In a recent New York Times article, Steven Greenhouse takes a look at professionals returning to school and their reasons. As you might expect, many workers want to refresh their skills and catch up on the changes that occurred since they graduated. For the unemployed, closing a gap in skill levels is their best chance to get their résumés on the top of the stack. For employed workers, it’s a way to advance in the company and stay ahead of job seekers applying for jobs.

Greenhouse explains:

“Some people have worked at a prosperous company for five years and are eager to move up, or are unemployed and eager to reinvent themselves. Still others are in an industry where successive waves of downsizing have made job security seem shaky. And more of them are concluding that if there is an answer to their problems, it’s more education.”

Returning to school is not as simple as deciding to get any degree or take a few courses and see the job offers and higher salaries pour in. Continuing education students can earn a degree, earn a certification or take only the classes that interest them. The important thing, as Greenhouse notes, is to know what you want and to find and program that gives you the proper guidance. Not every industry is the same, much less every employer. A second master’s degree won’t give every person a boost, and in the end you could end up losing plenty of time and money.

“Any good continuing education program, [dean of the University of Minnesota’s college of continuing education Mary Nichols] said, takes an individualized approach to its students. ‘We’re not in the business of steering people toward things,” she said. “We’re in the business of helping people capitalize on their strengths and put together ways to build on their interests and passions.’

“Cathy A. Sandeen, dean of continuing education at U.C.L.A., suggested, ‘Look at trends in your field. Look at your current skills and what do you need to augment your skills to make you more relevant and more attractive in your field.’”

Greenhouse, Nichols and Sandeen make a good point that many job seekers forget. Education is a serious commitment, and unless you have plenty of time and money at your disposal, returning to school comes with tradeoffs. The time you’ll spending going to class (online or on site), studying and researching means less time with your significant other, family or DVR.

And you’ll need to pay for this schooling, which might be a difficult feat if you’re unemployed. If you are employed, perhaps your employer has a continuing education benefit that covers some or all of the cost. Either way, crunch the numbers, consult the financial aid department and look for grants and scholarships. Education is an investment, yes, but you want to be certain you’ll recover the cost of that investment.

For one of the interviewees in Greenhouse’s article, the cost was less damaging than not returning to school.

“Mr. Torres, who had been laid off from his job as a senior database marketing analyst at Scholastic, said that before taking the course, he had been getting many job interviews.

“’They kept asking me whether I had any Web analysis experience, any experience in search engine marketing, search engine optimization or mobile marketing,’ he said. ‘I had to say no, and that hurt my chances.’”

Fortunately, the time and effort paid off with a new job.

Judging from your responses to a recent post asking what reasons you’ve heard for not getting a job, education is a common response. Have you returned to school, taken online courses, earned a certification or mulled over any other education options recently? Let us know what you’ve done and what worked (and didn’t work) for you.

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Workplaces can serve a similar purpose. While you might not be looking for a job just to make friends, you might form new relationships as a result of spending 40 hours of your week at work. Some workers are finding out that these friendships continue past the day they submit their resignation letters and into the days of collecting Social Security.

According to a new study by Dutch researchers, employees who retired within the last 10 years are more like to stay connected or form new workplace connections than retirees in the 1990s. Although we acknowledge most of our readers live in the U.S., the study’s findings make us wonder if our workers are all that different from the Dutch.

From the study:

“We found that those who retired more recently were more likely to maintain at least one personal tie after retirement than those who retired earlier. In other words we discovered that a particular relationship at work was so important that they decided to continue the relationship,” Cozijnsen says in a statement. “The notion that people lose their work-related ties after retirement, because they no longer see one another at work, needs to be reconsidered, in terms of well-being and the aging process.”

Workplaces are the new what?
The news blurb discussing the study refers to “the workplace as the ‘new neighborhood.’” Declaring an old thing a new thing is always risky because not everyone agrees. Are blogs really the new newspaper? Is 40 really the new 30? That’s for you to decide, but apparently workplaces are where many people create lasting friendships.

In fact, Gallup research finds not only that many workers have workplace friendship, but that they also are more engaged employees.  From their surveys:

Our research revealed that just 30 percent of employees have a best friend at work. Those who do are seven times as likely to be engaged in their jobs, are better at engaging customers, produce higher quality work, have higher well being, and are less likely to get injured on the job. In sharp contrast, those without a best friend in the workplace have just a 1-in-12 chance of being engaged.

