Tag: Jobs

Guest Post: 7 Reasons Why Men Are Scared Of Washing Machines

Historically much maligned for their domestic idleness, men have come a long way in recent years. Comfortable in the kitchen, happy to do the vacuuming and occasionally enthusiastic about childcare, the age of equality is very much here. Just don’t mention the laundry. It remains a baffling world where fancy, shiny, modern washing machines are viewed as Cyclopean nemeses, brooding away in the corner, ready to punish the simplest label-reading error or colour mix-up.

Here are seven very good reasons why doing the washing is anathema to the male of the species:

1. Men are confused that it has to happen at all, and with such astonishing regularity. Some would quite happily revert back to Victorian times when poor children were sewn into their clothes at the start of winter and then unstitched come the warmer months. Men will happily recycle a garment from the “floordrobe” – pick it up, dust it down, give it a cursory sniff and put it right back on. Who cares if it’s Thursday and they’ve been wearing it since Monday?

2. Powder, tablets, balls, gels – the list of things you can put in a washing machine has seemingly grown exponentially in recent years. It used to be simple – you put the powder in the drawer and that was it. Now some things go in the drawer, some go in the drum and some go in a bag in the drum – it’s become a very, very confusing world. Men would rather not risk putting the wrong thing in the wrong place.

3. Can he put his bath towel in with his pants? Can he wash that white merino wool sweater with his new red socks? Can he chuck his jeans in with his chinos? Constructing the ideal load is a minefield and best left to the experts. Especially after what happened to her favourite white top the last time he tried to be helpful. . .

4. Why are clothing labels full of symbols akin to those found on the walls of Egyptian tombs? A man shouldn’t need a copy of the Rosetta stone to decipher the care label on his favourite T-shirt. All those triangles, squares and circles resemble some kind of devilish cypher that war-time codebreakers would struggle to crack.

5. And if the clothes labels are bad, what about the dials on the machine? All those symbols, programmes AND temperatures – they are just a recipe for disaster. What’s wrong with a big button that just says “wash clothes”?

6. Men famously struggle with having a thorough look for something. A so-called “man look” involves confidently claiming to have looked everywhere for the house keys with no success.

Her: “Have you checked the top drawer in the hall?”
Him: “Yes, I had a look and they weren’t there.”
[Two minutes later]
Her: “Here they are.”
Him: “Where were they?”
Her: “In the top drawer in the hall. You must have had a man look.”

What does this have to do with washing? Well, there are all those pockets to go through and a man knows that he will inevitably fail to remove a golf ball that will proceed to rattle around the washing machine drum for half an hour or a tissue that will deconstruct itself all over a favourite jumper. Oh, and has anyone seen the cat?

7. Finally, doing the washing invariably leads to another baffling exercise: ironing. And that is not a path down which any man wishes to voluntarily tread . . .

July 25, 2013
Guest Post: 7 Reasons To Set Up Your Own Business

Stuck in a mind-numbing career, recently redundant or ready to work after study or childbirth? You might be leery of the job market but worried that setting up a business is beyond you. Perhaps you don’t think you’ll be able to raise enough capital. But did you know that most things you need to run a business are now available in monthly installments on the internet? Accountants, project management, web hosting, even entire call centres (thanks to web hosted telephony and dialler systems that can be run remotely) – so you might not need as much cash up front as you think. And there’s always Kickstarter…

Anyway, if you’re stuck on the fence, see if our reasons can’t give you a little shove…

1. It’s better than being unemployed. Many people are facing – or have already endured – redundancy over the past few years of economic uncertainty. And they weren’t the first ones. Going to the Jobcentre, relying on state (or, indeed, anyone else’s) handouts for your income (which equals safety, food and well-being, when it boils down to it) is depressing. Money for nothing sounds all very well but you don’t get much of it, and not actually earning it is not great for self-esteem.

2. It gives you a more personal sense of security. This may seem counterintuitive, since you’ll be fending for yourself. But you’ll be relying on you. Not the whims of shareholders or the narrow confines of an employer’s market. If work dries up in one area, you can go and find a new motherlode somewhere else. You will have to save up an emergency fund that can tide you over if times get tough, but otherwise you’ll be free to develop yourself and your business in whatever direction feels most rewarding – financially and personally.

