by Pamela Skillings      Send to a friend

This week, Working Mother magazine released its annual list of the most family-friendly companies in Corporate America. According to the Working Mother study, more and more companies are implementing new policies in reaction to concerns about losing their top female talent.

Could Corporate America finally be getting a clue that today’s best and brightest aren’t willing to follow the old rules? We’re not afraid of hard work, but we also want lives outside the office.

Working Mother looks at five key criteria when compiling their "Best Companies" list: flexibility, leave time for new parents, child care, elder care and the number of women occupying top jobs. Which companies earned top grades?

The Top 10 includes Abbott Laboratories, Ernst & Young, HSBC, and IBM. Check out the full list and start updating that resume.

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by Pamela Skillings      Send to a friend

When I decided to "be my own boss," I had no idea what a slavedriver I was. I haven’t had a spare minute to blog (or do laundry) in days because I’ve been working myself half to death.

Don’t get me wrong, I love working for myself, but there are plenty of challenges. Right now, I have a good problem. I have lots of work from lots of clients. That means I’ll be able to pay the bills and maybe even splurge on a new pair of shoes this month. But because the consulting life can often be "feast or famine," I may have taken on a bit more work than some would consider reasonable. That has meant working nights and weekends and saying no to lots of fun invitations.

When you work for yourself, you have to learn when and how to say no. I’ve gotten better at it, but I still miscalculate on occasion. I don’t mind because there are plenty of worse problems to have. When I first started out on my own, I had to scramble for work and often worried about making ends meet at the end of the month.

I’m not afraid of hard work, especially if it means I don’t have to punch a corporate time clock anymore. But I’m happy to have a few hours to relax today for the first time in a while.

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by Pamela Skillings      Send to a friend

Having a terrible Monday? The bad news is that you’ve got a long way to go before the weekend. The good news is that it could be worse. Much worse. For proof, check out the poor suckers posting on http://www.worst-jobs.com

Take Hans, for example. He’s a toilet attendant at the Stockholm Constipation Clinic. You can also check out horrifying occupations like Carcass Cleaner, Flatulence Analyst, and Fear Factor intern. Kind of makes you want to go give that moronic boss of yours a hug, doesn’t it?

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by Pamela Skillings      Send to a friend

Finally. Proof that obsessive multitasking is dangerous (to your career and your sanity) can be found in a recent Wall Street Journal Online article by Jared Sandberg. In today’s corporate world, it’s a point of pride to be able to take a meeting while simultaneously checking emails, writing memos, and doing office yoga. The problem is that inept multitasking can lead to hilarious and/or humiliating mistakes.

According to the NASA guy quoted in the WSJ article, multitasking means that "it’s almost inevitable that each individual task will be slower and of lower quality."  It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out (sorry, couldn’t resist).

But in today’s workplace, everybody’s under pressure to do more, more, faster, faster. In the corporate world, being a good multitasker is almost as crucial to success as effective butt-kissing (I said almost). It’s impossible to escape. But there is something to be said for focus. When the task at hand is an important one, doesn’t it deserve your full attention? Wouldn’t this blog have been much more insightful if I wasn’t also checking email and downloading from iTunes?

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by Pamela Skillings      Send to a friend

According to Forbes.com, it’s time to think seriously about quitting your job if:

• You have physical and/or mental illnesses such as stomachaches, headaches, frequent crying (and fighting back tears at work), feelings of dread every Sunday evening or sleeplessness.

• You continuously describe your job negatively to friends, family and others.

• Your energy is spent just surviving at work, and there is no joy.

No, these feelings aren’t normal. If they have become normal, then you REALLY need to think about making a change. Everybody has bad weeks at the office, but you don’t have to settle for ongoing misery. Check out the Forbes.com article for advice on whether you should stay or go.

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by Pamela Skillings      Send to a friend

Millions of workers reluctantly return to work this week after Labor Day weekend, wondering how the summer could possibly be over already. Say goodbye to relaxed summer Fridays and hello to the old grind. An article in Newsday this week quotes an organizational psychologist who says it’s normal to be depressed this week.

According to the article, the passing of Labor Day weekend "provokes anxiety and depression in many workers, who spend their first few days back wondering how they are going to return to the job routine." John Putzier, the oganizational psychologist, compares this phenomenon to an exaggerated case of the "Monday morning blues." And those "Monday morning blues" are no joke — a Blue Cross-Blue Shield study once found that 75% of people who die at work die on a Monday.

The good news is that we had Monday off, so you’re likely to survive until at least next week. In the meantime, Putzier has some tips for fighting your end-of-summer malaise. He suggests throwing yourself into an outside interest to dull the pain (he recommends ballroom dancing, but gin is more likely to do the trick).

My suggestion is to ease back into things slowly. Remember, your coworkers are cranky, too. And do your best to enjoy the rest of the beautiful late summer and early fall days. After all, summer isn’t officially over until September 21st.

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