Hi all…allow me to introduce myself, my name is Kim and I have recently joined b5media so that I may preside over Blog Fabulous, as Christine moves toward new goals.

I find it interesting that my favorite movie (best movie theme ever!) is Working Girl with Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford, and here I am contributing to a blog which is dedicated to the needs and interests of working women. Some kind of cosmic force developing here, I would say.

I am a 20 year marketing and advertising veteran and have truly been in the trenches — working at varied companies from small ad agencies to large Fortune 500 corporations; I have seen it all and have much to share.

Presently, I work from my home in Bergen County, New Jersey–where I have created, own and operate a small business called The Pet Set. The Pet Set is an elegant line of stationery for dogs and owners who have very discerning taste. Think Smythson of Bond Street for dogs.

I live with my husband of 22 years and our beloved Chocolate Labrador, Trotter — who was in fact the inspiration for The Pet Set.

I know that many of you were loyal fans of Christine’s and to Blog Fabulous, so my only intent is to continue in that fashion, and perhaps as time goes on, you will begin to appreciate my style and points of view. Hopefully new friends will join as well.

For my initial entry, I was thinking about NBC’s The Office (btw the British version is much darkerer and funnier and you must download Ricky Gervais’s podcasts…too hilarious).

At the conclusion of last night’s episode, NBC aired a fake Public Service Annoucement presented by two of The Office cast members. In character, each gave hers and his point of view about office relationships. She was absolutely in favor of them, he was totally against.

The whole thing was an April Fool’s spoof and very silly, but it still made me wonder what do people think about office romances?

Do you think you can meet your soulmate or do you think it’s a dangerous idea, both personally and professionally? And here is the smoking gun, so to speak, have you ever known anyone who has moved up the ladder as a result of having had an office affair?

I would love to know your thoughts.

P.S. I have never had an office fling, so I am on the “it’s dangerous” side of this discussion.

It’s great to be here!

Post from: Blisstree

The Renewal of Spring and the Arrival of “The New Girl”.

I don’t know how many large companies are actively encouraging telecommunication. The last thing I know is that we still have to fight for the rights to work from home once a while. I have worked with many different companies in a few industries. Almost every company I have been to requires its employees to be on site from 8 to 5, Monday through Friday. I haven’t had a single client who allows flexible work schedule. Too bad that I never got a gig with Sun. Personally, I don’t see having employees being physically in an office everyday is necessarily especially when we can all log onto company’s network from our own homes. On most of the days, we work on our own computers and dial into conference calls to discuss the projects. Yes, co-workers interactions such as chit chats and coffee breaks definitely create important bonding. But I am sure we will just do fine with each other if we come in only a few days a week.

I start to wonder why the companies are so reluctant to execute the telecommunication program and encourage the employees to take advantage of it. Was it because of the trust issue or the management is too stubborn to adapt to changes? I have worked from home on occasional cases before. With fewer distractions, I actually got more work done!

I am about to start my ‘iWork” soon. I have the freedom to choose whether I want to work in our mobility center or home on a daily basis. I am afraid that once I have a taste of it, I may never want to go back to the traditional office 5 days a week. Hopefully, the leaders of the 21st century corporations are able to recognize that a flexible work program not only saves company’s bottom line but also create much happier employees.

Post from: Blisstree

Sun’s iWork Program

Does any of the following scenarios sound familiar:

1. A woman thinks that she is due for a raise after working for the same company for so long. But she feels too awkward to bring up the topic.
2. A woman goes into a performance review and hoping for approval. She gets immense satisfaction from positive feedbacks. She is so grateful after receiving a pad on the shoulder and forgets about asking for the cash reward.
3. When a woman asks for raises, she uses reasons such as a family hardship or upcoming wedding costs instead of bragging about her achievement and why she deserves the extra cash.
4. When the boss comes up with all kinds of excuses for not giving her a raise, she believes that her boss will look after her best interests in the future and walks out empty handed.

I believe in today’s society, women perform equally as well as men and therefore, deserve the same paycheck. The sad reality is that we usually make 10% less than our male counterparts. How do men get what they want in the corporate world? Cosmopolitan March issue ran a small story and offered a few meaningful tips:

• They Ask for it. In a 2002 survey of working women, only 16% said they always negotiated salary. 41% women never brought that topic up. Boys don’t play that way. They believe there is always wiggle room and they ask and negotiate to get what they want. Hey, it’s all about business. There is nothing shy about asking for the money we deserve, right? So, do your homework, know what your position pays and ask for it. If cash isn’t possible, ask for more vacation days or bonuses.
• They track their wins. Men usually keep a mental log of their successes and make sure their bosses know about them as they happen. They will never let go easily of the credits and make sure they use these factors as negotiation tools. “The biggest mistake women make is viewing this behavior as shameless self-promotion”, says negotiation coach Jim Thomas, author of Negotiate to Win. So gals, pay more attention to your achievements and yes, make everybody aware of what you did.
• They are not distracted by praise. Approval isn’t enough for men. They want cash reward! So the next time when your boss says, “Nice work”, ask to reflect that “nice work” in your paycheck. A few reminds after you’ve done something great for the team will put you in a much better position when you negotiate raises during the once a year performance review.
• They don’t make it personal. Men don’t use wedding dress or any non-work related reasons to guilt higher-ups into giving them a bigger raise. Again, state why you deserve the bigger raise from your achievement and performance on the job. Also keep in mind that men don’t worry that asserting their demands will impact their relationship with their bosses. The boss has a budget agenda and he/she does understand that it is your job to look after your best financial interests. Hey, it’s all about business again. Nothing personal.
• They expect moments of discomfort. Money is an awkward topic and you may nervously chit chat and compromises any ground you’ve gained. The hard truth is that a guy will stick to his guns after he’s made his case even if he needs to deal with awkward silence and negotiation.

