The difficult economic climate has many individuals willing to endure longer commutes for a good job. In fact, long commutes have become a way of life for many and it isn’t always a welcome routine as it means getting up earlier and getting home later.

With so much to accomplish each day, long commutes can be difficult, especially in the beginning when it can feel like an imposition and a waste of time. This is certainly how I felt when getting to work suddenly required a train ride and a subway trip. However, once I changed my outlook and habits, the long commute became a very tolerable — even welcoming — part of my day. I just needed to learn how to make a good, productive use of this time.

The following are just a few ideas that will enable workers to make the most of the daily commute whether that involves driving, a train ride, a ride on the subway, a bus ride or other mode of transportation.

Get Comfortable

There’s no reason you can’t travel to work comfortably and with a little preparation, this is easy to accomplish. Make certain that you charge electronic devices the night before so that you can get the most use out of them during the day. If the initial battery power for your devices is insufficient, consider purchasing an external battery pack that can be plugged in as necessary.

Some commuters prefer to travel to work in sneakers, especially in commutes that require a large amount of walking. They simply bring along a nice pair of work shoes to change into once they arrive at the office.

Other items that can prove useful include snacks in case you get hungry, water, a comb, tissues and Advil. You never know when these items will come in handy, whether you need to fix your hair, clean up spill, tend to a runny nose or remedy that sudden headache. One of the downsides of commuting far from home is that when the unexpected happens, you may not have easy access to things you need. And while it’s true that many of these items can be bought at local stores, keeping them handy is more convenient and it can make for easier travels.

Relax

The commute presents a rare opportunity for many: the chance to spend some quality time alone. Many individuals lead busy lives filled with interruptions. This makes it difficult to find a moment for yourself. So enjoy the peaceful and quiet moments of the daily commute, away from the worries and concerns of home and work life.

Use this time to unwind, reflect and prepare mentally for the day ahead. This may involve resting your eyes, zoning out or listening to music or the radio. Whatever your preferred way to relax may be, utilize the commute as a built-in period to decompress and relieve stress as you travel between work and home.

Read

How many times have you promised to read the latest intriguing bestseller, only to find it months later, buried under papers and dust in your home office? The daily commute is an ideal time to catch up on all the reading you’ve been meaning to do. Whatever genre of book you prefer, load it onto your iPad or bring the printed version to read on your way to work.

For those commuters who drive or can’t read while traveling, audiobooks are a great alternative option for catching up on reading and make a dent on that never ending to-read list. There are numerous apps (such as Audible) that make it easy to download and listen to audiobooks. You can also borrow audiobooks from most libraries.

When using the commute to read, don’t limit yourself to just books! Spend some time reading newspapers and magazines to keep up with current events and stay on top of what’s happening in the world. Another good choice for reading material is professional literature such as academic journals, magazines and even blogs.

Personal Life

Modern technologies such as smartphones allow us to accomplish many things even while traveling that weren’t possible before. The time commuting can also be used to enhance your personal life by keeping in touch with friends and family.

Spend time making phone calls to those you love and learn the latest of what’s happening in their lives. Another way to stay connected is through e-mail and text, which are good methods of communication if they’re not up as early in the mornings. Perhaps a friend already sent an e-mail or text but you haven’t had the time to respond. There’s no excuse now that you have at the least, a little free time during the week. Don’t keep them waiting any longer and get working on a response to those personal e-mails that remain in your overflowing inbox.

Using the commute time in this way will help you to still feel close and connected to loved ones even though you travel far from work everyday. Just because you travel far from work, doesn’t mean you should miss out on what’s happening in your loved ones’ lives either.

Professional Life

Working on a big project or have an important presentation coming up? Or maybe it’s just a busy time of the year in the office and it’s overwhelming. Why not use the commuting period to get a head start on things before even stepping into the office. While it may not be practical to complete major parts of a project or other work on the go, planning and preparation can make all the difference. Make a to-do list, prioritizing tasks by importance and make note of deadlines (if any). Do preliminary research or start jotting down ideas. Just taking some time to catch up on answering e-mails or phone calls can leave energy to concentrate on other things that need to be done at the office.

Writing is an activity that I became fond of doing while on my way to work. There were times when I could write entire blog posts during my commute time. In other instances, I would create outlines of articles that I was working on for various publications. Either way, it made the writing process and my life much easier. It also freed up some of my valuable time that I was able to devote to other tasks.