Having someone to pass the time with and who lifts your spirits can have a positive affect on your performance. Who knew?

One-third of your waking hours
If you crunch the numbers, maybe these findings shouldn’t be that surprising. For the sake of simplicity, let’s say you work a standard 40-hour week with traditional office hours and get your recommended eight hours of sleep each night. (Obviously this assumption doesn’t work for everyone, but it makes the math simpler.) There are 168 hours in a week and you’re only awake for 112 of them. You’re at work for 40 of those hours, and the remaining 72 are spent traveling to and from work, doing chores and spending time with your loved ones. Roughly one-third of your waking hours are spent at work. Doesn’t forming some sort of meaningful bond make sense?

As Tom Rath and James K. Harter point out in their Gallup piece, even workers who aren’t surrounded by colleagues can make connections. You don’t have to work in a sea of cubicles or a bustling retail store to form bonds with your co-workers. E-mail, IMs and phone calls take the place of water-cooler talk for people who work at home or in remote offices. These communication tools also make it easy to stay in touch once you’ve moved on to another job and ultimately once you’ve retired.

Not everyone wants to have a close friend at work. Some workers are understandably opposed to mixing professional and personal relationships. Many businesses have strict policies against it.

As we continue to recover from massive layoffs and a rough economy, can you continue to form those bonds? Are those friendships the ones that make the hardships easier? Where do you fall on the issue: Do you make long-lasting friends at work (and beyond) or do you keep it strictly professional?

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According to the late Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, 6.8 million Americans fall into the category of long-term unemployment. Long-term unemployment is identified as looking for work for 27 weeks or longer. When you think about it, that’s a lot of people not earning a paycheck right now.

Plus, if you think about how many people have taken pay cuts or worked fewer hours since the recession began, you have another large group of workers not earning as much as they’d like.

For both groups, earning income in some form is a welcome opportunity. Anyone would probably welcome the chance to earn some extra cash. Finding a traditional full-time or part-time job isn’t the easiest thing to do in this economy, and some people don’t have schedules that would accommodate such jobs anyway. Fortunately, new opportunities are available for workers, and many of them can be done from your home.

Here are eight moneymaking suggestions that you might not have considered before.

1. If you’re crafty – Etsy

Etsy is an online marketplace where creative people can sell their handmade crafts and othter times (think a purse made out of a license plate or a throw pillow for your couch). If you have the knack for handcrafted art, Etsy could be a way for you to get your work seen by thousands and get compensated for it.

Check out: http://www.etsy.com/how_selling_works.php

2. If you’re skilled in a hobby or craft – Bragadoo

Word of mouth is one of the best ways to market yourself, and logging on to Bragadoo and posting information about your area of expertise (cooking, caretaking, personal training, etc.) is a cheaper than making a TV commercial. Anyone who hires you can then post about their experience – brag, if you will – and hopefully lead others to also hire you. It’s a community built on recommendations.

Check out: http://www.bragadoo.com/help/

3. If you want to tap into your inner journalist – Seed

With traditional news outlets now competing with blogs and other websites, opportunities for freelance work are better than ever. If you’re a photographer or writer who wants to get your work published, have a visible online presence and earn money for it, submitting your work to Seed might be the way to go.

Check out: http://www.seed.com/

4. If you like to give your opinion – Free Paid Surveys or Find Focus Groups.

Because consumer data is so valuable to marketers, you can earn money just for answering questions about your purchases and consumer preferences. At either site you can find surveys to answer, which does mean answer many, many questions, but it also means getting paid for it, too.

Check out: http://freepaidsurveys.net, http://findfocusgroups.com

5. If you’re a packrat – Ebay,  Amazon Marketplace

What better way to make money than to sell the stuff you’re not using? People collect, well, everything. Old TV Guides? The fancy (but ugly) dishes your grandmother gave you for your wedding? A pair of designer jeans you bought two sizes too small because you thought you’d one day fit into them?  Someone will buy them! Check out an online market that lets users put their items up for auction. The site might get a small portion of your sale, but you pocket most (or all) of the cash and didn’t have to do much. You could literally be sitting on money right now.

