All About Working

Here’s an article that was published on examiner.com by Jennifer L. Taylor that discusses “10 Tips for Successful Tweeting” to help you become a more successful tweeter.  Some of the ideas include:

• Completing your profile
• Getting to know your audience
• Working with Twitter on smartphones

After my own experience yesterday with not being able to access Twitter, I realize how dependent I am becoming on this new tool.  So these tips are coming at the right time!

What happens when you walk into work one day and you’re told “thanks for all your hard work, but we have to let you go.” You might be given time to pack up your possessions, but what about all the things you have on your computer that the company owns?

In a Wall Street Journal article entitled “Wiped Out: Along with Jobs, Laid-Off Lose Photos, Emails,” Joseph DeAvila addresses this issue:

Michele Wallace had worked for Medialink Worldwide Inc. for 18 years when the New York video-distribution company laid her off last May. When the company’s information-technology staff quickly shut down her computer and her BlackBerry, the senior vice president of client services lost family photos and every personal and business contact on her cellphone and computer.

“I couldn’t even call my sister because I don’t know her number off the top of my head,” says Ms. Wallace, now a 47-year-old managing director at Mega Media Worldwide and living in Asbury Park, N.J. “I know you shouldn’t even have that stuff on the computer,” she says. But in the course of working 10- to 12-hour days for several years, “you don’t pay as much attention as to how much is personal on your computer.”

We normally don’t cover articles about being laid off on this blog, but we covering this one, because it involves work practices that can be followed when someone is employed that will help avoid the scenario described above.

This article can be found here and it is well worth a few minutes of your time to read.

Doesn’t that look good? I have to thank the wonderful people over at Life Hacker for this one. I thank them for the link to the Simple Dollar and for this picture that made me want to go to the kitchen immediately and start cooking.

This is a little off the beaten path from what is usually written on this blog. But I thought the idea behind it was so good, I wanted to share it.

I know how difficult it can be in the morning to have a decent breakfast when you’re trying to run out the door to get to work. So this might help. And besides, in these tight times, it’s a great way to save money and get a good meal.

Here’s how the post begins:

My solution to all of these problems is pretty simple: just make a big batch of healthy breakfast burritos during the weekend and freeze them up. Not only are the burritos really healthy, they’re also very cheap to prepare, and they’re very convenient in the morning since you can microwave them as you’re getting ready and eat them on the go.

You can make a big pile of healthy, tasty breakfast burritos for less than seventy five cents a pop in less than an hour. In fact, I recently did it myself and I’ll walk you through the whole process.

Click here to go to the Simple Dollar online and read what you need to have to make these breakfast goodies and how to handle the freezing process.

Bon Appetit!

From the NY Times comes “Twitter? It’s What You Make It.”

For the longest time, my readers kept nagging me to check out this thing called Twitter. I’d been avoiding it, because it sounded like yet another one of those trendy Internet time drains. E-mail, blogs, chat, RSS, Facebook. … Who has time to tune in to yet another stream of Internet chatter?

True, there’s nothing quite like Twitter. It’s a Web site where you can broadcast very short messages — 140 characters, max — to anyone who’s signed up to receive them. It’s like a cross between a blog and a chat room. Your “followers” might include six friends from high school, or, if you’re Barack Obama, 254,484 of your most tech-savvy fans. (Incidentally, he hasn’t sent out a single Twitter message since taking office. Where are his priorities?)

Read about how the author learned how useful Twitter can be. Click here.

Also from the NY Times comes “How to Friend Mom, Dad, and the Boss on Facebook…Safely”

Oh no! Your mom just joined Facebook and what’s even worse, she wants to be your friend. More and more people are finding themselves in this situation today and unsure of what to do. Friending mom and dad, the boss, or other work colleagues opens up the details of your private life for the whole world to see – and you might not be entirely comfortable with that. What’s to be done?

Continue to read here for some good strategies on using Facebook personally and for business.

