5 Things You Need to Know About Child Care Costs and the Workplace

5 Things You Need to Know About Child Care Costs and the Workplace5 Things You Need to Know About Child Care Costs and the Workplace Its no secret that child care is expensive. Survey after survey has said as much in recent months. And the statistics, frankly, are staggering.But how do the escalating child care costs affect working parents? And to what extent do the impacts carry over to their employers?Here, well take a look at working parents and their employers need to know about the cost of child care, and its effects on the workplace.At a cool $18,000 for two children in day care, the cost of child care is the largest household expense for many American families, according to Care.coms second Cost of Care survey of 700 parents nationwide. Twenty-eight percent of families spend more than $20,000 and 13 percent spend more than $30,000 annually, the survey found. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the affordability threshold for child care is 10 percent of a household budget. A new paper from the Economic Policy Institute found that child cares share of total family budgets meets HHSs voreingestellt of affordability in only a handful of the 618 areas identified in the study.The EPI paper released last week further revealed child care costs have surpassed college tuition and even housing costs for many families. According to the report, child care for a 4-year-old exceeds in-state full-time undergraduate tuition in 24 states and Washington, D.C., while infant care exceeds tuition costs in 33 states and DC. However, large employers are eight times more likely to offer scholarships or educational assistance for employees kids than they are to offer help pay for child care a direct expense to the company. According to the Families and Work Institutes 2014 National Study of Employers , 5 percent of large employers (2 percent overall) help employees pay for childcare with subsidies or vouchers that have direct costs for companies. Meanwhile, 40 percent of large employers (and 12 percent total) offer scholarships or educational assistance for the children of employees.To be precise, its 69 percent of parents who said the cost of child care has influenced their career decisions, according to Care.coms second Cost of Care report, released earlier this year. And what kind of impacts are we talking about? 35 percent say theyve changed jobs and 24 percent have taken a second job to increase household income. Another 66 percent said theyd change jobs for better work-family benefits, according to Care.coms Better Benefits survey. Child care also impacts working parents careers in less obvious ways. For example, 90 percent of employees said theyve had to leave work for family reasons and, according to a Care.com member poll, 64 percent of parents worry about their childrens safety every minute of the day. As unterstellung workplace disruptions add up, the lost productivity mounts. Annually, absenteeism, presenteeism and other family-care related issues cost American businesses tens of billions annually. In recent months, study after study has illustrated the continued struggle of women and working moms, in particular in Corporate America. Weve seen it in the 58 percent of Millennial moms who told Pew Research being a working mother has made it harder for them to get ahead in their careers, in the 37 percent of millennial Harvard Business School alumni who expect to interrupt their careers for motherhood, and in the new Women in the Workplace study from Lean In and McKinsey that found women are still underrepresented at every level in the corporate pipeline. Part of that, to be sure, has to do with outdated corporate structures built for single-income households, when the reality is that in two-thirds of married households all parents work. But part of it is also that working moms still more often take on the default parent role, and handle more child care and household resp onsibilities than working dads. Improved access to reliable, affordable child care helps to put working moms more on equal footing especially for those moms who need care to be able to work and need to work to be able to afford care.Its in an organizations best interest to keep working parents who comprise a large percentage of the workforce present, productive and engaged in their jobs. One important way of doing this is helping parents manage the cost of care. One way to do this is offering family care benefits, through a program like Care.com Workplace Solutions, which can help employees find and manage care or provide subsidized backup care to cover those unplanned care gaps. Education about FSAs, DCAPs and other tax breaks is another way to help working families manage care costs. For example, although 64 percent of respondents to the Cost of Care survey said their employers offer an FSA, 36 percent dont set aside any money and 36 percent didnt realize FSAs can be used to help decrease child care costs.This article welches originally published on Care.com .