3. You get to make the decisions – creatively & financially. Sure, you might make the WRONG decisions sometimes, but that is pretty much a core mechanic to actually learning anything, ever. Wrong decisions teach you how to rebound, adapt, and try again. But imagine working for someone else who frequently makes bad decisions and you have barely any control over that – over the decisions themselves, or how they’re dealt with afterwards. That’s pretty frustrating. Running your own business puts you in control.

4. You learn a lot. There’ll be all that research you do to make sure you know what you’re doing, and the people you speak to will all have something to teach you, if you’re observant. And those decisions – the ones that don’t work out and the ones that give you satisfying glow – will all stack up in your “experience and insights” hopper for retrieval next time you’re weighing something up.

5. Bragging rights – or more importantly, self-confidence. When you take all those lessons you’ve learnt, make some good decisions and things go well, you’ll receive several valuable assets: a strong indicator of what you should do more of, in order to keep succeeding; a blend of security and gratitude for proving to yourself that you’ve got your own back; and far better Facebook updates than “look what I had for lunch again”.

6. You may get to create jobs for people. If you can expand enough to become an employer, you can provide work and income for someone else. This feels really, really good.

7. It’s liberating. Becoming self-employed makes the world look like one big opportunity – to meet people, have new ideas and explore emerging trends. Reading newspapers, looking out of train windows – they all become opportunities for Having Creative Thoughts, which is a nice sensation and may lead to the next stage of your career.

Good luck!

December 21, 2012
Guest Post: 7 Reasons To Pick Teaching As A Career

Teaching is never easy and it can seem like a thankless task when you spend the whole weekend marking, only to be mocked by friends who joke that you get too many holidays. However, there are many reasons why you should pick teaching as a career and undertake a teaching qualification such as Middlesex University PGCE courses.

1. Holidays. Let’s get that one out the way first. We know you didn’t choose to be a teacher just because of the holidays. We also know that, despite what your friends and family think, you will spend a large chunk of your holiday marking papers and writing lesson plans. But all those holidays are nice and even when you are working, it is a luxury to be able to work from home.

2. Rewarding. There’s nothing like seeing your class finish a long and complicated project or put on a play. You will watch your pupils learn and grow as people as they get older. You will feel almost as proud as the parents when the day comes for them to leave your school and take their next step in the world.

3. Changing Lives. Not many careers will give you the opportunity to have a positive influence on children and shape their future for the better. You may spot a creative talent in a pupil and give them the confidence to pursue their dream when they would have otherwise decided to opt for a safer career instead.

4. Getting To Teach A Subject You Love. Whether it’s art, English, science or maths that is your passion, nothing will give you more joy than being able to work in this field everyday. You will also be able to share your love for a subject with others and have the reward of watching them enjoy learning about it too.

5. Job Security. Not many careers provide jobs for life these days, but a good teacher will always be able to find work in their chosen area. There are also a number career progression opportunities available and you can choose to move up to be the head of department, head of year or even head teacher.

6. Job Opportunities Away From The Main Cities. This can enable you to find work away from busy cities and avoid the high house prices and traffic hell that city dwellers have to endure.

7. Work Around Your Family. Even if you don’t have a family now, you may consider starting one in the future. As a teacher, you will be off school at the same time that your children are so you could save a fortune in child care costs and spend more time with your children too. You also won’t have to worry about asking a nagging boss for time off because your holidays are set out for you each year. You can’t grumble about that!

June 10, 2012
Guest Post: 7 Reasons You Need To Survey Your Employees

If you own your own business, or you manage a team of people, your days are probably filled with meetings, mountains of paperwork and trying to keep on top of your email inbox. However, if you’re responsible for a team of employees, you have a responsibility to be a good manager. You not only need to demonstrate strong leadership skills, you need to be able to track their progress, set goals and help them develop.

But how can you do that when you’re completely snowed under? Well believe it or not and employee survey is a perfect way of measuring your employees’ happiness and how they view you as their manager.

Not convinced? Well here are seven reasons why you need to regularly survey your employees.

1. You Measure Morale. By surveying your employees the first benefit you get is that you will be measuring their morale. If you have unhappy workers, you have an unproductive workforce – plain and simple. If you can measure their morale and identify the reasons why John from accounts is feeling down, you can put measures in place to improve his morale and boost his productivity.

2. You Measure Passion. On top of measuring morale, an employee survey will measure passion. Every business wants a passionate workforce which cares about its goals and objectives – whether it’s a private company out to make money or a local government organisation providing housing. If you don’t have a workforce committed to your goals you don’t have much to go on.

