Work

So many times over the last decade, a friend, co-worker or someone I have just met has looked at me and said, "Ugh! I have NO work life balance." There is also the variation which goes like this, "I need a better work life balance and I need it NOW!" As a working mother, I have struggled with work life balance myself. I still do. But I wonder if people are tired of talking about work life balance. Is it just assumed that there is no such thing as work life balance? That it is a myth? I don't agree with that way of thinking. I never have considered it a myth. I think it's obtainable if you set boundaries, make sacrifices and difficult choices -- and then do your best every day to live a life that leaves you fulfilled.  Sometimes, during the span of your career, you will put family first, or maybe yourself first. Sometimes, you will put work first (maybe not by choice). And that's just the way it is. What I have noticed, though, is that job ads have begun using "work life balance" … [Read more...] about Is Work Life Balance Still A Concern?

When WeWork came into being nine years ago, it arrived as a fresh idea — a company that would retrofit empty office and loft spaces for start-up entrepreneurs, all working in isolation. For upward of several hundred dollars a month, renters — “members’’ in WeWork argot — would not just be getting a place to work; they would be buying the camaraderie of conventional office life. The model, though, was problematic from the outset. For one thing, most start-ups fail. And the freelance writers, graphic artists, videographers, and so on who were logical WeWork clients were seeing their livelihoods decimated by technology. In smaller cities, one real estate developer who had tried to buy a building occupied by WeWork told me, bankers were skeptical of underwriting the purchases precisely because of this obvious volatility. By 2016, WeWork began to focus more intently on attracting institutional “members,’’ companies with 500 employees … [Read more...] about Was WeWork Ever Going to Work?

By Joe Dwinell | [email protected] | Boston HeraldJanuary 11, 2019 at 12:06 am Readers asked for it, and Friday the “Your Tax Dollars at Work” public payroll report is back on bostonherald.com. The state Comptroller’s Office posted the 2018 payrolls Thursday and the Herald has cut them up for easy use today. You can search 100,000-plus rows in the state payroll database or the more than 7,000 salaries at the MBTA on the Herald website. You can search for individuals, departments, by title or by highest or lowest earners. If you have a payroll tip or question, email us at [email protected] or call the tip line at 617-619-6493. We will take all your suggestions and we build on the tax dollars at work rolling report. … [Read more...] about Your Tax Dollars at Work report returns

By Joe Dwinell | [email protected] | Boston HeraldJanuary 13, 2019 at 12:09 am The state pension payroll was the top request submitted by Herald readers who studied the “Your Tax Dollars at Work” payroll reports this past week. Today, we deliver that database. Go to bostonherald.com and sort through the 2018 pension data for retired educators and state employees. If you see something you’d like more of, send your request to [email protected] or call our tip line at 617-619-6493. Stay tuned for more databases in the coming weeks in the Herald’s award-winning database report. … [Read more...] about Your Tax Dollars at Work report

Several cities and states, including New York and San Francisco, have passed fair scheduling laws. On Thursday, Representative Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, plans to announce that she and Senator Elizabeth Warren will reintroduce the Schedules That Work Act, which would require employers in the United States to provide schedules two weeks in advance and compensate employees whose schedules are changed abruptly or are particularly long or difficult. One in 10 American children have parents with these jobs, the researchers estimated, and they suffer consequences, too. Children of parents with precarious schedules were much more likely to exhibit anxiety, guilt or sadness than children of parents with stable schedules, according to survey results from 4,300 workers with children 15 and younger. They were also more likely to argue, destroy things and have tantrums. Families’ economic hardship was one reason, researchers found, and another was time pressure. Parents with … [Read more...] about How Unpredictable Work Hours Turn Families Upside Down