My Blog is Read Across the World

Wow! Isn't it just amazing? I just checked the stats on my new blog and it's already being read across the world in the USA and Malysia. A big "Hello!" to all of you over there. I bet it's cold in the US at the moment. I spoke to a friend who lives in New York just yesterday, and he told me he has to get up at 4.30am to shovel the snow away so he can get to work. "Brrrrrrr!" is what I say. Although we have had floods in Qld and Vic, which is where I am from, I have been fortunate not to have had them here. They had some flooding 10 mins from here but that has quickly disapated - thank God. So to you all in the US I truly sympathise if you're getting up that early to shovel snow - put plenty of winter woolies on. I'm guessing the weather in Malysia isn't too bad at the moment with you being closer to the equator (I'm too lazy to google it). Oh well, back to work for me - still continually improving my website: http://jenslatermobileoffice.com.au Let me know how the weather is in your part of the world - or anything else you find that's interesting to chat about. I love connecting with people. Bye for now. Jennifer Slater

Updated Website

 

The new and improved website for Jen Slater Mobile Office is finally here! 
We think it is heads and shoulders above the old site - much more informative and 'user friendly' with several new forms such as a
 'quote form', general 'enquiry form',
 'free consultation' and 'feedback form'. It still has exactly the same web address: www.jenslatermobileoffice.com.au but the content has been fully updated and improved. 

We have included a more indepth run-down of all our services and products making it easier for our customers to both choose and book an assignment. We have also including an automatic 'booking form' for our customers to make a direct booking for a service online.

Customers are now encouraged to leave 'testimonies' on the site for our visitors to read and there is now an option for them to 'tell a friend' about our business and our highly regarded services and products.

So be sure to check it out. I'd love to hear from you letting me know what you think. Please leave a comment here, or on the new website.

 Thanks and kindest regards,
 Jennifer Slater.

I Need Sleep and it's Microsoft Word 2007's 'developer' tool's fault!!! - Do you need help creating a form with protected and unprotected fields in it?

I just worked on an almost impossible job for a client - it took me over 12hrs to complete - I've been up all night working on it 'til 7am - it should have only taken 30 minutes to an hour tops!

Have you ever tried to create a form for a client, or yourself, using the 'developer' tab? I bet most of you don't even know what I'm talking about. I don't think you are stupid for not knowing, I'm certainly not stupid myself. It's because Microsoft have hidden it so well within the program, that unless you know it's there you would never find it. Not only that, once you do find it, the options it offers aren't that 'user friendly'. Try figuring out how to 'unprotect' a document once you've protected it - I had to google it to find out - oh, and that's another thing, where's the 'help' option in Word 2007? I still can't find it - every problem I had, I had to google it to find a solution. So if you know the answer to that one, please let me know.

About ten years ago I worked in IT improving the computer software for Australian Air Express. Part of my job was to make the software more user friendly, suggest changes to the software applications etc.. I am convinced that I should get a job with Microsoft doing the same thing. I could make bucket loads of money!!! I've never complained about software ever, until now. Let me state it officially: I think the software program in Microsoft Word 2007 that allows you to create protected forms using the 'developer' tool sucks! 

If anyone needs any help with this part of the program please don't hesitate to ask me - I'm an expert NOW!!!  I'm also curious to know just how many other people are having, or had, the same problem(s) - I feel for you, I really feel for you. 

Now for some well earned sleep.

Our Natural Sleep Patterns

Further to my earlier discussion on working odd hours and being sleep deprived I located some interesting information on the subject and thought I'd share it with you all (summarising):

 

How to get your natural sleep pattern in sync

Our sleep patterns have been controlled by light and darkness for thousands of years. Our bodies are naturally fall asleep at dusk and wake at dawn. However, artificial light has interfered with these natural patterns and most of us sleep less than seven hours a night. We depend on artificial light and this worsens our normal association with day and night.

When our body is in sync with the natural order of day and night we feel the better for it. We are calmer, can focus better and have more energy. Also, when we surrender to our bodies' natural urge to sleep soon after dusk it results in us getting adequate sleep and we awake refreshed.

So are you feeling sleep deprived? I sure know I am! Are your sleep patterns out of wack and do you think any of these tips will help you get back on track? Let me know.... providing you're not snoozing of course.

Will I tell the Taxman that I bartered today? - A Labour of Love

It was so nice to finally have the laundry door fixed today, even if it is only temporary. It had been broken for months, a bi-fold, and unfortunately I use it every single day to lock the cats in the laundry at night. If I don't they pay no attention to where their kitty litter is and make deposits around the house - usually in my bedroom! So you can see why I need the door.

Well a lovely man that I did a small job for came and fixed it for me today, although he's gotta come back and finish the job. Somehow, it's so much nicer than writing an invoice for someone, bartering I mean. I know him well, he's almost like a dad or gran-dad, the sweetest man, member of my church. I really enjoyed telling him he didn't have to pay me but instead would he just fix my door. He was thrilled.

I think to reconcile it with the taxman I'm will just have to say that both 'jobs' were just a labour of love.

