Several Useful Suggestions For Using KIT Days To Your Advantage

The Work and Families Act was lauded as being advantageous to mums-to-be when it was introduced in 2007. After all, nine months of statutory maternity pay was available, with up to a year off work allowable. For the family, much more time and attention could be devoted to the task of getting ready, receiving and raising the child during these critical periods. Within the caring society that we live, maternity leave is seen as a human right, even though certain pressures can arise between the employee and the employer as part of the ongoing working arrangement. Employers must take into account that pregnancy is possible among the female employees and they must be able to work within the law, by taking on temporary staff as needed to cover for any women that might be on maternity leave. Of course a certain amount of disruption can be expected, but the majority take this in stride.

For the mum on maternity leave a new clause entitles her to “keep in touch” by taking advantage of 10 legislatively allocated days, allowing her to attend work and receive payment accordingly. Parliament decided that this legislation was appropriate and that it would help to smooth over any element of “disconnection” or normal disruption that might take place in the work place and between the employer and employee over time.

There are many ways that Mum can take advantage of “keeping in touch” days, looking at it from different angles. Mum will be able to keep on top of those latest trend changes. While it is of course possible to research at home and to receive notifications, e-mails and so on while on leave, often there is no replacement for actually being at your place of employment, interacting with other staff and, for example, actually seeing how a new procedure plays out. By “keeping in touch” strategically this way, especially as time approaches to go back to work, the employee is more likely to be able to hit the ground running.

When baby came around, Mum may have been particularly busy with a challenging project. In this case, keeping in touch days can be used to help her follow-through on this project and to use her valued skills. In an ideal scenario, we would not want the business to suffer in any way and we would not want Mum to be at a disadvantage of any kind when it comes to her career, due to the fact that she was involved in a pivotal project. By using those keeping in touch days, she would just be “behind” in terms of her time spent moving forward.

Keeping in touch also will allow mum to interact with her temporary replacement and that could potentially help to smooth over any issues or problems that may arise without this type of informal supervision.

Each “keeping in touch” day is also paid by the employer and does not affect the amount of maternity leave pay that she may have. This can be a little boost, financially, when it is much needed.

As an extended period away from your work can be challenging indeed, you may well have to seek out professional coaching to give you a good idea how to approach it. These days, online life coaching, specifically online life coaching for women, is a service dedicated to helping us understand how to cope with every distinct phase of our personal lives and business careers.

Amanda Alexander is the Director of Coaching Mums and a widely renowned ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums across the globe who long for more time, balance and fulfilment in their busy lives. Download our free eBook especially for working mums with 5 easy ways to achieve balance.

Inspiring Ideas On Getting Seen Online As A Mumpreneur

These are exciting times. As a mumpreneur/mompreneur you have so many opportunities available to you, some of which were totally unheard of only five years or so ago.

It wasn’t so long ago that people who worked from home were vilified to a certain extent. This was due to the fact that other people simply couldn’t conceive how it was possible to make money in this manner. Times are so different now and it’s certainly possible to turn a hobby or passion into a worthwhile and rewarding business when you are working from home.

Rather than worrying about attending networking meetings, getting out and about and spending long periods of time at Chambers of Commerce meetings or otherwise engaging in “push” marketing, you can be creative and make sure that your business is seen online.

1. Rule number one is to set up your profile at one of the professional networking sites such as Linkedin. Sites such as this encourage professionals to interact and your profile will show that you are engaged in a certain type of business which may be of interest to them, as well.

2. Social media has exploded over the last few years. This type of communication may well be more to do with interacting with friends and acquaintances and finding friends online, but can be used as a powerful business marketing tool for you. Think about Facebook for example. Your Facebook account can be expanded to include a business page and if you let all your contacts and friends know about this, you can build up an army of “fans” for your business.

3. Use Twitter as a social media “mini-blog” to send highly targeted messages to your followers. Publishing an account in your business name is not difficult and you can then start to set up contact details for those who are also interested in your niche. Whenever you send a message on Twitter, it is restricted to 140 characters or less, but this is nevertheless a very potent way of communicating and establishing yourself as an expert in your niche for good effect.

4. If you want to create great looking blogs, why not use WordPress as your tool? Make no mistake about it, if you’re going to service a blog creatively and well, you need to do some work on it every day. You have a lot of knowledge in your business and the blog can be a vehicle for you to transmit the fact that you know all of this, to those who may be interested and when you write one new post per day and publish, you’re on your way. It’s not at all difficult to do.

