4 Ways to Work from Home Now: Ditch Your 9-to-5 Gig

By Kristina Cowan, Senior Writer for PayScale.com

Are you tired of the 9-to-5 shuffle? It doesn't take much to build a case for working from home. Maybe your daily commute time is hours long, you can't find enough time to spend with your family, or you're fed up with your boss's 24-7 work schedule.

The good news is that there's help for people who find their 9-5 boring. And, the possibilities to work from home now are as interesting as they are diverse.

If you want to work from home now, you might consider exploring one of the following work from home paths-flexible work from home gigs that don't require a bachelor's degree and, sources say, generally pay between $10-$50/hour, some more, depending on experience, skills and location.

1. Virtual assistant. These jobs run the gamut, from work from home typing jobs, bookkeeping, transcription, proofing, editing, writing and distributing press releases, to Web design. Diana Ennen, author of Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA and president of Virtual Word Publishing, said the industry is exploding thanks to technology and the Internet, enabling VAs to not only work from home now, but work from anywhere. "More VAs are coming along, but even more important, the businesses are seeing how vital we are and how we can grow their business. We take over so many aspects of things they don't want to do. Our expertise helps them make more money because we offer specialties and things they need," Ennen said.

2. Virtual concierge. As a work from home virtual concierge, you help people with their to-do lists. "It could be anything from finding someone a movie time and buying them movie tickets to planning family vacations anywhere in the world to making appointments. Really just about anything that's legal," explained Lindsay Gibson, director of training for VIPdesk, which offers virtual concierge and customer service.

3. Pet-care franchisee. The business of caring for Fido and Fluffy is booming. The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association estimates that America in 2007 will spend $41 billion on pets, including $2.9 billion on pet services. So if you love animals and have an entrepreneurial spirit, this work from home job might be for you. Franchisees for FETCH! Pet Care serve as general managers for local pet-care operations, hiring staff, handling clients, overseeing billing, payroll and marketing, and sometimes taking care of animals.

FETCH! CEO Paul Mann says work from home franchisees must meet certain requirements: "They need business acumen, to be passionate and dedicated to the business. If we see they have those skills, we are less concerned about their education. If someone has been working in sales, marketing, staffing-those are much stronger attributes than whether or not they got a doctorate in psychology. We look for practical experience."

4. Medical transcriptionist. Work from home medical transcriptionists (MT) transcribe dictation from doctors and healthcare professionals, creating medical reports, correspondence and other administrative materials for patients' files. They must understand medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, pharmacology and how to translate medical jargon, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Read the full details of a medical transcriptionist job.

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Mengelola Kemarahan di Tempat Kerja

by RO

Banyak alasan pekerjaan yang bisa membuat Anda kehilangan kontrol akan emosi Anda dan �meledak� di tempat kerja. Tekanan pekerjaan, stress yang berkepanjangan, rekan kerja yang tidak kooperatif adalah sedikit dari banyak sebab yang bisa memicu kemarahan Anda.

Marah mungkin adalah reaksi awal yang paling mungkin timbul ketika Anda menemukan hal yang tidak sesuai dengan standar atau harapan Anda terhadap hasil kerja tim atau rekan kerja bahkan atasan Anda sendiri. Gejala yang muncul ketika Anda marah adalah detak jantung yang meningkat naik, wajah terasa panas dan rahang menjadi tegang. Beberapa orang melampiaskan kemarahan dengan memukul meja, membanting pintu. Ada juga yang menuliskan angry email yang isinya unek-unek kepada yang bersangkutan atau bahkan sangat mungkin mengkonfrontasi langsung kemarahan kepada orang tersebut.

Apapun trigger dan bentuk pelampiasan kemarahan Anda, hal pertama yang harus Anda sadari adalah bahwa kemarahan tidak akan menyelesaikan masalah yang sudah ada. Malah cenderung menciptakan masalah yang baru karena tanpa disadari Anda bisa saja mengeluarkan kata-kata tidak sepatutnya.