3. You Measure Sentiment. Employee surveys, if conducted anonymously can reveal a great deal about how your workforce feels about your business itself. Do they think you’re heading in the right direction? Do they feel your goals are realistic? Do they think they are working for a business which cares for them? By asking questions like this you could unearth some hard truths which may be hard to take at first but will be beneficial for you in the long-run

4. You Can Make More Money. This might be fourth on this list, but it’s certainly no less important. Employee surveys can actually help you to make you more money. Why? Because if your employees feel that they are listened to, that their opinions are respected, that you are a manager who cares about them and that they are working for a caring company they will be more motivated to turn up to work and perform. If you’re all about the bottom line it’s proven that more passion = more sales = more turnover.

5. You Can Save Money. Even if you’re not in the business to make money, all employee surveys can help you to save money. How? Well if your employees are asked about their welfare, their aims and their goals and monitored on their performance, they will be more likely to stay at your organisation. If someone feels like they have room to progress through promotion and identified development opportunities they won’t be hunting job websites to look for the first chance to escape. This will save you on recruiting costs and the costs through time of reading CVs and conducting interviews. When it’s put like that you can save quite a bit of money!

6. You Measure Performance. After all the interpersonal and business benefits of employee surveys, another key reason is that you can measure an employee’s performance. Anonymous employee surveys, such as 360 feedback, are a way for organisations to find out how colleagues perceive their workmates without fear of being identified. This gives an accurate reflection of your workforce’s performance, and lets you set individual goals to work on. This will not only help you track their progress it can help identify certain weak areas or parts of their jobs they need to work on

7. You Find Out About Your Management Quality! A final benefit of employee surveys is that, as a manager, you can find out about you. Think about it, if you were to ask your team for what they honestly thought about your management style do you think they’d give you an honest answer to your face? By using 360 feedback you can find out precisely what your team thinks about your leadership and management style. You may not like the results, but if it identifies some areas for you to improve on you’ll benefit your business no end.

Author Bio: ETS plc provides 360 degree feedback surveys for businesses. For more information about how 360 feedback can help your business, please see the website.

May 6, 2012
Guest Post: 7 Reasons Why It’s Still A Great Idea To Pass Your Driving Test

The recession seems to be driving many of the UK’s learner drivers off the road. A recent news item carried by the BBC reported that the number of 17 to 22-year-olds undergoing a driving test has dropped by 19 per cent over the last seven years. In the spirit of encouraging the much-beleaguered motoring industry, here is a list of seven good reasons why taking and passing your driving test is still a highly advantageous thing to do.

via http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenjonbro/6406750887/

1. Confidence. Former Prime minister Margaret Thatcher was once quoted as saying, “Any man who rides a bus to work after the age of 30 can count himself as a failure in life.” While the quote is very harsh, it is certainly true that driving can give you confidence. Pass your test and you can feel proud that you have a great skill under your belt. And when the L-Plates come off you have the option of taking the car or catching a bus into work without Mrs Thatcher’s cruel words ringing in your ears.

2. Career Opportunities. Many jobs – taxi driving, breakdown recovery and chauffeuring included – can only be done by a person with a good, clean driving licence. Stating that you can drive looks great on your CV and, with less people taking their driving test, there could soon be a gap in the market for applicants who can drive. See taking your driving test as an investment – something which could one day land you a dream job.

3. Comfort. Have you ever been waiting for a bus on a rainy day when a car has driven past and splashed you with a puddle? Trust me; it’s a feeling which makes you feel like you’ve had sand kicked in your face. To travel by public transport is to throw yourself at the mercy of the elements. When you drive your own vehicle you can be the master of your own fate and have your own personal space. Anyone who has been on a bus with an empty lager can rolling down the aisle while passengers play loud music or engage in loud phone conversations knows they are not truly in control of their environment the way they are in their own car.

4. Safety. It’s a general rule of thumb that the longer you spend behind the wheel the better you will be as a driver. The sooner you pass your test the sooner you will become a more skilled, and safe, driver.

5. Options. Driving gives you more options. You don’t have to worry about catching that last bus home. You can go for a drive to a friend’s house on Christmas Day when there is no public transport in operation. And you can visit an out-of-town IKEA store without having to worry about lugging home flat-pack furniture. You can also have the option of being generous with your driving time – giving lifts to family and loved ones who bestowed the same favour on you before you learned to drive.

