The job posting that caught my eye is actually a job opening at Ars Technica. Here’s what they say about the job and the qualifications they’re looking for in a candidate:

You’ll be working for Ars Technica as a Fulltime Copy Editor and Web Producer.
You’ll be working at their Chicago, IL location.

Ars Technica is hiring! We’re looking for a 40 hr/week copy editor/producer with a passion for technology and an eye for detail. The ideal candidate will have a solid grasp of spelling, grammar, and style and be comfortable coordinating a small copyediting team. Previous copyediting experience is strongly preferred.

Candidates should also have a grasp of basic HTML tags and be capable of basic production work—preparing and posting articles, formatting text for the web, resizing, uploading, and inserting pictures, etc. (We can provide training for production work.)

We need a self-starter who requires minimal oversight to produce excellent results, someone with the ability to work in a fast-paced environment.

This is a telecommuting position, though we need someone in the greater Chicago area. Candidates who live outside Chicago will be considered, but (at minimum) quarterly travel to Chicago would be likely be required. All other things being equal, we will choose someone local.

There’s a bit more info and a contact for you at the Ars Technica Job listing!

More About Ars Technica
The name is derived from the Latin for “art of technology” and they specialize in “original news and reviews, analysis of technology trends, and expert advice on topics ranging from the most fundamental aspects of technology to the many ways technology is helping us enjoy our world. We work for the reader who not only needs to keep up on technology, but is passionate about it.”

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I visited BIzcard and noticed that they tout the same basic offer - 250 business cards for free. So I sent Ely a response that while I appreciated his contacting me, anyone in the universe could pop over to his site and get 250 business cards for free (so there was no special offer in particular for readers who frequent TelecommutingJournal). I also asked him if the “free” business cards were actually free, or if there were shipping and handling charges added to each order (which he was kind enough to confirm without forcing me to go through the entire process to determine that fact for myself. He then ventured out of my expectations and gave me an actual special offer that I could use myself (and post for my readers should I choose to do so). Well, of course I choose to do so. I’d like to have 250 free business cards that I could use for this site in particular (so I could quit spelling the word t-e-l-e-c-o-m-m-u-t-i-n-g to everyone I meet in person who asks me about working at home).

I haven’t ordered business cards yet, simply because I’ve lacked the time to do much more than keep up with work and laundry. Haven’t you noticed the reduced number of posts lately? But I have every intention of doing so the first chance I get. I may actually order the slim cards or the calling cards since I don’t need very much information on the card beyond my blog’s name and location!

Although Ely thinks he’s not much of a writer, let me share what he’s told me about BizCard:

Bizcard lets designers turn their artwork into print products such as business cards, postcards, and related marketing material. For the users who are less tech savvy, our team has developed hundreds of templates that anyone can use for free or a small fee.

We are currently giving sets of 250 business cards (or 125 calling cards) away for free. Calling cards are similar to business cards, but they are more personal and do not carry any title or company information. They work great for the web 2.0 crowd.

He went on to also explain that BizCard is socially and environmentally responsible as well. Their products are certified eco-friendly by the Green Seal(they use recycled paper or purchase paper from responsibly managed forest lands. During production they have eliminated the usage of harming photo processing chemicals and have also designed products that use 30% less paper than the industry standard. AND, for every order, they plant a tree through their partnership with American Forests.

The one thing that really makes BizCard stand out above the others like VistaPrint is that Ely assures me they do not add their logo, or any text or images at all, on the back of the free business cards. I know VistaPrint does (it’s in their fine print (<i>…come with the VistaPrint logo printed on the backside…</i>).

I’m not sure if you’re limited to one-time ‘freebie’ purchases on other business card printing sites, but Ely also tells me that you can grab a set of freebies (for the price of shipping and handling) as many times as you like.

So what’s the special offer?

Ely has set up what he says to be an exclusive offer for anyone reading this particular post. It’s a promo code to receive 30% off any order that is NOT free. I’m not sure which is the better deal, actually — the freebies for the price of shipping or the non-freebies for 30% off. I suppose that depends on where the order is shipped and what you order.

For Freebies:

For the 30% off offer:

PROMO CODE: bizkx3

Let me know how it goes if you order and I’ll post my own order experience once I’ve placed my own order.

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With just a first name and an email address, you can enter to win a free handbag (totally free, no shipping, no credit card required) from HandbagPlanet.com. The site is promising high fashion, trendy handbags inspired by popular designer brands but priced reasonably (between $30 and $80). Sounds good to me, and I could always use a new handbag!!

They are giving away a free handbag every hour for 24 hours until they officially launch. When you sign up you can choose WHICH handbag you would like to win. You get one entry for giving them your first name and email address, 3 more entries if you give them +3 friends’ email addresses, +10 more entries if you email them your Facebook, MySpace or Twitter account info, and +25 more entries if you write about the contest on your blog.

Ahem, now you see why I wrote about this on my blog! I NEED a new purse and I’d love to snag myself a freebie from HandbagPlanet.com before they even launch their store. Not sure I’ll convert to calling it a handbag, but I’m willing to try if I end up winning one.

• Enter to Win a Handbag!
• Handbag Planet’s Free Handbag Every Hour Official Rules.
• Handbag Planet’s Privacy Policy.

