I'm sure you've been there. I certainly have. I've sat there many times feeling my brain slowly evaporate through my ears, trying to keep my eyes open despite serious orders from my tired, bored body to have a nap. I've watched colleagues speak -- mouth moving and all -- but not hear a sound. I've answered questions that I think were asked, but maybe nobody really asked me anything in the first place -- I couldn't be sure. I am not talking about drinking at work. I am talking about being bored at work meetings. They are a necessary evil in most office work settings, and there are a few ways to survive them without falling asleep or going mentally numb.

The article How to Survive Office Meetings gives some suggestions on making the most out of these meetings. For example, when people eat together in a meeting (say, by ordering in pizza) they actually feel closer to each other. One other piece of advice (not mentioned in the article) is to take an interest in the meeting. With a little preparation and a genuine effort to make yourself a part of the meeting, you may find yourself less bored. Not only that, your enthusiasm may stimulate your colleagues to participate as well. But if absolutely nothing works, try ... coffee.

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Jowita

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What nobody tells you about self-employment is that it is not exactly what it seems. You are not really your own boss, you don't really get to choose when to end your workday, there is not necessarily more freedom and you don't make more money than your nine-to-five friends. It's true that you can actually spend a whole day in your PJs while working and that in the long run self-employment can be quite a lucrative way of earning a living. But it takes a lot of energy and perseverance to get to that point.

In the article From Unemployment to Self Employment, the author, Julie King, talks about all the myths of being your own boss and how challenging working for yourself really is. When I was self-employed for a few months, I spent more time chasing after payments and taking care of administrative issues than writing or editing. In order to get assignments I also spent a lot of time hustling, or, if you'd rather, pitching my ideas, or I'd spend time researching where to pitch them and in what way. My hours were Monday to Monday or as long as my laptop and my phone were on -- and they were on all of the time.

I do know someone who's always worked as a freelance writer. He's been at it for 20-plus years, and in addition to being a writer he is his own extraordinary office manager as well as his own public relations firm. But I know it took an enormous amount of discipline for him to be able to get to this point. Good on you if you have that -- I just couldn't compete in that race myself.

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Jowita

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Please check out this link. You'll have to move Mario with your arrow keys and make him jump by using the space bar. Turn your volume down a bit. Enjoy. I certainly did.

I remember working with an art director who liked to fantasize about the ways in which she could quit her job. She had elaborate plans that involved renting planes with flying messages behind them, walking up to the boss and telling him what she really thought of him ... a few other ideas that I can't recall. She was overworked and underappreciated. Most of her plans depended, of course, on her winning the lottery. So she played often, and whenever she played she would share what she would do with those winnings.

There's a useful article How to Quit Your Job Gracefully that talks about making a clean break and not burning bridges behind you. Unless you do win the lottery, chances are you might need those references one day -- so make a clean break.

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Jowita

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A friend, who is an editor at a health magazine, was recently talking about how she had to deal with a difficult freelance columnist. It wasn't anything that the columnist had done or wrote; in fact, it was what the columnist didn't write. The freelancer was behind on her deadline and said that she was sick and needed an extension. So my editor friend granted her the extension. The columnist forgot that they were connected via Twitter and it didn't occur to her that the editor could see her status updates. Her frequent cheerful status updates had nothing to do with running a high fever, they were more like about her running on a beach.

By now most of you have probably read about the Cisco fiasco: Twitter Gets You Fired in 140 Characters or Less. Unless you make your privacy settings private from the get-go, the stuff that you put up online via social networking sites may be read by anyone. Including your future (former) boss.

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Jowita

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Every year my partner and I go away on cheap vacations. No, not an all-inclusive deal for us (although those are great too), but rather a nice low-key week by the Atlantic is more our bag. This year, like everyone else, we're going through some readjustments thanks to the economic situation and we can't really afford much, so our tradition of vacationing cheaply really comes in handy.

