The year was 1982...and I was with a few friends over a DJ's house when he was previewing new music. He pulled out the Debarge record, "I Like It" and we were all in El's trance. We wondered like everyone else...is that Switch? Nope...after looking on the back-cover of the album. It was Bobby and Tommy DeBarge's younger siblings. We listened over and over again until we all knew the words and could sing along. Not noticing the time...it was two hours later and past my curfew. Needless to say, the week on punishment was well worth it. I sang, "I Like It," ...
Feel Good: Are You a Bionic Woman?
Remember the 70's TV show The Bionic Woman? I use to love that show. Watching a smart, savvy and strong woman take on the bad guys and win was awesome. I had all the toys; the doll, her blow up house (that took all Christmas Morning to inflate), her bionic station, the outfits....EVERYTHING. I wanted to be the bionic woman. Yet, I was only a little girl that hadn't experienced tough life occurrences. I only saw the end product. The bionic woman kicking butt and taking names. But who was Jamie Summers before her bionic prowess? How did she get ...
Simple Ways to Leave Work At Work
You are walking in your front door and your blackberry is buzzing, your children are hungry, your partner needs to chat and what do you do? Run to the computer to finish up one more thing at work. Learn how to leave work and work and create a balanced life. Work will be there tomorrow. You, INC...needs attention!
Water Play Safety Tips
Summertime and water play go hand and hand during the Summer months. Have a fun and safe summer with your children with these Water Play Safety Tips.
1. Keep Your Eyes Locked in at ALL TIMES. Stay focused on your precious little ones and save the good book for your personal beach or pool time. Don't depend on anyone else to watch your children in the water no matter who the are. If you or one of your children need to take a bathroom break. Signal for everyone to get out of the pool.
2. Bright Colored Swimsuit- dress all your children ...
Well, The Laws of Working Moms incorporate a little bit of each — and then some. To wit:
1.) If you have an early meeting, or if the children need to be at school early for a field trip or other event, someone will be up at least twice during the night — which means you will be, too.
2.) The toddler will sneeze mightily in your face the day before he comes down with a ferocious cold.
3.) Your kids’ school or daycare will shut down due to Swine Flu the week after your kids have been out sick with a cold. (Corollary: Your kids will not have the H1N1/Swine Flu virus.)
4.) You will spill coffee (hot or cold, doesn’t matter) on yourself if, and only if, you wear a freshly pressed white blouse to the office.
5.) If you are the working mom of an infant, you will discover a cascade of dried spit-up on the back of your jacket, but only after you’ve worn it for at least two hours (or to at least one meeting).
6.) Any electronic device that’s absolutely necessary to your sanity will be a.) missing or b.) out of batteries when you most need it.
7.) If you carry a purse, you will always have some sort of kid-type food in it, which you will discover when you are looking for something, like your ID. What you will not have in it is whatever you were actually looking for, like your ID.
8.) You will slave over an amazing meal that the kids won’t touch, and you will throw together a last-minute “gotta get them fed” meal that they devour.
9.) Your kid will have severe Mama Drama on the mornings when you most need to be at work by a certain time. (Corrollary: You will be late on those days.)
10.) You will go to work more than once with a sticky, kid-applied kiss on your cheek — and you deliberately won’t wash it off.
September 14, 2009 at 7:40 am · Filed under Work It @ Work
If you want to increase your net worth, increase your self-worth first! It sounds like your confidence at work could use a raise as well. My guess is you are under-valuing yourself and bringing insecurities from your past into your present. I encourage you to make a list of all of your strengths, skills, completed tasks, and lessons learned from not just this job but your entire work history. While you are doing this, do not minimize anything you have done. Every task is relevant and significant. Reach out to past bosses and co-workers and ask them what they appreciated and observed when working with you and add those things to your list. Reread this list aloud every day for at least a week and feel free to add to it as you go. Reframe your perception of who you are as employee. If you want your boss to see you as a valuable employee, you need to see yourself that way first.
To boost your confidence a bit, practice being a bit more out-going and assertive with your coworkers. Ask one of your colleagues out to lunch, join in a water cooler conversation, make a comment or raise a question at a meeting. If your boss is intimidating to you, then practice approaching people who are not your direct superior to build your self-esteem muscles. Read the rest of this entry »
Just as the summer heats up, fall fashions begin their trickle onto retailers’ shelves. But instead of buying the season’s trendy leather motorcycle jackets (so chic!) or designer acid wash denim (rockin’!), many women are getting a start on fall with practical pieces for the office. Why now?
