Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

Why is it so difficult for the majority of people to let their waiter know that they are less than satisfied with what’s on their plate?! Its seems that the dining public has such a fear of letting the restaurant know that they were not satisfied with an aspect of their dining experience, that they would rather sit quietly through the meal than speak up. This often results in the diner going away feeling disappointed and unsatisfied, and often bad mouthing the restaurant.

Most restaurant owners want to know if you have an issue with the food or service so that they can improve it, as reputation is everything to them. They will often look at replacing the dish, and sometimes even chuck freebies in to make up for your misfortune. A friend of mine recently ate at a local restaurant that has a rather good reputation, however somehow this particular dish was not best cooked. My friend very politely sent it back and got a free drink, along with an improved dish in return. The staff where very friendly and apologetic about the whole situation and my friend left the restaurant with a positive outlook about eating there again.

Now I know not all restaurant staff will be this helpful, but unless you give them a chance to fix your issue you cannot truly be aware of whether the restaurant you have dined at was really that bad. A few various scenarios where the problem would lie with the restaurant includes: when your meal is the wrong temperature, stale, has a foreign object (a hair or something similar) in it, or is not what you ordered. In this case the fault lies purely with the restaurant, which means that you are entirely within your rights to send your order back (that is to say, you shouldn’t receive any complaints or trouble from your waiter).

If any of the above problems arise whilst dining you should politely request a replacement, and make sure that you are specific about what you would like to be changed. This means you should know whether you want the meal to be fixed, or cooked entirely from scratch. Another few tips to remember are -
•Be Light-hearted and smile, smiling cures everything. A kitchen is busy and people make mistakes.
•Never demand a server to work for you. Remember, they are handling your food.
•Unless they are having a bad day, most servers will not care if you send back food. As long as you’re not rude and ask politely, they should be happy to help.
•Your Server is not 100% to blame - if there is something wrong with your food, remember you are tipping on service.

Giant tobacco firm Philip Morris is suing Australia for new laws set by their parliament, which have been set to ensure that after December 2012 all cigarette and tobacco products must be sold in plain olive-brown packets that will only display graphic health warnings.

Canberra quoted that the law was “one of the most momentous public health measures in Australia’s history”, but Philip Morris responded by saying that “the move breached a bilateral investment treaty” and “it had served a notice of arbitration under Australia’s Bilateral Investment Treaty with Hong Kong”. PMA’s Australian affiliate Philip Morris Ltd (PML) will also pursue claims under Australian domestic law.

Anne Edwards a spokesman for Philip Morris was also quoted saying; “The government has passed this legislation despite being unable to demonstrate that it will be effective at reducing smoking and has ignored the widespread concerns raised in Australia and internationally regarding the serious legal issues associated with plain packaging.”

Philip Morris is also expecting damages to be billions of dollars, but the legal process could take anything between two to three years to complete.
“We are confident that our legal arguments are very strong and that we will ultimately win this case,” Anne Edwards also quoted.
British American Tobacco Australia was also quoted earlier this month saying it would launch a challenge in the High Court as soon as the laws were granted royal assent, and that the company will argue it is unconstitutional for the government to remove its trademarks and other intellectual property without any compensation.
Under the new Australian law, the only thing that will distinguish tobacco brands on their packets will be their brands name in a standard colour, position, font size and style. Nicola Roxon from Australia’s Minister for Health and Ageing said – although the tobacco industry is “fighting to protect its profits, we are fighting to protect lives. We know that packaging remains one of the last powerful marketing tools for tobacco companies to recruit new smokers to their deadly products. In the future, cigarette packets will serve only as a stark reminder of the devastating health effects of smoking,”.

Borough Market, South London

A favourite with hungry Londoners, this market is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. It is a favourite of many celebrity chefs, and can be found under the railway arches between Southwark Cathedral and Borough High Street. With a range of around 150 food stalls including fish, game, artisan cheeses, rare-breed meats and ales.

