Advice
On The Job: Who Gets Respect?
Editorial Team 19In her new movie, The Switch, Jennifer Aniston plays a woman who chooses to be a single mom. Bill O’Reilly criticized that phenomenon—just as Vice President Dan Quayle famously did when he knocked Murphy Brown for doing it back in the 90s.
Ten Bogus Work From Home Schemes to Avoid
Editorial Team 221. Envelope Stuffing
Spend $20 to $50 and you’ll get a starter kit instructing you to mail flyers aimed at recruiting other people to stuff envelopes. You aren’t promoting a product or service—just getting people to accept the same offer. If they purchase the same kit, you get a commission. It won’t happen. Recruiting people to stuff envelopes is the oldest work-from-home gimmick. Don’t be fooled.
2. Email Processing
A modern-day version of the envelope stuffing con, for a fee you can become a “highly-paid” email processor working from home. Pay the fee and you get instructions on spamming the same ad you responded to in newsgroups and Web forums, with a promise of $25 for each ad accepted. No one accepts such ads.
3. Faux Data Entry
You’re offered access to companies supposedly looking to farm out basic data entry for an ad campaign—for an access fee. The work will never materialize.
4. “Just call” 1-900
Just remember: 1-900 numbers cost YOU money to call, which is how scammers get their money, by offering bogus work from home schemes. Once you’ve called, they’ve made their money—and you’ve lost yours.
5. Check Cashing
Scammers recruit “financial managers” or “representatives” or “sales managers” to cash checks (which are counterfeit) or deposit funds (which are stolen) for a small commission and then wire the money abroad, often to the scammers themselves. By the time the checks bounce, the money has already been sent. You are left holding the bag. If you’re asked for banking passwords or you hear the words “Western Union” mentioned, run for the hills.
6. Assembly Work
Avoid ads that say you can make “easy money” assembling items (usually crafts) from home. These cons usually require an upfront deposit for supplies, which never materialize. And even when they do, there’s no market for your “crafts.”
7. Medical Billing/Contract Typing
Most of these schemes promise hundreds, even thousands of dollars per week for processing insurance claims for doctors or typing for people who are too busy to do either. Both require you to pay upfront for materials and or “leads,” which turn out to be worthless.
8. Name Compiling
For a small (maybe $30) “registration fee” you are promised 50 cents for every name and address you send in. So you send in the money and give names and addresses of everyone you know. The scammers take your money—then contact every name you have given with the same scam. You get stiffed and your pals get spammed.
9. Mystery Shopping
In this scam, an official-sounding company promises to reimburse you for purchases during your mystery shopping rounds—once you pay a “registration fee” to find assignments in its (bogus) data base. Legitimate mystery shopping outfits never require a fee to search for companies requesting their services.
10. Companies Looking for “Homeworkers”
Pay a small fee for a list of companies who are supposedly looking for people (like you) who want to work from home. What you get is a generic, outdated list, some of which don’t want people who work from home, others who did—years ago. Don’t buy lists.
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Starting a Business Doesn’t Have to Cost Big Money
Editorial Team 4Some would-be entrepreneurs hesitate because they assume they need plenty of money – money they won’t get back for years to come. And they’re reluctant to part with what cash they do have – especially in a recession. But The Wall Street Journal reports that starting off doesn’t have to cost big bucks – with profiles of several people who got their ventures going for about $100.
Who is The Authentic You?
Editorial Team 16
Thanks to Julia Roberts’ new movie based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Eat, Pray, Love, a lot of people are being prompted to reflect on what matters most to them right now.
Gilbert says that at some point in all of our lives we need to pause and reflect “to take a CT scan on our soul to determine who is the authentic you.”
Jet Blue Quitter: A Warning Sign to Big Business?
Editorial Team 8Why he did it is unclear, and support for Jet Blue flight attendant Steven Slater is mixed. But the amazing amount of buzz he got nationwide indicates this stressed-out airline employee struck a nerve.
Some experts say the intense reaction is a sign that many of us are stretched too thin, burned out and can’t take it anymore. They say that it’s time for corporations to begin hiring again right now.
A recent drop in worker productivity after five quarters in a row of growth is “a sign that companies have reached the limit of how much they can cut back their workforce and how hard they can work their existing workforce,” economist Joel Naroff told USA TODAY.
He predicted that many burned-out workers may copy Slater (although probably with less fanfare) once the economy rebounds. “A massive relocation of workers who want out as fast as they possibly can.”
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A Wave of Women Entrepreneurs on Tap?
Editorial Team 1
The ranks of successful women entrepreneurs is about to increase, experts say. Attitudes about women in business are slowly changing and the only thing standing in their way is their own fears, says Carol Realini, CEO of Obopay. “The challenge of being a woman CEO is, one, you’ve got to get in the game. So, you have to be willing to try. And it’s intimidating, especially if you’ve never done it before.”