It appears that there are mixed opinions on how a “working mom” should spend their time. Back in 1997, 32 per cent of the mothers surveyed (Pew Research) revealed that they would prefer working full time outside the home. In 2007, of working mothers polled, 48 per cent state that they would rather work part time and spend more quality time with their children.

It is good to hear stats are changing to concentrating their efforts on staying home with their children. It scares me when “dual income” couples both work outside the home while someone else “raises” their children. What enforces this opinion is that the full time moms surveyed, gave themselves lower ratings as effective parents. The part time mothers surveyed at the same time gave themselves higher ratings as successful parents. Key here is more attention to children’s needs, especially in their developing years.

Peace and Love,

Bruce

As I read the newspapers and business magazines lately, I see a lot of negativity about our economy, the job outlook, and just plain attitude of our population. Sooner or later, with repitition, it will seep into the most positive person.

My take on all this “gloom and doom,” is to take it with “a grain of salt” and let it slide off of you. Yes, I know, easier said than done. But take time to reflect a moment. Everything in the universe goes in cycles. We have a saying, “what goes up must come down.” Everything that exists has a rythym that takes its necessary course. I look at it this way, we are in a downturn in our economy (USA) but that means that we are getting closer to our upswing…whenever that will be. Knowing that, how could I have a negative attitude about the future? How can the work I am doing now be for naught if I know the cycle of business, sales, optimism, will come back in an upswing?

Just a little food for thought.

Peace and Love,

Bruce

I was having coffee with a friend not too long ago and he was telling me how over worked he has been in the past year. He goes on to tell me about a large group of people at his company was let go because of the down economy and sluggish sales. He seemed to be a little depressed when he mentioned the current project he was working on. As he started to complain about the long hours at work, I interrupted him and told him, if he made time for his family. He is married with two children. He told me that he had to cancel several family get togethers and that made him feel bad.

We workaholics are a strange bunch. Many people within our social and family circles do not understand the dynamics of why we work as much as we do. But, we also need to be aware of having balance in our lives. Being a workaholic is not as bad as it seems unless you are an obsessive compulsive.

Strive to keep a balance with work, family, outside activities, hobbies, etc.

Peace and Love,

Bruce

Welcome all workaholics. There was a great comment this week from a visitor here who read my post about how Bill Gates of Microsoft envisioned the totally “paperless” office for everyone. He mentioned the “digital nervous” system concept and that we will all be connected through computers. No need for any type of paper…we can do all our communications, sales transactions, banking, business management, etc. through the almighty computer.

Well the fact is, since the book was published in 1999, we are deluged with more paper than ever before! True, we have more ways of doing business and communicating online, but there is no one who is truly paperless in operation. If so, we would have heard about it by now. Remember the “green movement?” Well, don’t you think that this idea, that was brewing for the past several years, has spawned small to large companies to start going to paperless? I have been keeping up with the high tech news, business news and major headline news and no where yet, have I come across the office making this ground breaking change.

I guess there is no money to be made from it!

Peace and Love,

Bruce

What really causes us to be workaholics? Some say that, because of the downsizing of corporations or corporations “hunkering down” to save costs, employees are made to work longer or employees feel that if they do not go the “extra mile” at the office, they will be let go. Still others say that high technology has caused us to become workaholics. We are now more “connected” than any other time in our history and that means it is so easy to grab that computer and “cause” us more work by simply checking email or “sneaking a peek” at tomorrow’s workload.

Particular to the people in the USA, we are very concerned with personal finances and money, consequently we get ourselves multiple jobs because we want to attain financial independence, which has a different meaning to each and every one of us. Nonetheless, we put on ourselves to work even harder.

The moral of the story here is; how much do you really think you need to work? Can you work 80 hours in 3 days and take the rest of the week off? It is all relative, isn’t it?

In any case, many counselors have stated to stay balanced in your life when on your workaholic ways!

Peace and Love,

Bruce

In our down economy in the USA, it can be a little depressing when looking for a job. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are over 4.7 million people unemployed. Total unemployment rate is 4.8 %. The only sector with job growth is in the health care and food services industry. Now between these two industries, I will safely assume that the greater number of positions in the food services industry is in the low pay scale. And in the health care field, you would have to have some sort of higher education and certificate program needed, which adds to the barriers to easily enter these fields.

For the last several years, when you applied for a job, you would be asked to submit your resume and personal info via the internet. I have known many people who have gone that route in search of a job and the “dirty little secret” is that, applying for a job that way does NOT WORK! You see, the reality of it is that your resume and email submission gets sucked into the internet “vortex” or “black hole” where the rightful person who hires for these positions rarely sees it.

