Cats and Coupons

I’d never heard of peternity leave until today. Peternity leave is the pet lover’s version of maternity leave - time off of work to care for an animal. I read on WSJ that there are companies based outside of the US that offer time to care for a new or ill pet, as well as grieve the loss of a pet. I understand offering an employee a day or two off to deal with the death of an animal. But to offer employees time off to care for new animals? I don’t see the need. I know someone who had constantly gets new pets. At one point she had 8 pets. At some point there’d be a job being held for someone that would be more appropriately given to someone that needed it. If a person can’t deal with the responsibility of a new animal they shouldn’t get one.

If you’ve ever watched or been to a dog show you know there’s a group called working dogs. (Point of interest, there’s no working cat category at a cat show.) The dogs in the AKC working group include the Akita, Alaskan Malamute, Anatolian Shepherd Dog, Boxer, Bernese Mountain Dog, Black Russian Terrier, Bullmastiff, Doberman Pinscher, Dogue de Bordeaux, German Pinscher, Giant Schnauzer, Great Dane, Great Pyrenees, Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, Komondor, Kuvasz, Mastiff, Neopolitan Mastiff, Newfoundland, Portugese Water Dog, Rottweiler, Saint Bernard, Samoyed, Siberian Husky, Standard Schnauzer and Tibetan Mastiff. Could you imagine if people were like working class dogs? They’d never have to do another job search again, because everyone would know what they can do right from the start. What I find interesting about dog shows is that dogs within one class do different “work” and yet they’re all judged against each other. We have a Siberian Husky, so he’d be in the working group if he were a show dog. Do you have a dog? What group would he be in if he were a show dog?

I didn’t even realize it but this week was Take Your Pet To Work week. As much as I love my cats I don’t know that I’d bring them to work. We work in a busy place and I think that might stress them out too much. The week ended with the tenth anniversary of Take Your Dog To Work Day. This annual celebration was created in 1999 by Pet Sitters International. The purpose of the day is to celebrate the companionship that dogs offer people, thereby inspiring others to adopt a dog from a shelter or rescue. Did any of you bring your dog, or other pet, to work this week?

It’s well known that we as a society don’t get enough exercise. So how can a working person with a busy schedule get a little exercise during the work day? Easy. Exercise during their break. Most people that work full time get a break or two during the day. I’ve noticed where I work now, and when I was in mail order sales, that people often went and sat in the break room on their breaks. I wonder how many of them realize they could spend that ten to fifteen minutes taking a walk around the parking lot, which not only provides exercise, promotes health and fitness and stretches the muscles but gets the employee away from their desk and gives them a chance to have a few minutes to get some fresh air and clear their head. Where I work now I try to walk as often as I can, often twice a day. The only time I won’t go out is if the weather is really nasty. In nasty weather it’s be really nice if we had a room with a couple of treadmills so we could maintain our schedule. So next time you go to work, give yourself a break and take a walk. It’s free and it’s good for you.

The county I live in is in between two major markets, New York and Philadelphia. Mass transit in our area stinks, or in some cases is non existent. I don’t travel too far to get to work but my hubby travels about 90 minutes each way. I don’t need a lot to stay comfortable in my truck (heat would be nice but isn’t affordable right now). Hubby likes those steering wheel covers with the nubby things on them and lots of music. At one point he even had one of those beaded massage chair covers. What do you need to keep you comfortable on your commute?

I live in New Jersey. You may or may not have heard the recent news that our Governor has proposed an increase in our tolls of up to 800%. I live in Ocean County, one of the counties that would be hardest hit by the increase. Due to our location we don’t have many other roads to take instead of toll roads to get to certain places. The county hardest hit is Monmouth County, which borders the town I live in. I am fortunate in that I work less than ten minutes from home. But as this area is equidistant to New York and Philadelphia, many commuters would not be able to continue to commute to work. If the increases go through those families will be able to spend and save less which will effect their kids, who will need probably something like a Tuition Wise loan to afford college. There’s talk there is going to be a big push to encourage car pooling now to force drivers into what could possibly be a small reduction in their travel cost.

Mine doesn’t, not yet.
No, I don’t mean that my boss doesn’t like animals. That was my silly way of saying that my employer doesn’t offer pet health care insurance at this time. I’ve been familiar with pet health insurance for some time but was not aware that some employers actually offer it as an optional benefit to their employees. I read in an article on MSNBC that Veterinary Pet Insurance, who is the nation’s largest pet insurer, has stated that fifteen percent of their clients are corporate accounts. The article cited that in the course of six years the number of corporate clients has grown from 15 to 1,500. The optional insurance costs nothing to the corporate client but affords a discount from regular price for the employees that sign up for it.  I myself am going to print the article and get the company contact info and give it to my work. It can’t hurt.