St George’s Market, Belfast

A beautiful Victorian market that is a must do for any visitor to Belfast. The food market is open on Saturdays only, and sees local delights such as fresh organic veg, Armagh beef, fish landed at Portavogie and Irish farmhouse cheeses. World foods such as Mexican snacks to Italian olive oils can also be found here.

Swansea Market

Wales’s most famous market is famous for selling Welsh laverbread, cockles and Welsh cakes (made from griddle and meat and vegetables). It is open Monday to Saturdays and it is the largest, and possibly the friendliest, indoor market in Wales.

Moseley Farmers’ Market, Birmingham

The BBC’s food magazine, Olive, recently listed Birmingham as the UK’s foodiest town, so it is hardly surprising this is in our top ten. It is a monthly market that see’s traders selling produce from all over the Midlands. You can find Balti dishes that are made famous by the city.

Winchester Farmers’ Market

This takes place on the second and last Sunday of each month, just outside Winchester’s magnificent cathedral. It is the biggest farmers’ market in the UK. Everything sold is top quality local produce, and you can even find the likes of water buffalo meat and Hampshire honey and peppery local watercress.

Kirkwall Farmers’ Market, Orkney

Kirkwall maket takes place on the last Saturday of every month you can find this market in front of the magnificent St Magnus Cathedral. You’ll find organic vegetables, herbs, local fish and beef as well as a craft market.

Edinburgh Farmers’ Market

Taking place in the beautiful surrondings of Castle Terrace under Edinburgh’s ancient fortress, you will find this market open every Saturday. You will find many orgainic foods such as organic mushrooms from the Highlands and Scottish venison.

Broadway Market, East London

Possibly East London’s coolest market, open every Saturday you’ll find traders stalls selling everything from locally baked bread to artisan scotch eggs and Vietnamese coffee.

Orton Farmers’ Market, Cumbria

Set in the small village of Orton, Cumbria; you’ll find this market open on the second Saturday of each month. With around 40 local farmers and traders selling everything from home-brewed cider to trout pate.

Shipbourne Farmers’ Market, Kent

This market takes place every Thursday morning and boasts around 20 stalls. You can pick local foods up including tangy chutneys and Kentish apple juice and it can be bought with Shipbourne’s own currency. Using your card to buy Shipbourne farmers’ pounds at the local pubs then spending them at the market.

The job market has never been so competitive. With the credit crunch still looming overhead and a skilled people taking lower paid jobs just to gain employment, the best option can be to gain extra skills and improve one’s employability.

There are a range of opportunities available to enhance your skill set, and below will list a few of the options available to get started.

1.      Think about what you want to do. Think about what kind of job you want. Gaining skills can be beneficial to develop your all-round employability, but it should be a priority to focus on skills that will benefit your future career.

2.       Pay a visit to a career centre. Career centres are designed to offer advice and direction for those who are seeking to gain employability skills. Once enrolled, you can begin a course which is specific to the skill you require.

3.       Spend time searching the internet. There are a wealth of resources and advice available on the internet that can help you. Online courses are also available and many are free.

4.       Visit your local library. There are a range of books available to help improve skills and employability. Books on skill set development and employability will often have sections which engage the reader in undergoing tasks to develop their skills.

5.       Find out which skills are currently required by employers. By reading up-to-date literature on what businesses are looking for in a person’s skill set, you can stay ahead of the game.

6.       Engage in a typing course. By taking a typing course, you will improve your typing speed an accuracy. This is beneficial to modern day businesses, as most jobs require at least some typing skills. The better equipped your typing skills are, the more productive an employee you will be.

7.       Find out the most popular interview questions. There are some interview questions that will be used in most interviews. Use the internet to research common interview questions, then develop clear, structured and intellectual answers. Next, practise the answers in front of a mirror, a friend or a family member to become confident in your answers.