These are just a few examples of great ways to pass the time during the long commute to and from work. Making the commute work for you and tailoring the use of time to your specific needs will make a tremendous difference and how you perceive the workweek.

Alexandra Janvey is a Visiting Librarian in the Digital Initiatives and Art Image Library at Long Island University.

Ethical employees are vital to the productivity of any organization. But when managers interview job candidates, it’s nearly impossible to get a good reading of a person’s moral compass.

Still, it’s important for hiring managers to know how to weed out candidates who will undercut the company’s values and mission with dishonesty.

In fact, more than 80% of U.S. workers say they’ve been lied to, stolen from, cheated or treated dishonestly at work by a co-worker or supervisor, according to new research by Hogan Assessment Systems. The result: lower morale and higher turnover.

On the flip side, when people were asked about the most important qualities of their all-time favorite boss, the number one characteristic (cited by 81% of people) was trustworthiness. Conversely, 50% described their worst boss as manipulative.

So how do you identify candidates with a high ethical bar? Here, according to a survey of hiring experts, are some of the most effective “situational” or “behavioral” questions and scenarios that managers can pose:

1. “Have you ever faced an ethics challenge on the job? Explain the situation.” Be suspicious of applicants who answer “No.” Follow up with, “Why do you think you’ve never faced such an issue?” Describe a real-life ethical dilemma and ask, “How would you handle the situation?”

2. “Were you ever aware of a co-worker who violated a company’s ethics policy? What did you do?” You want employees who would discuss concerns with a manager or co-worker, or find another way to address the issue according to company policy.

3. “What’s the difference between an ethical company and an ethical person?” You are looking for candidates who believe there must be little or no difference for the company to succeed. 

4. “Why are ethics important in the workplace?” You seek answers that clarify how the job-seeker would perform duties and seek advancement while honoring company values.

5. “Describe your most important workplace ethics?” The answer can illustrate whether the applicant takes personal responsibility for acting ethically.

6. “Have you read our company’s ethics policy? What do you think?” The response can show whether the candidate values corporate ethics enough to include it in pre-interview research.

7. “Did you ever see or do anything on the job that troubled your conscience? How did you handle the situation?”

8. “Did you ever see an employee steal anything from a workplace? What did the person take and how did you react?”

9. “Has a manager, co-worker or customer ever asked you to do anything unethical? What was your reaction?”

10. “Did you ever have ethics training or education? What did you learn?”

Quiz: How to tell if a decision is ethical

Anytime you face an ethical dilemma, ask yourself this question: “If I go through with this, would I mind seeing it reported in tomorrow’s news?”

If you answer “I’d be fine with it,” then go ahead. If you’re not sure, ask yourself these questions:

1. “Would this decision mesh well with the organization’s mission, vision and core values?”

2. “Would it be good for the customer?”

3. “Would it be good for the organization?”

4. “Would it be good for me?”

If you answer “Yes” to all four, do it. If you answer “No” or “Maybe” to any, ask your trusted mentors, advisers or friends (not co-workers or peers) what they would do.

Everyone has a brand. Whether you’re managing it or not is an entirely different question.

I’m getting my MLIS right now, but before this, I was the marketing director of a statewide photography company and I’ve worked in PR and content development for a lot of other people. I think it’s incredibly important to have a personal brand. I know that it’s not something that we like to think about. Everybody wants to be unique and be themselves. And branding doesn’t stop you from doing this, but it does give you a set of personal guidelines. Should I post that? Am I going to be pleased to see this in a year? Five years? Fifty years? The Internet is permanent, so anything you add needs to be seen that way.

Here’s one of the really terrible facts about life: Appearance matters. It does. It matters to almost everyone, at least on a subconscious level. Numerous studies have been shown that minorities of all types (racial, gender, sexual, religious, etc.) fare less well in traditional job interviews than do their white straight Protestant male counterparts. By adopting a professional, consistent brand, you can start to offset some of this because you know how you want to present yourself in a professional situation. In short, fake it til you make it.

One of the most important aspects of personal branding in my opinion is making sure that you come up first when people search for your name. I started using my first name (“John”) in all professional contexts when I was still in undergrad because too many people had my nickname online (“Mack”). Thus, John Mack Freeman was born. And when I Google myself, pages about me fill all of the top slots. If someone goes looking for me, they can find me easily because I want to be found. And please, even if you don’t plan on using it today, go ahead and buy the domain name for your full name. One day you’re going to want it, so get it before someone else does.

