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Finding Time to Workout at Work

By Jennifer Kenley on Wednesday, January 9, 2008

As you head back to work after all the holiday festivities, do you find yourself moving at a slightly slower pace? Are the pants that you wore before the holiday celebrations fitting just a little bit tighter than before? If so, then it’s time to start thinking about shedding some of those extra pounds and regaining some energy for the new year.

Many people want to get back in shape but don’t have the time because of work, family and other activities. There are, however, some simple exercises that you can do while you work that will help you increase your energy and health and decrease your waistline.

By following some of these tips, you can jump into the new year energized and healthy.

Instead of taking the elevator, try taking the stairs. Just taking those few extra steps will increase the number of calories you burn each day.
Try taking a brisk walk around the building a few times during your breaks instead of lounging around talking with co-workers. Walking increases energy levels and helps reduce stress.
Stretch your back, legs and arms several times throughout the day to help increase circulation and prevent muscle fatigue. Stretching your body helps relieve muscle tension and increases blood circulation to various parts of your body giving you more energy.
Lift small hand weights while sitting at your desk, talking on the phone or walking around the building. Lifting weights helps increase your muscle mass which in turn helps your body burn fat.
If you work in a cubicle, try sitting on an exercise ball while at your desk. This will help strengthen your abs and help your posture.
If you live close to work, you might want to try riding your bike or walking to the office. Or, if you have to drive to work, park further away from the entrance.

Trying to get back into shape after the holidays can be overwhelming, especially when you have to work every day. Following these tips can help jumpstart your exercise routine, increase your energy and lose those unwanted pounds.

Resumes and Cover Letters

Write a Better Résumé – 5 Ways to Get Noticed by Recruiters

By summer on Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Your résumé is your introduction to prospective employers. A well-crafted résumé can grab the attention of recruiters and help you land that all-important first interview. On the other hand, a poorly put together résumé can squash your chances of moving forward in the selection process. That’s why it’s essential to create a résumé that sells your strengths in a polished, professional format. The tips below can help you draft a résumé that gets results.

Eliminate spelling and grammar errors. One quick way to get your résumé thrown in the trash is not editing it for typos and poor grammar. You should always proofread your résumé several times before sending it out. Look out for spelling errors that the computer may have missed such as words that sound the same but have a different meaning (Example: build vs. billed). Consider enlisting the help of a friend or family member to review your résumé as well – you might be surprised what a fresh pair of eyes can catch.

Don’t use first person (I, me, my, etc.) It’s your résumé, so employers know who you’re referring to when you mention accomplishments and work experience. Using first person pronouns makes your résumé sound amateurish, unpolished and even “you centered.” That’s why you would delete the words “I” and “my” in the following sentence: “I earned my associate’s degree in math.” Instead, just write: “Earned associate’s degree in math.”

Use action verbs. Strong verbs bring your accomplishments to life. Action verbs also hold the reader’s attention by making your résumé interesting. See for yourself – which of these two candidates do you find more appealing based on the way they described their past job duties?

Candidate A: Did filing, clean up, phone calls and clerical duties.

Candidate B: Cataloged department files for 15 employees on a weekly basis. Maintained clean office environment including dusting, sweeping and mopping. Answered over 200 phone calls each day using multi-line phone system.

Communicate results, not just a list of job duties. From the example above, you can see that if you were a hiring manager, you’re attention would most likely be drawn to Candidate B’s résumé over Candidate A’s. That’s because Candidate B’s résumé not only uses action verbs, but it also communicates more about the applicant’s actual accomplishments instead of just listing off a bunch of job duties.

Tailor your résumé to the job you’re applying for. If you’re applying for 10 different jobs, you can just send the same résumé to each company, right? Wrong. Unless the job descriptions for each position are identical, you’ll need to tweak your résumé for each one. Tailoring your résumé doesn’t have to take a lot of time though. Just make sure you’ve reviewed each job description and know a little about the company you’re applying with. Then, create a new version of your résumé using the key words you found in your research. For example, if you’re applying for a position as a legal assistant and the law firm needs someone with experience working on trial cases and you have it, make sure you describe that experience in the version of your résumé you send to them.

Your résumé is your first touch with a prospective employer, so make sure that your paper introduction makes as good a first impression as you would hope to make in person. You can do this by taking the time to create a professional-looking résumé that appeals to employers’ hiring needs.

What résumé questions do you have? Post them in the comments sections.

Career Advancement

3 Ways to Improve Communication with Your Boss

By summer on Thursday, November 29, 2007

Are you getting the support you need from your boss? If not, you probably feel frustrated and overlooked at times. To improve your relationship with your boss, it’s important to focus on communicating your needs in a respectful way. This means being willing to open up and start a dialogue with your supervisor. The following tips can help you talk with your boss about your needs so that, together, you can create a work environment you’ll thrive in.

1. Help your boss help you.
Your boss isn’t a mind reader. If you don’t have the resources you need to do your job, it’s your responsibility to let your boss know. But before you approach your boss with a request, be sure you’ve done your research. You’ll want to be able to answer basic questions such as “How much will this cost?” “How much time/money will this save?” and “What’s the problem with our current system/resource?” More than likely, your boss wants to help you be successful but will need to be persuaded that what you’re asking for will really do the trick.