Most of the options available above are available for free, so there’s no reason to hesitate. Don’t just sit around, waiting for the next opportunity to be perfectly tailored to your abilities; tailor yourself to the job you want!

Job Security

Are you worried about keeping hold of your job through the recession?  Are you finding that you are constantly worried about getting fired because the economic downturn is forcing your business to make cut backs?

Well, now you shouldn’t have to worry anymore.  Despite the recession there are some sure fire ways to make sure that you get to keep your job while others get the chop.

Making Or Saving

There are two types of employees that will definitely be in the same job when the recession goes away - those that save money for their business and those that make money for their business.  If you fit into one of these categories then you’re golden!

Even if you aren’t in a position to save big bucks for the business then you should still think about how you can do things on a small scale for the business.  For example if you can save money on printing you will get noticed and when it comes to time to get rid of someone on your level you will be that much safer.

Be Indispensible

Don’t hide away from the office, embrace it!  You need to tackle things head on when it comes to projects and activities.  You need to be the one employee who is indispensible so that when it comes time to getting rid of people, you are immediately made safe.

Think about transferring to a more critical area where you can make a difference.  Try and get involved with serious projects where you can take more responsibility.  Do anything to get stuck in…

Are You In The Best Position

Although it might sound like a good opportunity to go from a production role to a junior management role you should stand back and take a look at the economic climate.

If you decide to take the job as a junior manager you may suddenly find that you are getting all the blame for the company going under due to the recession - that’s hardly classed as a successful promotion.

Education

You should think about getting more education under your belt to increase your profit value - by having many more skills in your cap you may have what it takes to beat off the others when it comes to redundancy time.

If you are lucky your company may even have a policy in place of reimbursing employees when it comes to education so check it out.  You won’t be losing anything, you’ll be gaining an employable skill!

Friends

There is nothing more important than your friends when it comes to trying to stay in a job.  You should find out who you haven’t spoken to in a while and then make it an aim to speak to them again.  This way you are staying fresh in everyone’s mind and when you do need a favour you won’t just be springing on them out of the blue.

Keeping your job?

Are you going to be in a job this time next year?  Are you worried?  Let us know…

Networking The Right Way

Networking can be a great way of either looking for a job or getting ahead in your career.  However there is some certain unspoken etiquette involved with networking that should be kept in mind…

Below we list some of the most important aspects of networking etiquette that you should keep in mind if you want to get that job you’ve been eyeing up for the past 4 months…

Know Why

You should be able to identify why you have decided to network - you should know exactly what you want from the experience.  Otherwise you will be wandering the networking scene aimlessly and pointlessly.

Have aims of what you want to achieve and realise connections available to you that you can use to get your to specific employers.

Homework

You should make sure that you know as much as possible about the contacts you network with - you should do your research prior to any communication as you should never be asking your contact any questions about their background and company.  The more you know, the more impressed they will be!

Leave Desperation Out Of It

Any contacts that you meet will be much more willing to help someone who has a positive outlook ad vibrant attitude over someone who is miserable and moaning about the lack of opportunities.

Take It In

Make sure that you take in everything that is being said to you - advice doesn’t always come for free and if someone is taking the time out to supply you with their hard learned advice then you should listen properly.

Don’t forget your manners either - be polite and send your contact a thank you note and try and fit in a hint to show that you were listening to what they were saying.

Respect

You should provide your contact with the appropriate respect needed - don’t just rock up at their office and expect pearls of wisdom.  You should make an appointment and even when on the phone you should ask to make sure the contact has time to talk.  If possible don’t rush into talking business straight away, try and work your way into it with polite conversation.

Small Doses

Don’t ask for everything all at once.  It can be annoying to be asked tons of questions all at once.  Think instead about planning to ask questions in stages to make the whole process easier for your contact.  Don’t bombard your contact, there is always next time to ask more questions.

Permission

The aim of networking is to meet more and more people - however, before using your contact’s name to introduce yourself to someone new, make sure you get permission.  Otherwise you can come off looking foolish and immature as they might not have wanted to be included in your next meet…

Networking Properly?