We travel to a very non-touristy area, far away on the East Coast where there are plenty of cottages to rent but where you won't find most of the luxuries you'd expect staying in a hotel. We attended a wedding in those parts a few years ago and since then decided to make visits there our annual tradition. Every year, we can't get over how non-touristy the place is.

And for the cost of preparing our own meals, shopping for groceries and taking care of travel, we get to have the most unusual summers ever. We have beaches and forests and more sun than you can ask for -- and fewer fellow tourists, which for us is a bonus.

It is actually cheaper to fly to Nova Scotia and rent a cottage (you can get one for as low as $400 per week) than to rent one in Ontario. The less popular places are usually cheaper. My suggestion to you this year is to find a place of your own that won't break that piggy bank, somewhere in the country where you will get lots of rest and sun. Do your search online or ask around and you'll most likely find that there's that one magical place that is yours and it's cheap.

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Jowita

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When I was a little girl, in Girl Scouts, I had a chance to visit a couple of monasteries in my country of origin (Poland). I remember them as incredibly magical places, spartan in furniture but rich in art and with beautifully maintained gardens. As I was a child I was allowed to spend a night in one of those places, which are usually restricted to tourists and females.

In the article Business Secrets Of The Trappists, Part 1, the author, August Turak, writes about visiting a monastery in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, called Mepkin Abbey. He's been going there for 12 years and has learned a lot about business from the elderly monks who only work part-time yet carry a hugely successful business producing so-called lowbrow products like mushrooms. Their business is so successful, in fact, that demand outweighs the supply. Turak writes that this is because these self-sufficient monks "are passionately committed and totally focused on the task at hand, and they know that their brothers are doing the same."

The monks’ business is a multi-million dollar enterprise because of that focus and the monks' philosophy, which Turak calls "service and selflessness." It relies on seven principles that are guaranteed to make any enterprise successful. These are ... (go read the article!)

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Jowita

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Schmoozing is an art. I have some friends who were born to do it, I, myself, am rather helpless at it unless I'm particularly inspired. My friend B. (who works for a successful public relations company) could be dropped off in the middle of, oh, I don't know, Greenland, and she'd probably manage to chat somebody up and make instant friends. I could never picture this woman jobless because she's a natural networker and can't help but sell her skills.

In recent months, the skill of networking has become especially important as people are getting laid off left, right and centre. Suddenly many are out of secure jobs and find themselves in an impossible position -- unemployed, shocked, overqualified. In the article Need a Job? Check Out a Pink-Slip Party in the Globe and Mail, the author Tenille Bonoguore talks about the new get-togethers for those who have been laid off. People get to exchange tips on job seeking, leads and business cards. As well, they get to know others in their field and in similar situations. Toronto's parties have been quite successful so far and although the high attendance is a little scary (it implies recession, no?), people who attend report that pink slip parties are a good idea and that they make them feel less alone.

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Jowita

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I can't remember when I joined LinkedIn but I can tell you that although I've had my account for some time now I barely use it. According to Wikipedia "The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called "Connections." According to Wikpedia job seekers can use it to research potential employers and to see if there are any shared connections between them to see if that would make introductions easier.

Although a member of LinkedIn, I've never taken full advantage of it as I found its maintenance too time-consuming, having already been so used to other social networks and to plain old face-to-face networking. Now, please keep in mind that this is my personal experience with LinkedIn. I am a firm believer that in this Internet age each one of us has a limit when it comes to the amount of connecting possibilities -- I have reached mine with Facebook and I simply never got into LinkedIn. This is not to say that you won't. Maybe you're more of a LinkedIner than a Facebooker.

I use Facebook. I have used it to introduce people to each other or to introduce myself to people who may be good business connections. I have also used the Google search engine to research potential employers and companies.

Like Facebook and MySpace and everything else out there, LInkedIn is only as safe as you make it. There's a good article about safety on social networking sites and how to ensure that they work for not against you. For example, LinkedIn offers ways to restrict some of your information and you can close off access by others to your own network of contacts, or limit your work history details.

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Jowita

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