Work clothes that aren’t made by little hungry children putting in 18 hour days
Good news, Homies! I just acquired my first white collar job in a while. My wardrobe is almost completely unprepared for this, and I really feel strongly about not buying sweatshop-made clothing.
I am normally a big thrift or vintage shopper, but as everyone who does this knows, it’s kind of luck-of-the-draw on whether you’ll find anything. I’m a mediocre seamstress, but not good enough to produce my own clothing en mass. Combing the internet for non-sweatshop goods, I find a lot of men’s bike clothes, a legion of organic hemp t-shirts, and a variety of beautiful things which are way too hippie to be my regular style, and not a lot I can wear to work.
If non-sweat shop clothing is also a priority for you, how do you make it work?
Would you buy a replica of your favorite designer?
Let’s face it: not everyone has the wallet to afford designer furniture. Every time I daydream (i.e. surf the internet) about the perfect egg chair, my heart ends up broken by the price tag. Every. Time. Well, not exactly every time. Not since I discovered the very interesting world of copies. Shhh, don’t say it too loud. It’s not allowed. It’s bad, very bad. But is it, really?
Working from home: separating personal time from work time
When my husband and I get home from our day jobs, we don’t waste much time before jumping into our second jobs of operating an at-home business. Now that our careers take place both in and out of the home, the line between work and personal time has started to blur. Our house now doubles as a work place, and I often find that I can’t truly relax when I’m there because I feel guilty when I’m not working on business operations.
What steps can I take to separate personal time from work time when at home?
Emergency funds and YOU!
If you lost your job today, where would that leave you? Could you pay for six months of health insurance? Groceries? RENT?! Or are you running out of money in a couple weeks? Sounds like you need an emergency fund.
Offbeat job interview tips: 3 things you must ask your interviewer
Once a month or so, we get a little scope-creepy and take a look at budget and career issues. Today, I’mma put on my old corporate job hat and give you the three questions that YOU should ask your interviewer, to totally impress them and make them start visualizing all the ways they are desperate to have you working this job.
How can I minimize weirdness when hosting clients in my home office?
I run a business from my home, and I often have to meet with clients and collaborators. I’ve been meeting in coffee shops, but I want to make a change: some meetings require lots of materials or even room to spread out drawings and papers, and I hate lugging this stuff around and then splaying out my work in a cafe. However, I want to make sure I’m projecting a professional persona even when I greet a client at my front door and lead them through the living room to my office. My house is fine — it’s neat, though doesn’t have a ton of furniture. It just feels strange to invite people to see where I live AND work.
Am I silly to worry about this? Is there anything you can suggest to allay my twinge of weirdness about mixing business and personal worlds?
How to measure the days when you work from home
GOOD DAYS:
Shower
Wear a bra
Leave the house
No internet drama to deal with
Speak face-to-face with someone other than immediately family
Quick and easy exercises you can do at your desk in 7 minutes or less
I’m not an exercise buff by any means — the most I do is yoga three times a week, when I’m really disciplined about it. Most of the time my schedule (working from home + parenting a small child = I’m all over the place) makes regular yoga attendance a challenge. However, this doesn’t mean I don’t like to at least feel like I’m being healthy while I’m sitting at my desk for a few hours each day. To combat the overall feeling of ick that I generally get, I created this series of small exercises to do to keep my circulation up and spirit happy.