Creative Cubicles

Ok so this might not be the most inspirational blog but I had to talk about these fun, creative and zen-like cubicles. Heck yeah I would love my cubicle to be a tropical oasis with a trickling waterfall to the left of my desk. You have to see this:

People are actually blinging out their cubicles. It’s like “Pimp My Ride” but for the workplace! You might as well deck out the place if you are spending at least eight hours a day there. Nowadays you can find numerous online companies that will cater to your vision of what you want your cubicle to look like. Say goodbye to gray boring walls!

Keep Your Personal Time Hush Hush at Work

Away from the office you can pretty much do what you want, right? Wrong. Eating a super-sized McDonald’s meal for dinner or polishing off that bottle of wine might be career threatening moves nowadays. Here are a handful of lifestyle activities that might be putting your job in jeopardy:

1. Anything in the realm of overeating, drinking alcohol, or smoking cigarettes can make an employer wary. This kind of lifestyle ups health insurance costs and is seen as a threat to have you working for the company.
2. The next problem is risky behavior. You might love to skydive or go bungee jumping but employers see it as a liability.
3. Another aspect to be careful of is speech. Keep your blogging skills and choice words about your company to a minimum.
4. This next issue has been a problem for decades: relationships. Companies scrutinize employees about same-sex relationships, dating someone at a competitor’s company, or sexual harassment in the office.
5. Finally, a personal issue to keep to yourself is politics. Your conservative boss is not going to like seeing your huge Obama poster hanging over your desk. Keep politics out of the office.

All five of these lifestyle activities can get you fired from the workplace. Make sure you read your employee handbook and understand the rules and procedures. Don’t assume that they are illegally firing you because they might have the justification to do so. Remember to always think before you act. Will your employer find your actions harmful or destructive to your company? Finally, keep your personal life to yourself. You are in no way forced to disclose what happened on your weekend or if you went out for drinks with co-workers the night before. Be cautious about your actions and keep your mouth closed tightly when it comes to your personal life.

To Walk in Someone Else’s Shoes

We all know how hard it is to make a living. I complain about making enough money to support myself and I only have to support myself. I can’t imagine throwing a family and kids into the mix. Diapers, food, doctors, clothes, rent, and gas. That list could run down this whole page. Minimum wage in the United States is barely enough to support a single person. It is nearly impossible to support a family on it. How is our country blind to the millions of people working for minimum wage and living below the poverty level?

“30 Days” a documentary by Morgan Spurlock, the same genius behind “Super Size Me”, left New York City with his girlfriend to see if it was possible to live on minimum wage for thirty days. The results were mind blowing. Spurlock did random landscaping and labor jobs here and there which would usually last him eleven hours a day. By waiting for the bus to save money he would wind up committing to a thirteen hour day away from home. A day of hard labor and physical pain would produce $46. $46 a day won’t even fill up your tank of gas nowadays. If he got hurt on the job he had no health care and would have to pay bills topping hundreds of dollars. The situation was bleak and eye opening. Not only was it basically impossible for him and his girlfriend to buy food, furniture, and pay rent, but leisure activities were out of the picture. Can you imagine not being able to go see a movie or go out to dinner for a friend’s birthday because that extra ten dollars needs to go towards rent?

People making minimum wage usually average $10,000 - $11,000 a year. If you have to pay $500 a month for an apartment, which is $6,000 a year, then you have already exceeded more than half of your year’s income. Since 1997 the cost of living has gone up but there has been no increase in minimum wage. How do these people do it?

It is hard to imagine that the world is split between so many luxuries and such a high poverty rate. How can some people make hundreds of dollars a day while others aren’t even close to $50 a day? A change needs to be made to help the people who are behind such important operations such as waste management, security guards, farm workers, construction, general labor, and janitors. Thank you Mr. Spurlock for shedding light on the situation most of us overlook. Now we need to act on it.

Attention Women: You CAN Have a Career and a Family

Women are supposed to grow up knowing how to perform a juggling act. We cook, clean, go to work, and take care of the rug rats that are running around all day. Is it really possible to balance a career and a family? Of course it is. It just takes a little finessing.

Learn to budget your time! When you are at the office, take that time to work. Work hard and produce results. That way you don’t have to take your work home or work extra hours. Work as hard as you can in your eight hour day so that when you are home that time is exclusive family time.

Make sure you schedule time for yourself. I know that when I get stressed and have been going nonstop I need alone time. After being around co-workers all day and then having to come right home to a chaotic house and family, it can make your head spin. Go have drinks with a friend or hire a babysitter for a night and go to dinner with your spouse. You can’t be mom all the time and you need to schedule time to escape every now and then.

Limit your distractions. When you are at work don’t surf the Internet or text message all day. Block out time to get your work done without responding to every text and e-mail. Follow through with the same rule at home. Don’t let distractions like the television or telephone take away from your family time. Know your priorities in the home and in the workplace and learn how to maximize your time in your family and career roles.

You can definitely have a career and a family but you have to remember to prioritize and not feel bogged down. Don’t spend your weekends working, napping, or watching television. Play outdoors or go to the zoo with your family. By doing this you will keep yourself happy and your family too.

Just Another Number

In the beginning he had been fresh and strong, and he had gotten a job the first day; but now he was second-hand, a damaged article, so to speak, and they did not want him... they had worn him out, with their speeding-up and their carelessness, and now they had thrown him away!
--Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906)

Most Americans complain about how much they hate their job. I used to be one of them. There is always something that is unfair or depressing about where you work. But seriously, it’s not as bad as we rant and whine about. You don’t have to walk around the office with a smile on your face, but you should be privileged to have your current job.

A few weeks ago I decided to watch the movie “Fast Food Nation”. For those of you who haven’t heard of the book or the movie adaptation, the author explores the meat packing industry and the risks involved in working in slaughterhouses. The book goes more in depth into disease infested meat and health risks for people who eat it, but we are going to focus on the work conditions. Losing a finger on the job is considered a good day. Being maimed by heavy machinery or inhaling fumes and barely being able to breathe are all too common in this industry. Not only are people injured and face death but they are disregarded by these meat packing companies and never compensated for there health problems. Because most employees are illiterate and posses little to no education, they are easily replaced. Complain about your severed finger and you will be fired. It’s just that simple.

I was completely shocked. It took me awhile to digest these conditions and these jobs that I could never fathom doing. How dare I complain about work when I have an air conditioned office, a computer, and a kitchen I can pop into whenever I’m hungry. Next time your co-worker is taking ten minutes to heat up that frozen meal please don’t lose your temper. People are putting their lives on the line to earn an income, even if that means getting splattered in the face with blood or losing a limb. To them it’s work and money.

The point is that you probably don’t go into work in the morning thinking that you could die. Slaughterhouse workers do. Try to put your work life into perspective and consider job alternatives that you are lucky not to possess. For you Halloween is once a year; for slaughterhouse workers it is every day.