How I recovered after leaving a toxic workplace

How I recovered after leaving a toxic workplaceHow I recovered after leaving a toxic workplaceMy boss stopped talking to me in April. I didnt notice until July.We were the only two administrators at a small private elementary school, with students between kindergarten and eighth grade. She welches the founder and head of school. I managed everything else. Our offices were across the hall from each other. And yet, because I welches so busy and stressed out by the job, four months passed without us meeting and I didnt realize it until a parent volunteer pointed it out.If you have worked for someone else, the chances are pretty good that youve encountered an abusive work situation- deeply passive aggressive behavior like this experience, outright bullying, or something in-between that makes your work life miserable. Work relationships are as emotionally intimate as family relationships and yet we have no language to talk about the kinds of devastating experiences we can go through at wo rk outside HR-speak. What is the right way to capture the slow chipping away of your confidence? How do you talk about the reasons you have to pull over on your way to work because youre on the verge of vomiting from stress? How do you respond when a boss treats you in a subtly different way because of your age, your gender identification, your race, your sexuality? No matter that workplace bullying is actually fairly common. We are terrible at addressing it.I finally pinned my boss down for a meeting and we talked. There was a reason for all those months of radio silence our working relationship had frayed and I didnt even know it. She announced that she would be taking over my duties but holding me accountable for the results. I was devastated. To my mind, there was no option but to quit. I gave notice two weeks before the students returned to campus. She locked me out of my computer the same day. I thought Id quit, but it certainly felt like Id been fired. She refused my applicat ion for unemployment benefits. I didnt have three months salary saved (who does?). I had student loans. I had car payments. I lived alone. My family was not in a position to help me. My mother was going through cancer treatments.I was shattered, shaking, terrified of making the same mistake again- this was the second job in a row that had ended in flames. I had no emotional reserves left.If this had been a dating situation, I would have been encouraged, rightly, to take a break from relationships for a while so I could heal. But we dont have that option with jobs. We have to earn a living. All too often, we find ourselves repeating the same mistakes over and over again, pinballing from one terrible work situation to another because we cant figure out how to take a breath, heal, and make better choices. In fact, one of the consequences of being in an abusive work situation is that your ability to make choices that are healthy for your professional development gets subsumed by your ne ed to survive in the day-to-day experience.So what did I do? I found a way to make ends meet while I regained a sense of self.That meant not jumping into another full-time gig right away, but I still had to make money. I signed up with a few temp agencies in and around my city. I went on social media to let friends know I was available for babysitting and other short-term jobs. I ended up being an on-call emergency nanny and working with a real estate werber doing move out cleans as well as babysitting and, really, any gig that would help me earn enough money to pay my bills. My attitude is that any income is better than no income.I also used the time to volunteer as an auction coordinator for a friend, which led to an auction coordinator contract with a different organization. I embraced the flexibility allowed by no longer being tied to a 9-to-5 job and quickly began to wonder how Id ever had the time to work.One of those temp jobs, a medical-leave replacement for a high school se cretary, turned into a full-time job. Did I want to be an executive assistant? No. But my colleagues were warm and loving and it was a healthy, safe, sane work environment. That was exactly what I needed.Three years ago, I found myself in another unhealthy work situation. I was conscious of the toxic work culture before I took the job but felt that the trade-offs were worth it. Waking up every night at 2 a.m. with a panic attack that I would be fired wasnt normal, however, and eventually I chose to uproot my life entirely and make a fresh start in a new place.And this time, with the wisdom of past experiences, and the guidance of a fantastic career coach, I consciously chose to hit the re-set button. I picked up a few contract jobs, which led to some bigger consulting jobs and then a few more. I eventually star