Imagine, if you will, the very busy human resources director, supervisor in charge of hiring, or CEO of the company responsible for hiring, being inundated with literally hundreds of resumes and applications by email. Their typical day involves receiving hundreds of personal, business and other emails a day, and that is not even yet getting to the job applicants! IF they have time to get to that, it would be days, weeks, or even months by the time they even get to your resume and job application submission.

The SECRETS to applying for a job today is:

1) Making direct contact by phone to the prospective employer and getting a name of a good contact from that company.
2) Hand carrying in the resume with brief cover letter to the physcial address of the company.
3) Following up with the person and keeping up the communication without appearing to be a “pest.”

Using this approach, you bypass over 90% of people who are submitting resumes to the internet “black hole” at the companies you are applying for. This is a tremendous advantage over everyone, and you get feedback a lot sooner if you are wasting your time applying with a company or not.

Mind you, it takes much pre-planned research and discipline to get an employer “prospect” list together, but it will reap much reward.

So what is the moral of this story? There is nothing like good old fashion “face to face” methods to snare your next job. This technique of applying for a job is timeless and most successful. Don’t be fooled by the “high tech” way of getting your next job…odds are way against you. This is best thing to “knowing someone” within the company that could give you the inside track for a job.

Feel free to post your tried and true method for securing a job in today’s economy….

Peace and Love,

Bruce

As we “work” ourselves into the Easter holiday here in the USA, I was caught off guard this year because of the holiday falling on March 23. Whatever happened to Easter falling on the mid weekend of April?? I am totally confused. If anyone in the blogosphere knows the answer, please post a comment.

Anyway, my message to all workaholics, is to take a day or so to relax….this is a call to action for NOT working for a moment. Yes, we miss the chores, the projects, the excitement of seeing a project to conclusion then moving on to the next adventure. But every now and then, especially during Easter it is good to reflect. As this holiday symbolizes, it is a “rebirth” or “ressurection” of the human spirit. No matter what religion you believe in, it is a good life lesson to take.

Just the other day, I spent some time with a good friend of mine who is at a point of “rebirth” and is excited about trying something new. I am always inspired by people who break away from the day to day, humdrum, into the wild unknown of things. Who knows, we could kick ourselves later for not acting sooner on change.

Peace and Love,

Bruce

The workaholic has the unsatiable desire to work and be productive. What we need to be aware of is work has to be put in a good sense of order. We are creatures of habit, whether we wake up at the same time of day, we eat the same foods for breakfast, we drive the same routes to work, we put our files on the desk in the same way, etc. While being a workaholic is the “ultimate” habit we have, it is most enjoyed when we “turn on” our work mode in predictable times. That way, we can make the time for balance…time for other than work time.

Working at home can be a very distracting environment. Try and manage your work time and work place and make it a habit to get to it at the same time. I have found that working in specified times and specified places often results in more productivity.

Don’t forget to have a legal pad and pen handy at your work space!

Peace and Love,

Bruce

Did you know that for the most part, our society considers workaholism as a dysfunction, even a type of disease? It shows it in some negative fashion that should be avoided at all costs. What is left out of the “equation” is the self satisfaction and even self productivity that it promotes. A self employed person, if running a small business the right way, never “feels” he/she is really working. If you feel you “have” to work, then it is not being productive and, therefore not “true” work.

The best way to know that you have found your calling is that you are working at some career or job that you have FUN with. The down swings, the occasional shortcomings and other things that can go wrong is better tolerated because of the love of work. If you can laugh and have fun while working hard, it is a scientific fact that it can boost your immune system, strenghten our hearts, and improve lung function. Although I am not a medical expert, I can just bet having fun at work improves so many additional aspects of our personal health, such as extending your life.

So, while you can work very hard at the thing at what you love, the true test of being true to yourself while working is having fun.

Peace and Love,

Bruce

The late breaking story from all the top economists of the USA agree that we are finally in a recession. Long time that we were in “denial!” My take is that we were in recession two years ago, only it was not too pronounced.

Here are the indicators that the economists were pointing out for our current recession:

1) Retail sales down .6% in February
2) Sharp downturn in consumer spending
3) Record high gasoline prices
4) the Real Estate slump
5) Credit crunch
6) the combined Loss of over 63,000 jobs nationwide in February

You know why I am so happy about this news?? Because the sooner we know we are in a recession, the sooner it will pass, like anything in our digestive system. Workaholics have no time to be worrying whether recession is approaching or not….we want to know it has arrived so we can keep on working to gain an edge on it! There is no panic for us, folks, only a “blip” in our great economy. Remember, anyway you look at it, we are STILL the most POWERFUL economic force in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!

Peace and Love,

Bruce