Marah, sama dengan bentuk emosi lainnya bisa dan sebaiknya dikontrol. Apalagi bila emosi ini yang berkaitan dengan lingkungan dan rekan kerja. Selain timbulnya masalah baru yang muncul, marah juga menimbulkan stress yang pada akhirnya berdampak pada produktifitas dan performa kerja Anda.

Tips apa yang bisa membantu mengelola kemarahan Anda?

1. Breathing technique

Ketika Anda merasa dorongan untuk marah, jangan segera bereaksi atau defensif terhadap pemicu kemarahan. Cobalah untuk diam dan bernafaslah perlahan-lahan. Rasakan setiap tarikan nafas Anda dan hitung perlahan-lahan. Cobalah untuk merilekskan tubuh dan pikiran Anda sebelum menganalisa masalah yang ada. Tekhnik ini memberikan kesempatan untuk meminimalisir dampak dari kemarahan yang mungkin timbul nantinya.

2. Dalam pikiran cobalah visualisasikan tempat yang bisa menenangkan.

Seperti tepi pantai yang tenang, padang rumput yang luas. Setiap orang umumnya mempunyai visualisasi yang berbeda tentang tempat dan situasi yang menenangkan.

3. Analisa pemicu kemarahan Anda dengan mengajukan pertanyaan ini; apakah kesalahan ini memang disengaja untuk membuat saya marah? Kemungkinan besar jawabannya adalah tidak. Masalah yang ditimbulkan biasanya karena ketidaksengajaan atau kecerobohan. Daripada menghabiskan energi untuk melampiaskan amarah, lebih baik Anda menggunakan energi Anda untuk memperbaiki dampak dari kesalahan tersebut.

4. Bayangkan jika Anda yang berada di posisi orang yang telah membuat Anda marah.

Apakah Anda akan marah kepada diri Anda sebesar kemarahan Anda pada orang tersebut?

5. Pikirkan konsekuensi terburuk yang Anda terima jika Anda melampiaskan kemarahan Anda sekarang.

Jika ternyata membahayakan posisi dan kredibilitas Anda, maka pikir masak-masak sebelum Anda �memuntahkan� amarah Anda.

Marah adalah hal yang manusiawi, tapi kalau Anda selalu marah, atau gampang marah bahkan selalu marah dan seringkali tips diatas gagal untuk mengendalikan kemarahan Anda, maka sudah saatnya Anda melihat ke dalam diri Anda sendiri dan mempertimbangkan untuk berkonsultasi dengan ahlinya.

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Successful Change Starts With a Shift in Perspective

Like so many in corporate America today, Susan needed more balance in her life - but she did not know how to get it. Faced with a 60-hour work week and a lengthy daily commute, Susan was left with little time for outside interests. Her job was literally draining her of energy, and her attitude at work was changing, especially within her business unit.

Who is Susan? Susan is a composite of thousands of executives who are pushed to the brink by trying to juggle demands on the job with demands at home. Susan could be you.

At work, Susan was accepting extra work and projects and was not able to say 'no' to her boss. She became frustrated and drained. By accepting everything and not speaking up for herself, Susan became increasingly frustrated and angry. She became more demanding and less flexible with her own team. Her usual encouragement to 'think outside the box' was replaced by a controlling 'do as I say' attitude.

Micromanagement became her style. As a result, her staff appeared less involved in their work. They began to distance themselves from her.

On the social front, Susan was also making unhealthy choices - spending time with friends and family that were draining and burdensome and then keeping silent and angry about it. She did not have anybody to talk with about her experiences and frustration, so there was no one who could help her develop the perspective necessary to propel her toward greater personal fulfillment.

Like so many other executives, Susan believed that if she increased her hours and worked harder, life at work would get better. Are you just like Susan? Do you think that if you become more demanding and micro-manage your employees, the job will get done? Do you think keeping silent makes the problems go away?

To anyone who still believes this way, this is your wake up call. It does not work. Change is the answer - change coupled with a shift in perspective.

But sustaining meaningful change is never easy. It takes desire, intention, a clear vision, a good plan . . . and commitment. Change also takes time. In our increasingly busy lives we often get overwhelmed with demands on our time. Complacency sets in, and we lose the ability to overcome inertia - the tendency of a body at rest to stay at rest or of a body in motion along a certain path to stay in motion along that path.