5. There are many, many ways that you can promote your business using social media. Once you have your blog set up and have your Facebook and Twitter accounts established, you can start visiting other “authority” blogs and begin interacting.

The power of blogging is in the two-way interaction created when commenting on the blog posts. As you proceed, others will see your comments and start visiting your blog and commenting themselves. Your aim is to use social media in its most viral form to help you.

As a mumpreneur, you can use social media and professional coaching advice will always recommend this approach. Spend some of your time on the web engaging with these online life coaching experts, many of whom are dedicated to providing coaching for women in your position.

Amanda Alexander is Director of Coaching Mums and a highly acclaimed ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums who yearn for success, balance and fulfilment. Are you a juggling mom? Download our free eBook for working moms that will give you 5 simple and instant ways to balance your life right now!

Several Valuable Points For Using KIT Days To Your Advantage

When the Work and Families Act was introduced in 2007, it was felt that it was particularly advantageous to mums to be. After all, nine months of statutory maternity pay was available, with up to a year off work allowable. For the family, much more time and attention could be devoted to the task of getting ready, receiving and raising the child during these critical periods. Within the caring society that we live, maternity leave is seen as a human right, even though certain pressures can arise between the employee and the employer as part of the ongoing working arrangement. Employers must take into account that pregnancy is possible among the female employees and they must be able to work within the law, by taking on temporary staff as needed to cover for any women that might be on maternity leave. This is bound to cause a certain amount of disruption, but in the majority of situations, this is taken in stride.

There is a new clause available for the mum on maternity, allowing her to “keep in touch” through the allocation of 10 legislatively permitted days, during which she can attend work and receive a certain number of payments. Parliament decided that this legislation was appropriate and that it would help to smooth over any element of “disconnection” or normal disruption that might take place in the work place and between the employer and employee over time.

Mum can take advantage of keeping in touch days from several different perspectives. Mum will be able to keep on top of those latest trend changes. While it is of course possible to research at home and to receive notifications, e-mails and so on while on leave, often there is no replacement for actually being at your place of employment, interacting with other staff and, for example, actually seeing how a new procedure plays out. This is a strategic way of keeping in touch and when time approaches to return to work, the employee should be “up to speed” and ready to be highly productive, once more.

Mum may have been involved with a particularly challenging project when baby called. Those keeping in touch days would be particularly advantageous for her in this case, allowing her to continue to follow through and to impart her valued skills. Otherwise, the business may suffer or in certain circumstances, mum may be at somewhat of a career disadvantage when she returns simply due to the fact that she had not been available to work on a pivotal project. In this case, she may simply be “behind” in terms of time spent progressing.

Keeping in touch also will allow mum to interact with her temporary replacement and that could potentially help to smooth over any issues or problems that may arise without this type of informal supervision.

The good thing about each “keeping in touch” day is that it is paid by the employer and is not accounted for, from maternity leave pay. This can be a little boost, financially, when it is much needed.

Make no mistake about it, sometimes an extended period away from work can be very challenging and you may need to seek out professional coaching to help you understand how to handle it. These days, online life coaching, specifically online life coaching for women, is a service dedicated to helping us understand how to cope with every distinct phase of our personal lives and business careers.

Amanda Alexander is Director of Coaching Mums and a highly acclaimed ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums who yearn for success, balance and fulfilment. Are you a juggling mom? Download our free eBook for working moms that will give you 5 simple and instant ways to balance your life right now!

An Array Of Helpful Survival Points For Exhausted Working Mums

Have you ever wondered how you keep going, working on pure adrenaline to survive, yet still function well at work and cope with all the other requirements of being a busy mum?

You realise that you would do well if you could work to a schedule and manage things much more effectively, but your new arrival is not aware of your need to schedule things, at all! These are crucial formative times for the newborn, who is entirely dependent on mum and all these requirements can sometimes make you feel as if you are working a 9-to-5 shift overnight, as well.

As a devoted mother, you are certainly enjoying your life in your new role, but from time to time you may feel as if you are at the end of your wits, calling on every element of your being to conquer what would otherwise seem to be perfectly mundane tasks. Isn’t in awful, when you can see the new work week approaching and not know how you’re going to cope?

It can be extraordinarily difficult to maintain a schedule and you may have heard the phrase “time management” many times from well-being people, but it is nevertheless essential that you maintain a routine of some kind as closely as possible.

Without routines we find ourselves bouncing from pillar to post and it all leads up to an elevated level of stress, which negatively impacts every other area. Although you might not like to think that you have to do so, it’s important for you to get into a routine as soon as possible.

