October 02, 2007
September 24, 2007
September 03, 2007
August 21, 2007
August 02, 2007
Joeygadget home office
Link: Nokia LifeBlog: Blogging by Cellphone.
Well this guy has got the same monitor and also the same MacBook so I guess we have some sort of tenous connection. He's got a dog as well though so he's one up on me. I have to admit I'm not mush of a gadget person though..... well apart from my iPod(s).....ok and my smart phone. Seriously though what is it with Blackberrys and email on phones in general. Why would you want the constant stress and interuption of receiving email in your phone. I'm trying to train myself to 2 email checks a days then hopefully 1 but it's like coming of crack (er.... I imagine). I cant imagine what its like to go cold turkey for one of these bat belt dudes used to rushing in when the red light flashes for another fix.
August 01, 2007
Tips for dealing with home office isolation
Its a topic often discussed on home working blogs. For me its not really an issue. My situation is I have a company in Prague and one in Wroclaw, Poland. We are in the process of organizing the business along the lines of 'the E-Myth' which if you run a business and haven't read rush out and buy immediately! The basic principle of the book is how to set your business as a process that basically runs itself with or without you.
Anyway we are not there yet but things are going well so I work a couple of days in the office and a couple of days at home which works well so far. I'm looking to decrease the number of days I spend in the office and keep a couple of days a week at home as a goal. Anyway for those of you at home every day heres some tips for dealing with home-office isolation.
Shedworking
The thought of working in a garden office is pretty appealing. However I live in a flat and much as I'd love a house the thought of gardening and DIY on a weekend makes me break out in a cold sweat so it's unlikely to happen any time soon. Its a tough balance to get for me, having the outdoor lifestyle against the daily hassles of domestic chores. I have to admit I'm pretty much as lazy as you can get regarding work around the house. We have a cleaner who also does all the washing and ironing (only $3.50 an hour in the Czech republic) and we eat our probably half the time so if I'm at home we're pretty much chilling or working. Where I live in Prague (Dejvice) is pretty much the best of both worlds. It's close to the Metro three stops from the center and I live right by Stromovka Park and Sarka where i walk most mornings, slowly waking myself up for the day and listening Adam Curries Daily Source Code or some other PodCasts. If you cross through Stromovka and over the river its straight out into countryside and I can do great mountain bike circuits from my flat only covering about 500m on roads.
Anyway I digress..I've met a couple of people who swear by the 'office in the garden' as the best of both worlds..an office separate from your house so more distance between your work and home environments without the obvious stresses of commuting.
Anyway I've said enough...off to Tenerife for a weeks surfing. If you've actually read this blog please leave me a comment even if just to tell me it's a load of s***t.
Later, oh and heres some links:
Link: Features - The Garden Path: Interview with a shedworker.
Shedworking
The thought of working in a garden office is pretty appealing. However I live in a flat and much as I'd love a house the thought of gardening and DIY on a weekend makes me break out in a cold sweat so it's unlikely to happen any time soon. Its a tough balance to get for me, having the outdoor lifestyle against the daily hassles of domestic chores. I have to admit I'm pretty much as lazy as you can get regarding work around the house. We have a cleaner who also does all the washing and ironing (only $3.50 an hour in the Czech republic) and we eat our probably half the time so if I'm at home we're pretty much chilling or working. Where I live in Prague (Dejvice) is pretty much the best of both worlds. It's close to the Metro three stops from the center and I live right by Stromovka Park and Sarka where i walk most mornings, slowly waking myself up for the day and listening Adam Curries Daily Source Code or some other PodCasts. If you cross through Stromovka and over the river its straight out into countryside and I can do great mountain bike circuits from my flat only covering about 500m on roads.
Anyway I digress..I've met a couple of people who swear by the 'office in the garden' as the best of both worlds..an office separate from your house so more distance between your work and home environments without the obvious stresses of commuting.
Anyway I've said enough...off to Tenerife for a weeks surfing. If you've actually read this blog please leave me a comment even if just to tell me it's a load of s***t.
Later, oh and heres some links:
Link: Features - The Garden Path: Interview with a shedworker.