2. Let your boss know how you like to receive feedback.
Everyone has a unique communication style. That means that you and your boss may not always be on the same page when it comes to giving and receiving feedback. Some people like to receive praise in a group, others in private. Having weekly in-person meetings works best for some, while others prefer to discuss matters through e-mail or over the phone. If your communication style is clashing with your supervisor’s, focus on creating a happy middle ground. For example, if your boss frequently interrupts you during the work day, request to have a weekly meeting to discuss all non-urgent tasks then. To keep your boss from being offended at the suggestion, phrase the request in a way that shows you value your boss’s time and your own. “I know how busy we both are these days. What do you think of setting up a weekly huddle up to discuss these projects?”

3. Give credit where credit is due.
To improve communication, it’s important to show appreciation for what your boss is already doing right. Do you like the way your boss encourages brainstorming or praises you for a job well done? Don’t keep it to yourself! If you want to see more of a behavior, praise it. When you give thanks it encourages your boss to strive to be the best leader possible.

Do you ever struggle to communicate with your boss? What have you found to be the most effective way to improve your relationship?

Career Advancement The Daily Grind

Overcoming Office Distractions – 5 Tips to Keep Your Focus

By summer on Tuesday, November 27, 2007

A recent study by a New York-based research firm, Basex, found that the average knowledge worker loses 2.1 hours a day of productivity, or 28% of the workday due to workplace distractions. Even the most focused employees can have a difficult time remaining on task under a barrage of e-mails, phone calls and visits from uninvited co-workers. If workplace distractions are breaking up your concentration, check out the tips below to get back on task and in the zone.

Give Your Outlook a Break.
E-mail is a great tool for streamlining business communications, but at times the sheer volume of messages can defeat its purpose by overwhelming you with information. When you need uninterrupted concentration, use your e-mail’s out of office function, and then close the program for a few hours during the day.

Even if you don’t think e-mails are really a problem for you, you may be more distracted than you realize. A University of Illinois study reported by Globe and Mail found that when workers were frequently interrupted, it took them longer to finish projects. They also made more errors and experienced greater frustration and annoyance. If e-mail notifications are dinging in your ears or appearing on your screen every few minutes, chances are you’re losing focus and productivity. So when you need to focus, give yourself and your co-workers a break by going “e-mail free” for a few hours.

Just Say “No” to Unnecessary Meetings.
How many hours do you spend in meetings each week? Now, ask yourself how many of these meetings did you really need to attend. If you’re not contributing or learning something new from a meeting, it’s probably a waste of not only your time but the company’s as well. Another good way to evaluate whether you really need a meeting is to ask yourself whether the information could be handled just as effectively through an e-mail, memo or conference call.

So, think twice before you schedule your next meeting or accept a colleague’s meeting request. While you probably won’t be able to avoid all meetings, keeping these tips in mind will help you better evaluate when you really need to attend or schedule a meeting.

Hang it up.
In some offices, the telephone is the preferred means of communication. While the telephone is more personal than e-mail, it also tends to take a little more time. If phone calls interrupt your focus every few minutes, it’s time for you to take control again. Instead of jumping to respond every time your phone rings, let your calls go to voicemail. To ensure that callers know what to expect, change your voicemail greeting to let them know when you will be checking messages. By only checking messages at designated times throughout the day, you’ll reduce the number of distractions you encounter, giving you a greater ability to stay on task.

Send a Message.
When you’re working on a tight deadline or just really need to focus, it’s best to keep social visits from co-workers to a minimum. To discourage unexpected drop ins, shut your office door for an hour or two while you work. Or Monster.com suggests if you sit in a cubicle, put up a sign that says something like “working on deadline,” and adjust your workstation so that visitors see your back when they enter. This helps because once you make eye contact, people feel it’s an invitation to stay and chat. Of course, you won’t want to keep your door closed or the sign up at all times or else colleagues will view you as antisocial.

Leave Your Surfboard at Home.
According to a recent survey by Salary.com, the average worker wastes nearly two hours of every eight-hour workday. Of the 2,700 people polled, 52.0% cited web surfing as their No. 1 distraction at work. Imagine what you could accomplish if you harnessed those hours to do something productive instead.

Designate before work, break times and after hours for your online shopping, bill pay and other web surfing activities. Or, just make it a priority to do all of your online perusing at home. That way, you’ll keep your Internet usage from interfering with your work.

What’s your biggest distraction at work? What do you do to stay on task and keep your focus?

The Daily Grind Work/Life Balance

5 Tips for Finishing the Work Week Strong

By tiffany monhollon on Friday, October 12, 2007

Have you ever had one of those weeks with a constant stream of interruptions, back-to-back meetings, and an increasing workload? Or, have you felt so hectic that when Friday rolls around, you feel so bogged down in work that the joy of the weekend is shadowed by the sheer amount of work you must do?

Regardless of the work environment you’re in, you’ve probably experienced times of overwhelming workload. So how can you cope when priorities are weighing you down? Here are some tips for using Fridays to finish the week strong and cope with work overload.