Check out: http://www.ebay.com/, http://www.amazon.com

6. If you’re a born salesperson – Avon

Some people are born for sales; others are not. Those of you with the gift for sales can put your skills to work with a company like Avon. If you are passionate about the company’s products and can convey to customers why they should also give the products a try, then you can probably make a sale.  You make your own hours and aren’t confined to an office, which is perfect for a side job.

Check out: http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs/company/Avon/?siteid=cbworkbuzz

7. If you like to shop – Be a secret shopper

Secret shoppers are hired by a company to go to a store, shop for some items, and then report back on their experience. Their feedback gives the company insight on the customer experience, which might be used to improve that company’s procedures or marketing approach.

Check out: http://www.secretshopper.com/, http://www.secretshoppercompany.com/, http://www.nationalshoppingservice.com/

8. If you like to create multimedia — Sell your photos to stock agencies or license via an online photo sharing site

Although many photographers would love to have their work exhibited at a gallery, those opportunities are hard to come by. While you work toward getting your showing, you can make some money by shooting pictures and selling them to a stock agency. When companies need stock photos for an ad or an online article, they pay you a fee if they use your photograph. You can also have your work licensed through an online photograph-hosting site, such as Flickr.

Check out: http://www.istockphoto.com/sell-stock-photos.php, http://www.flickr.com/account/prefs/gettyimages/

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Therefore you probably shouldn’t be surprised that workers needed some serious motivation to eat better and smoke fewer cigarettes. Forty-seven percent of workers say they have brought their homemade lunches to work in order to eat healthier or save money in light of the struggling economy, finds a new CareerBuilder.com survey. Perhaps more surprising is that 44 percent of workers who smoke admit they are more likely to quit smoking given today’s economy. In addition, 21 percent of surveyed smokers have decreased the amount of smoke breaks during the workday and 20 percent have already quit smoking.

The health benefit
The economy affected everyone on some level, and bank accounts were where most people felt the repercussions. Therefore workers looking to stretch their budgets probably realized the cost of a homemade sandwich was significantly less than one you buy from the local deli. Plus, scaling back on cigarettes or eliminating them as an expense means additional money in your pocket. Of course, the added benefit is that personal health also improves as a result. When you’re packing your lunch, you know you won’t be getting any ingredients you don’t want. And healthier lifestyles result in fewer medical expenses in the long run, which help your checking account balance.

The unhealthy effects
Still, economic troubles haven’t necessarily made every workplace a template for wellness. Having time away from the stress of the workday is important, yet 32 percent of workers take less than a half hour for lunch. Five percent of workers don’t even take a full 15-minute break. Perhaps most bothersome is that 10 percent never take a lunch break and 16 percent work through their lunch hour.

Not everyone is glued to their workspace during lunch, however. Workers like to multitask, as we’ve discussed, and many use their lunch hour to do more than eat. They use their breaks for the following:

• Hanging out with co-workers – 23 percent
• Running errands – 18 percent
• Doing work – 16 percent
• Walking – 10 percent
• Shopping – 7 percent
• Working out – 3 percent

So, has the economy improved your health habits at all? At a glance, the results of the survey aren’t surprising because brown-bagging your lunches is cheaper than paying $12 for a salad every day. And eliminating the cost of cigarettes is like finding extra money in your pocket. But you have to think some workers are eating as a result of stress or have had to cut out paying for a gym because of the cost. Let us know if your health habits have changed (for better or worse) as a result of the lackluster economy.

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The house was strangely calm, and people were having appropriate, civilized conversation. I looked around, and realized that Uncle Steve, the family court jester, was missing. Grandma Jean, who was celebrating her 54^th wedding anniversary, must have read my mind: “Hey! Where’s Steve?! I thought he was comin’?” she yelled to the group. 

His wife sighed and answered, “He really wanted to make it, but he worked late and had to mow the lawn, plus he has to pick the kids up from youth group and soccer practice – he just didn’t have time to stop by.” Although we were all a little bummed that we’d been left to entertain ourselves, we understood — Steve had a lot on his plate.