From the Wall Street Journal comes “When Layoffs Abound, the Tough Stay Motivated.”

With layoffs being announced nearly every day, it’s easy to dwell on the possibility of losing your job. Employers and employees alike feel the stress of the economy, says Jennifer Burrus, a human-resources consultant with Bostonian Group, an employee-benefits consulting firm. “But the more the two sides work together, the better chance for corporate stability and job security.” Experts say now is the time to find ways to help your company save money and keep it from losing ground. You’ll be more valuable to your firm, but even if you are eventually laid off, you’ll have something tangible to show a potential employer.

This is an article of significance to be sure. Not only is it a motivator, but it also defines some interesting trends for right now. Read it here.

It’s so important to keep that optimistic outlook when we’re working. But when deadlines are mounting and uncertainty of the times erupts, it gets more and more difficult to maintain.

Here is a terrific post on a personal development blog that is well worth reading. Titled How To Gain An Optimistic Outlook That Will Turn Your Life Around, it starts like this:

Conceivably you usually consider yourself to be in the main an optimistic person. Even so there are regular times in our lives when our views change and we get that well-known sense that our circumstances could be enhanced; indeed at times it even reaches the point where feelings of despondency overhaul us.

To read the rest of this very inspiring blog post, click here. It might be some of the most important minutes you spend catching up on your reading today.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Recruiting Talent to Ailing Firms
How W.R. Grace Altered Hiring, Retention Practices While in Chapter 11
By JOANN S. LUBLIN

Sick businesses often need fresh talent to recover. But how do you attract star players during bankruptcy?

It’s an increasingly common management problem as more U.S. companies seek bankruptcy-court protection. More than 64,000 businesses filed for bankruptcy during 2008, a higher number than in any year since Congress overhauled bankruptcy laws in 2005, according to the AACER bankruptcy-data service of Jupiter eSources LLC.

Seems like a certain type of personality would be a good candidate for this type of hire. Read more here and find out.

From The New York Times:

Wall Street’s New Pariah Status
By DAVID SEGAL

Monday was the last day of Iris Chau’s 11-year career at JPMorgan Chase and she says there’s a lot she’ll miss about the job: her colleagues, her paycheck and her role managing a technical support team. But one thing she won’t miss about JPMorgan is telling people that she works there.

“For a long time, it was kind of glamorous and I had friends who’d ask me ‘Can you get me a job there?’ ” says Ms. Chau, 35, who was part of a recent round of layoffs at the firm’s Manhattan headquarters. A few weeks ago, she mentioned her work to a photographer she’d met through a friend. “And he looks at me and says, ‘Oh, you’re one of them.’ ”

Nobody in the investment banking world is expecting pity, or even a sympathetic ear, these days. But when Wall Street talks about the collapse, it talks about life on Wall Street and the industry’s uncomfortable new role as national pariah.

Second article I found today about Wall Street firms and how they are handling this. Do read this, it’s a good one – click here.

From the washingtonpost.com:
Windows 7: Not Quite The Change We Need
by Rob Pegoraro

A year ago, I wouldn’t have predicted that I’d be reviewing a public beta test of Windows Vista’s replacement this week. And yet here I am, assessing Windows 7 in today’s column.

Microsoft deserves some congratulations for moving forward this quickly on Vista’s successor. But the speed with which the company has brought Windows 7 to beta status itself constitutes the strongest evidence that 7 won’t provide any drastic break from Windows as we’ve known it.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Super Bowl Ads Try Hard-Sell
Forget Memorable or Brand-Buffing, This Year’s Pitches Cry Out ‘Buy Me’
By SUZANNE VRANICA

Over the years, it has been called the Ad Bowl, the Bud Bowl and the Buzz Bowl. Super Bowl XLIII on Sunday will probably go down as the Hard-Sell Bowl.

As the economy soured, advertisers began crafting a hard-sell approach to their game ads, and the results will be on display Sunday. They offer a stark contrast to the slapstick of Budweiser’s flatulent horse and Electronic Data Systems’ Herding Cats branding ad that in past years tended to soft-peddle products and services.

