Readers are asked, “Who’s most likely to donate time to charity? A lawyer bllng $400 an hour; an accountant billing $100 an hour; a parking lot attendant earning $10; or a teacher earning $45000 a year?”

The answer may surprise you. It turns out that volunteering is not related to wealth or income but to a style of framing perceptions about the value of time. Once you start working hourly, or billing your time by the hour, you start to be conscious of the value of time. My own suspicion: Those who are paid hourly but in fact work consistent hours are probably less conscious of their hourly rate.

I’ve noticed this response when people shift from free lancing to take a regular job, or “J.O.B.” They’re very conscious of the way employers waste their time. For instance, one friend was putting together an online program. She was told to, “Check the links to be sure they’re okay.”

“Aren’t there computer programs to do that?” she asked. She was shocked as she considered the value of time she was being asked to contribute to this mindless task that a low-cost piece of software could accomplish more accurately.

Going the other way, new entrepreneurs often have trouble making sure they use each hour effectively. “Time is money” takes on more meaning when you aren’t drawing a fixed salary.

On the other hand, the article points out, it’s easy for the hour-minded to start tracking all their activities, including leisure or family time. That’s going a little too far for some.

– Career change time doesn’t work the same as career success time.

When you have a job in a corporation, you often realize you need to focus. Your mission is to “get the job done.” But when you want to find a new career, openness is more important than focus. A distraction may turn out to hold the key to your next life.

Serendipity used to be considered woo-woo and even a little silly. But browse through serious academic journals of career research and you will find a surprising number of people find a new career by accident, not through a step-by-step careful process.

For some reason, though, working through a step-by- step process can trigger a serendipitous experience. You consider a career that combines your love of math and mechanics with your fascination with medical miracles. One day you meet someone who enrolled in a degree program for biomechanical engineering and you have an “aha” moment you could never have achieved by deliberate planning.

– Think of juggling several balls in the air, not pitching one of them at a time.

When you’re just getting started on a search for your next career, you need to explore multiple options simultaneously, not sequentially. For instance, you might be considering a return to school for an advanced degree, a temporary job to pay the bills while you start a business and a new role in your current company.

When you focus on just one option, you may need weeks or even months to sort out the possibilities. Any of these options could turn into a dead end. If you just focus on one thing at a time, you’ve lost weeks and months with little to show for your efforts.

– Make career planning your number one priority.

Recognize that you may have to give up some recreational activities and personal time. Remove nay-saying friends from your life. Get the family on board even if you have to hire a counselor or relationship coach.

Mid-Life Career Strategy can be especially challenging because the rules keep changing as you move in new directions. Now you can download a FREE gift, “3 Secrets of Successful Midlife Career Change,” at Mid-Life Career Choice. For a proven time management system visit Time Management For Careers. From Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., an author, speaker and career consultant who specializes in helping mid-life mid-career professionals and executives navigate career journeys.

Mistake #1: Feeling desperate (and hopeless at the same time). You think, “Well, I’m so comfortable… Then you realize, “I’ve been here three years. I can’t wait another day. I’ve got to get out of here. Clients sometimes say things like, “I don’t care if I get fired,” or, “Maybe I’ll go bankrupt. So what?” What they mean is, “The situation is scary. I’ve waited so long…and it seems hopeless.

The truth is: waiting too long for a change can damage your career. When you are really unhappy, you can sabotage your own success, often unconsciously setting yourself up to be fired. But when I begin to talk with these clients, we almost always uncover realistic, hopeful opportunities. The answer is to get into purposeful, guided action. Once you start moving, the panic goes away. Just plan your trajectory so you aren’t spinning wheels.

Mistake #2: Feeling overwhelmed. When you think about career change, there’s so much to do. Networking. Phone calls. Interviews. Research. Career search is rarely linear. It’s messy and zig-zag. Think “playground basketball” instead of “pro football.”

The good news is: once you take the first action, it’s like pulling on a thread to release a knot. First one part unravels…and then the next. And you see daylight just when you are ready to give up.

I’ve written my own prescription for action:  21-Day Extreme Career Makeover.

Do the most important thing first.

What is the most imiportant thing on your calendar? What will help you make fastest progress toward your number one goal? Work on this action item for one hour first thing – even before you read your email.  Not only will you be productive and get something started: it’s always easier to return to a task in progress than to start from scratch.

Manage your email.

You’ve probably been advised to read email just once or twice a day. But I recommend using filters to block email that you don’t want to cancel (such as required notifications from article directories or people whose feelings are sensitive). I also set up separate accounts to get Twitter notices so I don’t get distracted in my “main” account.

Guard your productive hours.

“Mornings are golden,” a productive friend says. “I don’t talk to friends or return calls when I’m in productive mode.”

Learn more about time management here.

Other tips include getting connected on LinkedIn, drafting a vision of your ideal job (even if this exercise seems hokey) and putting together a job search kit.

This article comes from the New York Times. You may need to register toread it, but the Times is very respectful of your info.  Go here to read the article.

Frost begins with his own moment of awakening. Diagnosed with cancer after a stressful administrative job, he began to wonder if workplaces could really make people sick.

Frost interviewed dozens of managers and employees. Using a medical metaphor, he identifies “toxins” spread by vindictive bosses, disruptive working conditions, and budget cuts. He also describes “toxin handlers,” people who accept responsibility for helping and healing others who have been harmed. Toxin handlers often put themselves at risk because, in a spirit of self-sacrifice, they neglect to care for themselves.

I encourage you to look up the book, especially if you are a manager. However, it is important to understand that Frost tells only half the story: how manager can help workers.

