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Author Michelle Goodman serves up fresh tips and trends for attaining that crazy little thing called work/life balance.
July 3, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
Happy Independence Day! With all the talk of unemployed folks hanging their own shingle as freelancers, I thought it high time we addressed one of the murkiest aspects of working as an independent professional: paying taxes. To help tackle some of the most common questions new freelancers ask, I contacted Bellevue CPA Stephen L. Nelson, who's author of QuickBooks for Dummies. His answers follow.Q. What can I write off as a business deduction? A. You can write off any "ordinary and necessary" expense of running your freelance business. It's really that...
July 2, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
When I was growing up in New Jersey, my grandmother often lamented that families didn't live together like they used to. To her, the dream household would have been for mom, dad, the kids, grandma, grandpa, and a couple of great-grandparents to all live under one roof. If my grandmother were around today, she might like what she'd see. These days, you don't have to look too hard to find an out-of-work adult in their thirties or forties who's moved in with one or both parents out of financial necessity....
July 1, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
With everyone talking about career change these days, I thought it would fun to examine the work/life balance of those who've transitioned to some of the most coveted careers out there. First up, Erika Teschke, who in 2005 left her 10-year career as a legal professional to start her own dog walking and pet sitting business. I recently interviewed Erika by e-mail. Highlights follow. [Photo courtesy of Erika's Pet Service] Q. What's your typical work schedule? A. Mondays through Fridays I do dog park runs 5 hours a day, between 9 a.m. and 2...
June 28, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
Admit it. Even if you didn't like Michael Jackson's music and dance moves, you and your coworkers huddled around one computer for hours, reading about the 911 call, watching him moonwalk on YouTube, and sharing your own thoughts on Facebook about the week's celebrity deaths. Okay, so maybe you weren't one of the millions affected worldwide by MJ's unexpected passing. Or Farrah's tragic end. Maybe it was the recent post-election protests in Iran that captivated you and led you to spend an afternoon following the news reports on Twitter, turning...
June 25, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
You've no doubt heard about the recession driving people to start their own business, try their hand at freelancing, or change careers altogether. You've probably also heard about laid-off folks spending more time volunteering for causes they're passionate about. This rise in volunteerism should come as no surprise: Besides having more time to give back, many unemployed workers have wisely recognized the value of gaining experience in a new field or job skill as a volunteer. What may surprise you though is how many more people are applying for social service...
June 24, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
One of the positive side effects of this nasty recession is that many laid-off workers looking to reinvent themselves have grown more concerned with better balancing work and play. If this sounds familiar, you may want to take note of a new report published by the job site CareerCast, which lists the eight most demanding jobs in the nation. To arrive at this list, CareerCast used U.S. Department of Labor data to compile a list of the country's top 200 jobs and then ranked each by hours worked, stress level, and physical...
June 19, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
Convinced that not all laid-off dads become either the domestic divas or identity-stripped depressives the media makes them out to be, I spoke with more than a dozen unemployed fathers myself this month. Sure, some were thrilled to be home cooking, cleaning, and slinging diapers. And a couple of "Leave It to Beaver" diehards felt that a man had no place rubbing elbows midmorning with the stay-at-home moms at the grocery store. Instead, they said, it was a man's job to provide for his family, period. For most of the...
June 18, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
What a difference a couple of seasons make. Last fall, warnings that 2009 would be the year of the furlough were daunting enough. As the year got under way, we began to hear the tales of how workers were spending their mandatory days off, whether it was best to devote that time to professional development, and how some employers were forbidding furloughed workers to log in from home and check e-mail. But June seems to be the month of the working furlough. First, the New York Times published a piece...
June 11, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
Lately I've been lamenting to anyone who will listen that there isn't enough time in the day to do all my work, eat a civilized dinner, tackle a couple errands or household chores, and sleep 8 hours before doing it all again the next day. A time management guru once suggested I track my every move in a free web tool like myHours.com to expose the biggest timesucks and goof-offs. Doing an audit of just what the heck it is I do all week sounded like a fine idea, until...
June 10, 2009
Posted by Michelle Goodman
I don't know about you, but I always feel more in control of my life when my inbox is down to a manageable 50 to 100 e-mails. Sadly, my inbox has been holding steady at 350 messages for several months now. That's why I was happy to find Marci Alboher's recent post about keeping an empty inbox on her Yahoo! career management blog. Among Alboher's inbox tips (all of which you can read here): 1. Learn to love folders. Why scroll if you don't have to? Instead, neatly tuck everything...