Post from: Blisstree

Why Women Make Less Money

Last night at 10pm, half of my team members were still here. And it was like this every night in the last couple of weeks. A guy who was supposed to help me out walked out of the project earlier this week ‘cause he couldn’t handle the pressure, leaving me with 15, 16 hrs/day worth of work.

I know I’ve promised not to kill myself anymore; yet, I am still busting my ass here till midnight everyday… I sometimes ask myself why the hell I am so dumb – I am walking out here in a week; the project manager has been plain rude to me; and it’s not my fault that my team member dropped out of the project.

Or maybe I am just too responsible to the point that I become so dumb that I don’t know how to care less? I admit that it is hard for me NOT to work hard with the team to try to deliver our product on time.

I have always had this question on my mind. Should I learn how to care less and let the project fumble or should I take the abuse and help the team?

I have another hard week ahead of me so I am interested in knowing what you think…

Post from: Blisstree

Too Responsible Or Too Dumb?

After thinking carefully for the whole weekend, I felt that no matter what I do and no matter how much I have determined that I would never ever come back to this company again, I should not burn the bridge.. You just never know.

I submitted an informal resignation letter today.

I am considering quitting ABC Company and this job because I can tell that I am physically and mentally tired. And I feel that without a break, my current condition does not allow me to take on the challenge as a senior IT consultant regardless how much I want to perform. As my long term manager, you know all the history in the past …

I truly think that in order to be responsible to myself, I need some time to manage my health and person life so that I can continue the next phase of my career. I also think this is the right thing to do to step down from consulting career right now before I start to under perform or jeopardize the projects.

I have already talked to my project manager and gave him a heads up that he needs to look for replacement so we can still deliver the project on time.

….

You can tell that I don’t want to burn the bridge. But I am very clear on making the point that I can’t do this anymore. Since this a public website, I can’t disclose too much information. I can tell you this much: I had a conversation with my manager after this letter was submitted. And he is trying his best to work out a couple of exit options to reduce my financial burden.

Stay tuned…

Post from: Blisstree

Leaving the Bridge Unburned

I couldn’t resist my “curiosity” and checked my work emails on the second night in Vegas. After scanning through a couple important emails, I felt the responsibility to respond to an important inquiry and made my recommendations. The next morning my phone woke me up at 8am. I was demanded to attend a conference call to discuss over the recommendations I had proposed. Although I lost the whole morning and starved my Dad to death without breakfast, I did prevent the project from going down on a wrong path.

In the end, I did spend the rest of my vacation peacefully without any disturbance only because my co-workers on the project were also taking a week and half off. I can’t imagine what’s gonna happen if I were the only one on the long term vacation. My phone would probably ring everyday.

Post from: Blisstree

The Reality Check

Check out Tony’s personal experiences while working on his seven worst jobs, including the terrifying moment where he really thought he was going to die.

You can also read about the worst jobs in history dated from Roman all the way to Victorian.

If you think our advanced technologies finally gave us a break from doing these miserable jobs, check out this guy’s confession:

When you look forward to getting hit with flying hunks of ass chili, it’s probably time to start looking for a new job. As a sewage treatment plant worker, my job is as awful as you probably imagine. One day while scrapping dried granny gravy off the sides of a tank that was supposed to be empty, a seal broke and began spraying a mixture of colon cannonballs, bloody tampons, and used condoms. After years of working in and around raw sewage, you get used to the anal butter. It’s the airborne packets of baby batter and exploding lady sponges that really get to you.
—Jack C.
Raspberry, PA

source: Maxim online

YUK!!! Jack, time to ask your company to buy a space suit for you with clean oxygen supply!

So, what’s the worst job you have ever done in your entire life?

Post from: Blisstree

The Worst Jobs In History

Here are a few ways to achieve the goal of seeing sunshine:

A) Buy from the vending machine as shown below

B) Join the smoking group so you can go outside every half an hour

C) Make enough troubles so you will be called into your boss’s window office a few times a day

D) Create some side projects. So one day, you can work for yourself from home with 15 windows around ya. Sweet!

Hmm… I think I will pick D)

Post from: Blisstree

Window Views Needed

Start with “You are 100% correct.”
Followed by a sentence to state your correct thought.
Then ask something from the man.

According to the psychologist, the man will be happy enough to do what you ask when his most ridiculous thought received approval from you.

Ok, let’s put that method to use. So, let’s say if my friend Cyco Miko (a guy) tells me, “Christine, I think the sun rises from the west”. I should say, “Oh, you are absolutely correct. But I prefer the sun rising from the east. Now can I have your Acura RSX please?” I suppose I can ditch my CRV and live happily ever after with his RSX??

Post from: Blisstree

What’s Up With The Male DNA? – He Has To Be 100% Right