Magnetic Bacteria Kill Cancer Cells

Magnetic Bacteria Kill Cancer Cells Magnetic Bacteria Kill Cancer Cells Magnetic Bacteria Kill Cancer CellsA top challenge in cancer therapy is being able to deliver the lowest possible amount of chemotherapy drugs to kill tumors, without impacting healthy cells. Researchers are keenly interested in developing nanocarriers, tiny particles that can be programmed to seek out cancer cells and release cancer-killing drugs.The problem, however, is that the amount of drug actually delivered into the tumor cells is quite low, compared to the amount of drug the nanocarrier originally contained. This is because the pressure between the tumor and its surrounding tissue prevents the nanocarrier from penetrating deep inside the tumor. As a result, it cannot reach the tumors hypoxic zones areas of low oxygen content where metastasis is believed to take place.Now a team of researchers, with funding support from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and other organizations , is developing a unique approach for getting more cancer-killing drugs into these low-oxygen regions. The team, lumineszenzdiode by Sylvain Martel, professor and director of the NanoRobotics Laboratory, Department of Computer and Software Engineering, Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Polytechnique Montral, has engineered a specific font of bacteria to carry drugs into the tumor using magnetic fields.The carriers are navigated using a clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) platform. Image NanoRobotics Laboratory, Polytechnique MontrealResearch MethodologyMartel has focused on a bacteria called magnetococcus marinus, or MC-1, which thrives in deep, oxygen-deprived waters. MC-1 cells, which contain chains of magnetic iron-oxide nanocrystals, tend to swim along local magnetic field lines and toward low-oxygen concentrations based on a two-state aerotactic sensing system. Their internal sensors allow them to migrate to and maintain their position at areas of low oxygen.In the i nitial experiment, mice that had been given human colorectal tumors were injected with either live MC-1 cells, dead MC-1 cells, or as a control group, nonmagnetic beads (roughly the same size as the bacteria). The injection was made into the tissue directly adjacent to the tumors, after which the mice were exposed to a computer-programmed magnetic field, meant to direct the cells or beads into the tumor, explains Margot Kern, science writer for the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. Upon examination of the tumors, the researchers found minimal penetration of the dead bacterial cells and the beads into the tumor, whereas the live bacterial cells were found deep within the tumor, especially in regions with low oxygen content.By themselves, these bacteria dont do anything useful, states Martel. But by controlling the magnetic field with direction and various intensities, we can make them behave like nanorobots. For instance, we can switch to their oxygen senso rs and then autonomously they will seek low oxygen concentration if we turn off the magnetic field. If we apply a higher directional magnetic field, within a specific sortiment of magnetic field strengths or magnitudes, then we can guide them toward a specific location in 3D while keeping their autonomous ability to avoid obstacles, etc. Then we can switch these modes at specific time to enhance the targeting ratio. We can also modulate the magnetic field following specific patterns and sequences basedon mathematical modelsto help them avoid obstacles, resulting in larger populations reaching the target hypoxic zones.This work offers real hope to patients suffering from a brain tumor. Image NanoRobotics Laboratory, Polytechnique MontrealThe researchers also discovered that, on average, 55 percent of the injected carrier cells made it into the tumor, a much greater number than thetwo percent estimate for the current nanocarriers being used to deliver drugs.This proof-of-concept work shows the potential to tap into the intricate and optimized cell machinery of single celled organisms such as bacteria, says Richard Conroy, director of the Division of Applied Sciences and Technology at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. The ability to actively and precisely target drug delivery to a tumor will help reduce side effects and potentially improve the efficacy of treatments.Moving ForwardFuture research for Martels team will explore several ideas, including seeing how effective their new method is in reducing tumor size, as well as its ability to carry and deliver other types of cancer-fighting molecules. Test results also showed that bacteria died within 30 minutes of being injected, suggesting they are likely safe in humans.We developed an approach to harness a specific type of bacteria that mimics exactly how artificial nanorobots in the future would be used treat cancers, she says. It has all the power, mechanical, embedded computation, and sensory systems that are required for fighting cancers, and which are packaged in a microscopic bodythat is well beyond our technological feasibility to create.Besides fighting cancer, other potential applications for these nanorobots are diagnostics, imaging, micro-manufacturing, and lab-on-a-chip systems.Martel is obviously amazed and awed by these naturally occurring delivery systems.By putting these bacteria in our special platforms controlled by computer, these bacteria suddenly transform into the most sophisticated microscopic robotsthat you could ever dream of, she enthuses. Just look at their molecular motors with a rotor rotating 360 degrees in a stator, propelling these micron-sized bodies at an average of 200 body length per second.Further, she adds, think about being able to control these bacteria to perform just about any task, equipped with sensors that influence their displacement in an autonomous manner toward the active cancer cells, oxygen threshold detectors to reverse the rotary molecular motors back-and-forth to maintain position within regions of active cancer cells to deliver the therapeutic agents, autonomous obstacles avoidance, or power source.If you consider how long it would take for technology to do all that, Martel continues, and also be able to manufacture hundreds of millions of self-replicating machines at a low cost, you will understand why we have spent our efforts to harness what nature has already provided,instead of trying to build a version that would be far from the capabilities offered by these natural nanorobots.Mark Crawford is an independent writer.By putting these bacteria in our special platforms controlled by computer, these bacteria suddenly transform into the most sophisticated microscopic robots that you could dream of.Sylvain Martel, Polytechnique Montral

