Sabbaticals can be a great way to revitalize yourself, especially in today’s hectic go-go-go working society. However, it can be tricky to pull off since taking such a big break from work has a few risks. Considerations include continuation of health benefits, pause in usual income, and resuming work after the break. If planned correctly, sabbaticals can be a great way to refresh your mind and gain new perspectives that can potentially help you once you get back to work.
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STAY CALM. Most important from the get-go is to stay calm. If you spaz out you’ll most likely end up doing something really stupid that can come around and screw you (yeah..you know where). Almost everyone gets at least one bad review in their careers, so stay calm, and see how to deal.
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Many people have an interest in starting their own business. Either it be from a strong entrepreneur spirit, or you’re just sick of working for your belligerent boss, many consider the prospects of leaving the supposed rat race. Being an entrepreneur indeed has its benefits, but many do not see the not so cheery extras that come with working for yourself.
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There’s always that talk that you eventually need to have that just totally sucks. Either you’re telling someone they’re being let go, or asking for a raise, or telling your boss you royally fucked something up. Each of these and more are sure your get you stressed and chewin on your nails. The good news is that you’re not alone. Most people have a terrible time dealing with terrible conversations. Read More

For those of us that have to travel for work, the weekly travel is a huge part of the week. Whether it’s a driving commute or flying, travel takes up a huge chunk of time, and wears on you mentally. Unless you handle the travel and have control over it, then it can really cause major job discontent and drain you mentally and physically.
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As our parents and those slightly their senior begin to retire and leave the workforce, the dynamics at the workplace will start to change. This will give our generation options and opportunities that our parents didn’t have. The main factor in this will be the great change in total workforce size and also changing perceptions of society.

Payscale.com published an article discussing what the retirement of the baby boomers means for us.

There are about 78 million boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, and as they begin hitting retirement age-the first wave turns 65 in 2011-experts anticipate workforce shortages. Read More

I for one hate meetings. Unless they’re donuts and cookies meetings, where the topic is to eat donuts and cookies. But for those of us who work in an office, meetings are an unavoidable thing. You might be able to ninja your way out of a few, but the house always wins. My way of getting through them have been to zone out but keep alert for key words (such as ‘action item’ or ‘make 600 copies’). I know that probably isn’t the best way, but it gets me by usually. I’ve been lucky that there’s usually meeting minutes to give me a recap on all that I dazed on.

For a more tactical approach, go grab this month’s GQ (the one with Stephen Colbert on the front holding an oddly frightening Colbert baby) and flip to page 128 for a great article. Read More

There is a great article in this month’s Men’s Health on reaching our goals of success. Whether it’s “happiness, freedom, or a bank account full of f-you money,” success is something we are all striving for. They identified five virtues that they considered the pillars of success: ambition, intuition, focus, courage, and leadership.

These qualities can help you reach your goal, whether you’re trying to build a hundred-million-dollar software firm or open an old-school diner out on the four-lane.
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Some people stay at their first company of employment for their whole career. Others hop around a few years before settling in. Others hop around a lot. I recently left my first place of employment for family, and have discovered that leaving is not easy and not just packing my box and going (unless the leaving is due to you getting canned, in which case you do want to vacate fast).

Unless you want to burn bridges, there’s a lot of things that you have to deal with, including writing a letter of resignation to your manager, exit interviews, and paperwork. Aside from the administrative items, there’s the matter of co-workers and friends that you are leaving. Each of these is a topic that I’ll write about later. For now, the focus is the letter of resignation. Read More

For a lot of us, up until now the road map of life was pretty clear. We learn early on that you go to school. From kindergarten to grade 12 and later on maybe to undergrad and beyond. But there will be a time when the education stage of your life makes way for your professional life, and that’s when things can get a bit confusing. Where do you go from here? How are all those years in school going to help you get where you want to go? Here’s a few ways to put all that education to work.

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