Ways to Make Your Job Easier - Simplify Your Job - The Muse

Ways to Make Your Job Easier - Simplify Your Job - The MuseWays to Make Your Job Easier - Simplify Your Job We all know that work involves, well, work. Even if you love your job, it cant always be easy, and it cant always be fun.But, sometimes we want our jobs to be a little (or a lot) easier. We want to get our work done mora quickly, to not feel overstretched or overwhelmed, and to have mora time for the things we really love. The good news is, there are ways to do that (without being a total slacker). Check out our favorite tips and tricks below for being mora productive, removing things you dont need to be doing from your to-do list, and overall making doing your job a much more pleasant experience. 1. Dont Plan on Doing Too MuchHeres a secret for you Most to-do lists are way too long, which leads to overwork and stress when it doesnt all get done. Instead, assume you can only get one big thing, three medium things, and five small things done a day (fewer if you have a lot of mee tings). Weve created a template to help you plan a more reasonable to-do list. 2. Focus on High-Reward TasksFocus the majority of your energy on those tasks that are going to create the biggest results. Youll look like youre doing much more, but secretly with less effort. This is often called getting the low-hanging fruit- the rewards you can achieve with the least effort. 3. Work in SprintsIts been said time and time again that the secret to getting more work done in less time is to work in bursts, with breaks in between. The intervals you choose will depend on your work and preferences, but, whatever you go with, set a timer, do your best to stay focused for that period of time, and then actually get up and take a break in between. Youll feel more energized during your work sessions and ultimately be way more efficient.4. Give Each Day a ThemeDo distractions keep derailing you from focusing on the actual important things? Use Jack Dorsey- the co-founder of Twitter as well as the C EO of Squares- secret and try giving each day a theme. That way, when distractions come up, you know to either punt them to another day or, if you have to, deal with them quickly and get back on track.5. Start With the Most Difficult TaskBy getting the hardest thing on your plate out of the way first thing in the morning, the rest of the day will feel way easier by comparison. Plus, then you wont waste mental energy all day thinking about this challenging thing you have to do. 6. Follow Your EnergyEveryone has certain times of the day when theyre more or less productive. If you schedule big projects during your energy downtimes, youre making your work way harder on yourself. Instead, try mapping out your ideal day based on your energy levels. 7. Dont Fight it When Youre Feeling UselessProbably one of the hardest things to do at work is to force yourself to work hard when youre really not feeling on top of your game. So, unless you have a pending deadline and absolutely cant, put off that particular task and do something more suited for your mental capacity. Writer Katie Douthwaite suggests that this is a great time to get those boring, monotonous tasks knocked out.8. Use Templates Whenever You CanWhy reinvent the wheel every time you have to do something? Have an email you have to write often? Use a template. Need to create a presentation? Use a template. Redesigning your resume? Use a template. You get the picture.9. Set Up Canned ResponsesBetter yet, if you use Gmail, set these templates up as canned responses, so you dont even have to leave your inbox to drop them in and send them off.10. Set Up Auto-TextIf youre often responding to messages on the go from your phone, make it easier on yourself by setting up auto-text. For example, pitch could expand to fill in your elevator pitch- meaning you dont have to type the whole thing out every time on your tiny keyboard. Read here for more on how to set it up.11. Or Dont Type at AllYou can also use your phones tal k-to-text feature to more easily and quickly respond to messages. Productivity expert Alex Cavoulacos explains how she uses it to her advantage here.12. Shorten Your EmailsWere going to take a wild guess that answering emails takes up a lot of your time and energy. What if you made it all easier for yourself by setting a limit on how long each response can be? Obviously, some messages necessarily have to be longer than others, but challenge yourself to keep them under five sentences long (or even shorter) as often as possible.13. Just Have a ConversationLong email chains got you down? When a conversation starts getting too convoluted, consider whether it would be easier to just hop on the phone or set up a meeting to talk it out. Sometimes a 10-minute conversation can eliminate hours of email messages. 14. Eliminate Follow-up EmailsNothing makes answering emails harder than your inbox constantly filling up with follow-up emails from people you havent gotten the chance to respond to yet. So set up an auto-responder that lets people know youve received the message and will respond in due time- hopefully dissuading the eager beavers from constantly emailing you back. You could even include answers to commonly asked questions, to potentially help the messenger help herself (and prevent you from having to answer at all).15. Employ the OHIO StrategyHow many times do you open an email, read it, and then leave it in your inbox to deal with later? Dont do this Its actually taking up more of your time and energy to process it multiple times. Instead, follow the OHIO (only handle it once) strategy and deal with it immediately, whether thats by deleting it, answering it, shooting it off to the right person, or, for larger messages that will require more time, parsing it out into tasks to put on your to-do list.16. Get Rid of as Many Decisions as PossibleDecision fatigue is real- and it could be making your days way harder. To keep it from affecting your work, eliminate as many decisions as possible. This could mean wearing a work uniform so you dont have to pick an outfit every day, bringing the same thing to lunch for a week, or setting up a standing meeting with your anfhrer so you dont always have to reach out asking for one. Whatever it takes to put a lot of your decisions on autopilot.17. Stop MultitaskingThis habit may make you feel like