The rise of manufacturing in Australia
Australia learned a valuable lesson in the 1800s, when the gold rush came to an abrupt end, and legions of settlers who had come searching for riches not only found themselves lacking in riches, but lacking in work as well.
Up until that point, the purpose of Australian manufacturing was solely to support the mining industry. Settlements were established to feed labourers and the nearby miners, workshops were built to fashion tools and leather, shipyards were constructed to repair the ships that were the only contact with the rest of the world, and of course, breweries popped up to set in motion the nation’s long love affair with beer.
The influx of settlers brought an increasing diversity of skills and an increasing demand for goods, so the manufacturing industries grew, and grew even more when the gold rush ended, resulting in a surplus of labour (blog.matthews.com.au). Continue reading
Working from home is becoming a more familiar and increasingly popular concept for many of today’s workforce. Staff and businesses who adopt working-from-home policies readily report increased productivity levels, and happier team members due to the flexible approach that it brings. But what are the facts – does working from home indeed make you more productive?
In the current buoyant financial market many companies are running thin on employees, as a result of staff cuts and redundancies. Due to this, existing employees have to take on increasing workloads which can de-motivate them. To keep staff motivated and therefore increase their productivity, here are a few things you can do.
At my recent university graduation I met someone who was also graduating and is now working in the finance industry. Six days a week. Long hours. Determined to get ahead. As a work-life balance specialist I am in two minds about this. I preach to people that they shouldn’t sacrifice their life for the sake of work yet at the same time because I work for myself, I work all kinds of crazy hours too. But I think the key difference here is that I don’t allow work to take over my social life.
In a tough economy, it can be difficult to find companies actively looking to hire new blood. When you do happen to spot an elusive job wanted ad, you can be sure that the recruiter will be inundated with hundreds of applications from candidates with decades of experience and impeccable credentials.
New government benefit rulings mean that many people who may have not worked for some time due to a disability may now be declared fit for work. If you are declared fit for work then you need to be aware of what you can expect and what employment rights you have.
When most companies approach “organisational design”, they do so from the point of view of rethinking and reconfiguring business processes. The result, they hope, will be improvements in in critical measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service and speed.
Have you ever wondered about the relationship between you and your co-workers? Many of us
Blazers: where would we be without them? Whether you’re a smart/casual media-type, a buttoned-down financial trailblazer or software guru, the blazer is a consistent smart-bet in interview situations. However, as this picture demonstrates, it’s no get out of jail free card. No matter how smart you may look outwardly, beware the lapels and deep neckline. This can create certain, shall we say, 
Not many of us have a lot of experience with contracts, and when it comes to signing a new employment contract, the basics are often hidden beneath a mountain of jargon and phrases which seem as though they’re designed solely to confuse. However, there are a certain few things you should always look for in the contract, to find out exactly what your rights are.
Volunteering as defined by Google is:
Management Accountants were traditionally employed to work in dusty accounting departments with calculators and keyboards, today management accountants find themselves integrated throughout organisations as key cogs in a wide array of functions. Once seen as mere number crunchers with a controller function, they are now involved much more in decision making that drives process changes at all levels of the company.
We often hear we are what we eat however of more importance is the view that we are what we think. I’ve always been fascinated at how a focus on a negative thought almost certainly results in a negative action. Let me give you an example – when I returned to riding a motorcycle in my 40’s the advice given to me was to focus on “not falling off” the bike. Now the words Falling off predominate that phrase and in fact the mind focuses on that and then the natural action is in fact to fall off. I decided to flip the coin and instead repeat to myself “Stay Upright” as that is the result I wanted. It worked well although I was always mindful of the negative thoughts flooding my mind.
A novated lease allows a business to lease a car on an employee’s behalf, which is why a novated lease is also called “car-salary packaging” or “salary sacrifice.”
Economic forces have an enormous impact on worldwide culture and careers. As communication and transportation technologies become faster and more efficient, the distances (both physically and socially) between people across the globe shrink. This provokes cultural exchange on a scale unprecedented in history. Yet while the technologically driven flow of information alters the world in profound and immeasurable ways, the modern exchange of resources, skills, and labour has perhaps an even greater transformative effect on the global community. 