When mornings roll around, try to keep it as simple as you possibly can. It can be very difficult to get going in the morning if your night’s rest has been disrupted by the needs of the baby. However, you have things to do and you should do them in the same order every day.

Exercise is vitally important and this must be your first priority. Don’t be tempted to take an extra 15 minutes in bed. While you’re on the treadmill, the coffee can be brewing and the early morning headlines, traffic and weather ahead of you on the TV. When you are done, it’s time to get the children up and make sure they have their own chores to do to lighten your load.

After a while, you will get this procedure down to a finite science, every single day. This can be the most stressful time of the day as you are trying to wake yourself up and focus on what you have to do. If your routine is clockwork and all the other members of the family understand this and also do their bit, you’ll be better prepared to get out of the door running.

From time to time, you might think that you have nothing available when it comes to keeping up with your “me time” and enjoying your social life, having to concentrate so hard on work and the baby. You will hopefully have a great understanding with a caregiver and understand just how important this person is within your whole picture.

You will hopefully have an understanding boss at work. Never take advantage of the situation though and only call in any favours or use any delay allowances or personal days if absolutely necessary. If you always play fair, whenever emergencies come along, you will be more able to deal with this situation and to meet with your boss’s favour.

At work, try not to schedule anything too technically demanding for first thing in the day and make sure you do not overload your schedule with unrealistic expectations.

During your 9-to-5 routine at work, time management is very important, as you don’t want your work requirements to spill over into your personal time.

In most cases, professional coaching can focus your attention on key areas of your life. Dedicated coaching for women is praised by many in your situation, who have turned to online life coaching to really help them get past “the wall.”

Amanda Alexander is Director of Coaching Mums and a highly acclaimed ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums who yearn for success, balance and fulfilment. Are you a juggling mom? Download our free eBook for working moms that will give you 5 simple and instant ways to balance your life right now!

Helpful Tips For Returning To Work During A Recession

Taking a career break in the middle of a recession is probably not the best idea, but sometimes we are forced to do so, especially when we are expecting a new arrival. Household budgets are difficult to balance at the best of times and the thought of being a full-time mum can be attractive, but hardly realistic. As soon as we are able and are ready, we need to get back into the job market to find a way of catching back up financially.

With unemployment rates so high, the labour market can seem to be an even more daunting proposition than usual. This is not the time to falter though and it is important to prepare your negotiation skills and boost your self-confidence, ready for battle. Sit down and look at your financial position carefully, computing your needs for the months and years ahead of you. While you must always be reasonable, cut out anything that you don’t really need. You should be very clear about your financial requirements, the absolute minimums and the ideal scenarios.

While you may have been quite happy with your career prior to the break, this is an opportunity for you to really evaluate whether you want to go back into that line of business, or whether you want to explore something new. Is this the time to consider setting up your own business, for example? Does your financial analysis tell you that you can expect to have fair returns from self-employment, while still making ends meet and if so you may be presented with an exciting and flexible concept for your new life. This may well be the time to consider professional coaching as these are some very significant and potentially very impactful decisions. Thankfully, coaching for women in your situation can definitely help you to determine what to do.

Always be very positive and never negative. Determine what your strengths are, write them down on a piece of paper and keep them next to you at all times. Focus on your psyche and project yourself well in all your phone calls, e-mails or conversations.

If you are aiming for a particular position, try and consider jobs which are beneath, but fall naturally within the career progression. In this case you may well be over-qualified, but it is a stepping stone closer to where you want to go and if you over-deliver at what you are doing you will become eligible and soon achieve the position that you really want.

This can be a tough hiring environment but those who are prepared to go the extra distance and really stand out from the rest, will succeed over the sad majority who cannot or do not. If you remember that it is in your mindset to succeed, then you will.

At this stage, you will need all of the inner strength that you can muster. It is easy to get disenchanted by the negative news we hear about the economy and jobs every day and while you might begin to think that the task is very difficult, don’t think that it is a hill too steep. Remember to take the journey one step at a time, being fully confident of your ability and your readiness for a particular position before you start to contact the employer. Before you make a phone call, stand up and take a deep breath. A slumping posture, or a sagging mindset will not help. Always smile as you talk on the phone as well.

These days, online life coaching can provide you with the boost you require when you need it, especially in those periods of negativity. You can definitely do this!

Amanda Alexander, Director of Coaching Mums, helps pressure-cooked, stressed working mums who long for more hours in the day. Through her coaching programmes and online life coaching courses, Amanda shows mums how to create fulfilling and successful lives. For your simple 5 step guide to balance as a working mum, download our free eBook today!

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