youre getting more done, but its actually slowing you down and making your work harder than it needs to be. So do your best to focus on one task until its done, and then move onto the next thing. Youll find your mind is clear and your work is better (and easier).18. Leave Yourself a CliffhangerSometimes the hardest part of work is getting started on something. So, make it easier to jump into a task by leaving yourself a cliffhanger. This means, if youre dragging your feet starting a project, just start, do a little bit of it (even if its not your best work), and then leave it unfinished to come back to the nex t day. Getting going will be way easier once you already have somewhere to jump in. 19. Remove Something From Your To-Do ListSeriously consider each item on your to-do list to see if theres anything thats actually not important. This especially applies to things that keep getting put on the back burner. Its worth asking yourself, If Ive been putting this off so much, is it really that necessary?20. Say No to SomethingIn addition to removing something from your plate, consider saying no a little more often to new asks. Obviously you cant do this all the time to just get out of work, but if youre feeling overwhelmed or you get an ask for something non-work related (like doing an informational interview with a friends kid), suck it up and say no. Here are some suggestions for how to say it nicely to your boss and to your friends.21. Constantly Question MeetingsIn case you havent heard, meetings can easily become a huge waste of time. Every time you schedule a meeting- even a recurring one- you should really be questioning whether it needs to happen at all, whether youre alotting too much time for it, or whether you need to be in attendance. If you feel like the answer to any of these questions is no, consider adjusting (or talking to your boss to make sure youre using your time as effectively as possible). 22. Have a To-Dont ListTo help yourself say no more and cut down on decision fatigue, start a to-dont list- a list of things you should never waste your time doing. Check out these ideas to get you started.23. Delegate Some of Your WorkIs there a task that youre doing that you really, really dread, or that you feel like is really no longer part of your job description? Consider whether it would be worth delegating it to a more junior employee or, if youre really drowning, whether its time to bring in an pro domo or new direct report. Here are some guidelines for figuring out when delegation is the right way to go.24. Or Crowdsource ItWriter Jennifer Dziura sugg ests crowdsourcing as a way to make less effort for yourself while making clients and users happier. In essence, its working along with the client or user to make proposals, presentations, and the like. To learn more about how it can play out in your everyday work life, check out her article. 25. Do a Work SwapHave a task youre dreading or really not sure how to handle? Ask a colleague in your department if she wants to swap Basically, you send one of your least favorite tasks her way, and she sends one of hers to you. You wont have to drag yourself through something youve been dreading, but the work will get done- potentially even better than you could have done it yourself someone who hasnt been aggravating over the assignment might quickly be able to see something you couldnt.26. Avoid Perfectionism (Except Where it Really Matters)Putting pressure on yourself to make all your work perfect is not only stressing you out, it could be slowing you down and causing you to procrastinate endbearbeitung things because youre worried theyre not just right. In some cases (big end-of-year report to your boss, copy thats going out to the world) this sort of attention to detail is critical. But in others (sending an email to your colleague, getting a first draft of a presentation to your team), focusing on perfectionism is making your life harder than it needs to be. 27. Look for Ways to Streamline ProcessesIs there a task that always takes you forever to complete? Something you feel like is way harder than it should be or something that is taking up far too much of your time? Rather than just trucking through it time and time again, see if there are any ways you can streamline these processes. Maybe its talking to other companies to see if theyve found an easier way. Maybe its coordinating with other departments to see if they can help save you time or effort. (For example, is there something the engineering team might be able to quickly build you that would save you ton s of time?) 28. Hire a Virtual Assistant for Small ThingsWe all have those menial things that take us hours to complete but could easily be done by someone else. If you dont have someone in the company to delegate them to, consider hiring a virtual assistant to help you out. They can do anything from scheduling travel plans to proofing your reports to doing the tedious design work on your next presentation- pretty much anything you dread starting and really dont have to be doing yourself. Check out efficiency expert Marissa Brassfields advice for figuring out if something is worth outsourcing.29. Get Everything Super OrganizedYour files. Your computer folders. The top of your desk. Your inbox. Take the time now to get organized so that finding the things you need is never the hurdle to getting started on a task. And hey, it can all be done in just 30 minutes30. Dont Let Your Colleagues Interrupt YouYour co-workers probably mean well, but their constant stream of IM updates, quick qu estions for you about the latest project, or chit-chat about their weekends can seriously mess up your flow of focus, making it way harder to get difficult tasks done. Set up systems that alert your office mates when youre in the zone- whether its a do not disturb message on your chat or huge headphones that signify that youre not to be bothered- and communicate them clearly.31. Take a NapSee if you can sneak in a power nap during your afternoon slump. Even 20-30 minutes of shut-eye can give you more of an energy boost than coffee could, improve your mood, enhance your analytical and learning abilities, and banish stress- making the rest of the day much easier and more pleasant. So shut your door, sneak off to your car, or do whatever it takes to get in a quick bit of sleep.Photo of desk courtesy of Shutterstock.