I was once asked to transfer my network to the man who replaced me in a company after I resigned as managing director. I tried to explain that it is not possible to transfer relationships. I was able to introduce him to people in my network however in the end the synergistic collaborations will form between the two people or not. I could not influence that relationship.
As an employee looking for work what makes you more valuable, education or actual work experience? There are pros and cons for both and different industries will want different things but from personal experience I would say it is having a good mix of both.
I love networking as it is a way to grow the knowledge of who is out there, who has skills and who can help you when you need them – at work, on a project or picking up the kids. Most people however have an inaccurate view of networking. For me networking is the proactive and structured development of business and personal relationships, in order to capture opportunities and extend our circle of influence. The key to networking in this century is to develop ultimate contacts, within “six degrees of separation” with implied, not demanded, reciprocation. A network is a group of people you know who provide either success or support options in your life. 
One of my Mentees and I Skype. Face to face meetings are really good as you get to know the person more intimately, when you can see the twitches and body movements when issues are raised.
Sheryle Moon is a former Telstra Businesswoman of the Year, an inductee of the Business Women’s Hall of Fame, the author of “
Mentoring is not about a silver bullet – there is never just one right way to do something, to face a challenge or harvest an opportunity. The Mentee has the opportunity and hopefully the courage to invest time and effort in thinking about themselves, analysing the issues they face and developing the appropriate solution for them in their situation, which is why the Mentor is there as a guide not the Instructor.
I mentor a lot of people. Sometimes they are referred to me by a professional association that they belong to, sometimes I am approached directly but more often than not I am approached by their employer to mentor this person. The employer will have two reasons for wanting the person mentored: firstly they are recognised as a high potential person who needs some help in understanding their career possibilities they have and the way they might achieve them, secondly the employer may have seen that this person has some issues that need to be addressed or capability that needs to be developed. Either way I am often surprised how little people think about what they want and even when they have, how reluctant they are to express it out loud. 
Achieving a work life balance almost sounds like an outdated New Age term – except that it’s an issue that seems to be re-occurring even more so these days.
Graduating university is a very exciting time, but it is also a time when reality often hits hard. It is expected that full-time jobs will be found and you will start to be financially independent, taking on more responsibility and generally just being an ‘adult’, whatever that may mean!
I’ve been thinking a lot about the actions taken by Marissa Mayer and have certainly expressed initial disappointment that she took these actions. I am surprised and saddened on two accounts.
Workplace stress complaints are becoming more common. The effects of enduring stress at work may result in:-
Let’s face it, when you’re looking for a job, you want it as fast and as easy as you can get it. It can be overwhelming and time-consuming searching for a job. It’s true that you likely won’t land an interview, or job for that matter, without actually applying for job openings (unless they come through networking and weren’t advertised). However, when it comes to applying to jobs, you’ll actually have a better chance at landing a job interview if you focus on quality over quantity of job applications. You will benefit more by spending increased time on individual job applications – customizing your professional resume and cover letter and doing research on the company before sending in your materials, than on shooting out dozens of generic responses to any job openings you see. Here’s why… 
The English Language
Today and increasingly for young Australians, career resilient workers will be those dedicated to continuous life-long learning, ready to reinvent themselves to keep pace with change and willing and able to take responsibility for their own career. 
Growing up you believe you will work hard to achieve good grades at school, go to university and then find yourself a career where you will work your way up within a company to get to the top. In reality many university graduates are finding it a struggle to secure their ‘dream job’ or any job in their field, as job opportunities dwindle within the tough economic times, graduates now fall into unexpected job roles wherever they might find opportunity.
With the ever increasing pace of change in both business and personal lives to contend with, is it any wonder people feel they cannot achieve the necessary balance across all the areas of their lives?
Yesterday’s blog (
Many people struggle with work-life balance and try to take an analytical approach to ensure they devote the appropriate time to each activity and even to people.