Tell the salesperson at the phone store where you work. I took my son with me to the nearby Verizon store yesterday to look at phones. I was pretty sure I wanted to leave Nextel and port my number over to my existing Verizon account that hubby has his phone on, and my son was deciding if he wanted a phone. Actually he was very sure he wanted the Chocolate but I told him no I wasn’t spending all that money and yes I knew they had a buy one get one promo but I didn’t want one. So in we went. I didn’t see the same specials in the store that were online so I asked the rep. He said yes they had those specials in the store. We got to chatting and I mentioned something about work and he asked where I worked. He said “oh you work there, you can have your phone for free”. He asked if there was anything else I needed and I told him my son did want the Chocolate but it was too expensive. He knocked the price of the phone my son wanted down to $49.99 so my son did get the phone he wanted. Then, as if icing a cake, the rep told me I’d be eligible for 20% off of my monthly bill as well. It was a very productive trip. My son is thrilled he got the phone he really wanted and he’s really enjoying texting and sending pictures too.

Did you ever work for a really cheap employer who didn’t care about the employees? I used to be the administrator of a business that relocated in order to save money. They moved from a nice first floor location pretty close to major highways and public transportation to a fifth floor space in an old five story building. That building had the worst heating and air conditioning. In the summer we roasted, even when the air was on you couldn’t tell the air was on. In the winter frequently the furnace didn’t work at all, but the owner expected us to stay even if it meant working in our coats. When the furnace did work it was still cold and several of us put little portable heaters under our desks. Then the owner complained what that did to the electric bill. We couldn’t put in gas portable heaters which are more economical because the suite wasn’t connected to natural gas. Business really declined after that move. I’m sure glad I don’t work there any more.

I have a friend whose house is always cold, probably because it’s basically a converted porch on a really old house. She only has propane in the house, and has been supplementing the existing heat with space heaters. I did email her about the DESA Outlet because they have some propane wall heaters she might be interested in looking at.While I was on their site I saw a nice natural gas fireplace almost 50% off on their site. We used to talk about our dream of having a fireplace but I hadn’t realized at the time they made them for natural gas. Hmmmm.

Have you ever had a migraine? I have never had a migraine headache to my knowledge. I’m told they can be really bad, so I’m guessing that I’d know if I’d had one. One of the girls I work with gets them a lot, enough that she misses time from work. Today I was talking to the boss and the girl came around the corner and she looked like she really wasn’t feeling well. I asked her if she was ok and she replied that she had another migraine. She left for the rest of the day. I felt pretty bad for her, because I know this has happened to her before and it must stink to have a headache so bad that you’d rather lose a days pay. I know she gets physically sick at times, and that light really bothers her. To me it seems like it could be labeled a disability instead of a sickness.

Having recently had major surgery and missing almost three months of work, I found myself thinking a lot about disability insurance. I was so thankful I had temporary coverage through my employer, so we could get by while I couldn’t work. But what about professionals who don’t automatically get coverage because they don’t have an employer, those who own their own business or are self employed, like doctors? These professionals need to carry their own disability insurance if they wish to protect themselves.

Protect Your Income offers extensive disability insurance information online to professionals. This easy to navigate site offers explanations of frequently used terms, statistics, insurance company ratings, frequently asked questions and an online system for disability insurance quotes. The site explains how to evaluate what any existing policies you might have will cover, and what to look for when buying a policy. There is even a section containing informational videos on the topic of disability insurance.

Protect Your Income specializes in disability insurance for physicians, attorneys, veterinarians, accountants, executives and IT professionals, just to name a few. If you know of anyone that might need to carry their own disability insurance, this site is a great all in one resource that should not be missed.

Do you listen when others are speaking to you? I try to, but I’m sure many, if not most, people don’t. At work yesterday I had to call an insurance company to check on a claim. The rep at the insurance company asked me for the standard identifying company info, including address. I gave her the PO Box, which is our company’s standard mailing address. She stated she also saw a physical address on file, which I also confirmed. She then asked me which of the two locations I was calling from. Hello! Did she really think I was calling from a post office box? That company needs to look into corporate performance management software to track how many complaints they receive about the poor service people receive from their inept employees.

We drink a lot of coffee where I work. People are coming and going at all hours of the day and night. The owners always have a supply of coffee, tea and hot chocolate on hand, so if anyone wants something they can have it. Now I myself love coffee. When I go in to work at 6am the first thing I do is have or make some coffee. We have a nice coffeepot in the kitchen area, it was bought for us about two weeks ago. It has some really nice features like brew strength and temperture control. I bring in my french vanilla creamer and I’m good to go. What would be really wild would be if they got one of those combination cappuccino and espresso machines.They’d probably have to pry me away from it if they got one of those. French vanilla cappuccino. Yummy! My favorite!

My husband is a painter. The main client they work for is a huge apartment complex over an hour away. Usually they just paint the vacated apartments. Once a week they usually paint an occupied apartment, which means someone lives in it and you have to work around their stuff. He has come home with some crazy stories about some of the things he’s seen. Every once in a while, like this weekend, they get some total rehabs. He hates those, because you have to do everything including (but not limited to) cabinets, counters, walls, floors and painting. They were given a few of them this week, so he worked all weekend. He ought to be good and cranky by next weekend.