The Fabulous Beekman Boys Dr. Brent Ridge on Making Flexible Life Work - FlexJobs

The Fabulous Beekman Boys Dr. Brent Ridge on Making Flexible Life Work - FlexJobsThe Fabulous Beekman Boys Dr. Brent Ridge on Making Flexible Life Work Not many people count a narcissistic llama as one of their pets, but the stars of Planet Greens Fabulous Beekman Boys have proven that they live life outside of the box AND the office cube. In fact, the timing of the zweierkombi buying a farm only to both be let go of their New York City jobs couldnt have been more perfect. got the chance to speak with star Dr. Brent Ridge, a former VP of Martha Stewart Healthy Living, on life in the flexible work lane.Making flexible life workWhat are the benefits for trading in an office job for more flexible work?BRENT The benefits are obvious you are working from home. And you dont have a lot of the distractions you would have if you are going into the office. You are much more efficient when youre working from home than when you are working in the office. What you have to be careful of is that y ou orchestrate that work/life balance because when youre working from home, youre never separated from it by any distance. And the tendency for some people is to work all the time. So, I think you really need to lay down some rules for yurself.Definitely. What are some of the rules you have laid down?BRENT I havent set down any rules laughs. Im saying thats what you SHOULD do. I dont practice what I preach. Were in a situation where were starting a company and the company is growing very quickly and were trying to make the most of all the opportunities that are coming ur way. The lessons that you learn on the farm and its true is that you have to make hay while the sun shines. And thats what were trying to do so were always going.How do you supplement the infamous water cooler talk while working from home?BRENT Deadpans Oh.you wouldnt believe what a big gossip our llama is. He reads all the tabloidswatches all the Housewives shows?BRENT watches all the Housewives shows. In fact, h e wants to BE one of the housewives.One benefit to having a flexible work schedule is of course more time with kids for parents, and also pets for pet owners. Did you enjoy having more time with your two pigs, dozen chickens, of course the llama, and eighty goats, EIGHTY?BRENT More than that now. Now we have 127 goatsOh my goodness.BRENT Every morning starts out walking through the barn, checking in with all the animals, saying hello, getting a few goat kisses, a llama kiss, gathering eggs from the chicken coup its a process. Its different having a flex job on the farm because the work is really never done, but its definitely more enjoyable. In fact, I think thats what most people who enter a flex job find is that the work is more enjoyable.At what point did you decide to engage in flexible work/ to make a career change and start Beekman 1802?BRENT We bought the farm property and thought it was going to be a weekend farm we lived in the city within a year of buying the place we b oth lost our jobs in the city. Before that, we had a farmer write us a note asking if he could bring his goats over to the farm. When we both lost our jobs, we decided we needed to do something with the farm or we were going to lose it. Thats how we actually started in the farming business and it led to a complete career change.What are some of your favorite items from Beekman 1802? I love the pillows, by the wayBRENT The pillows are great. Every one of them is hand stitched by local artists. Right now were working with about 22 different local crafts people where we design the products and have them make them for us. Thats always been a philosophy of our company to help support as many people in the local community as possible so they can make a living doing the things they love to do. We actually have four people in flex positions right now. They get to set their own hours. They get to come in when theyre free. We work with a lot of stay at home moms particularly during the holida y season when theres never a shortage of work. Last holiday season we had 6 different moms who were doing something for us during the holidays.Are you enjoying running a business from home?BRENT I am. We started our business at home. Our company is now 3 years old. It was just last year that we moved into the village so now a lot of our back end stuff is happening out of the village a lot of our shipping and what not. Its leise close enough to home that Im between the two every day.There are many green benefits to working from homeBRENT Aside from the commute, I think probably and Im not saying this just to be funny some weeks I wear the same outfit six days in a row. I save a lot of water for laundry. Truthfully, we live on the farm and were growing our own food so when it comes to lunch time, I just walk out to the garden and pick whatevers ready and usually make an impromptu salad while walking through. Its easy being green when living on a farm.How did the show, The Fabulous Beekman Boys on Planet Green featuring you and Josh come about?BRENT We started our website, Beekman1802.com, It started as a blog when we were working in the city and when we would come up on the weekends wed take a train we would write what we hope to accomplish and when we went home, wed write a blog about all the things we did accomplish and all the surprises that happened. We started creating recipes from things we harvested in the garden and it grew into a major website. We started doing newsletters and the president of Planet Green got on our email list and received a few of them and then emailed through the Web site asking if we would come in and talk to her. They said, We think you guys would make a great TV show. Thats how it happened.Will there be another season??BRENT Youll just have to wait and find out.Anything else youd like to share for people seeking a job that allows them a better eco-friendly work/life balance?BRENT Just like any job, there are some good aspects and some bad aspects. Some people take a flex position or a stay at home position and find they miss the socialization that they had in an office setting. If thats something you are concerned about the social aspect of it find other people who are doing flex jobs that you canmeet up with once a week or something for that water cooler conversation. Or just get a llama.You can find Brent and Josh at their website, Beakman1802.com, or at their TV show on Planet Green.