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So what’s my plan? Hopefully we’re money smart. My husband and I have always been on a long-term financial plan of our own doing. He works for a company with great benefits and good retirement but it’s certainly not enough to live on should we both completely stop working and attempt to live off that income alone. Nor do we see ourselves ever wanting to do so!

We’ve also tried to set ourselves up for the best possible scenario as we age. We opted for a shorter-term mortgage (by far our biggest debt), have very little consumer debt (we pay our credit card off every month), and we’re fairly frugal. By the time our children graduate from high school we’ll be totally debt free (no more mortgage) but we’ll also both be quickly approaching 50. When we talk about “retirement” neither of us talk about sitting around sipping lemonade or traveling the world. Why? I think we’d be bored out of our skulls and begin aging at the speed of light if we sat around with our thumbs, well, sat rocking on the front porch. As long as I can type and have an Internet connection, I’ll be working in some capacity. My husband has a billion hobbies and skills, any one of which I’m sure he’ll turn into a viable source of income if ever he leaves his current job. I just don’t really see us formally retiring.

I met a 70-year-old man recently with the same philosophy. He drives the shuttle bus at an airport and I’ve run into him 3 times in the past 6 years. On my most recent trip from the terminal to my car I mentioned that he’d picked me up before in the airport shuttle and asked him how long he’d been driving the van around. I learned he’d been toting passengers and their luggage for 8 years and that he loved doing it because it was always an adventure. He once saw a woman break the window out of her car when she realized she’d locked the keys in it only to discover HER car was four spaces down. And he once picked up a passenger who trolled the parking lot a half hour before realizing he was in the wrong airport and had missed his connecting flight home.

So this morning, an article over on CNN.com catches my eye and I discover that working past retirement is a reality for a much larger number of people than I first thought.

Twenty-nine percent of people in their late 60s were working in 2006, up from 18 percent in 1985, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly 6 million workers last year were 65 or over.

Americans Working Past Retirement

Happy Labor Day to all in the US!

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CHICAGO, July 16, 2008 - Downsized staffs paired with increased workloads may be causing a rise in stress levels around the workplace. According to a CareerBuilder.com survey of more than 7,600 workers nationwide, 78 percent reported feeling burned out at work.Forty-six percent of workers said their workload has increased over the last six months and approximately the same percentage (45 percent) describe their current workload as heavy or too heavy. Close to a quarter (23 percent) of workers report they are dissatisfied with their current work/life balance.

More than half (54 percent) of workers said their companies offer some sort of flexible work arrangements to help manage stress levels and work/life balance and two-thirds indicated that they take advantage of at least one of the programs offered. When asked which benefits they take part in the most, workers said:

1. Alternative schedules (72 percent)
2. Compressed work weeks (24 percent)
3. Telecommuting (15 percent)
4. Summer hours (14 percent)
5. Job sharing (6 percent)

“Unmanageable stress levels in the workplace can seriously impact an employee’s productivity and home-life,” said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources at CareerBuilder.com. “Employers today are being much more proactive in offering a variety of programs that promote a healthy work/life balance, and companies and workers alike are reaping the benefits. Sixty-one percent of workers said taking advantage of flexible work arrangements has made them more productive and 21 percent said it actually improved their career progress.”

While flexible work arrangements may not work for every industry or position, Haefner offers the following tips for making the case to the boss or supervisor:

• Contact your HR department and inquire about flexible benefits - they may suggest options that you didn’t know were even available.
• Sell your boss on the idea - consider writing a small business plan, highlighting contributions you’ve made in your position and the benefits to you and the company.

If flexible schedules are not an option, workers still need to take steps to reduce the burn out they are experiencing. Haefner offers the following advice:

• Learn to say no. Reduce your commitments both at work and home. Manage timeline expectations for customer or colleagues when multiple projects come up simultaneously.
• Get organized. Create a checklist of things that need to be addressed for that day and focus on those tasks only.
• Reevaluate your goals with your boss or supervisor to identify priorities and where your energy should be focused.
• Get plenty of rest, eat a healthy diet and remember to exercise. Working out can significantly reduce stress levels.
• Finally, give yourself a break. This means taking your vacation days, no matter how important you job is, and taking little breaks every day to re-group, re-energize and unwind. Stepping away from your desk and taking a 15-minute walk during the workday can do wonders.

Survey Methodology
The surveys were conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive® on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among US employees (employed full-time; not self-employed). Data related to perceptions about workload was pulled from a CareerBuilder study among 8,785 employees between May 22 and June 13, 2008. All other data points pulled from a CareerBuilder study among 7,688 US employees between February 11 and March 13, 2008. Percentages for some questions are based on a subset of responses to certain questions. With a pure probability sample of 8,785 and 7,688 one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 1.0 percentage points and +/- 1.1 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

About CareerBuilder.com
CareerBuilder.com is the nation’s largest online job site with more than 23 million unique visitors and over 1.6 million jobs. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company, The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), the company offers a vast online and print network to help job seekers connect with employers. CareerBuilder.com powers the career centers for more than 1,600 partners, including 140 newspapers and leading portals such as America Online and MSN. More than 300,000 employers take advantage of CareerBuilder.com’s easy job postings, 28 million-plus resumes, Diversity Channel and more. CareerBuilder.com and its subsidiaries operate in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.careerbuilder.com.

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