During a typical week I might commute from home to a variety of different newsrooms in the metropolitan area, a few times a week. That drive might have me on the road for as long 90 minutes. But it’s a hop, skip and a jump compared to my travel to Florida or California for a few days to work. End result – I work where I want and when I want so I can sustain a certain lifestyle which includes family, my volunteer work, and a serene homelife near a beautiful lake, just outside New York City.
I heard it in the distance. Those feelings that hearken from childhood, emerged. But I was on deadline for a story working from home, so I was technically still working, albeit differently. I fit into the 20 percentile group of people who want to work differently, not less. The stats come from Cali Yost’s 2007 Work+Life Fit Reality Check survey. Yost takes a look at how employees view their worklife flexibility. Just last night it hit me like Santa coming down the chimney shoot with a big bang. I’m a stat. But I’m a happy stat – here’s why.
In her first official campaign stop on Long Island, Senator Hillary Clinton addressed an audience of more than a thousand people speaking not only of “bringing the troops home” but also, ” universal health care and some childhood and family issues. Her visit this week coincided with the introduction of the Working Families Felxibility Act, which she along with other democratic colleagues, including Barak Obama, presented this week.
A business associate of mine is ready to jump ship from her company strictly on the grounds that ,”this business is not family friendly, while purporting to be.” WorkLife Balance policy is not always what it appears to be on the first look. It’s best to ask a lot of questions. Those perks might be designed primarily to lure in new employees, rather than to retain them in a healthy working environment.
The truth is that no one can really take your power, it is yours to give or hold onto. That’s why I felt it important to respond when David Bohl at Slow Down Fast (check out his post he has a hilarious video there)tagged me on an original question posed by Donna Karlin at Better Perspective. At her OnGrowing Weekly Challenge she asks…
“Who are you giving your personal power away to and how are you going to take it back?”
The holiday season is billed a joyful time by a lot of what we see and hear around us. The decorations, cheerful music, gift giving etc. It’s the fun kind of sensory stimulation that takes our minds off the daily workload – even for a little bit.
But in our 24/7 world, we are still bombarded with sensory overload which impacts our minds, hearts and bodies. That’s why it’s a good time to cultivate resilience techniques to release what needs to go from 2007 – and recharge for next year.
While workplace holiday parties can be lots of fun, and quite entertaining as we get a chance to see a more personal side of our colleagues, it’s a revealing adventure to be undertaken with awareness. People talk, sometimes they drink, sometimes they show a side better left for other venues. Here are some tips to do it gracefully.
If Thoreau’s words were actually heard, attaining material riches would not carry the weight it does in society or our consciousness. Even when his statement is held close and embraced, our desires in today’s post-modern society beg for the attainment of financial wealth, power, and an interest to further oneself on the scale of society’s economic and social benchmarks. But who says you can’t have both – financial success and a more conscious way of living. That was an underlying message at the Manifesting a Rich Life Prophets Conference which took place earlier this month in Los Angeles.
Barbara Biziou has spent decades exploring spirituality from a practical perspective. She’s dedicated her work to “buliding a bridge between the material world and the inner need for sacredness.”
In her book, The Joy of Ritual: Spiritual Recipes to Celebrate Milestones, Ease Transitions, and Make Every Day Sacred, Biziou dreamily ties our inner and outer lives together toward meaning and purpose. A well known speaker on women and success, her material is thoughtful yet easily put to use in our 24/7 business marketplace.
With a heightened awareness of workplace culture and a desire to make it a better environment, I sometimes have to be reminded that worklife balance also means attention to our atmosphere at home. We can work all we want on personal transformation in the workplace, but author/intimacy expert Karinna Kittles-Karsten stresses that attention to our familial and personal relationships are just as crucial to a balanced existence.
