REGION

REGION
Cortland Bancorp reportslower quarterly earnings
CORTLAND -- Cortland Bancorp earned $1.3 million, or 33 cents a share, in the third quarter, compared with $1.6 million, or 40 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. The company reported a lower net interest margin, which is the difference between what it earns on loans and investments and what it pays on deposits and borrowings.
NATION
Advance preparation tipsfor occasional travelers
NEW YORK -- Many corporate road warriors have their own tried-and-true methods of navigating the airport-hotel-rental car maze. But if you travel only occasionally for work, the trip can easily become a hassle, especially without a corporate travel department arranging everything for you. So TravelSmart newsletter offers some tips.
To lower airfare costs, fly Tuesday and Wednesday if possible. Just as Saturday is often a slow day for airlines, they tend to have a harder time filling seats on these middle-of-the-week days, when business people are already at their destinations.
If you're visiting a client or vendor in another city, ask that company if it has a local hotel it uses. If the company arranges your lodging, you'll probably enjoy their lower rate.
And if you plan to dine on the trip, call the restaurant before you leave home. Chances for a table -- or special seating arrangements for a group -- are better when you're calling ahead of time.
From facts and figuresto narrative in evaluation
NEW YORK -- How is your performance at work? As they say in the journalism trade, there's probably a story there.
Gone are the days of checklists and numerical scoring when you and the boss sit down to evaluate your work duties and conduct. Narration is now the key to appraisals, according to John Robinson, head of the employment law practice for the Tampa, Fla.-based firm of Fowler White Boggs Banker.
Companies are looking for narrative comments about an employee's performance, skipping the traditional methods that often produced misleading scores and failed to customize the review to the worker.
Don't be surprised if the boss solicits some written comments from you before the meeting. The goal is to get you to think about your job more deeply and critically analyze ways to improve, Robinson said.
Traffic jams, cell phonestop lists of driving peeves
NEW YORK -- Getting to work can be a real pain, and a survey of drivers suggests this daily torture is worse than some others.
Ponder the following hellish scenarios: The middle seat on a trans-Atlantic flight, a filling at the dentist's office, a crowded mall on the busiest shopping day of the year. People who answered a poll question by Yahoo! Autos said they would rather be subjected to all of those before sitting in gridlocked traffic for more than an hour.
The only predicament more loathsome would be standing in a subway for more than an hour.
As for driving pet peeves, nearly a third said cell-phone talkers who gabbed and didn't pay attention to the road. That was followed by tailgaters and drivers who failed to employ turn signals.
The poll was done last month and involved 2,055 people.
From Vindicator staff and wire reports