I Tanked My Interview But Still Landed the JobHeres How

I Tanked My Interview But Still Landed the JobHeres HowI Tanked My Interview But Still Landed the Job- Heres How Just wrapped up a job interview that couldnt have gone worse? Dont freak out yet. Plenty o f candidates thought an interview went terribly and lo and behold, found out they scored the job in the days or weeks afterward. It might sound like a rare occurrence, but it happens mora often than youd think. To come out on the otherbei end with a job in hand, its all about rebounding as quickly and efficiently as possible, and in many cases, having a little luck and a compassionate interviewer on your side. Here are three stories of bombed interviewsthat had happily employed endings. When, Lyn Alden , an engineer and investment strategy writer, applied for a juniorchefin aviation research job and hadnt heard anything from the company two months later, she assumed she didnt get the job. Then, out of the blue, she got word they wanted to set up a phone interview. A t that point, I had focused on so many other opportunities that I no longer had much interest in this one, she says. But, to be polite and keep my options open, I scheduled the phone interview. But the call welchesnt exactly smooth sailing. My heart wasnt in it, and my performance was lousy. I was lying on my bed chatting on the phone with no notes or anything in front of me, like I was talking to a friend instead of an interviewer. I had very little knowledge of the organization I was interviewing for, and was way too casual.Then, the interviewer told her that the job involved computer programming . She was honest and said she had only taken one programming class in college and didnt know much about it. In fact, she said she would need a mentor who would be willing to get hands on in order to do the job duties that were on the table. The interviewer asked me if I had other questions , so I just asked him about a few things he was working on out of curiosity, just chit chatting, Alden remembers. I didnt try to market myself, and didnt make sure to put myself in the best possible light. Instead, I was casual and brutally honest. When I was finished, it seemed pretty clear to me I wouldnt be picked. The interviewer was polite but didnt sound interested at all. I felt like I wasted his time.Alden was shocked when within a week, she received a job offer . Looking back, she thinks that due to her lack of preparation, she actually ended up being more confident than usual, quite honest about what she could and couldnt do, and upfront about what kind of support she would need in order to get the job done. Clearly, her interviewer liked her pragmatic approach.Once she started the job, Alden worked hard to impress her interviewer, who ended up becoming her boss. I wanted to show that I was a lot more diligent and hard-working than I came off as in the interview. Before starting the job, I researched the organization thoroughly. Once I was there, I spent some of my evenings learning to code at a higher level so that I could perform better during the workday. Its safe to say her efforts paid off Alden has been working at the same company for the past eight years in increasingly senior positions.Yes. This really happened, and she still got the job. I was interviewing for residency positions as a doctor just out of medical school, says Wei-Shin Lai, M.D., CEO of sleep technology company AcousticSheep . I had a bad head cold and was coughing a lot. For lunch, the interviewers took the potential nicht auslagerbars out to a really nice restaurant, and I ate lot of shrimp in vodka sauce. When we went back for our afternoon interviews, I got into a coughing fit and literally threw up on my nicest suit, sitting across from the interviewer. I was embarrassed but just used a tissue, cleaned up, and carried on with the interview.Sounds pretty disastrous, right? Well, Lai was accepted as a resident at that hospital, and shes pretty sure she knows why. I t hink they let me in because one, they were medical professionals, so vomit is not a big deal, and two, they saw that I was mortified but maintained enough composure to push through the rest of the day. In other words, they saw firsthand that she was able to perform even when she was clearly not feeling her best.Theres nothing worse than circumstances you cant control ruining your dream interview, and thats exactly what happened when Jena Viviano , who is now a career coach, interviewed for a geschftlicher umgang analyst position at the New York Stock Exchange. The interview was at 8AM, and the night prior I had been working in my investment banking job until 2AM on a project. That wasnt the first night that week I had been at work past midnight, either. I went into the NYSE absolutely exhausted with my Blackberry blowing up from all the people emailing me at my current job. Needless to say, she went into the room unprepared and off her game. When one of the managing directors asked me a question, I started tearing up because I couldnt think straight. Then when she asked me a technical question that I usually wouldve been able to answer, I just turned to her and said, I just really have no idea. Not my proudest moment.Between the crying, the exhaustion, the inability to answer simple questions, and my heel breaking right before I stepped foot into the building, its amazing to me that I got the job, she says. Still, the interviewers saw something in Viviano that convinced them she was a good fit. Though they didnt specifically tell me, I think it was a combination of my authenticity, coachability, potential, and strong enough background that they wanted to bring me in one more time to see if I would be a good fit. Plus, many of the people I interviewed with understood what I was going through because they too had been investment bankers. I always joked with my boss that he rescued me from investment banking and that I was eternally grateful.When it comes down to it, all you can do after something goes horribly awry in an interview is try to regroup and give the interviewer an honest picture of who you really are, plus what makes you qualified for the job. If youre lucky, they may just look past whatever snafu happened during the interview- big or small- and give you the job anyway. Of course, this is mainly likely to happen despite a less-than-ideal interview, you have relevant experience and the desired qualifications for the job . And if this particular job doesnt work out? Dont sweat it. Whatever went wrong in your bombed interview, you can chalk it up to a hard-learned lesson youll never forget.