The fact is many 20-something year olds are having their own crisis. A quarter life crisis. I have not been to one social event in the last few months where at least someone, if not the entire group is unsure of what is going on in their life and also wondering is this all there is. 
A fair few people are now turning to other means of promoting themselves out in the employment market and one way to do this is to create your own website. It is not as time consuming and crazy as you think, if you search in a search engine for a project management professional as an example, more and more websites are starting to appear. This course of action is particularly good for contractors who need to be visible even when engaged in work as the next assignment needs to be lined up ready. 
We all dream about what might be and at the centre of our being we know who we are and what we want. As Shakespeare said – “Unto thy own self be true”. Planning is the articulation of this dream and what we want. To fail to achieve it is not the issue for many people, it is the failure to strive. There is still amongst many people that if you don’t strive you can’t fail. Many people are reluctant to plan because they do not want to fail to achieve their desired goals. They still hold the desires inside them however they fail to set a destination and the course they will chart to arrive there at some time in the future. 
There are lots of great reasons to change your career path. There are also lots of bad reasons. You might be exactly the right kind of person to strike out on your own, immerse yourself in your work, and build a thriving business. On the other hand, you might be perfectly happy working for someone else’s company so you can go home at 5 p.m. every day to have dinner with the family and watch TV, have your weekends free, etc. I’ve been on both sides of this fence, and today I’d like to share with you my observations on owning a business versus working for someone else’s business. Sometimes a major change is exactly what you need, but the grass is not always greener on the other side of the cubicle. 
Whether we want to drive to the house of a new friend in our home city or on a journey of a thousand kilometres, I doubt if anyone would just get into the car and start driving, hoping it was the right direction. Most of us would use a map and a city directory. We would ask other people if they could recommend the shortest way or the most scenic way depending on our objective for the drive. Why then do we travel through our life without a plan?
You sit down at work on day one and your boss lets you know that since you’re such a good bloke you’re going to be doing a bit of laundry for his wife on top of the database administration position that he had sold you on at the interview. Oh, and maybe pick up some coffee for the management team in the mornings. He pats you on the back, whistling as he walks away.
Having established a vision of how you want your life to be, it is important to set goals (both short and long term) to help you reach that vision. Planning is when we choose to take specific steps in a pre-determined direction and a pre-determined order.
I remain a firm believer in setting a vision and defining the steps or goals to achieve that goal. I recently heard an interview with Antidote author Oliver Burkeman 
Recent research by 
Lesson number one in smart investing is to spread your risk. You wouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket with your investments, so why do we do this without question with our main income stream – our career? This article is about my move into a more diversified income and career.
The reality is obvious – in today’s competitive job market you need to get yourself noticed right off the bat when submitting your resume or CV. Less obvious, however, is what to do to achieve this goal.
Achieving a balanced work and personal life is increasingly difficult for busy business managers and owners. The demands for business excellence can easily overshadow our own personal and family needs.
If one of your resolutions for 2013 was to save some money, then you might have found yourself staring into the abyss of your Kelvinator Frost Free trying to conjure up the tasty midday meal that will see you sail through another productive afternoon in the office. In the lunch game you are either a buyer, a maker or it seems, a taker.
Phlebotomy is a relatively simple medical procedure of drawing out blood from the human vein. The procedure is done either through puncture or incision on the surface of skin layers as well as underlying veins. Clearly, blood is a very important specimen when it comes to diagnosis and a mere 10 ml of blood sample from the donor is more than enough to make a comprehensive health profile. 
The root of all evil when at the Christmas party is of course alcohol. Whether you tell a co worker what you really think of them, lock lips in the stationary cupboard or flash the boss – 99.9% likelihood is that booze is the driving force behind your action (we can only hope).
rushing to collect your coffee. But in reality, do you have what it takes to call the shots, make the big calls and keep your company afloat?
When the topic of seasonal work is brought up, hundreds of overseas students fruit picking come to mind. Or maybe you’re considering part time hours at the local shop.