Are you networking to find a job in today’s troubled economy?  Have you found our advice useful?  Let us know…

Are you employable?

How do you know if you are employable?  If you aren’t able to get a job no matter how hard you think you’re trying then that is a bit of a giveaway!  If you find that you are trying to get a job but no matter what you do nothing seems to be working then perhaps the key simply is that you aren’t employable…yet!

Below is a list of some of the main ways to make sure you are employable and finally get that job you want…

Targeted Resume

You have to make sure that your CV is targeted specifically at your potential employer you are applying to.  Your CV won’t be applicable for every single job you apply for so make sure you cater to each and ever position specifically.

Each position will ask for different qualities from their employees so you need to make sure that your CV fits in with what they are looking for.  This will show that you are not only perfect for the position, but that you took the time out to research what they are looking for.

Networking

There can’t be enough said for networking - done correctly it can be a great and fast way of getting work.  People tend to turn to the Internet to search for jobs, but if you make sure that people know about your hunt then you stand a much better chance of finding work.

This can even be done online through social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn where you can socialise and networking with other people who know of positions that aren’t being advertised.

Research

You should spend some time researching the company you are applying to work for - if you get in the interview and can’t answer the simple question like what do you know about the company then the potential employer will lose interest fast.

Search online for information about the company and search newspapers and press releases to get a better feel if possible about what message the company portrays.  This will also be a great way of feeling out how smart or casually they dress so you don’t turn up looking like a fool.

Feedback

It is a good idea to get feedback from your mates or family about your interview techniques and CV writing.  Ask someone you trust to go through your CV and make sure that it is as good as possible for the position you are applying for.

Do the same with your interview technique - find out if you come across like a helpless child or an overbearing bully.  This will be an amazing insight into how you come across when you sit in for interviews.

Employable?

Are you employable?  Have you found our advice useful?  Are you going to try and be more employable over the future months?  Leave us a comment and let us know…

How To Put A Positive Spin On Your Age

You may be worried if you are creeping over 50 that you won’t be in a job much longer - the word over the recent years is that employers are less likely to either employ or retain employees over the golden age of 50.

However, over the coming years this isn’t actually looking like it is going to be the case.  As more and more jobs open up over the coming years, there won’t be enough younger workers applicable for roles and older workers will be in their element.

You need to start realising that your age can work to your advantage - below are a few of the main ways you can turn your age to your advantage and get ahead in your career once again;

Offensive

Being an older worker doesn’t mean you have to feel grateful that you are still in full time employment.  In fact it should be the other way around - you are not an old worker, you are a highly experienced worker - you aren’t passed it, you are it!  You need to make sure that when people see you they are seeing experience and confidence!

You have a powerful tool to your advantage against the younger generations and that is experience and knowledge.  Over the years you have gained a wisdom that just can’t be held by the younger generations so make sure you use it to your advantage.

Forget Age, Think Results

Don’t rattle on to either your boss or your potential employer about how many years you have under your belt - this is just boring…who’s to say these years under your belt weren’t wasted making mistakes and dragging businesses down.

You need to show how you have achieved success over the years you have been working and then you’ll be attracting the attention of the boss!  These results are a true weapon that will beat off the competition…

Focus On The Now

If you are applying for a job, make sure that you don’t rattle on about the different roles you have had over the years - instead focus on what will impress your potential employer and stay relevant.

Over the years you have undoubtedly filled a lot of roles, however only mention the ones that will make you look good for this specific job otherwise you will look like a rambler.  If possible remove any irrelevant roles from your CV and just focus on what will impress the potential employer.

Resume Revamp

You should review your CV and see whether it needs to be revamped.  Think if you would hire yourself for the position if given your CV.  If not then re-work your CV in a way where you would hire yourself.  Get your CV right…

Is Age A Problem?

Are you finding your age holding you away from some employment opportunities?  Has our advice helped?  Let us know…

Can’t find a job?