Although a busy schedule is nothing new for most parents, the struggling economy has definitely added pressure to working dads — who may find themselves working longer hours, or even second jobs. In fact, according to CareerBuilder’s annual Father’s Day survey, 42 percent of working dads said they are the sole provider for their household and nearly one-in-ten (9 percent) have taken on a second job in the last 12 months to provide for their family. Additionally, one-in-ten working dads said their spouse or significant other has become unemployed in the last 12 months.

All this added stress at work often means more time spent at the office and less quality time spent with family.  According to the survey, 63 percent of working dads said they work more than 40 hours per week, with 31 percent reporting that they typically bring work home five days a week or more.  Close to four- in-ten working dads said they spend two hours or less with their children each work day.

Although a work/life balance may be tough to achieve, it’s not impossible. “Especially in tough times, working dads have to be more creative and strategic to successfully juggle both work and family commitments,” said Jason Ferrara, VP Corporate Marketing at CareerBuilder and father of two. “Employers understand the importance of working dads’ time away from the office and continue to place an emphasis on work/life balance through benefits that encourage employees to better manage their schedules. However, year over year, we find that nearly half of working dads do not take advantage of the flexible work arrangements offered to them.”

Ferrara recommends the following tips for working dads navigating through difficult economic times:

Communicate – Try and sit down for family dinners a few times a week. It’s the perfect opportunity to listen to what is going on in your family’s lives, and talk about what is going on in your office. Sharing the reasons behind your busy schedule will help everyone understand why you are away or have to do some work when you are home.

Learn to say no – Besides time spent in the office, activities associated with work can also eat away at free time. You don’t have to say yes to every dinner, seminar or golf invitation that’s sent your way. Determine what additional activities are necessary, and which you can turn down.

Develop a master family calendar – Keep a calendar at home with each family member’s important events, from soccer games and field trips, to weddings and work parties. Arrange to use vacation days for anything you can’t miss.

Play now, work later – Chances are, your kids go to bed before you do.  Wait until they go to sleep before finishing up work or checking e-mail.  

Plan a family event in your office – You’re probably not the only dad in the office. Get together with co-workers to plan a kid-friendly potluck or event. Summer is a perfect time to do so, since kids are out of school, and the office may be less hectic.

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You know this. We know this. Hopefully everyone on any social media site understands this.

However, a social media misstep in Wisconsin has raised some questions about the definition of acceptable online behavior. According to Courthouse News Service, a police and fire department dispatcher posted a joke about being addicted to illegal and prescription drugs on her Facebook page. After the comment she wrote “ha,” indicating it was a joke. The city didn’t find it funny and fired her, even though her drug test proved she didn’t actually take these substances. A city arbitrator said the city needed to allow her back after a 30-day suspension.

According to the city:

“Making stupid jokes on Facebook where the line between public and private communications is admittedly blurred, calls into question that good judgment and common sense of the grievant and her resulting ability to perform her job.”

The arbitrator acknowledges the dispatcher didn’t use her best judgment, but doesn’t think she should be fired. The city persists that she is damaging to their brand.

Now, we’ve heard of people getting fired for many things. Heck, even the SF Weekly blogpoints out that there’s a Facebook page where people post news stories about employees fired due to bad online behavior. (Granted, a Facebook page exists for everything these days, its mere existence isn’t shocking.) But normally termination comes from obvious blunders, such as divulging confidential information, posting inappropriate pictures or badmouthing the company. But now it’s happening due to jokes that are obviously jokes. Think of it as Getting Fired 2.0.

But it still raises some new questions:

• Would this issue even be in question if it was directed at a person via an offensive comment? After all, offensive jokes are obviously jokes, but they’re still unacceptable and lead to noncontroversial firings all the time.
• Will this situation affect how you behave online, even on your own time?
• Could employees and employers avoid these situations if they started using the social media contracts we discussed last year? Or do you think that’s just setting everyone up for too many rules and regulations and ruining social media?

Let us know about your thoughts on the situation and if you’ve encountered anything like this.

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In recent years, though, many of us have foregone that last part — summer vacations — in favor of “stay-cations” or no vacation at all.  But this year, with some light at the end of the (annoyingly persistent) recessionary tunnel, more workers are planning vacation time in coming months than in years past, according to a recent CareerBuilder survey.