To change, we must create structure that encourages and supports change, and it begins with an all-important shift in perspective. Instead of living in silence and hiding - or being overly controlling in our work relationships-or feeling that we need to leave our job - we can start by considering a more fulfilling alternative.

In Susan's case, she looked at what energized her, what she was good at, and what gave her joy. She put limits on the amount of work she was willing to take on and began speaking up to make sure her needs were heard and met. She shifted from being a controlling team leader to one that encouraged risk-taking and 'thinking outside the box.'

The result? Greater group cohesion and less stress for everyone involved. Group members felt less restricted and more empowered. Susan added greater value to her company and the results were visible and rewarded. More opportunities-the kind of opportunities Susan wanted-started coming her way.

At the same time, Susan developed criteria for what she wanted in her relationships. She evaluated her current relationships and determined which ones needed to be addressed. She began to speak up to make her needs known, and in some cases she ended unfulfilling relationships. As she revised her standards and set limits, she gained more energy to try new activities outside of work-re-awakening areas of interest that she had long ago left behind.

Susan's success story can be your success story, too. And it starts with four simple steps.

You must . . .

1. Be clear about your intentions to make a change;

2. Be willing to experiment and to try new strategies to achieve the changes you want;

3. Be willing to learn what works and what does not, and to make adjustments;

4. Not let fear stop you from making these significant changes.

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Mengusir Rasa Kantuk di Kantor

by DSY

Diserang rasa kantuk dengan tiba-tiba, terutama sesaat setelah waktu makan siang adalah hal yang sering dialami karyawan, mungkin termasuk juga Anda. Apalagi pekerjaan Anda mengharuskan Anda menatap layar komputer berjam-jam, di dalam ruangan ber-AC yang sejuk. Wah.. bisa dibayangkan beratnya mata Anda setiap siang.

Rasa kantuk yang datang tiba-tiba diawali dengan beberapa gejala yang umum, seperti menguap berulang kali, mata terasa pedih, badan terasa lesu tak bertenaga dan sulit berkonsentrasi. Ada banyak penyebab kelelahan dan rasa kantuk, diantaranya; jam tidur yang kurang, bekerja dalam waktu yang tidak sewajarnya, atau memang memiliki masalah dengan jam tidur.

Mengantuk saat sedang bekerja di kantor memang menghambat produktifitas kerja karena Anda menjadi tidak fokus dengan pekerjaan Anda. Memang tidak ada obat yang paling manjur selain tidur. Beberapa penelitian bahkan menyatakan bahwa napping alias tidur siang bisa meningkatkan produktifitas seorang karyawan. Penelitian oleh NASA menyatakan bahwa napping beberapa menit saja (kurang lebih 26 menit) bisa meningkatkan performa kerja sebanyak 34%.

Dr. Sara C. Mednik, penulis buku "Take a Nap! Change Your Life", menyebutkan dalam bukunya bahwa tidur siang membantu meningkatkan kemampuan memproses memori, alertness dan meningkatkan kemampuan mempelajari hal-hal baru.

Beberapa perusahaan di Jepang bahkan menyediakan ruangan bagi karyawan yang ingin tidur siang. Bahkan di Cina, ada hukum yang menjamin waktu untuk istirahat sejenak setelah makan siang. Di kota-kota besar di Spanyol, banyak restoran yang menyediakan tempat bagi karyawan untuk tidur sejenak setelah makan siang. Namun, karena Anda bekerja di Indonesia yang tidak memiliki kebiasaan tidur siang, maka opsi tidur harus dikesampingkan dulu.

Berikut adalah beberapa tips untuk membantu mengusir rasa kantuk saat tengah bekerja di kantor:

1. Tidur cukup.
Istirahat yang cukup di malam sebelumnya membantu tubuh Anda untuk jadi lebih fit dan segar selama bekerja. Sebuah penelitian menyebutkan bahwa rata-rata manusia membutuhkan jam tidur sebanyak 7,5 jam setiap harinya agar bisa berfungsi maksimal keesokan harinya.

