Several people work from home. However, they can be broadly classified into two categories. First comprises of ones who are employed, who either are allowed by the employer to work from their house, or work additionally, after working hours. Second includes people who have their own businesses. In either case, managing work with personal life becomes quite difficult unless proper steps are taken. Below are some points that could help you balance your work and personal life efficiently, without either being disturbed. Set Boundaries When you take up something to work from home, you have two worlds to manage. And to do it efficiently, you have to set precise boundaries. You can’t mix both. If you do, you wouldn’t be successful with any one. Have a Work Space Although you don’t have to go [...]

You can probably do a lot of personality-development, self assessment, and skills enhancement to save your job or get a promotion. However, that wouldn’t help a bit if the economy isn’t on your side. Average Employee Overpaid May be the experts talk about correction in economy or depreciation in the unemployment rate. But what happens when you take a closer look at the bottom of the hierarchy. You or the experts will realize that a correction is needed there. Excluding the bonus and perks, an average American employee is paid much higher than the people with same roles, responsibilities, and designation, than the rest of the world. If the country wants to regain its momentum (logically, it definitely will), a cut down on employee compensation, perquisites, and benefits is inevitable. For [...]

Nowadays, the news of the economy recovering and the recession being finally over seems to be bombarding us very much. But has the economy really recovered? Think about the huge percentage of unemployed people in the country. A few months ago, it shot up to about 10 % and has remained there till now, when the year has almost come to end. With so many people not able to earn their livelihood would you call this recovery in the true sense of the word? A Mintblog infographic finds out why there is a disparity between the official numbers of unemployed people and the number actually unemployed. An interesting observation is that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics you may not be counted amongst the unemployed heads if you’ve lost your job during the economic depression because you are [...]

The number of employees that are lucky enough to manage a raise this year is very low. I don’t really believe in predictions and forecasting, but if the same condition persists, the number could be much lower next year. How is it possible for you to manage a raise amongst thousands of individuals striving for the same appraisal? How are you different from the rest? Last night you met an old friend of yours who just got laid off. You have already met seven such guys this week. Forget about the raise, you are feeling fortunate enough to have a stable job, which you don’t want to lose by asking for an appraisal. It’s just not the right time to ask for it. You work even harder because you are not sure whether it’s safe to waste a single minute in such an environment. You think you are not [...]

Many youngsters take up work in retail stores as part time sales executives during holidays. The job might look attractive but its not as glamorous as it appears to be. If you think a retail sales clerk’s job means hours of friendly conversations with customers in plush surroundings, you are mistaken. The job is not as light and comfortable as it appears to be. You’ve got to understand that the job can be very strenuous. In the present holiday season a large number of Americans are expected to work in retail outlets as sales or customer service executives. You’ll find them employed in stores like Target and Prada. Earlier college and school students along with housewives would participate in these jobs. But now this year due to the bad economy, even bankers, mortgage brokers etc. who [...]

When times are bad for an IPO, small businesses are finding it hard to sell their stocks to external stock buyers. In such a case should they opt for the ESOP- Employee Stock Ownership Plan in which they sell off their stock ownerships to their employees? The ESOP project was originally introduced to abate employee hassles and to ensure better performance from the employees. If you are contemplating the ESOP, here are some points that you need to consider before taking the step. Does An ESOP Suit You? Consider an ESOP when you want to sell off your company. An ESOP is a good option for you because you can sell it off gradually in small steps. The minimum criterion requires the owners to relinquish at least 30 % of their ownership to the stock owners. Now this is something that many owners may [...]

Ideally, how would you imagine a successful business person - a slick executive who sits in a chamber in his plush office or a person in casual clothes working with his laptop from his living room or study? Obviously, conventionally we’ve been trained to view the former as one having a strong career while the latter as one working to make some income on a temporary basis. But times have changed. Nowadays, a lot of jobs related to the IT/ITES service industry can be done from home. In the present recession torn times, working from home is a beneficial option for both the employer and employed. Let’s see how: Advantages to the Employer Save up on office space and infrastructure The more the number of people attending office, the more space the employer will require accommodating them. Also [...]

My friend Sam got a wonderful appointment as a software engineer from on overseas company in another country. Some of us might jump with joy under similar conditions, but Sam was apprehensive of so many things. Apart from basic materialistic adjustments, he was thinking about adjusting to the local social and professional culture there. He did not know the local language. Also not being of very robust health, he was thinking about any health complications that might arise in the new environment. Last, but not the least, as he was a family man, the prospects of staying in another country singly, far away from his aged parents who were unfit for relocation filled him up with nostalgia. The affinity of human nature towards the known and experienced makes people prefer to stay in their own cities [...]

Unemployment rate being 9.8 % is the highest in the present times. You might be an unemployed person, but you can always think about employing yourself one way or the other. You might have been given the pink slip by your employer but the world does not end there. Do you know that a lot of people are taking up two or more part-time jobs on a short term or long term basis to meet their financial requirements? A lot of people are finding freelancing lucrative. I prefer freelancing because I never liked office politics. Going to office involves a lot of expenditure. Transportation costs, cost of eating out, and money spent on clothes etc. is an overhead that I can prevent when working from home. Also, I don’t have strict timings of reporting in office and I can work even while on a holiday. [...]

Hiring independent contractors seems to be a new trend in the recession recovery business era. Being an entrepreneur, if you want to cut down on human resources costs this seems to be one of the best available solutions for you because it comes with a lot of tax benefits and other overheads that you might have to bear on hiring regular employees. But personally I feel that your hiring decision should be based on your unique requirements, which is dependent on a dynamic interplay between different factors. You might save up on the payroll and tax expenditures on your independent contractor. You don’t even have to give them the health care coverage that you are obliged to for employees. The advantage is that you can adjust the size of your workforce according to your requirements but make sure [...]