The Battered Incomes of the Self Employed | Small Business Trends

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.

37signals Earns Millions Each Year. Its CEO’s Model? His Cleaning Lady – Fast Company

She’s on her own, she cleans people’s homes, she’s incredibly nice. She brings flowers every time she cleans, and she’s just respectful and nice and awesome. Why can’t more people be like that? She’s been doing it some twenty-odd years, and that’s just an incredible success story. To me that’s far more interesting than a tech company that’s hiring a bunch of people, just got their fourth round of financing for 12 million dollars, and they’re still losing money. That’s what everyone talks about as being exciting, but I think that’s an absolutely disgusting scenario when it comes to business.

via 37signals Earns Millions Each Year. Its CEO’s Model? His Cleaning Lady | Fast Company.

I loved this interview.  You will too.

How Do We Keep Contingent Workers From Jumping Ship? – Dear Workforce

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…

‘Mindfulness’ Is Being Incorporated Into Employer Strategies to Combat Multitasking

“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.

via ‘Mindfulness’ Is Being Incorporated Into Employer Strategies to Combat Multitasking – Featured Article – Workforce.