Career and Relationships

Losing those office perks in corporate cutbacks

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A less serious, but widespread fallout of tough economic times for American companies has been the cutting of employee perks and benefits to lower operating costs. Working in corporate America myself, I can attest to some of these cutbacks first hand and I know more are coming down the line as cutting costs is becoming [...]

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Preparing For a Layoff – Steps to Take Ahead of Time

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You get into work tomorrow and you are told that your position has been made redundant. Are you prepared for this scenario and its likely impacts on your financial security? In these weak economic times with lower company profits and unemployment rising, you need to be prepared for adverse circumstances such as losing your job. [...]

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Ask your employer to ease your gas burden

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I have seen a number of articles recently on ways for people to combat rising gas prices. One of the more practical ways coming to the fore is employers subsidizing driving costs to work or to allow employee telecommuting – i.e. working from home. The average U.S. commute is now about 30 miles and with [...]

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Top ten myths about buying a franchise – Part 3

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This is the final in my three part series around the myths of buying a franchise. All this is based on real experience and I hope it helps folks out there who are looking to buy a franchise, or want to know more about the franchising business model. Thanks to the readers of this series [...]

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The Meaning of Work – Finding Meaning From Your Job

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Finding meaning from your job is something, like a lot of people, I struggle with. One of the most common complaints by people working is “the money may be good but where is the meaning? How can I make a difference?”. There are two things that give work meaning. First is the satisfaction that comes [...]

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Top ten myths about buying a franchise – Part 2

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This is the second of my three part series looking at myths around buying, running and owning a franchise based on my own personal experience. Following some comments I received on the first article of this series, I just wanted to clarify that I am not anti-franchising. I think it can be a very profitable [...]

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Results from 2008 IT Salary Survey

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I work in the technology sector and so it was interesting to see the results of the 2008 US IT salary survey. Overall it looks like the median salaries for business technology professionals fell for the first time in 11 years. From 2007 to 2008, median base pay for IT staff fell to $73,000 from [...]

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Who Does the Finances and Money Management in Your Household?

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I do in my household. Doing the household finances is something I don’t mind, apart from seeing all the bills which means money going out the door. I also do the budgeting, taxes and investments. I have a natural affinity for all things finance, a reason I write this blog, and my wife thinks all this [...]

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Top ten myths about buying a franchise – Part 1

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Generally most Americans are not happy working for someone else or being in the corporate rat race. So the idea of being your own boss and controlling your destiny is very appealing. Besides some of the many “get rich quick” schemes on TV, there is one type of business that seems like an easy escape [...]

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The alphabet soup of Immigration terminology

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As an immigrant here myself I can attest to the complications going through multiple visa process and the enormous amount of documentation to complete and provide. There are so many “classes” of immigration visa that it can all become a puddle of numbers and letters to the average person. Here is a list of some [...]

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