Posts Tagged ‘work’

What Most Business Owners Don’t Understand (But Should Learn)

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

I’ve been pretty forthcoming here on Idealist Cafe when I’ve talked about my desire to free myself from the corporate world. I have also been fairly open about this in “real life” and even at work when talk to co-workers. I don’t see that there is any harm in letting people know that I have goals and aspirations that are different from the place I am currently in. I don’t think this makes where I am today or the capacity that I work in any less significant or meaningful, it just means that there are other things waiting for me down the line. To me life is an evolution and what may work for us one day may not work the next, and there is not anything wrong with that.

Well, (un)fortunately for me, the other day this information made it to my boss, but was delivered a bit differently than […]

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Time flies when you’re having fun

Friday, September 16th, 2011

It’s been an incredibly busy past month and a half.

Six states, three trips, two weddings. One website to add to my portfolio. Two new consulting gigs. And still working my full time job.

I’m ready for some down time. Unfortunately, I don’t know that I’ll have too much of it. The traveling has been fun but tiring, and the extra working has been sort of fun, sort of stressful, and sort of exciting. I’m working on saving a FYF (F*** You Fund), building a portfolio, and creating work that will enable me to transition away from my full time job and get me closer to living my dream of working when, where, and how I want to work.

It started with my trip to Cleveland, where I rented a car and drove two hours to Pennsylvania for my cousin’s wedding. It was a quick three day trip, I drove too many miles, […]

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The Paradox of a 40 Hour Workweek

Friday, July 22nd, 2011
Frustrated

Photo Credit Mylla

Somewhere along the line it became standard for a work week to be 40 hours. I think I speak for most employees out there when I say that giving up 40 precious hours each week doesn’t leave nearly enough time for the important things, like enjoying life. And I also think I speak for most employers (except the conscious few out there who get it) when I say that being given 40 measly hours from each employee isn’t nearly enough time to get everything done that is necessary to compete in a growing global marketplace.

I won’t even go into the reasons why trading 40 hours of your life each week for a paycheck is far too much time to give up. Though I imagine if you’re reading this, you can understand why I desperately want to break free of this […]

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Sometimes keeping the 9 to 5 job is ok

Friday, June 24th, 2011

I know this seems unlikely advice, especially coming from someone who’s made a clear intention to leave the office job in the (hopefully) forseeable future. While I am certainly not suggesting that you settle for an office job if it’s not what you want, I do think that marching into your boss’ office quitting is equally inadvisable. There is plenty of advice out there from self employed entrepeneurs and other free spirited creative types that says there is no better time than now to quit; that if you’re not following your heart, you should start doing so today. But sometimes a little prudence may be called for.

That said, what you should start doing today is thinking about what you want and where you would like to get to.

But for the time being, if you still have your day job, don’t despair. Not every unhappy employee out there is young and […]

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Why deadlines are a waste of time

Monday, June 6th, 2011

In most companies, and in the world in general, there is a pretty big focus on deadlines. Personally, I think setting deadlines is a waste of time and only serves to create an environment where subpar performance is normal and incomplete or rushed final products are acceptable.

For the sake of argument, assume I’m talking about a corporate environment where someone is expected to work 40 hours per week. If a worker is a good, honest, and hardworking person, they will work on their task at a pace comfortable to them and it will be completed in a reasonable amount of time, at which point the final product would theorectically be at the level expected when tasking it.

If a deadline is set or agreed upon ahead of time, really it’s all based on assumption. And if it turns out that something unexpected comes up and the deadline is too short, in […]

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Feeling stagnant and lacking direction

Monday, November 8th, 2010

There have been times during the years of keeping this blog that I have been literally bursting with ideas for things to write about. Sadly, this is not one of those times. At the moment I have an excuse, which is that I’ve been slammed with work since I’m back in an office and my company has had, in simple terms, a change in management. But prior to this, I didn’t have a whole lot going on, and was still at a loss for new ideas. Except for brief moments where great thoughts pop into my head (which typically fade into oblivion before I can get them out), I feel rather stagnant lately.

I suppose I feel like I am at a personal crossroads these days. Though I’ve said it before, and I’m not sure why it seems to be lasting so long. Something inside of me just seems to be […]

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Life has changed

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

My life has changed quite a bit recently, but I’m really loving it. Don’t worry, nothing wrong with my personal life, however there’s been a big change in my working life. The end result is that I am still employed with the same company, but now get to work from home full time.

The company I work for has had quite a turbulent history. I was one of the first employees to come on board, and we grew quickly, too quickly. First We moved offices and had a nice office downtown with a great view. But within a year, it was decided that we outgrew our our lovely office, and so we moved again. This time to another downtown office with another great view, but now we had the entire floor. Problem is, around the same time, we stopped growing. Oh yea, and the economy took a crap. So over […]

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Are you swamped at work? Here is how to fix it.

Monday, July 6th, 2009
Swamped at work

Photo credit: Sarah Mae

How often do you hear someone tell you that they are “swamped” at work? I’ve been thinking about this phrase a lot, and it’s no irony that it’s usually while I’m at work. I haven’t touched a topic like this lately, but I used to quite a bit in the past. If you’ve been a reader for a while you know that I am a big fan of the the concepts of the 4 Hour Workweek and the idea of ROWE (Results Only Work Environment). And since I’m still a 9 to 5 working man, I still very often have thoughts like this, even though I’m not writing them.

I think everyone has found themselves saying “I’m swamped at work” at one time or another. How often do you hear it? Do you […]

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