Does Your Company Encourage Binge Working

Does Your Company Encourage Binge Working Does Your Company Encourage Binge Working Now, these are extreme cases but they are real, and they do at least highlight the perils of binge working. Even though most people may elend suffer such extreme reactions to binge working, medical evidence shows that binge working has drastic health consequences. According to research published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, these health complaints include increased rates of heart disease, diabetes, fatigue and wirtschaftskrise and they also found that sustained binge working correlated with reduced cognitive functioning in middle age and later life dementia.With us now living in an increasingly health and lifestyle conscious world, it seems that many employers are behind the times with 56 percent of UK employees working over 40 hours a week, and the U.S. average workweek being 46 hours according, to research presented in this infographic byOnline MBA.So, the odds are that unless your com pany has a detailed work-life balance management system, binge working is likely to be occurring in your business and you need to do something about it today because its not only slowly killing your staff, its killing your profits as productivity decreases by half after 8 hours work.In fact, its likely that your business could be encouraging binge working (knowingly or unknowingly) by creating a top down culture of working long hours where employees feel that the only way that they can be recognized and get ahead is by pulling all nighters and burning the candle at both ends.If success is characterized by presenteeism and not results and if objectives are not realistically attainable within a 40-hour week, you will be encouraging a binge working culture.So, what steps can you take to discourage binge working?1. Lead from the top. Senior executives need to set an example by communicating the importance of leaving work on time regularly, not doing year-round overtime, not working thr ough lunch, and taking vacation allowance- and actually be seen doing the above themselves.2. Start tracking overtime hours. Do this to understand the extent of the binge working problem. Investigate areas of concern and introduce remedies such as hiring more staff, more efficient working practices, etc.3. Discourage lunch time working. How often do employees work through lunch or cut lunch breaks short? Encourage employees to take lunch and eat healthily. Its actually the bad diet that comes as a result of binge working, which was responsible for many of the health issues.4. Check objectives are attainable. Honestly review objectives and assure that they are attainable within a 40-hour working week for a competent employee.5. Be open to promoting part-time workers and job sharers. If youre not open to this, you give the impression that shorter working employees are second class citizens, further encouraging long working hours.6. Allow flexible working or telecommuting. Flexible wor king conditions are especially if employees work in different time zones or face a long commute, to ease the pressure on working longer hours.7. Encourage employees to work smarter rather than harder. Do this by rewarding employees who come up with new, more efficient ways of working.Good luck with creating a healthy working culture

Trick or treat Office Halloween parties may bring legal trouble

Trick or treat Office Halloween parties may bring legal troubleTrick or treat Office Halloween parties may bring legal troubleFor many adults, Halloween has come to be identified with risqu costumes, pranks, and overall debauchery. Although many companies are tempted to lighten up and allow employees to celebrate Halloween at work, it is important to set boundaries. For example, should employees be allowed to wear a Sexy Nurse or Donald Trump costume to an office Halloween party? How about employees who believe that Halloween is offensive and celebrating it is a violation of their religious beliefs? Should the office Halloween Party be renamed the Fall Festival, just like many Christmas parties are now re-branded as Holiday Parties? These are questions that can cause HR Managers to throw up their arms and avoid holidays altogether.If your company is going to bravely wade into the spooky legal minefield of a Halloween Party, the first place to abflug is a dress code. A brief Google se arch of costumes leads to the conclusion that just about any safe for work costume can be made inappropriate by simply adding Sexy to the title. Office Halloween parties are no place for sexy outfits, political statements or costumes that might be offensive based on a protected class such as race or gender. Simply, companies should have a dress code for Halloween for the same reasons most have a dress code for regular office attire without rules, some employees will not know where to draw the line on good taste and offensive attire.That said, dress codes dont have to be demoralizing and preachy. Here are some ideas for a Halloween dress codeEncourage employees to be fun and creative, but leave the revealing costumes for outside the workplace.Provide basic guidelines on what types of costumes may be considered inappropriate, including political ones (i.e. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton) or costumes with excessive blood and gore.Consider a themed Halloween party which will allow em ployees input and an opportunity to focus employees towards more appropriate ideas for costumes.Even better, encourage departments to come up with their own theme and coordinating costumes (which will encourage teamwork and a review of costume ideas beforehand).Identify a responsible member of management (probably Human Resources) to handle any disputes or complaints over inappropriate costumes.Even the most politically correct Halloween celebration, however, may still find those employees who in the office who are offended. For example, some religious employees may object to the celebration of Halloween altogether and refuse to participate. Generally, the law requires employers to reasonably accommodate employee religious beliefs, and excusing an employee from dressing up or participating at all in a Halloween party seems like a reasonable step. Moreover, like any other request for religious accommodation, it would be unlawful for an employer to retaliate either directly, or indire ctly by allowing coworker teasing or peer pressure. To avoid these conflicts, consider making attendance at office Halloween parties (or costumes) optional.Lastly, Halloween is a time when some individuals may decide to test the boundaries of appropriate behavior in the workplace. Pranks can be harmless, but not every employee thinks it is funny to be scared or tricked into eating candy that turns their teeth black. The anti-harassment policy should not be thrown out the window for holidays, and employees should be reminded that, above all, coworkers should be treated with respect and left alone if they do not want to join in any Halloween activities.In the wake of the MeToo era and Kavanaugh hearings, it pays to be proactive when it comes to issues like sexual harassment in the workplace. Although employers may be tempted to do away with Halloween parties in fear of harassment lawsuits or complaints about offensive costumes, following these practical tips can allow employees to hav e a little fun without the legal risk.After all, a little fun and camaraderie in the workplace is an important retention tool and, in the long run, may actually reduce the risk of employment litigation.David Barron is alabor and employment attorney atCozen OConnor.