With the joblessness rate at 9.5%, a 26-year high, a share of that percentage are women who are either not working or hoping they don’t end up on the “redundancy list.”
These savvy shoppers are seeking interview outfits that will impress prospective (and current) employers and ensembles that set them apart from the throngs of others in search of new jobs.
Carefully constructing the perfect interview outfit is worth the effort: It can be a deciding factor in whether or not you pass muster with an interviewer. Read the rest of this entry »
September 9, 2009 at 7:03 am · Filed under Work It @ Work
It’s only Wednesday and you can’t wait for the weekend. The boss is driving you crazy. You don’t know if you can make it through the day without an outburst. You feel lost in the corporate maze. Abandoned by your boss. Out of control of your career. Or maybe he’s breathing down your neck so often you could scream.
Tough times, we’re often warned, bring out the worst in people. Does that mean you should sharpen your stilettos in self defense? I don’t mean your Taryn Rose boot heels. I’m talking about protecting yourself against a sisterhood of back-stabbers, the wicked witches of the workplace who, instead of developing one another’s careers, publicly criticize ideas and purposely try to sabotage promotions or high-profile assignments.
Looking for your next opportunity? Before you start sending out your resume, let’s make it interview ready. Your resume is the key to getting you in the door to speak with your future employer. Spell check and proofreading are your best friends. Take these tips from Shine @ Yahoo and get busy making your resume shine! Also you must have a decent credit score. More and more companies are using it as a measuring stick to select potential employees. Get a copy of your credit report to find out where you stand.
No Typo Is Harmless
A recent survey by the financial staffing firm Accountemps shows that three out of four executives (76%) said just one or two typos in a resume is enough to knock applicants out of the running for hiring consideration.
The 2009 job market is very different from job markets of the past. If you haven’t job-hunted in a while, the changes in the landscape can throw you for a loop.
One of the biggest changes is the shift in what constitutes a strong resume. Years ago, we could dig into the Resume Boilerplate grab-bag and pull out a phrase to fill out a sentence or bullet point on our resume. Everybody used the same boilerplate phrases, so we knew we couldn’t go wrong choosing one of them — or many — to throw into your resume.
Things have changed. Stodgy boilerplate phrases in your resume today mark you as uncreative and “vocabulary challenged.” You can make your resume more compelling and human-sounding by rooting out and replacing the boring corporate-speak phrases that litter it, and replacing them with human language — things that people like you or I would actually say.
They might be lurking in the cubicle next to you or lounging in a cushy corner office. They could be e-nagging you daily or haunting your dreams at night. That’s right, the people you work with have the power to influence, annoy, inspire, and scare the living daylights out of you (work nightmares, anyone?).
Since you’re stuck with them 40 hours a week (at least!) you might as well understand them. Alice Handley and Kayla Baxter, from adminsecret.com, have come up with a field guide to the most common species of coworkers, no matter where you work. These types transcend every type of workplace — we guarantee you’ll find a few you recognize.
The Gossip
What they do:
Maybe there was some mistake in the hiring process, because The Gossip seems to be under the impression that their entire job description is “talking about other people.” Unfortunately for you, The Gossip lives for the latest office scandal, whether it’s actually true or not. The Gossip spends their days listening in on conversations, dropping hints, and tarnishing reputations. The most dangerous part about the Gossip is that they are everywhere. No conversation is safe when The Gossip is within earshot (they may pretend they’re listening to music on their headphones, but we know better.)
How to deal:
The Gossip can be difficult to deal with because more often than not they are outwardly very sweet and kind — to gain your trust and learn your secrets. Then, all bets are off if your secret somehow gets them higher in the pecking order. The best way to deal with The Gossip, in our opinion, is just to ignore them. And whatever you do, don’t give them details about your own life or repeat what they have said. Before you repeat a so-called juicy tidbit, ask yourself: Is it true? Is it harmless? Is it necessary? If it isn’t, don’t repeat it. Don’t encourage them!
Problem: You’ve heard all about the health benefits of pomegranates—protect against free radicals, help regulate blood pressure, maintain digestive regularity—and ... […]
It's summertime, which means it's time to strip down. (Hey, get your mind out of the gutter--we just mean lose the top layer...it's hot out there!) Reveal a flash of leg or sport some edgy cutouts and before you know it, you've got a whole lot of sexy going on. Read on for summer style ideas that'll keep you cool all season long. […]
Just as the summer heats up, fall fashions begin their trickle onto retailers’ shelves. But instead of buying the season’s trendy leather motorcycle jackets (so chic!) or designer acid wash denim (rockin’!), many women are getting a start on fall with practical pieces for the office. Why now?