“All bets are off,” says Lynda Resnick, co-chairman of Roll International, whose Teleflora unit is advertising in the game for the first time. “It’s the hardest time out there right now.”

Telefora’s ad, which features talking flowers, plugs a $29.99 price for Valentine’s Day arrangements. Ms. Resnick says Teleflora tweaked the ad to make sure that came through loud and clear after “price won over all other things in our ad testing. Consumers want value.” Continued

So now we will see to where this economy is leaning its marketing dollars.

From lifehacker.com:

Grab a 1TB Hard Drive for $99
By Adam Pash

It’s the dead of winter and we’re in the middle of a recession. You’re stuck inside without much to do, and chances are your hard drive is filling up with ambiguously legitimate music and videos real quick.

Check out information about a terrific deal and an offer of installation instructions. That’s a great deal in itself! Thanks!

From The New York Times:

On Networking Sites, Learning How Not to Share
By RIVA RICHMOND

YOUR boss saw pictures of you drunk at last Saturday’s party. An old flame found out you’re seeing someone else. The nosy neighbor discovered you were laid off.

These and many other uncomfortable scenes are repeated daily on social networking sites, where millions of people now gather to share the details of their lives with, well, practically anyone they’ve ever known — and quite a few people they don’t know at all.

Like well-behaved kindergartners, we love to share. And Web sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn have grown hugely popular by making sharing bigger, faster, easier and awfully fun. With so many people participating — 35 percent of Internet users in the United States aged 18 or over now use an online social network, according to a December survey by the Pew Internet Project — life on these sites can be very rich. Yet, evidence of your nocturnal exploits, ill-considered comments and business secrets can also go global in an instant.

Check out this article for some good suggestions about separating work and private life when it comes to social networking.

From the Wall Street Journal:

How to Rally Workers for Tough 2009
By ERIN WHITE

It’s been a brutal year. Many workers are burned out, anxious and exhausted. 2009 doesn’t look any better. So how can managers rally employees for the hard slog ahead?

This article outlines 5 strategies to use from Tom Rath, a workplace consultant at Gallup and co-author of the upcoming book “Strengths Based Leadership.”

From lifehacker.com

Gmail Goes Offline with Google Gears
By Adam Pash

Today Gmail Labs released a new feature that bridges the gap between desktop and web-based applications like never before: Offline Gmail. You can now access your Gmail from your browser any time, whether or not you’re online.

This article is terrific because it gives some visuals to help explain the technical lingo.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Some Firms Cut Costs Without Resorting to Layoffs
Amid Flood of Job-Reduction Announcements, Some Employers Believe Axing People Can Be Short-Sighted Response
By CARI TUNA

As layoffs mount amid the slowing economy, some employers are cutting costs without axing jobs.

Hypertherm Inc. has never laid off a permanent employee in its 40-year history. A 20% downturn in sales in recent months led the closely held maker of metal-cutting equipment to eliminate overtime, cut temporary staff and delay a facility expansion, says Chief Executive Dick Couch.

Managers are transferring employees to busy segments from those with less work. The Hanover, N.H., company also may bring some outsourced manufacturing in-house to keep its 1,100 workers busy, Mr. Couch says. Continued

From the New York Times:

Custom Coffee Mugs and T-Shirts Across Web
By Jenna Wortham

CafePress, a Web site that lets users create and sell custom goods, announced Tuesday a partnership with Sellit to help online retailers peddle their wares in multiple places around the Web.

The tool, called the Sellit ShopBot, allows CafePress’s community of 6.5 million Web merchants to build a bite-sized version of their CafePress shop and embed it on a variety of sites, including blogging platform TypePad, Friendster, MySpace and Facebook. Web site owners use CafePress to make and sell a variety of customized products that tout their sites.

The mini-stores allows Web browsers to flip through store inventory and re-directs buyers back to the CafePress shop for purchases. Continued