Why wait to be rescued?  We can learn techniques to heal ourselves. As Frost says, most managers are not trained to be supportive. Often organizations need to prioritize technical and admin skills when hiring managers. Anyway, some managers will never be effective healers, regardless of training or motivation.

Ultimately, we need to learn to recognize and manage our own pain — and I think most people are better off taking charge of their own lives. Hire your own resource — coach, counselor, consultant. Stay healthy and learn to put on your own shield and armor to protect yourself from a toxic workplace.

And if you like this post, you will really like my ebook: Ten Things to Do When You Really, Really Hate Your Job .

You don’t have to take these steps in order. If you don’t feel ready for one step, just hold the thought and try another.

Here’s the first. Kill the television for 30 days.

Ouch. You have to be ready for this one.

I tend to be up and down about television. I count myself lucky: I grew up in a home without television. My college dorm had one set for several hundred students. So television didn’t enter my life till I took a job with lots of travel and a TV set in every room. Sometime around the mid-70s the color TV became standard.

So I have an off-again, on-again relationship with television. I’ll go a few years without no television, then get cable and watch for awhile.

For the past 3 years, I’ve enjoyed cable with ESPN capability and a DVR from Comcast. I first splurged to watch the Sopranos, then got rid of HBO. They gave me a deal when I threatened to cancel awhile back. But this summer, I realized I was paying about $70 a month to watch shows I could borrow from Netflix (or the public library).

And most days I’m not watching at all…just watching the recorded shows pile up.

So I pulled the plug. At first I noticed the silence. And suddenly I was reading all kinds of books. And I noticed that even a good murder mystery left me feeling more energized and motivated than watching television.

I miss C-Span and PBS. I loved Carrier. But they tell me podcasts are available and Carrier can be purchased as a DVD set.

Mostly, I noticed there’s a new energy in my home. Somehow there’s more space as well as time. I feel freer, more empowered and more productive.

So without changing anything in my career or business, I’m different…and my work feels different, too.

And I’d like to invite you to get started on your own career change, even if you’re not ready for this step. Check out my 21-Day Extreme Career Makeover.

If you want to know why it’s a bad title, just google “Big Squeeze” in any search engine. See what comes up.

Greenhouse warn that workers at all levels face increasing pressures from employers. For example, a hotel maid cleans the same number of rooms. But now she changes 3 sheets instead of 1 and 5 pillowcases instead of 2.

A college professor says, “I write objectives for classes, test dozens papers for plagiarism and create web pages…plus everything I did before.”

No easy answers – and some readers will disagree vehemently with my views. Please post comments by clicking on the link at the bottom of this post.

(1) Think “empowerment,” not “entitlement.”

Sure, I believe companies need to treat employees humanely. I get furious when I read about sex, race, age and any other form of discrimination.

But in the short term, I would think of gaining power.

I’m not saying quit your job. But I am saying, “Work toward the goal of being able to say, ‘Take this job and…’” when the time is right.

You gain power by having a healthy nest egg, being marketable, starting your own business on the side, and/or developing a skill that few people have but many people want.

(2) Squeeze your company’s opportunities.

“Sylvia” likes her job but knows she’ll need to switch companies someday.

“Education would make me marketable,” she said, “but we have limited tuition reimbursement.”

“Limited is not zero,” I said. Sylvia should be using every dime to take courses and/or attend seminars where she can build her network.

(3) Work where it counts.

My friend “Ken,” a math professor, spends hours grading homework — an effort appreciated neither by his students nor his department chair.

“Linda” admits she rewrites every memo and answers every email. Her colleagues tell her, “If you ignore them, nobody notices.”

Sometimes you really can’t cut anything out of your day or your job. You need a change.

But sometimes you can create systems, say no to non-essentials and decide what’s safe to ignore.

Bottom Line: One of my favorite career books is JobShift by William Bridges. Written over a decade ago, Bridges reminds readers that you work for yourself even when you work for a company. You’re not a family. You’re a contractor. A very timely mindset for the 21st century.

The secret? Negotiate for discounts when you buy retail. Ask the service person, “Is there a coupon I could use to save money?”

Often the answer will be a “yes.” Of course, there’s a catch. You have to get to the store on a weekday morning, ask carefully, and try at another store if this one says no.

Frankly, that sounds like unrewarding work.

I’m reminded of two people I’ve encountered in my previous lives.

“Mel” was a branch manager charged with increasing sales of his high-end software. One day he returned from lunch, awkwardly balancing two large shopping bags from a local drug store. It seems he encountered a sale on paper towels so he stocked up on his lunch hour.

“Sara” was a professor at a university where research was required for promotion and rewarded with salary increases. One snowy day I caught a ride to the grocery store with Sara, thinking I would save time.

Instead, on the way back, Sara announced, “We have to stop by the hardware store. There’s a sale on light bulbs.”

I wish I were joking.

Both Mel and Sara could have invested their shopping time in something more productive. By working toward goals that would be rewarded, they’d make far more money than they’d save in a year of coupon clipping. And if you’re stuck in a job that doesn’t reward results, you can begin to find ways to earn money on the side or become more marketable.

How much can you save by haggling over a few bucks in a department store? What does that do to your sense of pride, accomplishment and abundance?

Okay, you can’t work all the time. Maybe a trip to the store counts as a break.

Can’t you think of something more fun? More stimulating? More physically active? Something that would get your creative juices flowing?

I bet you could.

What the article doesn’t tell us: Suarez seems to have one of the coolest jobs in the world, as “social computing evangelist” for IBM. He’s shown amidst some beautiful mountains in the Canary Islands, a long way from upstate New York.

Check it out:

http://tinyurl.com/53p78c