The Washington Post – Leslie Morgan Steiner

If you haven’t checked out Leslie Morgan Steiner’s column, On Balance, in The Washington Post, it’s time you did. As a mother of three and author of Mommy Wars: Stay-at-Home and Career Moms Face Off On Their Choices, Their Lives, Their Families,  Leslie provides a forum where women discuss their experiences in balancing work and family.

Recently, Leslie posted our story on her guest blog. There was quite a response. As you can imagine, there was a lot to be said when it comes to new ways of finding work/life balance. Check it out at On Balance.

5 Tips For Better Mondays by Nataly of Work It, Mom!

It might sound odd, but I don’t hate Mondays–I like new beginnings and this is like a fresh start to the week, a chance to be productive, get things done, start off on the right foot. Which, of course, doesn’t always happen. So I came up with this list of tips for myself after paying attention for a few weeks to things that made my Mondays go better or worse. (I originally wrote up these tips for a blog post but wanted to include them in our Member Articles section so everyone can check them out and add your own to the list.)

* Treat yourself to a special meal. Make it the day you go out for lunch. Splurge on the overpriced Starbucks latte. Make this the night your family orders in instead of cooking. There?s nothing wrong with being motivated by food!

* Make a very short to-do list. Whether you work outside the home or in your kitchen, Mondays involve a lot of catching up on things as well as with colleagues and clients. I personally tend to get less concrete tasks done on Mondays than on other days because of this and to reduce frustration, I?m trying to be reasonable about my Monday to-do list.

* Start off the day by doing something you enjoy. I think of this as work warm-up?procrastination that prepares you for diving into work. One tip?set a time limit for yourself if you do this.

* Get at least one big item done from your weekly to-do list. Personally I hate when it?s the middle of the week and my big to-dos are still sitting there, waiting for me to get enough guts/energy/time/focus to do them. If I get one done on a Monday?say, writing up a design spec for a certain part of the site (a long, tedious, and very unglamorous part of my job)?I feel less burdened and more productive the rest of the week.

* Limit the number of meetings. Meetings can be great, but many are too long and unproductive. Pack your Monday full of these and you have a lot less time to get things done. Of course, you can?t always control when meetings happen, but if you have a choice, don?t do more than two on a Monday.

Do you have any tips to add? Please do it in the comments!

About the Author: Nataly Kogan is the co-founder of Work It, Mom!, a freshly minted entrepreneur, and an amateur writer.  Please visit www.workitmom.com

National Work and Family Month

In 2003, Fortune Magazine predicted that work-life effectiveness was going to be one of the most important business growth trends of the decade. In collaboration with the Alliance for Work-Life Progress, the National Work-Life Initiative (NWLI) was formed. In addition to publishing an annual work-life special section in Fortune Magazine, the goal of the NWLI was to pass a Congressional resolution instating an official work-life month.

 

On Sept. 5, 2003 the U.S. Senate unanimously passed Resolution 210, designating October as National Work and Family Month. This was a great step toward raising awareness about the importance of maintaining work-life balance. The resolution states that the ability to successfully manage work, family, and personal responsibilities affects the well-being and productivity workers and their workplace.

 

At Needlestack Jobs, we are celebrating National Work and Family Month by offering free access to our online employer center and online job seeker center. Flextime employers will receive full access to the resume bank as well as five job postings for professional flextime jobs on the Needlestack Jobs job board. Flextime job seekers who sign up during October will receive a free three month membership with full access to all job postings, job contact information, unlimited job applications, five resume postings, and unlimited cover letters.

 

National Work and Family Month is a great chance to help connect flextime professionals and employers. Flexible work schedules help working parents manage work-life balance by giving them time to fulfill their family and personal needs while still maintaining work obligations.

 

The Work and Family Connection has a list of ways employers can celebrate National Work and Family Month:

 

- Launch a work-life survey to solicit employee opinion on programs/ offerings that your company should expand upon, add or discontinue.

 

- Solicit real-life stories from employees on how they successfully manage work and family challenges for inclusion into an article to be posted on the corporate Web site.

 

- Have a guest speaker on work and family at the next all staff meeting.

 

- Hold an art contest for the children of employees to participate in depicting work and family together. The art can be displayed on the meeting room walls at an all staff meeting and the top three winners (or their parents) can be presented with a prize.

 

10 Steps Towards a Better Work Life Balance

Balancing work and life is a personal struggle for all of us.  Figuring out how to manage the two worlds is the key to a happy work life and a happy family life. Here are a few tips that could help you with your own struggle to balance work and home.

1.    Schedule your work time and stick with that schedule.  We can all get carried away with a project and it ends up interfering with our home life.  Set aside time for work and stick to your schedule.

2.    Schedule down time and family time as well.  Just as you would schedule a work meeting, set aside time for your family and put it on the agenda.

3.    Have a daily plan for what you want to do each day.  Starting the day with a to-do list of hundreds is impractical and ineffective.  Make a list of the most important tasks to focus on each day and set about accomplishing those things first.

4.    Ask for help and support.  Whether this is moral support or assistance on a difficult work or home project, never be afraid to ask a friend or colleague for help.

5.    Don’t be afraid to say no.  Be clear to your boss and colleagues about your boundaries.  Maintaining your strict schedule is important to you and your co-workers will respect that.