Are you doing all you think you can do yet still aren’t able to find a job?  Have you been doing everything that you think your mates are doing, but while they are getting work you are left scouring for more jobs?

This either means you are a bin man looking for a job as a CEO or you aren’t doing it right!  Read on to find out what you aren’t doing to get the job that you want…

Networking

If you network you will be opening yourself up to tons more jobs - if your friends, family and previous workmates are all aware that you are job hunting then you stand a much better chance of finding a job than if you simply sent CVs around.

Make sure that you get heard on different social and professional networking sites around the web, like Facebook and LinkedIn and you’ll be increasing your chances many times over.

Online Cover Letter

Many people don’t believe in the online cover letter when applying for a job - this is ridiculous!  If the application asks for you to send in a cover letter then that’s exactly what you have to do.

The cover letter is the best way of separating you from other applicants and provide a good first impression hopefully giving you “The Edge”!!!  A cover letter is a necessity so make sure you send it in…

Generic Cover Letter

There is nothing more off putting for an employer than reading through a generic cover letter - everyone can say that they are a great team worker that is punctual and a fast learner.  When it comes down to it your CV will be thrown to the side with nonsense like that on it.

You need to come up with a shiny new cover letter for each application - this sounds like hard work, but it’ll be worth it if it gets you a job!  You need to show how your abilities will work in this specific position.

Only The Net

Don’t focus your search for work only to the Internet.  This is a great way to get your search started but you won’t find every job available online.  If you want to open up a can full of job opportunities then you should ask around and get in touch with people who will be in a position to give you a hand like human resource managers for example.

Follow Up

You are making a big mistake if you aren’t following up on your job applications - just because you haven’t heard anything doesn’t mean that you have been passed over.  It is possible that your CV didn’t even make it to the boss’s desk for whatever reason.  Follow up the application and keep your CV fresh in their minds!

Can’t Get Employed?

Are you struggling to find a job?  Have you found our advice useful?  Leave us a comment and let us know…

Raise Time?

Although you may not see it happening in a recession, you should always be thinking about how to ask for a raise.  You might be hoping to keep your job now, but around the corner, when the recession has left our doorsteps, you should be prepared with a few weapons that will help you get more money.

Start thinking about it now and be prepared to take action as soon as your business starts to look positive again - read on to find out the best way to squeeze more money out of your business and into your monthly pay pack…

Building Up An Argument

If you want more money from your business then you need to provide a valid reason to your boss.  You can’t approach them with the argument that you can’t afford the 25 bottles of champagne you want each month, the reason needs to be valid.

You need to prove that you are deserving of a raise - to do this you need to build up a case that proves that you deserve more money.  Explain all of the responsibilities you have held while in the job and explain how you have managed to aid the business in achieving its goals.

Don’t use vague words and use specific data relevant to your job that shows how you have earned a larger pay packet.  You need your employer to be aware that you are a valuable asset in the business.

Research

You should make sure that you are aware of the average pay packet for people in your position around the country and area with similar qualifications and experience to you.

By doing this you can be sure that you aren’t asking for way below or above what you deserve and you have more of a chance of being taken seriously.

Build A Record

It is a good idea to build a record of your work over time - think about creating a weekly record of your achievements that you can present to your boss proving that you are deserving of a raise.

Nothing will be able to show how well you are performing than a record of your achievements and consistent performance.  Make sure you have as much proof as possible.

Time Is The Key

Don’t just decide to go for a raise and broach the matter with your boss with nothing to back up your request.  You should think about timing and go for it after completing a tricky assignment or important project.

This way you will be asking for a raise with a fresh achievement on your back, which will bolster your chances.  Also, as previously mentioned, don’t think about it in a recession, instead take the time to build up your case!

Gasping For A Raise?

Are you hoping to get a raise as soon as the recession goes away?  Have you found our advice useful?  Leave us a comment and let us know…