July 30, 2007
July 26, 2007
Workspace photos from the readers of Web Worker Daily "My Space NOT MySpace: Share What Your Workspace Looks Like"
If you work from home the chances are you know about the Webworker daily blog. Here is an article where readers submit their home office photos. Scroll down for more links to cool photos.
Link: Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive My Space NOT MySpace: Share What Your Workspace Looks Like «.
Here is the link to the Flickr group http://flickr.com/groups/355394@N20/pool/
July 22, 2007
Online Recruitment on the Rise in Eastern Europe
Link: Online Recruitment on the Rise in Eastern Europe.
Interesting PR peiece by jobs.cz I have never seen a job site have the dominance in one country that jobs.cz has in the Czech Republic. Hopefully jobpilot will gain some share to force jobs.cz to drop it's prices soon.
ShoeMoney's home office
hoeMoney rocks! The affiliate marketing/SEO guru works out of his home in Illinois (I think) There a few different photos of his office set up which I have to say is pretty cool. he has 3 21" Dell monitors with a gap in between to watch TV. That would be too much of a distraction for me but I'm too easily distracted! He's also got a Mac on some of the photos but I'm not sure which model, maybe somebody can enlighten me. Incidentally I've just bought a Mac Book an much as I hate it I have joined the ranks of annoying Apple fanboys! I think his PC is the Dell gaming one.
The Desk is fairly old-school dark wood style and he's gone for the L shaped configuration with all his computer equipment on one side and (I presume) the other side free for reading, laying out papers etc.
All in all pretty cool.
Anyway here is his photo gallery:
http://www.shoemoney.com/gallery/v/New+Office/
I think this is his old office set up
Frank McKinneys tree house office
I was driving down from Prague to Austria for the weekend at my brothers chalet in Rauris for a few days of chilling out and mountain biking and as I usually do I stocked a good 5 hours work of podcasts on the iPod shuffle for the journey. I ended up listening to the REIN club a real estate investors podcast (I harbor ambitions to build up a real estate portfolio as part of my philosophy of developing passive income streams so I can spend time doing things I want to do..See my post on Rich Dad Poor dad).
Anyway I digress so the podcast featured an interview with Frank McKinney a real estate developer who builds multi million dollar homes on the East Coast of the USA. Anyway as I crossed the Austrian border and wound my way deeper into the alps I listened to him talk about his tree house office in the garden of his home and though Jesus that sounds cool!
Anyway I dug around on the web to see if I can find some info and pictures and its harder than I thought but I found one page with a few interior shots. Apparently Frank works there most of the time but has anohter office he visits every couple of weeks.
Here is the page from Franks site where he talks about his office http://www.frank-mckinney.com/newsDetail.php?news=58
The only actual pictures of the inside of the office I could find are here is you scroll to the bottom of the page http://www.saveourtreehouse.com/saveourtreehouse/other/treehouse/frank_mckinney/frank_mckinney_treehouse.htm
The room itself is quite small but has a great view over the coast. The bamboo furniture and interior gives the place an island feel and I imagine would create a relaxed work ambiance. The desk space would be too small and cluttered for me I think but maybe ha has anothter table in the office. Technically it looks like Frank just has a laptop (not sure of the model),landline phone and a fairly low end printer.
Lifehacker cool office competition
Ive been a long time lifehacker fan and the home office theme often features strongly. Check out the finalists of their cool workspace contest.
http://lifehacker.com/software/coolest-workspace-contest/
Also check these out. The aeroplane wing desk I especially love !
And here is still more!
July 21, 2007
ShoeMoney's home office
ShoeMoney rocks! The affiliate marketing/SEO guru works out of his home in Illinois (I think) There a few different photos of his office set up which I have to say is pretty cool. he has 3 21" Dell monitors with a gap in between to watch TV. That would be too much of a distraction for me but I'm too easily distracted! He's also got a Mac on some of the photos but I'm not sure which model, maybe somebody can enlighten me. Incidentally I've just bought a Mac Book an much as I hate it I have joined the ranks of annoying Apple fanboys! I think his PC is the Dell gaming one.
The Desk is fairly old-school dark wood style and he's gone for the L shaped configuration with all his computer equipment on one side and (I presume) the other side free for reading, laying out papers etc.