According to survey respondents, the increase in planned vacation time can be attributed to two main factors. First, more than half (56 percent) of workers say that they are in greater need of a vacation this year than in years past . And 36 percent of workers say they feel more comfortable taking time off in 2010 than in 2009 due to an improving economy.

“It is good news that workers’ anxiety around taking vacation time appears to be lessening this year compared to last,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “Now workers need to follow through and actually utilize their full vacation benefits; 15 percent reported that they didn’t use all of their allotted time last year. Utilizing time off to recharge batteries is even more important today as staffs have shrunk over the last 18 months and workers are dealing with added responsibilities and pressure.”

Just because employees will be on vacation, though, doesn’t mean employers aren’t expecting them to check in with the office.  Forty-nine percent of employers say they expect workers to check in while they’re away.  However, only 25 percent of employees say they plan to do so.

Haefner attributes this discrepancy to employers anxiety level about lost productivity while workers are out, especially during a still-rocky economy.  To ease your employers’ concerns, Haefner offers the following advice:

1. Schedule your time off well in advance – Since many companies are operating with smaller staffs these days, having more than one person out of the office can put a strain on office efficiency.  Be flexible and work with your co-workers to schedule vacation time so that there will always be enough staff in the office to handle all the work.  

2. Train a coworker – Before you leave, write down any important information, key contacts and any deadlines that will come up while you are gone and give it to a coworker who can fill in for you while you’re out. Remember to return the favor when they take vacation.

3. Schedule a set work time while on vacation – If you must do work while on vacation, set limits and boundaries for yourself and your co-workers. Don’t let activities on vacation be interrupted by work.  Your office can survive without you for a few days.

4. Lead by example – If you are a supervisor, make sure to go through all the steps of planning and executing a successful vacation away from the office — meaning you don’t have to check in every day. That way, your workers will be more comfortable doing the same.

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I know a thing or two about work-related weight gain. I once gained 5 pounds while interning at an investor relations firm because I couldn’t stay away from the meeting leftovers.

And while I was a freelance writer, I purposely kept my cupboards bare so I couldn’t take a Cheetos break every five minutes. In fact, I’m actually writing this article to try to distract myself from the muffins in the kitchen. (But how does writing about muffins keep you from thinking about them, you ask? It doesn’t. My plan has failed.)

However, I find some solace in the fact that I am not alone in my work-induced gluttony. A recent CareerBuilder survey found that, overall, 44 percent of workers reported weight gain at their current jobs, up slightly from 43 percent in 2009. Out of those who confessed to on-the-job weight gain, 28 percent reported an increase of more than 10 pounds and 12 percent said they gained more than 20 pounds.

So why does going to work make us fat?

The survey responses pointed to a variety of factors:

• Work-related stress – 32 percent
• Sitting at a desk most of the day – 49 percent
• Eating out regularly – 25 percent
• Workplace celebrations (potlucks, birthdays,  etc.) – 16 percent
• Skipping meals because of time constraints – 14 percent

“Especially in this economy, it is easier to pick up unhealthy eating habits in the office as workers spend more time on heavier workloads and less time on themselves,” says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder.

There are ways you can combat work-related weight gain, though. Haefner offers the following tips to help reduce your chance of packing on the pounds at work:

Set an eating schedule for your workday – Planning out your meals and snacks will help control your hunger. Set aside allotted time throughout your day for eating or have your work calendar send you alerts when it is time for you to eat something. Most importantly, make sure you actually eat.

Pack a lunch and snacks – Bring lower-calorie foods such as canned soups, lean lunch meats, baked chips, celery, carrots, grapes or low-fat yogurt, and help yourself to these snacks when you get hungry. Packing food from home will help prevent a midday vending machine binge and reduce temptation to indulge in the cookie tray at your afternoon meeting. Plus, you’ll save money.

Find a weight loss buddy in the office – Your company is made up of different teams that work together toward one goal: success. Apply the same principle to your weight loss by recruiting co-workers looking to shed a few pounds. You can even make a competition out of it: Pair off into teams and see who can lose the most weight by the end of the summer.

Go the extra mile – Every little bit of activity helps when it comes to preventing weight gain. Sneak in a few minutes of extra exercise by taking the stairs to your floor, walking over to co-workers instead of e-mailing them, parking a little farther from your office or taking a walk during your lunch break.