So have you done any bartering lately? Or perhaps you got a labour of love you would like to share? I would love to hear about it.

How will Casual Work and Multi-tasking Change our Society in Australia and worldwide?

With the realisation that contracting ourselves out for employment is the way of the future, I ponder over certain matters that may have a subtle effect at the very least on our society. With more and more people working ever increasingly odd hours, odd shifts and with no holiday or sick pay or superannuation, I wonder how this will impact on families on a whole.

It will certainly mean that Australian families will have to manage their money better, not knowing what they will be earning from one week to the next. They will have to put away each payday for a rainy day, for holidays, to cover up and coming bills and to cover their butt when they're sick.

Working unusual shifts, especially those that contradict our natural nocturnal ways, will also have an impact on sleep patterns, which in the short-term at least, may cause disruptions and negative productivity within the household, not to mention the workplace. If not monitored carefully, this could lead to family break-downs over both finances and incompatibilities that may not have been exposed had a 'normal' regime been maintained. Sleeping during the day is not as easy as it sounds; exposure to light naturally awakens us, the sounds around us in the daylight hours are also louder and not conducive to sleep. There's also other's routines to be considered, eg. Do the kids need to dropped at school at the same time a parent may need to sleep?

On the bright side though, people may be able to choose their own hours more readily. There seems to be a strong trend for employers not to replace their full-time staff and instead opt for the casual employee. If there is to be a strong enough trend in this direction then the employee may just get to pick and choose which hours and possibly which jobs he is going to work.


In my line of business, this continuing trend is only going to increase my workload, hopefully to the stage where I can sell my workload on to other businesses in the same field. If I plan things well, I should be able to work as a virtual agency, farming jobs out across Australia and even overseas, God willing. Somewhat into the future I know, but not as far as we might think. Being a virtual and on-site business support service in a semi-rural area, that of course being the Yarra Valley, I am extremely interested to see what effect this trend will have on my client base.

I did hear once a while ago, can't say where for sure now, that the coming generations will need to be able to multi-task in order to get the amount of work they need to sustain a healthy financial existence. This concept really does make sense, if employers are not prepared to take on full-time employees, then employees will be looking for more than one job. So my advice to all is to get your skills up on a variety of options in preparation for this new trend we are entering. Consider starting your own business, or several businesses, once you are properly qualified to do so.

I'm really interested to hear your feedback on this, so please, leave a comment. I'd really like to know how you think it will alter your current lifestyle. Have you already got ideas along this train of thought, and if so, what are they? Do you see it as more of a negative or positive, or just inevitable, move in our society? I'll be waiting to hear from you.

Contractors - the way of the future - Business Support is the way to go

Contractors are happier and paid better than their Permanent competitors according to The Lure of Autonomy: A Global Study of Professional Workers report which surveyed more than 2000 contractors worldwide (including 197 from Australia) in 2005. One thing it discovered was that contractors aren't that interested in job security, holidays and superannuation etc. They were also slightly older than their full-time buddies, had more experience and were obviously paid more due to casual rates or contractors rates. Let's face it, if you are a contractor you can pretty much charge what you want to. The majority were male also. This may be accounted for by the fact that most contractors in the building, electrical and plumbing trades, just to name a few, are primarily dominated by men. They were also generally content in their job, liked the boss and the industry they were working in.

Of all the countries surveyed, we Aussies held the record for the biggest gap in experience between the contractors and the full-time workers. How's this; on average contractors had 20 years experience compared to only thirteen on average for the full-time workers. (I know who I'd employ).

It seems that the main struggle for contractors is finding new jobs or assignments. They have to try to sell themselves while they're on another job; not an easy thing to do. It's probably a toss up as to which is the bigger problem, as they're other big challenge is not having a regular income. Now, that's something I can relate to - in my line of work you have your quiet weeks and the next week you can be swamped. It makes balancing the bank statement, paying the bills and putting food on the table a real circus balancing act. (pun intended)

The research undertaken in 2005 should make employers and employees alike stand up and pay attention! It suggests that employers need to 'take notice' of this growing trend, but in my honest opinion and from my experience in the workforce over the last 27 years or so, I believe the employers are causing the trend. More and more you hear of companies putting full-time staff off and not replacing them; palming the work out to whoever is left to take the overload. And it is overload, because before long, the employee has gone off on stress leave or similar, and the employer still too tight to be able to employ a full-timer, employs a casual or contractor. In short, the company doesn't have to pay the casual or the contractor as much as they don't get paid holiday pay etc. It's purely a cost cutting strategy and it's caused a worldwide trend.

It appears that employers are now trying to meet the needs of their contractors. I'm guessing this is because they realise how important a commodity they are! Casuals or contractors aren't going to hang around a job for long if the conditions aren't to their liking. Why would they? They can just move on the next assignment. Companies are obviously realising this, and also realising that they spend precious man hours and money training these people and then they walk if they don't get what they want. Contractors are getting the upper-hand every time. They can also almost ask whatever rate they want provided it's less than employing a full-timer - they're on easy street.

