If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
No one envisages being chronically ill, unable to continue working, and eventually with no alternative, handing in one's notice. To imagine or think for one moment that something positive could possibly come out of this situation is beyond belief.
Being super-organised is another essential part of the package. Coordinating school drop-offs and pick-ups and after-school activities around the working day means that working mums have to focus and plan their time precisely.
So although like most people, I have a "bucket list" I decided being optimistic at heart, I would need to call my wish list something else that was more appropriate, and so I have a "Pink List". Why a "Pink List" you may well ask? Well if you are sitting comfortably then I'll tell you why pink became significant to me.
The low point probably came several months ago when I raced upstairs, put on my best suit and pretended to go off to work. It was 5pm and the children were due back from school. The truth that I wasn't able to tell them was that I had lost my job 72 hours earlier and was acting out this increasingly ridiculous charade partly out of shame, embarrassment and, well, I just didn't know what to say.
Do you find yourself craving your morning dose of caffeine before your finger has even left the snooze button? Struggle to get motivated before 12pm? It's time to ditch the morning blues with these tips to feel fabulous first thing.
When you are anxious about something, the most natural thing in the world is to avoid it. It's common sense: if something seems frightening, unpleasant or overwhelming, your first impulse is to escape it.
Arriving in Hollywood, Los Angeles in 2005 with a strong career history behind me, a positive attitude and English accent, I thought I was well equipped to hit the ground running. It soon became apparent that brand Julia would have to adapt and enhance her gentile English ways if she was going to progress in Tinseltown.
The work life balance of our nation is incredibly important if we are to ensure economic growth. Longer working hours may enable increased productivity but only as a short-term measure. We are not robots. Eventually our systems fail and everything will come crashing to a standstill unless we find way to preserve health and wellbeing as a priority.
You are offered the job you've always wanted. At last--recognition for all your hard work and achievement. Surely, your spouse and children will be just as happy as you are. Or will they?
'I mean, it's not as if we don't have it,' she said hurriedly. 'Our savings account is very healthy.' I nodded, forgetting for a moment that she couldn't see me and then hoping that she'd sense my understanding. I felt saddened that like so many others, she felt that the love affair she was having with writing wasn't worthy of her time and money. That she didn't deserve to have this passion in her life.
Working hard is intrinsically a good and moral thing to do - the so-called 'Work Ethic' - does this really exist? Is the work ethic even regarded as a good thing any more? 'Work-life balance' is all the vogue, so perhaps the 'work ethic' destroys family life and over all contentment?
Life is filled with setbacks and unexpected twists and turns. However, in the words of Aldous Huxley, "Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you." By mastering some simple coping techniques, you can turn your luck around and get back on your feet, whatever life throws your way. Here are seven ways to bounce back from anything.
The way we work is changing. The days of sitting at a desk for the standard 9-5 are slowly ebbing away. Once considered to be the most efficient way to measure the value of an employee's output, many jobs no longer require individuals to be office bound.
Of all the feelings you expect to go through when you're diagnosed with this deadly disease, guilt is not top of the list. Yet almost all the fellow cancer survivors I've met since my diagnosis say they've felt guilt to some degree.
We are all defined by a range of relationships, boss and subordinate, parent and child, friend, sibling, etc. Correct action in each of these relationships may be slightly different - but they all have their own distinct morality and pattern of action and reaction.
While it is common for people to lament teachers 'knocking off at 3.30' and 'getting six weeks in the summer', the very large number of state school teachers I know have very different lives. They work well after 3.30 each day, often into the early hours, and certainly every evening.
