Reaping the Benefits Every morning Jay Fox wakes up at 4:30 to tend his 20-acre farm. Cleaning chicken coops, tilling fields, and hand-weeding three large gardens can't wait for the sunrise. There's no snooze button and hardly any sick or vacation days when it comes to working with nature. "It's all seasonal work. What you do on the farm depends on the season," said Fox. "You can be doing anything from spreading manure to weeding a garden to baling hay depending on the time of the year." Although Fox works long hours practically every day, he gets to enjoy the many perks of tilling the beautif... view article details
Job seekers now have the upper hand when looking for a new job. The economy is good, the stock market is healthy, and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there are currently 6.7 million jobs to fill in the U.S. compared to only 6.35 million unemployed people. This is the first time ever recorded in which the U.S. has more available jobs than it has people looking to fill them. In this employment landscape, it’s unsurprising certain industries are having a hard time attracting workers. Jobs that are physically strenuous, or have a reputation of being mentally exhausting, are not attract... view article details
Iron Chef, Jamie Oliver, Mario Batali.Thanks to the Food Network and a plethora of cooking shows, when people think about becoming a chef nowadays, their next thought is about getting their own TV show. But Ed Glebus, an executive chef for CulinArt in San Diego, says it's a lot of hard work, repetition and it's all done off-camera.After working on a farm trying his hand in retail, Glebus was 16 when he took a job at D'Angelo sub shop in Plymouth, Massachusetts. And he's been working in the food industry ever since. Although he gave college a try, Glebus said it wasn't for him and so he set out... view article details
Iron Chef, Jamie Oliver, Mario Batali.Thanks to the Food Network and a plethora of cooking shows, when people think about becoming a chef nowadays, their next thought is about getting their own TV show. But Ed Glebus, an executive chef for CulinArt in San Diego, says it's a lot of hard work, repetition and it's all done off-camera.After working on a farm trying his hand in retail, Glebus was 16 when he took a job at D'Angelo sub shop in Plymouth, Massachusetts. And he's been working in the food industry ever since. Although he gave college a try, Glebus said it wasn't for him and so he set out... view article details
Time wasted by employees at work is down from 2005, but it is still costing companies billions in 2006. According to the 2nd annual survey by America Online and Salary.com, the average worker admits to squandering 1.86 hours per 8-hour workday, not including lunch and scheduled break-time, which is down from 2.09 hours in 2005. As a matter of practice, companies assume a certain amount of wasted time when determining employee pay. However, the 2nd installment of the survey indicates that employees are continuing to waste about twice as much time as their employers expect. Salary.com calculates... view article details
In the modern war for talent, it’s every company’s dream to secure spots on coveted lists that dub their workplace ‘the holy grail’ of organizations. While many industries and companies are struggling to attract qualified candidates, making it onto Forbes’ ‘America’s Best Employers’ top 500 – a list derived by polling 30,000 U.S. employees – is an accomplishment that can help companies edge out the competition. Here are America’s top five best employers from 2018, according to Forbes. We also provided the average median annual salaries for roles associated with these industries based on Salar... view article details
Once upon a time good employees updated their job skills and advanced to the next career level with the regularity of Mario questing for Princess Peach.But then technology proliferated, and the well-read encyclopedia salesman, savvy VCR repairman and worldly travel agent either faded away or morphed into updated versions of their former selves.Are you prepared for an evolving work environment or, worse, job extinction? Don't be the Cro Magnon who creates trendy CD artwork in an MP3 world.Check out these jobs on the brink and remember,clever and creative are transferable skills -- if you're ada... view article details
Seventy-two years ago, the house I grew up in was occupied by the DeLong family: a husband and wife, one son, two daughters. The husband worked as a salesman, his son as a clerk. None of the women held a job. The neighbors were laborers and waitresses and machinists. One industrious man worked 60-hour weeks at a poultry farm; another unfortunate resident had been unemployed for more than three years when census-takers knocked on his door in 1940. For many of us today, working means cubicles and computers and commutes. It means colleagues who have graduated high school, and many who have also f... view article details
Dear Annette,I know you're not supposed to burn bridges, but I'm so tempted to tell my former employer what they can do with their pink slip. Is it ever OK to act out when leaving a company?Disgusted in DallasDear Dallas,On a hot California day, down by my private beach, I love to have my People hire an upcoming international design sensation to build split-level sandcastles with marvelous feng shui while I sip something bitter and refreshing from the Far East, hoping my straw hat doesn't blow away. Invariably, as my dog Dickie supervises the construction crew, my thoughts turn to the 1957 cla... view article details
Don't Become a Work Zombie Warning, this contains spoilers.Unfortunately for too many American workers, the feeling of being trapped for hours on end in a room full of undead souls from which there is seemingly no escape is an all-too-familiar sentiment. Perhaps that’s why millions of people have tuned in to AMC’s hit television show The Walking Dead.Although at first glance it doesn’t appear that a fictional TV show set in apocalyptic Georgia involving a small army of human survivors battling flesh-eating zombies has much to do with office life, a more thorough examination proves tha... view article details