2. Cari cahaya terang.
Jadi jika rasa kantuk mulai menyerang, carilah tempat yang lebih terang dari lokasi Anda sekarang. Berjalanlah menghampiri jendela dan lihat ke luar sejenak.

3. Basuh muka dan tangan Anda dengan air.
Wajah dan telapak tangan adalah daerah sensitif yang bisa langsung bereaksi dengan kejutan. Air dingin dapat mengejutkan syaraf Anda yang lemas sehingga menjadi alert kembali.

4.Get some fresh air.
Keluarlah dari ruangan kerja Anda dan hiruplah udara luar kantor. Rasakan panas matahari di tubuh Anda.

5. Makan siang kaya protein.
Cobalah untuk mengurangi asupan karbohidrat waktu Anda makan siang. Karbohidrat meningkatkan level serotonin di otak sehingga tubuh menjadi mengantuk. Sementara protein membantu mengurangi peningkatan jadar serotonin dalam otak. Snack on fruit karena dapat dengan cepat memberikan energi yang dibutuhkan tubuh tanpa membuat Anda lemas.

6. Hiruplah wewangian atau aroma terapi.
Aroma yang segar dapat merangsang indera penciuman Anda. Letakkan pewangi beraroma mint atau jeruk di meja Anda atau pada AC.

7. Dengarkan musik.
Mendengarkan musik dipercaya dapat mengurangi rasa kantuk karena merangsang otak untuk tetap waspada. Suara yang teratur seperti deru AC malah makin membuat Anda mengantuk.

8. Lakukan olahraga ringan.
Luangkan waktu untuk sekedar berjalan-jalan di kantor selama beberapa menit untuk mengendurkan otot-otot yang tegang. Selain berjalan-jalan juga bisa dilakukan dengan menggerakkan kepala, tangan, kaki atau sekedar melakukan stretching ringan.

9.Banyak minum.
Mengantuk disebabkan oleh kurangnya oksigen yang mengalir ke otak. Minum air putih yang banyak dapat membantu otak mendapatkan oksigen yang dibutuhkan. Beberapa orang minum kopi untuk meningkatkan semangat, ini karena kandungan kafein dalam kopi yang berfungsi merangsang sistem saraf pusat. Namun sayangnya efek kafein ini hanya sementara. Cobalah minum green tea untuk menggantikan kopi.

Untuk mengatasi rasa kantuk yang tiba-tiba menyerang di tempat kerja, Anda terlebih dahulu harus mengenali penyebabnya. Walaupun sering terjadi, perasaan lesu karena mengantuk mau tidak mau dapat menganggu kinerja kerja karyawan. Jangan biarkan rasa kantuk merusak prestasi kerja Anda hari ini.

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Expect Success to Stay Self-Motivated and Get Great Results

By Caterina Rando, MA, MCC

If you called my office you will hear my voice mail message that ends with the words Expect Success.

Theres a important intent behind that. What if every time we made a phone call or personal request or met with a potential new customer, you expected you would be successful? Do you think your behavior would be different?

If we truly expected success we would make more phone calls, make more requests and schedule more appointments. And that would result in more business, more income, more ease in our workday, and more overall success.

When we call people or meet with them, we have to hold the attitude that we are offering them an opportunity. An important opportunity, and maybe even the perfect opportunity for them. If they do not go for it, thats fine. Our responsibility to ourselves is to make the offer. It doesnt matter what the thoughts and actions of the other person are; it doesnt matter whether they agree to what you are offering or not. What matters is that you go for what you want all the time, every time, and are as proactive and confident as you would be if you knew you could not miss.

As you well know success is not a destination we arrive at; it is an attitude we hold along the way. All the joy of our professional lives is not in the outcome, but in the process. Do not rob yourself of the satisfaction that lies on the path along the wayenjoy every call you place, every order you take, every presentation you make. Revel in the process of being a successtoday.

To expect more success, more of the time, follow these steps:

- Acknowledge all the small successes in the process. Count your wins daily. Wins are all those things that go your way in a given daythe letter you wrote, the VIP you finally got hold of, the parking ticket you eluded, the compliment you received.