So, on that note, I’m heading to the kitchen to grab a muffin — but tomorrow, I’m bringing my lunch.

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It’s no secret that exercising is good for you. Whether your goal is to don that bikini or Speedo in public or improve your cholesterol levels, there are endless benefits of working out. But what if it could help your career? When you have the time or energy to do it, working out can ease stress, improve productivity and help workers feel motivated — all things that can make you happier at work and possibly a better employee. And employers know this.

Consider the wellness programs that are popping up at companies all over the country. In a June 2009 report from The Society for Human Resource Management, 59 percent of HR professionals reported their organizations offered wellness programs to employees and 72 percent indicated their organizations provided wellness resources and information to employees.

But how can it really help you? CBS MoneyWatch recently reported on that very topic:

Researchers at the University of Bristol in England had people rate their job performance and mood on workdays when they exercised and on workdays when they didn’t. The results will make any efficiency expert raise an eyebrow. On the days they worked out:

• 72 percent of participants reported managing their time better.
• 79 percent said their mental and interpersonal performance improved.
• 74 percent reported managing their workload better.

If that’s not a prescription for getting a raise and being promoted, we don’t know what is. A smaller but significant share of exercisers reported other benefits as well: improved dealing with stress (26 percent), feeling motivated to work (33 percent), concentrating on work (26 percent), working without unscheduled breaks (28 percent) and finishing work on time (27 percent).

Not only did the article report on the study’s findings, it also came up with some workouts that can help ease the pain of many who are working or job searching in today’s economy. From boxing to yoga to swimming, click here to find out what sweat session might be best for working out the kinks in your career.

Tell us, how do you relieve your job search or workplace stress?

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In honor of Mother’s Day, The Work Buzz presents the results of CareerBuilder’s annual survey of working mothers, along with a few mom-friendly tips on creating a favorable work/life balance during the “Great Recession.”

By now, most of us have felt the effects of our harsh economy firsthand.  Whether you’ve lost a job, found yourself working longer hours to compensate for company layoffs or you simply lie awake at night worrying about the state of the union — somehow we’ve all had our foundations rocked by the ripple effects of the financial implosion. 

Unfortunately, the poor economy has impacted more than just the employer/employee relationship, and many families are finding it necessary to alter established roles and lifestyles in light of economic changes.  Often at the helm of this reconfiguration are working mothers, attempting to maintain the precarious balance between work and home.

If the CareerBuilder survey makes one thing clear, it’s that today’s working moms just don’t seem to have enough time. Forty three percent of working moms reported spending more than 40 hours a week in the office and nearly one-in-ten have had to take on a second job in the past 12 months — and all this extra time at work has taken a toll on life at home.  Of the moms surveyed, 29 percent say they have missed two or more significant events in their children’s lives over the past year and nearly one-in-five say that they spend two hours or less with their kids on workdays.

Mary Delaney, President of Personified, CareerBuilder’s talent consulting division — and a mother of three — says there are ways that working mothers can ease the tension between their personal and professional lives. “While working moms may not be able to spend as much time with their children as they would like, they are making the most of the time they do have and getting creative in work arrangements,” she says.

Below, Delaney offers her road-tested, stress-reducing tips for moms on overload.  

Talk to other working mothers – Build a support network of families that are in the same boat as you — that way, you can trade tips on balancing personal and professional commitments.  Plus, it helps to know that you’re not alone.

Seek out flexible work arrangements — Working moms can have flexible work arrangements and still prosper professionally.  Most working moms with flexible work schedules said it hasn’t negatively impacted their careers.  In fact, one-in-five said it has actually helped their careers.

Get organized — Set up a calendar with both business and family commitments to help you avoid double booking.  Creating a schedule for chores, homework and family activities will help save time and ease stress.

Take advantage of work perks – Most companies offer a variety of employee perks — like wellness benefits and entertainment discounts — that can help working moms both manage stress and spend quality time with their families.  For example, use wellness benefits to try out a yoga class or entertainment discounts to take your family to a museum at a reduced rate.

Put down the BlackBerry – At home, focus on your family.  If you have emails to write or work to finish, wait until the kids go to bed.

Schedule some “me time” – If you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t effectively take care of others.  Put actual time on your calendar for something you enjoy such as going to the gym, getting a manicure, reading, etc.

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