6.    Take time to breath.  Rushed work only leads to stress and sloppy results.  Focus on the most important tasks and allow yourself to slow down and pay more attention to your actions.  This will make life and work much more enjoyable for you –and make you more pleasant to be around!

7.    Shut off your phone and unplug the computer.  You don’t need to be connected to work 24/7.  When you step out of the office or away from the computer remove the distraction by pulling the plug.

8.    When you are done with work for the day have fun.  This is your time to relax and enjoy your family and friends.  Let loose!

9.    Give your hobbies and interests a priority over work.  Don’t let work get in the way of the things you love to do – reading, exercise, enjoying a good movie.  Make time for the things that make you happy and then focus on work.

10.    Stay healthy and eat the right foods.  Don’t let the stress of work affect what you eat.  Having a healthy diet will make you more efficient, help you stay calm throughout the day, and assist in your recovery time after a long day.

New Online Employment Site Meets Growing Demand for Flextime Professional Jobs

Many professional employees are seeking flextime work arrangements to optimize work-life balance while employers save in compensation costs. One Ohio online employment job board is helping to connect the two parties.

Columbus,OH (PRWEB) September 17, 2007 — Flexible work hour arrangements are becoming an increasingly popular employee-employer agreement. Flextime allows an employee to select personalized working hours, often drifting from the typical Monday through Friday routine. As an increasing portion of America’s employers and employees are realizing flextime’s benefits, the alternative work arrangement is gaining popularity.

Employees with flextime schedules feel an increased sense of work-life balance. Flexible work schedules allow for working parents to serve their children’s needs while still maintaining their own professional needs. Caregivers can coordinate children’s daycare, doctor appointments, and other extracurricular activities with their own work schedules. Flextime allows parents to achieve optimum work-family balance, while maintaining their professional status, their potential for advancement and their income.

Nearly 25% of America’s entire workforce will be reaching retirement age in the next ten years. Boomers are active, experienced and well-educated. Industry still needs their workplace contributions and boomers are still financially dependent on industry- flextime works for both parties.

Along with working parents, baby boomers are also seeking alternative work schedules in order to accommodate their changing lifestyles. This sector of the workforce is not yet ready to retire, but is, nonetheless, less interested in working standard hours. These flexible work schedules include telecommuting, working part-time, working a compressed work schedule or any combination that strays from the conventional Monday through Friday, 8-5. A flexible work schedule allows boomers to ease into retirement while continuing to provide financial support for their families and to offer professional knowledge and counseling to colleagues.

Flexible work hours also benefit employers. Companies who have adopted flextime policies have seen reductions in employee tardiness and absenteeism as employees can schedule medical appointments and other personal, but necessary activities, outside of their business hours. Since employees are able to better balance family life with work activities, job satisfaction increases as do employee retention rates and productivity rates. Experts estimate replacing a lost professional can cost an employer up to $150,000. Flextime may also decrease overhead costs. Employees working alternate schedules can share expensive office equipment and desk space and also utilize home resources instead of work resources. In addition, flextime employees often do not need to receive the same benefits packages as full time employees receive.

Columbus, Ohio-based Needlestack Jobs specializes in connecting flextime job-seekers with employers. Needlestack founders, Carol Clark and Kathleen Wiant, have identified this need for a flexible employment resource through personal experiences.

Needlestack VP of Finance and Baby Boomer, Clark says, “Nearly 25% of America’s entire workforce will be reaching retirement age in the next ten years. Boomers are active, experienced and well-educated. Industry still needs their workplace contributions and boomers are still financially dependent on industry- flextime works for both parties.”

Wiant, Needlestack Jobs VP of Sales firmly believes in flextime arrangements, “As a working mother I wanted to spend time enjoying and meeting the needs of my children, while still contributing to the growth of my career. A flextime arrangement allowed me to continue my sales job while still being Mom to my five kids. It’s the best of both worlds.”

“Carol and I got together and found that a lot of the workforce is like us; busy parents and experienced boomers who have a lot to contribute. That’s when we decided to build Needlestack Jobs,” Wiant explains.

Clark and Wiant believe that the main reason employers will utilize Needlestack Jobs is increased savings. “Obviously employers will pay out less in salary for fewer hours. But the big savings may be benefits. Benefits are approximately 25% of the total compensation costs an employer incurs for an employee. So the employer may be saving that cost right off the bat in cases where flextime employees do not require benefits,” explains Wiant.

According to Wiant, the Needlestackjobs.com site will feature flextime job postings from leading Ohio employers as well as resumes from highly-qualified, professional candidates. While Needlestack Jobs currently services the Ohio area, the company plans to expand nationwide in the near future.

Those interested in learning more about Needlestack Jobs and flextime working arrangements should visit http://www.NeedleStackJobs.com

About NeedleStack Jobs:
NeedleStack Jobs specializes in the modern work day, believeing that in today’s world, the best and the brightest professionals are looking for meaningful work and a flexible schedule. Which means smart businesses are also looking to hire them. That is why NeedleStack Jobs has created a website where flextime professionals and employers may connect. NeedleStack Jobs.com gives employers quick, convenient access to a bank of well- qualified flextime professionals while helping professionals find great jobs that also offer a more flexible schedule than most. NeedleStack Jobs currently services the Ohio area.