6. Rites Of Passage. Passing your driving test is a modern rite of passage. Ripping up your L-Plates is just a great feeling – like the moment when you discard your water-wings or take the stabilisers off your first bike. Even if you can’t afford to drive as soon as you pass your test, it’s a great skill to have up your sleeve.

7. Driving For Pleasure. Driving for pleasure might seem like a strange activity. Surely only High School students in American films cruise around the streets for fun with no destination in mind? It’s about time the forgotten art of driving for the sake of enjoyment is revived. So wind down the sunroof, head out on to a country road and get in touch with one of modern life’s most under-rated pleasures.

Author Bio: James Christie writes for breakdown cover company – GEM Motoring Assist.

March 22, 2012
7 Reasons To Wear A Sling

Last night I found myself in a sling. Not because I had done a mischief, but because I had immersed myself in a role-play situation. Reasons for this are seven-fold and may or may not appear on this site later this week. While I was sitting there being slinged-up, it occurred to me that I had been missing a trick for twenty-eight years. I had never worn a sling. And because of that I was missing out on so much.

1. Sympathy. Not for the Devil or indeed for Adam, but for all of us. If we see someone in a sling we automatically feel sorry for them. How did they do that? Are they in pain? Can I help them carry their bags off the train? Wear a sling and you will get more love than you did that morning from your so-called loved one. Admittedly you may have destroyed their eight year-old cactus by dropping a pair of wet jeans on it, but even so.

2. Innocence. If there has just been a terrible crime and there are blood soaked bodies all over the road – or a box of tea-bags has gone missing from Sainsbury’s – it’s easy to look around and identify the suspect. You might not mean to do it, but it’s automatic. “There,” you think, “that youth in the beanie holding a machete is responsible for the murders.” He might not be. He might be a nice lad out for a stroll. But in our panic stricken minds we play to stereotypes. “That man there, the one who looks like he broke his arm recently and is now in a sling, did he commit these atrocities? No, of course he didn’t. He’s in a sling.” So you stop watching him. And off he wanders with 240 Gold Standard tea-bags stuffed down his trousers. Never to be seen again.

3. Massage. The problem with massaging your own neck and shoulder is that your arm gets tired very quickly. Arms were not meant to be positioned across your body at an upwards angle. They are meant to dangle loosely by your side and whack into door frames or old women. A sling, though, will give you that much needed support. You can massage your neck, shoulder and jab your collar bone with your fingers all day if you wish. Who needs an osteopath?

4. Discrimination. I’ve been for a few job interviews in the last six months and failed to land any of the jobs.* The reason for this has just dawned on me. I am perfect. Too perfect in every possible way. As a result employers can easily turn me away without the fear of a lawsuit being filed against them for discrimination. If I were to wear a sling though, well, things would be very different. They wouldn’t dare not employ me. If they did they’d know that I’d complain. They know I would sight the fact that they discriminated against me because I was wearing a sling. It would go to court. I’d get a lot of money. They’d go into liquidation. I’d win. That is the power of the sling.

5. Bullies. We’ve all heard the story of David walking along Brixton High Street only to be faced down by the towering figure of Goliath. What did he do? That’s right, he slipped out of his sling, picked a hypodermic needle up off the floor and fired it at Goliath’s head. Down he went, all hypodermatised. A lesson for us all. If you’re being bullied (or just passing through Brixton) wear a sling. No one will touch you.

6. Adoption. A sling is particularly helpful if you are an actress wandering about in a foreign country. It is quite possible that you may see a child you quite like the look of. A child who you think would enjoy the sights and sounds of downtown Beverley Hills. A child you want to keep. All you need to do is whip your arm out of the sling and pop whichever child that takes your fancy in it. Simple as that. You then get your lawyers to sort out the payment.

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7. Cold. In true 7 Reasons style we save the most obvious reason for last. The sling is basically just a big handkerchief. Which is ideal if you’ve got a big cold. Gone are the days of destroying rainforests for a box of Kleenex. Gone are the days of having to pile snot upon snot and then wiping it all over your face. A sling will allow you to blow your nose in the comfort of dry material at least six times. Thus curing colds in half the time a normal handkerchief would. Sometimes I think 7 Reasons should run the NHS.

*This is why I haven’t started calling myself Rebecca if you’re wondering what happened there.

July 19, 2011