All About Working

I read an article today about The Balcom Agency in Fort Worth, Texas.  The  cubicles of the Agency were featured in a picture gallery over on Life Hacker.

It’s interesting to look at the gallery because you will see an amazing use of color, particularly in an office setting.  Also, you can see a lot of individual choices for how the cubes are decorated.  The furniture, bookshelves, throw rugs, plants, and more clearly emulate individuals who were allowed to let some expression spill into their workspace.

Now if you go to Balcom’s website, you’ll find that Balcom provides its clients with comprehensive creative, interactive, and public relations to various business challenges.  Clever way to demonstrate that creativity at the core of where it occurs, right in the workspace.

There are some good ideas on the Life Hacker article for using color and designing a pleasing workspace.  If you have to spend so many hours of your life there, why not let it reflect some of you.

This morning the Wall Street Journal is reporting that layoffs are just one threat that people must concern themselves with in the workplace. Now we hear that companies are often targeting benefits as a cost cutting measure. According to the WSJ:

Just 13% of companies polled earlier this month said they expect to trim their work forces within the next 12 months, down from 23% in a December survey. The latest findings, released Wednesday by consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide Inc., include responses from 245 large U.S. companies representing more than 4.1 million workers in a range of industries.

But employers say they intend to save money with multiple initiatives, including freezing salaries, reducing workweeks, eliminating training programs and boosting health-care premiums.

Other things that might occur include reducing contributions to workers’ 401(k) plans, reducing or eliminating tuition reimbursement, subsidized dining programs and other financial perks.

Another 4% of survey respondents said they plan to reduce salaries, and 8% said they are preparing to shorten workweeks.

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!

Here’s an article in today’s Wall Street Journal that is thought provoking. The titile is:

Employers Hit Salaried Staff With Furloughs
Being Sent Home Temporarily Is Still Better Than a Layoff, Many Professionals Say

Written by Dana Mattiolo and Sara Murray, the article says:

Temporary layoffs, once confined to blue-collar workers, are hitting white-collar culture as employers dig deep to cut costs.

More companies are instituting these short-term hiatuses, called furloughs, as a humane alternative to permanent job cuts. But the spread of furloughs to new sectors and a new class of workers has created a host of issues.

“The places that are now exploring this or discussing this are not industries where it’s traditional,” says Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, dean of the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. “I think a lot of [human-resources] offices are sort of having to figure this out. There isn’t a rule book that they were given.”
[Furlough] Tim Foley

Furloughs have long been a way of life for workers in up-and-down industries such as construction and auto assembly. For instance, auto workers can have weekslong periods of time off due to slowing orders or retooling of factories. Now furloughs are happening in state governments and universities, publishing, technology companies and even the arts and entertainment industry.

The article goes on further to explain:

In the past few months alone, the states of California and Maryland, Clemson University, Texas semiconductor firm Spansion, Gulfstream Aerospace, and publishing firms like Media General and Gannett have announced furloughs of professional workers.

And finally the reason behind it is explained:

These required unpaid periods let companies keep talented workers by reducing hours instead of cutting jobs. “The biggest issue our clients face right now is regaining momentum when business picks up, while having to hire the fewest number of new people,” says Fred Crandall, a senior consultant for Watson Wyatt Worldwide Inc. in Chicago. Mr. Crandall says that’s the main reason more employers are inquiring about furloughs — especially those in the financial-services and retail sectors.

Smart move, in my opinion.  Keep your talented workforce close at hand.  Save company morale, save the talent, and be prepared for the future.

To see more examples of organizations using job furloughs, go here to read the article online.

Last night during his first formal address to Congress, President Obama vowed the U.S. will recover from this economic crisis.  His speech gave some interesting indications that his administration will be looking to keep jobs in the United States.  He was inspiring as he said “we are not quitters.”

Earlier in the day, the Stock Market rallied after hearing that the recession might end this year.

Two very positive things in one day.   And they came at a time when business on the whole could probably use the boost.

How does this affect people as they walk back into work this morning?  Does it give you something to think about?  Does it give you something to hope for?

Sometimes, you need to get motivation anywhere and everywhere.   Since I have started researching and writing this blog, the news has been grim for the most part.  It’s tough to not mention how bad the economy is, and how many people are hurting because of it.  Waking up to plunging market prices and new waves of layoffs is not the ideal way to pump myself up.

So I’m hanging onto what I heard yesterday, and I’m going to enjoy the ride today.  I hope it has the same effect on others who read this.  One day of optomism can lead to a ripple effect.  Keep it going, please.

MSNBC is reporting that Steelcase Inc., a global office environments manufacturer, and Armstrong World Industries, Inc., the global leader in the design and manufacture of floors, ceilings and cabinets, announced a collaboration initiative to market products branded Steelcase by Armstrong that address the problem of noise in the workplace. The first product to be released under this collaboration is SoundScapes(r), a portfolio of acoustical canopies and clouds intended to reduce noise level and reverberation time in open plenum and suspended ceiling environments.

As work is becoming more collaborative and more space is devoted to team and group work, noise levels are rising in open plan environments. In fact, a recent IFMA (International Facility Management Association) survey found that noise is one of workers’ top complaints. And an ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) paper, “Sound Solutions”, reported that 70% of respondents indicated their productivity would improve if their office was less noisy.

Recent trends in office landscape such as lower cubicle partition heights; open structure facilities without finished acoustical ceilings; and greater use of under-floor air have lead to noise being more pronounced.

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.

Layoffs are pushing many to get part-time jobs to cover expenses until full time employment is available for them again. They are joining the ranks of what is now being called the “under-employed.”

In an article this week in the Scranton Times, this group was referred to as one of the fastest growing groups of people in the economy. The article said:

Underemployed people shop less, save less, are more likely to lose their homes and health care and to use emergency rooms. That means that the jobless rate, which stands at 7.2 percent nationally, not only understates the individual pain workers are feeling, it discounts the damage being done to the overall economy.

Involuntary part-timers make up about 6 percent of total employment, compared to 2.7 percent a decade ago, according to BLS data.

Earlier this week, Workplace Contributor Torry Johnson did a feature on finding part-time jobs on Good Morning America. She provided a number of good leads for people in the education, health care, and even jobs for valet car parking.

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.

Whether you are blogging, setting up a virtual store, or putting up a business website, you need to know what the trends are in searching for things.

Two great ways to do this are to utilize services like Wordtracker and Google Trends.

Wordtracker is a paid service, but they are currently giving a 7 day trial period to try it out. They say that:

People use different words when they search for your products online. Use these ‘keywords’ in your website copy and people will find your site when they search.

Google Trends is a free service. They list the 10 hot trends for the day. They also run Google Insights for Search which allows you to dig a little deeper.