Managing Your Personal Energy Gives You More Time

Managing Your Personal Energy Gives You More TimeManaging Your Personal Energy Gives You More TimeNo matter how well you schedule your time, if you dont have the personal energy to fulfill your commitments things may not get done. You will still attend meetings and outings, but you may not be fully present. Instead, your brain will be a little foggy, and your body will slouch. When you combine managing your personal energy along with managing your time you will become happier, fully present in the conversation, and effective. What Is Time Management? Time Management is about planning how much time you have in a day for meetings, kid activities, meal planning and downtime to spend recouping from your day. Here is a briefly described day of a Working Mom (simply stated) 600AM - wake up and have coffee 700AM - wake kids and get them ready for the day 730AM - get kids to school 830AM - arrive at the schreibstube 1000AM - meeting 1200PM - lunch meeting 130PM - phone call 300PM - walk talk meeting 500PM - leave the office and get the kiddos 530PM - start dinner 630PM - bath time 730PM - kids bedtime (hopefully) 800PM - downtime This is a good time management, right?It flows nicely with small breaks in between.But what if the breaks arent long enough to absorb what happened during that time?What if what happened in one of those meetings completely depleted your energy?What if you got bad news from your childs school? You still attend the rest of your meetings or get ready for dinner, but mentally you are dragging, have difficulty focusing, and cant operate at your top game. What is Personal Energy Management? Personal Energy Management is about being aware of how much mental and physical energy you have throughout your day to do your planned activities. The problem with using just time management is that it ignores the emotional side of things. Weve been taught to leave emotions at the door, but emotions are a funny thing that will sneak up on you when you le ast expect it. Emotions Take up Personal Energy and Hence Time You need to take into account how your life and career experiences will affect your personal energy.When you take a break from work or a step back from your emotions, you rest your body and mind.Will your meeting topics affect your personal energy?Timely plan rejuvenating actions before and/or after your meeting to boost your personal energy. Heres the new schedule with rejuvenating actions built in 600AM - wake up, stretch and/or journal and/or meditate, have coffee (action) 700AM - wake kids and get them ready for the day 730AM - get kids to school 830AM - arrive at the office 930AM - 10 minute walk outside (action) 1000AM - meeting 1145AM - 5 minutes of stretching (action) 1200PM - lunch meeting 115PM - 5 minutes of meditation in a quiet place not at your desk (action) 130PM - phone call 245PM - 3 minutes of deep breathing exercises (action) 300PM - walk talk meeting 430PM - write about what happened that day(act ion) 500PM - leave the office and get the kiddos 530PM - start dinner 630PM - bath time 730PM - kids bedtime (hopefully) 800PM - downtime, meditate, reflect on the day, read a book, exercise (aka, me-time) What Happens When You Combine Personal Energy and Time Management? When you use personal energy and time management, you find more time to do more.You spend less time dealing with emotions because youve built in space to respond to life.You become more effective, efficient and accomplished. You discover your Mommy Energy and how focusing on the energy your family gives you can fuel you throughout the day. You discover that time doesnt matter as much because your personal energy begins to dictate how youll spend your time.

