey findings from the American Psychological Association's Center for Organizational Excellence suggest that modern corporations are at risk for encountering major employee disengagement issues. And that's bad for the bottom line, as research indicates that engaged employees are more productive, produce better work and remain more loyal to their companies than unhappy workers. Of course, workload contributes greatly to the problem, but so does a lack genuine concern among bosses about the need for workers to maintain adequate work-life balance. "When employers acknowledge that employees have responsibilities and lives outside of work, they can take steps to promote a good work-life fit and help individuals better manage multiple demands," says David Ballard, head of the center. "Forward-thinking organizations are applying new technologies that help shift work from 'somewhere we go from 9 to 5' to 'something we do that is meaningful and creates value.'" More than 1,500 U.S. employees took part in the research.

Businesses and government agencies are increasingly turning to telework to create a more flexible and employee-friendly work environment.

As reported previously, compensation for tech talent is going up. In fact, the average salary for IT workers was more than $85,600 in 2012, up from just under $81,400 the year before. And one-third of those employees received bonuses last year, averaging an estimated $8,640. So let's say you're a hotshot and the annual review is coming up, or that you've waited out a salary freeze long enough and it's time to stake a claim to a boost in pay. How do you assess the value of your contributions? And, once you do, what critical steps do you have to take to skillfully negotiate the  best deal with your manager? For advice, consider the following tips from CareerBliss.com, as compiled by contributor Mary Ann La Russa. Even if "working hard and working smart" is familiar territory, La Russa writes, many professionals remain in the dark about how to go about getting what they deserve. To ensure success, she says, it's key to put aside emotions and focus strictly on business. CareerBliss is an online job posting, company review and professional advice site.

Online recruiting systems continue to evolve. One Bay Area IT recruiting firm has turned to a Web-based software tool to generate better candidate profiles.