All in all pretty cool.
Anyway here is his photo gallery:
http://www.shoemoney.com/gallery/v/New+Office/
I think this is his old office set up
Frank McKinneys tree house office
I was driving down from Prague to Austria for the weekend at my brothers chalet in Rauris for a few days of chilling out and mountain biking and as I usually do I stocked a good 5 hours work of podcasts on the iPod shuffle for the journey. I ended up listening to the REIN club a real estate investors podcast (I harbor ambitions to build up a real estate portfolio as part of my philosophy of developing passive income streams so I can spend time doing things I want to do..See my post on Rich Dad Poor dad).
Anyway I digress so the podcast featured an interview with Frank McKinney a real estate developer who builds multi million dollar homes on the East Coast of the USA. Anyway as I crossed the Austrian border and wound my way deeper into the alps I listened to him talk about his tree house office in the garden of his home and though Jesus that sounds cool!
Anyway I dug around on the web to see if I can find some info and pictures and its harder than I thought but I found one page with a few interior shots. Apparently Frank works there most of the time but has anohter office he visits every couple of weeks.
Here is the page from Franks site where he talks about his office http://www.frank-mckinney.com/newsDetail.php?news=58
The only actual pictures of the inside of the office I could find are here is you scroll to the bottom of the page http://www.saveourtreehouse.com/saveourtreehouse/other/treehouse/frank_mckinney/frank_mckinney_treehouse.htm
The room itself is quite small but has a great view over the coast. The bamboo furniture and interior gives the place an island feel and I imagine would create a relaxed work ambiance. The desk space would be too small and cluttered for me I think but maybe ha has anothter table in the office. Technically it looks like Frank just has a laptop (not sure of the model),landline phone and a fairly low end printer.
July 12, 2007
Lifehacker coool office competition
Ive been a long time lifehacker fan and the home office theme often features strongly. Check out the finalists of their cool workspace contest.
http://lifehacker.com/software/coolest-workspace-contest/
Also check these out. The aeroplane wing desk I especially love !
And here is still more!
July 09, 2007
Changes to this blog / New authors required!
After a pretty quiet couple of months for postings to this blog I thought I would do a post on the background to this blog and where I would like it to go.
As a recruiter based in Czech republic but active across central and Eastern Europe I started this blog to submit my thoughts on recruiting in the region and interesting articles I came across. I also thought it would be a good forum to publicise news and announcements about my company and to be honest the purpose of the blog became confused; was it a company blog or a blog about recruiting in the region?
This factor together with the lack of time I was able to devote to it meant that I wanted to step back and take a look at where I would like it to go, which I had a chance to do this weekend in between mountain biking in the Austrian alps.
The short answer is I have stripped out all the company announcements etc. and taken it back to purely a blog about recruitment news/trends/gossip/whatever in Central and Eastern Europe, a subject of huge interest to me. To do this I would rather expand the scope of the blog and increase the number of authors so others with recruitment/executive search expertise in the region can contribute.
So basically would you like to submit some aricles to this blog? Id love to hear from anyone working as a recruiter or in HR anywhere in Central and Eastern Europe who would like to submit articles or links to this blog. All you will need to do is email me and I will set you up as an author and from there you can easily log on and post articles whenever you have something to say. Id especially love to hear from recruiters in Russia / CIS countries as I have tended to focus more on the Central European countries. Of course anyone working for competitors in Poland and the Czech Republic is welcome as well. Id like to keep the language of the blog to English but if you spot interesing articles in Polish/Rusian whatever please feel free ot submit them. If you want to post you can use this as a forum to publicise yourself/your company or remain anonymous depending on your preference.
For those who dont want to submit articles please feel free to leave comments to article as I'd like to stimulate more dicsussion between other recruiters in the region. I have also set up a new URL for the blog at www.ceerecruit.info
Cheers and hope to hear from some of you Dan
July 06, 2007
Dave Mendoza blogs on Prague and the Czech Republic
Dave Mendoza from the sixdegreesfromdave.com blog was over in Prague recently and I exchanged a couple of emails but wasn't able to meet up in the end. Here are links to his posts on the trip. Its always interesting to see the perspective of people visiting as living here you tend to take it all for granted.
