Gimme A Break

There’s something about walking into an office and being attended to by staff dressed in very casual outfits, more casual than what I’m wearing in some cases. I mean, for a work at home mom like me, it’s okay to go casual. But if you’re working for a big organization where you have to deal with customers on a face-to-face basis, I definitely think you have to look professional.

For the guys, there’s always the mens dress shirts that are both presentable and comfortable, and if you buy them at Blair.com, there’s lots of choices and they’re all quite affordable. Well, for a start, I think companies should have a dress code for customer service staff. Those who work in the back office, well, those guys can go casual if they like because they don’t come into direct contact with the customer.

But for the front-desk staff, they should dress professionally to project a  good image of the company. I like the colors of Blair men’s shirts. In peaches and pinks, they’re very lively and upbeat and it’s not like men must wear dark colors all the time like they did in our parents’ time. That’s rather old school. Color is definitely in and men aren’t limiting themselves to the darker tones any more, thanks to people like David Beckham who created the metrosexual look.

In fact, adding  a bit of color will certainly brighten up the office and make it much more welcoming to the customer. Whenever I go shopping with DH, I would pick out pastels and distinctive colors for him. The weather is very hot and dark colors absorb heat so they’re not very comfortable to wear outdoors. But light colors not only look cheery but they are cooler and more comfortable to wear for long hours.

• is your home office office-like?
• feel-good football wear
• empty-handed
• brown
• different strokes

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An ex-co-worker of mine was lamenting how she dreads having to go back to work after this long stretch of annual leave. I used to feel that way too when I was working fulltime.

The only difference is that I never considered nor made my office my second home. I was clear about striking a balance between family and work. I mean, even if I lived in the office, I’d still never be done with work.

Basically the work would always be there, it was just up to me to know when to walk out of the office and home to my kids. I was by no means an irresponsible employee but I had my priorities. And once I got those down pat, it was easy.

For some people, I know it’s not so easy. Their work is their life and even though they complain about having to go back to the grind soon, I know they wouldn’t have it any other way :lol: .

Different strokes, that’s all.

• is your home office office-like?
• slow but at least I’m blogging again
• Tuesday morning blues
• sauna au naturale
• kids at the mall

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Many of those who run a home business send out emails to let their customers know about their promotions. I receive quite a number of these from local malls as well because I’m such a shopaholic.

If you have a mailing list, you might want to check out iContact, a leading email marketing service, which has recently included the iContact community into their product.

The iContact community feature allows your visitors to comment, rank and discuss your newsletter. The top ranked content gets featured on the community home page.

You can find out more by reading their blog. And while you’re at it, why not sign up for a free trial of iContact and see for yourself?

• do the dofollow
• software for your intranet
• ami-chan blogs
• no average mom
• me, trading apprentice?

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About the contractual job I was offered yesterday, I told the guy that I would think about it and call him back. I really can’t decide if I want to give up my fancy-free lifestyle to tie myself down to a desk again, even if it’s for a few hours a day, know what I mean?

I thought about having to give up my mornings. I thought about having to give up hanging out with my friends. I thought about having to give up my workouts. I thought about having to give up blogging.

Ack! It’s not what I want. So I can’t take the darned contract.

I called the guy up and told him, thanks but no thanks. He sounded disappointed but didn’t want to admit it. I hope he has better luck finding someone who’s as competent and responsible as I am, heh!

• call from the nosies
• message before calling
• a geek squad is what you need
• the making of a fool
• the hi ho, hi ho dilemma

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One of the guys I worked with previously called this morning to offer me my contractual job back. Well, it’s going to be a new contract doing pretty much what I was doing before.

I’m practically hitting the roof with excitement at the thought of dragging myself to work again. It’s been a while since I stopped. I kinda like the fact that I can go dancing and hit the gym any time any day.

So I’m not sure I really want to wake up before first light, grope my way around getting dressed and made up, gulp down a hurried breakfast and trudge off to work with the rest of the world. What do you think?

• the newcomer
• light or dark colors for guys?
• my two left feet
• breakfast with an old friend
• coffee break

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I met ex-colleague at the grocery store yesterday that I hardly recognized. She seems to look older and somewhat worn after her, was it, two kids? Taking care of two kids isn’t easy, I guess.

I thought she was still working fulltime but it seems she left to stay home with the kids a few years ago. Now that the kids are at school, she’s working part-time with a small company doing market research.

Raising kids don’t come cheap these days. She says she needs the money since her husband’s business is not doing too well. I hope things work out better soon.

• dealing with the business jitters
• strangers for daughters
• work hard but won’t spend
• a fun way to make money on the weekends
• one lucky girl

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My ex-boss was never the kind of guy who would listen to good advice. When we were setting up our corporate website and blogs, we specifically requested to have it set up on private virtual servers for better performance and security.

We did all our homework and presented him our dedicated virtual server plans. He wasn’t particularly impressed, said it was too costly.

He insisted we run everything on our inhouse servers. As it turned out, the silly thing died on us one day and we ended up signing up with a virtual server hosting provider. Wish we could’ve said ‘told you so’.

• driving me nuts
• make a list to save money
• virtual sticky pads
• got my house plan picked out but…
• beware of rocks!

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There was a time when I wanted to sell my hand-made beaded jewelry at Sunday markets. I was told that even for a guy, it’s not easy to transport and construct the trade show display, which is typically very cumbersome.

Someone recommended ExhibitDEAL which is offering Entasi Tension Fabric Displays with an easy to assemble, sturdy aluminum frame.

They also have some of the best graphics around. And apparently they’re so easy to put together that even women should have no problems with it. Since I’ve abandoned my idea of selling my beaded jewelry, I’m saving it to tell someone who might need this in their business venture.

• contemporary gold
• a fun way to make money on the weekends
• times are bad
• Quick Shop makes it easy to save
• traveling light even with a baby bed

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