This is a huge phenomenon that we are seeing in the worldwide workforce and it's not about to stop any time soon. I'm guessing it's only going to keep growing. I mean, why wouldn't it? Why would employers suddenly do an about-face and suddenly take on full-timers? In reality, they would be mad if they did.

How's this for a startling fact? - The ABS statistics the number of contractors is growing at a rate of 20% per annum, and if it keeps growing at that annual rate the majority of Australian workers will be casuals or contractors by 2015. This blows me away!

So if you are thinking of moving into contracting, it would seem you are not the only one! Apparently the work is out there; just be sure to market yourself correctly - think ahead - and keep those skills up to date.

Have you thought about this at all? Do you have plans to move into contracting or casual work? What changes would that mean for your household?

(ref source: The Lure of Autonomy: A Global Study of Professional Workers report)

Need Computer Repairs?

I recently had major problems with my PC so I headed down to Yarra J0unction and visited my mate, Tim, at Tritan Media. He fixed my hardware problem in no time, as he usually does; he's pretty smick with most things, software as well. Check him out:  www.tritan.net.au 

So how's your computer doing? What's the main problem you have? My main problem is the speed, it slows down and I'm not sure why - I think there could be a gremlin living in it. Oh, another problem is that I always seem to find more software that I want but can't necessarily afford. Doh! Let me know how your little package of metal that speaks in 1's and 0's is going.

Good leaders have Vision

Good leaders need to have clear visions and the ability to inspire people to get things done in the best way possible. The best leaders don't watch over their sub-ordinates telling them what to do at every step, but rather, they realise the vision, articulate the vision and inspire those who can materialise the vision to act.

Winston Churchill Inspires

"Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe."  

– Winston Churchill

What inspires you?

Life - Comedy or Tragedy?

We've all seen the Comedy and Tragedy masks but do any of us know its origin? They come for the ancient Greeks and were used in their theatrical exploits. Hundreds of years before the birth of Christ the ancient Greeks would use the masks in ceremonies leading up to a theatrical festival. In the evening many men would roam the streets singing fun songs called 'comoedia' which is where the word 'comedy' came from. The sad songs sung by the satyrs were called 'tragoedia' giving us the origin of the word 'tragedy'.  Masks were a prominent part of Greek theatre so it was inevitable that masks depicting these two elements would be created.

Both masks give us a sense that things are out of order or out of control. In the case of Comedy it appears that only the subject is laughing. There is the sense that wickedness, tomfoolery or something inappropriate has taken place in order to for him laugh and, conversely, tragedy speaks of something upsetting the subject or something not going to plan, causing anguish.

When I look at this through Christian eyes I see life as it is for many of us on a daily basis. Some things happen in life that some see as amusing while others can anguish over the same thing. Some relish the thought of a challenge, while other cringe. Some triumph in a crisis, while others crumble. There is always more than one way to look at a situation; there are at least two ways - one positively and the other negatively.

If we can just grasp the concept that Jesus has nothing but good intentions for our lives; if we would just learn to trust him impeccably, regardless of the circumstance, we would find a freedom that is beyond compare. When we 'rest' in Jesus; when we hand it all over to our Lord; when we truly surrender, it is in this place that we will find peace. By finding this peace we are distancing ourselves from the torment, the 'tragoedia', and allowing God to do a work in us on a supernatural level.


'Cast all your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.'
                                                                                                                                         Psalm 55:22


How is your current situation? Is it time to through out the 'masks' and hand over your worries? Sometimes a good ear is all it takes. God must have two fantastic ears with all the traffic they get. Let me know how you're really doing, or better still, let God know. 

Jen Slater Mobile Office

Jen Slater Mobile Office is a business based in Warburton in the beautiful Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia that specialises in full business and individual support in all areas of administration, desktop publishing, bookkeeping, data entry and design. Also providing virtual or on-site services such as brochures, booklets, order of services for funerals, invitations, resumes, personal budgeting and much more.

A friendly, professional, fast, accurate, reliable and affordable service that cuts out the middle-man (ie. personnel agencies) saving you money.

 With typing speeds of more than 120/wpm and numeric keystroke speeds of 26,000 with 100% accuracy and proficiency with many software packages such as Word, Publisher, Powerpoint, Access, Excel, Quickbooks and more, contact Jen Slater Mobile Office for your next assignment, for a quote, or to arrange a meeting.  You won't be disappointed.

"Jennifer Slater is highly skilled in office administration, finance and publications.  She is a person of great integrity and outstanding character who works independently and always demonstrates initiative and persistence."

 "She possesses excellent communication and people skills and can be trusted to deal with complex situations.  She demonstrates advanced problem solving skills and can often see solutions others have overlooked."

 "Jennifer's work is always of the highest standard, she is creative and efficient in all she does.  She presents well, has an outstanding phone manner and is a person of impeccable honesty."

Pastor Andrew Bennett - River Valley Church

Jen Slater Mobile Office
8 Unity Court  Warburton  Vic  3799 
Ph/Fax: (03) 5966 2791
Mob: 0407 669 770
Email: jenslater@jenslatermobileoffice.com.au
Web: jenslatermobileoffice.com.au

Is there something you are needing help with?..... just ask.