The 2010 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances – a triennial survey of a random sample of American households conducted for the Fed by a University of Chicago-based survey research group – shows the large drop in self-employment income that occurred during the recent economic downturn.
via The Battered Incomes of the Self Employed | Small Business Trends.
No place to hide in this Great Recession.
…if you’re reading this from one of the better parts of the global economy, it’s a good time to think about how to be indispensable.
via The Global Arbitrage of Online Work – NYTimes.com.
As a bonafide WFH full time househusband for over six years I found this article fascinating. Even if you are not WFH I recommend you read this article.
My company provides staffing services to the manufacturing industry. Contingent workers historically have a high turnover rate. My motivation is to get these people to stay on assignments longer and be more productive, thus increasing my client’s return on investment. What can we do?
via How Do We Keep Contingent Workers From Jumping Ship? – Dear Workforce – Workforce.
The situation above is an actual scenario and the question posed is real. The individual asking the question is in Human Resources and an executive at the VP level. My initial reaction was disbelief. Check out the entire article. The answer given was pretty decent.
Ouch…
“Studies show that about 49 percent of our waking time, our minds have wandered away from the task at hand,” Bahl says. “Especially with digital communication, there’s a lot of texting, there’s a lot of multitasking going on, and people are losing the ability to focus when they really want to focus.”
This isn’t just harmless woolgathering. According to data from Basex, a Yorktown Heights, New York-based business research firm, the estimated annual cost to the U.S. economy in loss of productivity from multitasking is $997 billion and a minimum of 28 billion hours.
Michael Arcaro, a spokesperson with the external communications division of the company, said the cuts were an effort to “enhance the strategic design of our organization.”
via Layoffs Hit Lincoln Financial Again – Concord, NH Patch.
Enhancing strategic design.
That’s a new one to me.
When you embody a niche in the market, you have fewer competitors. Therefore you also have more opportunities. Opportunities have a way of snowballing. Work begets work. The more you work, the more you work.
via Why Niche Creation is Where It’s At | The Hart Technique.
The sad truth is that it’s costly and risky to hire anyone to do anything, and “bankable projects” that might generate profit/require more labor are few and far between. The overhead costs for employees have skyrocketed. So even though the wages employees see on their paychecks have stagnated, the total compensation costs the employer pays have risen substantially.
via charles hugh smith-Dear Person Seeking a Job: Why I Can’t Hire You.
Go read this article. There are quite a few insightful observations.
Change This – Go Do: How Hard Can It Be?.
If you work hard and love what you do you will find success. Common sense tells us we all become pretty skilled at things we love to do. Conversely, you will never get good at things you hate to do.
Hard work alone is not a guarantee of success. The lack of hard work guarantees failure.
Failure leads to success. You must fail to learn how to succeed.
Do or not do. There is no try.
Yoda
Start something. More specifically, start something outside of work.
Before you get mad at me take note of where this article comes from. Harvard Business Review Blog Network is the source of this article. This article reminds me of what I did several years ago. I started something.
When I started something I had no clue what it was I started. What I thought I started was not what I am doing today. In other words, my original plan failed but ultimately my little business succeeded.
Take a risk. Start something!
What are you avoiding doing that you know needs to be done?” We seem to have a talent for burying the truth, covering it up, distracting ourselves from it… When was the last time you took a risk in the direction of your dance?
Laurie Beth Jones
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