Branding doesn’t have to stay static. Brands relaunch campaigns all the time. People shift their opinions around brands that aren’t moving, both personal and corporate. In the words of Coco Chanel, “I don’t care what you think about me. I don’t think about you at all.” You have to do what is best for you, incorporating and tweaking as you go. 

Branding can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. You can draw up guidelines or you can simply ask “does this show who I am? Will this develop my goals?”

May 13th, 2pm Central Time – An Introduction to the LSSC Program

On Monday, May 13th at 2:00 pm (Central), LSSC will offer an hour-long webinar on the program and how it works. The presentation will explain the value of this certification to Library Support Staff, employers and library users. You will also have the opportunity to have all of your questions answered by program staff members. This webinar is open to all interested candidates. Register to attend.

May 14th, 12pm Central Time – Preparing a Portfolio

Many LSSC candidates want to prepare portfolios to meet LSSC requirements. On Tuesday, May 14th at 12:00 pm (Central), LSSC will offer an hour-long webinar explaining what the LSSC Program requires in a portfolio. The presentation will also give you the chance to see examples of successful submissions and learn how your portfolio will be evaluated. This webinar is open to all interested candidates. Register to attend. 

If you can’t make it to either of these webinars, you can watch archived recordings of past webinars. 

The Department of Labor‘s Employee Benefits Security Administration updated its Affordable Care Act web page with the following information on the notice to employees of coverage options:

• Technical Release 2013-02 – Guidance on the notice to employees of coverage options under FLSA §18B and updated model election notice under COBRA, available at http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/newsroom/tr13-02.html
• Model notice for employers who offer a health plan to some or all employees, available athttp://www.dol.gov/ebsa/pdf/FLSAwithplans.pdf
• Model notice for employers who do not offer a health plan, available at http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/pdf/FLSAwithoutplans.pdf
• COBRA model election notice, available at http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/modelelectionnotice.doc
• COBRA model election notice redline version (to show May 2013 changes), available at http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/modelelectionnoticeredline.doc

In the week ending May 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 323,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 327,000. The 4-week moving average was 336,750, a decrease of 6,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 343,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3 percent for the week ending April 27, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 27 was 3,005,000, a decrease of 27,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,032,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,034,250, a decrease of 24,500 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,058,750.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 298,497 in the week ending May 4, a decrease of 2,638 from the previous week. There were 341,080 initial claims in the comparable week in 2012.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3 percent during the week ending April 27, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,962,467, a decrease of 66,039 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,028,506. A year earlier, the rate was 2.5 percent and the volume was 3,210,670.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending April 20 was 4,874,526, a decrease of 89,292 from the previous week. There were 6,423,153 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2012.

Extended Benefits were available only in Alaska during the week ending April 20.

Initial claims for UI benefits filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,364 in the week ending April 27, a decrease of 83 from the prior week. There were 2,159 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 126 from the preceding week.

There were 18,726 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending April 20, an increase of 531 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 36,718, a decrease of 435 from the prior week.

States reported 1,763,177 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending April 20, a decrease of 14,560 from the prior week. There were 2,688,157 persons claiming EUC in the comparable week in 2012. EUC weekly claims include first, second, third and fourth tier activity.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending April 20 were in Alaska (5.2), Puerto Rico (4.4), Connecticut (3.5), New Jersey (3.4), New Mexico (3.3), Rhode Island (3.3), Wisconsin (3.3), California (3.2), Pennsylvania (3.2) and Illinois (3.1)

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 27 were in Illinois (+1,744), Oregon (+1,244), New Hampshire (+765), Arkansas (+455) and Maine (+379), while the largest decreases were in California (-3,721), Michigan (-2,993), Wisconsin (-2,623), Massachusetts (-2,487) and Florida (-2,062).

For more information, including tables that organize this data, see the original press release.

This ruling nulls a NLRB rule in 2011 that all employers under NLRB jurisdiction—including nonunion employers—would have been required to post an 11-by-17-inch poster explaining employees’ rights to improve wages and bargain collectively with their employer. 

Economic recovery has led to growing voluntary turnover among highly skilled employees who are seeking greater pay and professional opportunities with other employers. The result: employers – who once could rely on dissatisfied workers to accept long hours and pay freezes – now grapple to retain star employees.