February 16, 2007
Baltic Labour shortages
Anyone who has visited Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania recently knows about the booming economies of the three Baltic states. The labour shortage is obvious but in these former Soviet countries this takes on a whole political dimension due to the large scale migration and Russification in Soviet Times.
Discussion in the Baltic times here
February 15, 2007
Possible doctor shortfall in Czech Republic
Article in the Prague Post about one of the many areas impacted by the new Czech labour code
http://www.praguepost.com/articles/2006/12/20/code-blue.php
November 25, 2006
Polish - British migration
One of the better articles on the future for Polish - British and returning British - Polish migration.
Appeals to Polish patriotism (like those made by the city of Wroclaw and the Polish prime minister) are unlikely to encourage many to return to their homeland. Poles are pragmatic and suspicious of government statements . The one and only thing that will encourage to return are well paid jobs. The jobs are coming, most noticeably in Warsaw, but not fast enough to stem the tide through 2007.
The Romanians are coming...
http://www.cbw.cz/phprs/2006110612.html
So the Czech Republic is opening it's doors to the new EU arrivals; Bulgaria and Romania. The Czech media is split on whether this is good or bad, but from a Czech recruitment point of view we welcome it. The labour market is tight here and the Czech economy will benefit from an influx of keen and qualified immigrants, the same way as the UK economy benefited after it opened its labour markets to the new entrants in 2004.
November 19, 2006
Events at Skoda and the Czech Recruitment Enviroment
http://www.cbw.cz/phprs/2006111329.html
A well balanced article from Cristina Muntean (once again). It brings up a couple of interesting points; firstly about the general dire state of the recruitment environment in the Czech Republic, and secondly about the increasing number of Poles coming to work in the Czech Republic, where they are now the third largest minority after Ukrainians and Vietnamese (nobody really counts the Slovaks as foreign).
A lot of the recruitment activity in the Czech Republic is murky to say the least and the least events at Skoda are only the tip of the iceberg in my opinion.
There is a recruitment industry association in the Czech Republic (the APPS) which campaigns for a better recruitment environment, and requires all its members to sign a code of conduct. It is quite telling though that out of 1,500 agencies in the Czech Republic, only 10 of us are members!
On a personal note I was very pleased to see the comment at the end from Jitka Dobrakova from Manpower where she urges companies to use an agency with ISO 9001:2000 certification and is a member of the Czech recruitment Association (the APPS). As far as I can make out the only agency who this applies to is my company Dunross Recruitment, so hopefully all employers will be following Jitka's advice :)
October 13, 2006
Czech Republic...Headhunters paradise?
Wll the CBW thinks so. Two interesting stories from Cristina Muntean. It is always difficult to estimate how many headhunters are operating in the region as many will cover a business sector across multiple countries from one office.
Personally I think we will see a peak this year in Czech Republic and Slovakia and then a decline as headhunters focus their interest on Romania, the big new EU entry in 2007!
http://www.cbw.cz/phprs/2006082125.html
http://www.cbw.cz/phprs/2006091104.html
August 29, 2006
Czech turnover rates high - PwC Survey
Well it's been a week or so without any news ragging on the Czech labour force so it was about time for a survey from PwC showing that around 16 per cent of Czechs leave their jobs annually compared to 9 percent Europe-wide.
The article is reviewed here in the Post:
http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2006/Art/0824/busi4.php
I agree broadly with Katya Zapletnyuk's excellent analysis and would like to add a couple of points.
Firstly this figure needs to be looked at in the context of all the new emerging economies of Central Europe where turnover rates are high across the board, due to the rapid speed the economies are changing as new companies move in and older ones are taken over or go under.
Secondly the important point that you can't see in the figures is that if you do have one of the 84 per cent who apparently will stay with you the quality can be very high, extremely so if you look at recent University graduates where foreign language skills and commercial awareness are excellent.
Dan Taylor | Dunross | T: +420 222 723 664 | F: +420 222 726 747 | M: +420 603 147 177 | E: dantaylor@dunross.co.uk| Skype Name: dan-dunross | A: Sudomerska 32, 130 00 Prague, Czech Republic
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