1. Kill e-mail. A recent report in USA Today highlighted a phenomenon called “Zero E-mail Fridays.” At Intel over 150 engineers at the company recently committed to forego e-mail on Fridays and to opt for a phone call or face-to-face meeting if communication is needed. Other professionals are going a step further and deleting their entire inbox each Friday in order to have a clean slate when Monday rolls around.

2. Get an e-secretary. You may not be able to take things this far, depending on the type of work you do and whether or not you’ve followed up on important e-mails, but many prominent time-management gurus advise that at the least, workers should avoid staying logged in to e-mail throughout the day. If you can’t commit to this every day, start doing it on Friday. One way to do this is to treat the out of office e-mail function as a personal e-secretary. Simply type a message saying something along the lines of: “I’m in the office right now but not checking e-mail until 4 p.m. today. If you need to get in touch with me immediately, please call…” That way, you can commit to checking your e-mail only two or three times each day and have more time to focus on the tasks at hand as the week ends.

3. Purge the paper. If you are like most workers, you have a constant inflow of information, and not all of it is digital. In fact, research shows that the Internet has increased the amount of paper we use – 1 billion trees total or 735 pounds of paper per worker are consumed each year in the U.S. alone. But, studies show that when you’ve touched paper once, you will only look at 10% of it again. So, start throwing it away (or stop printing it out!). Don’t even waste your time filing, unless it’s something that’s necessary to have a hard copy back up of. Do you really need that memo about the new software training you’re signed up for? Probably not. Into the recycle bin with it. Making a goal of tossing 90% of the paper on your desk at the end of each week will help you cut down on the clutter and keep only the most important documents within reach.

4. Make time to plan. Try to carve out a chunk of time on Friday to plan for next week’s work. An hour is a good goal. This gives you time to review and update your to-do list, to rearrange priorities, to look at your calendar and to think strategically about how to approach your work. You’ll thank yourself when Monday rolls around and you can hit the ground running without a second thought.

5. Give yourself a break. Now that you’ve done the hard work, the planning, the organizing, and are set up for a great upcoming work week, it’s time to give yourself a break. That’s what days off are for, after all. So, after you leave the office for the week, turn off the Blackberry, forget about your to-do list, and find some time to unwind. Making time to enjoy life will help you feel balanced, increasing your focus and job satisfaction once you return to work for a productive week.

Instead of finishing the week on a tired, frazzled note, try using these tips to make Fridays your week’s best asset. What are your Friday tips? Let us know in the comments below.

Express in the News Inside Express

Find Jobs With Express Employment Professionals

By Job Journey on Monday, August 27, 2007

With Express, you choose how and when you want to work. Are you looking for a full-time administrative position? Do you need a flexible schedule? Or are you looking for a career in the accounting/financial arena? You can find what you’re looking for at Express.

You can apply in person or by phone with Express Employment Professionals. To find the office closest to you, click here.

Or to register online, click here.

The Daily Grind Workplace Goofs Workplace Relationships

Life in a Sardine Can – How to Survive Cubicle Dwelling

By summer on Friday, August 24, 2007

Forty million Americans work in cubicles, according to an article in Fortune magazine. That’s a lot of people squeezed together in tiny workspaces across the nation. Working in close quarters creates unique stressors. That’s why practicing cubicle etiquette can make life in the box much more bearable.

Wear headphones to drown out noisy co-workers. Listening to music while you work can actually increase your focus by eliminating outside distractions. Headphones are a much better option than just bringing a personal stereo to your desk because even if you play your music quietly, chances are your cube mates will still be able to hear it and may feel annoyed at the added noise pollution.

Clean up your area every now and then. Since most cubicles don’t have doors, there’s nothing to keep co-workers from seeing your space. If you have three mugs of week old coffee, a half-eaten sandwich and piles of crumpled paper cluttering your desk, chances are, your cube mates resent your sloppiness. Not only are these messes distracting, when food’s involved, there’s the germ and odor factor to consider.

Wait to be invited into a conversation before offering your two cents. Because cubicles provide very little privacy, it’s common to overhear co-workers talking in other cubicles. But, just because you can hear them and there isn’t a closed door doesn’t mean they want you to join in their conversation. To be sensitive to your cube mates, don’t chime in just because you’re curious or even happen to have the exact answer they’re looking for. Let them come to you instead. This will help your fellow cube dwellers feel like they have more independence and privacy.

Don’t shout over cube walls. Even if your co-worker is only a few feet away, it’s best not to try to talk over cubicle walls. The reason is that everyone else sitting around you will also be forced to hear your conversation. Sending a quick e-mail, picking up the phone or getting up and walking to the co-worker’s desk will help to keep the noise level down.

Avoid habits that may grate on others’ nerves. Things like loudly clearing your throat and blowing your nose, spraying cologne or perfume in the cube, eating smelly food like onions or fish or talking on speakerphone are cubicle taboos. Any behavior that accosts your neighbors’ senses is best to avoid.

I’d like to hear your cubicle stories. What are your pet peeves? How do you make the most of working in a small space?