- Smile. Both psychologically and physiologically, this simple, easy action improves our well-being, which improves our outlook, which prepares us for all the great things we are expecting to happen to us. To become fit and healthy from a success standpoint, give your smile muscles a workout just like the rest of your body.

- Hold your success attitude in your body. Stand up straight, raise your chin up, keep your shoulders back and feet firmly planted. Feel the power of personal success in every cell in your body.

- Create a compelling success image in your mind. Once you expect your success, see it. Imagine it vividly and in colorwhat are you doing, where are you, what are you wearing, how does it feel like in your body? Make your success as real as possible in your mind, so your expectancy is even stronger and, as a result, your actions even bigger.

- Use an affirmation or set an intentions. State to yourself over and over what you intend to create today. State your intentions verbally, out loud to yourself; state them silently, in your mind; and record them on a cassette tape so that you can listen to yourself stating what you expect to create in your life.

- Beyond Affirming, Feel It. Do not stop at the mental part of expecting success. Also feel it in your body. You have felt the good feeling of connecting, achieving, realizing what you want.

- Be bold. Do all those things today that you know you will do when you are more successful. That is how you will create the success you strive for in your business and life.

You will never be more successful than you expect you can be. Greet every day with the belief that good things are going to happen to you. Expect to be successful with your calls, appointments and projects. Your work life will be enriched; you will take more risks, make more requests, and seize more opportunities. That will result in a better life, and that is what success is all about. I say that people who expect success not only think they are more successful, they actually are more successful. I urge you to vigorously and fully prove this theory in your own life.

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Preparing for the future of work

Abridged: Guardian Careers

NEW YORK, NY -- Over the past 20 years the shape of the workforce has changed beyond recognition. It's obvious that technology is moving as fast as ever -- and the workplace must keep up. A recently produced list of future professions suggests that by 2030 workers might be training for careers as diverse as space pilots, tour guides and educational avatar moderators. Another recent survey suggests that, by 2017, there will also be an 883% rise in employment for other business services -- for instance accountancy, law, consultancy, advertising and public relations.

An example of a thriving, emergent sector is the digital economy, with many more people expected to work in areas such as IT and broadcasting in the coming years. For those already classed as digital workers, changing technology and expectations will mean an increased demand for people to work across a number of platforms.

We're entering a new age of sustainability, meaning we will need to change our entire system of production and consumption, get more efficient with our use of resources and recognize that new sectors are going to emerge as a result. Finally, as the population ages, the number of people employed as care workers will increase. In turn, there will be a rise in informal care, with more employees caring for children or elderly relatives themselves, meaning employers offering flexible working will have the edge over competitors.

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Work and Heart

by Johannes Siegrist, Ph.D.

Work gives people opportunities to receive many rewards. Some rewards include job satisfaction, whereas others are outward societal rewards, i.e., money, esteem, and status. There is, or should be, reciprocity between the effort expended to accomplish work and all the gains realized.

It has long been recognized, however, that a discrepancy exists between work and reward. That discrepancy leads to psychological stress that frequently finds expression in somatic symptoms, including heart risk and cariac health.

In an exhaustive review discussing the links between psychosocial occupational stress and health, Johannes Siegrist, Ph.D., concludes that high-cost/low gain employment must be considered a risk factor for cardiovascular health.

In his review, Siegrist measures high cost by extrinsic forces such as the demands of the job and intrinsic sources such as the motivations of the worker in a demanding situation.

He measures low-gain conditions by salary, the workers perceived esteem of colleagues and supervisors as well as availability of help from those sources and degree of status control the worker perceives as having relative to the work, i.e., control over the type of work done, whether or not relocation was required, prospects for promotion.

The review addresses three relevant questions concerning the links between psychosocial occupational stress and health:

1) How to identify those components within the global psychosocial occupational environment that are of critical importance to health.

2) How chronically stressful experience is maintained in individuals who are exposed to the psychosocial stressors identified in theoretical models.

3) The relationship between adverse health effects of chronically stressful experience in terms of high effort and low reward.

Although Dr. Siegrist concludes that high cost/low gain conditions at work must be considered a risk constellation for cardiovascular health, he defines some of the numerous questions that still remain and should be addressed in future research.

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