Making Solar More Affordable

Making Solar More Affordable Making Solar More Affordable Making Solar More AffordableDriven by a broad interest in sustainability, William Chuehs lab at Stanford University has been trying to develop ways to make solar the best choice for providing affordable energy anywhere in the world and at any time.We want to make solar available when and where its needed, says the assistant professor of materials science and engineering. The team recently overcame challenges and defied conventional wisdom with a breakthrough that could lead to large-scale storage capabilities for solar power. Chueh and Nicholas Melosh, associate professor in the same department as Chueh, are co-leaders of the project that also includes one post-doctoral student and three doctoral students. Sunlight is a thousand times mora abundant than what we need for society for energy, says Chueh. But when you harvest it with techniques like solar panels, there is no storage component. In addition to limiting efficient use to places where sunshine is plentiful, silicon solar panels use a relatively small portion of the spectrum, Chueh says. They are known to be good at converting visible and ultraviolet light into electricity but bedrngnis infrared light, which is wasted.Prof. William Chueh. Image Matt Beardsley / Stanford UniversityOther materials, such as metal oxides, were known to have solar power potential, but they were also believed to be less efficient at converting photos to electrons than silicon cells. Conventional wisdom also held that not only do metal oxides start out as less efficient, it was believed they became even less efficient as they became hotter.But the team thought that perhaps additional energy could be harvested by also using heat, especially since they knew that heat makes electrons move faster. So the team set out to drive a photoelectrochemical process by combining both light and heat.The team foundthat ordinary metal oxides, such as rust, can be fashioned into solar cel ls capable of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. As the metal oxide solar cells grow hotter, they convert photons into electrons more efficiently. The exact opposite is true with silicon solar cells, which lose efficiency as they heat up.Re-combining the hydrogen and oxygen when needed, even in the dark, reclaims the energy to send power to an electrical network.The work shows that not only is there the advantage of light producing voltage but also heat making the electrons move faster, Chueh says. These combined give you a highly efficient design, significantly more efficient at storing the power of the sun.Chueh says his team was not surprised at the outcome because of previous work. But it was extremely surprising to many in the community because it had always been assumed that heat was just not good for you, he says. Before, we always used to keep the solar cells cool.Researchers in The Chueh Group. Image Tom Abate / Stanford UniversityThe team tested three metal oxides b ismuth vanadium oxide, titanium oxide, and iron oxide (rust), and all showed increased production of hydrogen and oxygen at higher temperatures. They plan to continue testing other metal oxides for efficiency as well as mixing different metal oxides together.However, there are still challenges and commercialization is more than a few years away. Being a relatively new topic in the field, there is not a lot of literature to work off of, Chueh says. So were pioneering the field in terms of integrating heat and light. We have to re-learn things and re-do things, for example, measuring the performance of solar cell as a function of temperature. We need to re-do all this, and its time-consuming.One of the next steps for the team is making a full-sized device. The current one is small scale and works only with water. We have to heat up the water. The challenge is that water boils at 100 degrees. So we are trying to make a device that works not only with liquid water but also vapor water s team, Chueh explains.Even though results may be a decade away, Chueh says its very rewarding, not just because its satisfying to see the work progressing but also because its something that is not purely academic.Because of the broader goals of The Chueh Group, such as exploring efficient electrochemical routes for converting solar energy to chemical fuels and subsequently to electricity, the team is already thinking about other potential uses for the process, such as using pure hydrogen gas produced by water-splitting to power vehicles or other machines directly and without pollution. We can store these gases, we can transport them through pipelines, and when we burn them we dont release any extra carbon, says Chueh. Its a carbon-neutral energy cycle.Nancy S. Giges is an independent writer.Learn more about the latest energy technologies at ASMEs Power and Energy. For Further DiscussionWe want to make solar available when and where its needed.Prof. William Chueh, Stanford University

Skills and Abilities on a Resume Can Be Fun for Everyone

Skills and Abilities on a Resume Can Be Fun for Everyone A stylist might want to concentrate on special treatments theyve learned and a retail associate might need to display their merchandising expertise. Before you answer that, find out more about the organization youre targeting and determine how it may help you achieve your career objectives. If you are interested in an instance of amazing messaging in a resume, take a look at the digital marketing and advertising executive resume sample among our absolutely free downloadable resume templates. Besides your resume, you ought to have a portfolio that highlights your finest outcomes. Vary the action verbs that you select. There are a couple general guidelines for showcasing your experience and techniques on just a couple of pages of text. Read through it a couple of occasions and youll probably spot three or four vital skills mentioned many times throughout the document. Otherwise, then you werent clear enough and you have to tweak the language. Be aware that there might be circumstances when including some of these information demonstrates that youre a fantastic fit for the job. Incorporate keywords from the work description so that youre tailoring your experience to what they are trying to find. Below, you will locate a list of resume examples that may aid you with your work search. When you determine the skills you need to concentrate on, do a bit of research and see whether they line up with job requirements listed for the positions youre seeking.The point is to not only emphasize the skills you have that relate to the job which youre applying to, but in plus-rechnen provide your possible employer with a chronological record of the jobs youve held before. Creating a favorable first impression with hiring managers is easy whenever your document represents your abilities and experiences they require with clear and robust job objectives. Our focus is to make sure you find the ideal job for you. Hard skills have a tendency to be more technical, and each business or sort of job will often have its personal essential set. For someone in the building and labor field, acquiring an abundance of skills and experience is vital. Possessing a very clear and professional resume is vital in the health care field. Your jobs could possibly be varied, your experience and abilities vast, and it can be hard getting it all on paper. If youre targeting work outside the defense arena, youll need to civilianize your military language to demonstrate your abilities and experience match the employers needs. Writing a resume for employment in the art industry can be difficult. If youre attempting to acquire work in accounting or finance you require averystrong resume. If youre targeting work within the defense business, dont hesitate to use military jargon. The job, the market, and the institution proved not the appropriate fit for me. Managers and executives should revolve around business s kills in addition to technical expertise even should they fall into a technical industry. Since many job seekers may list skills in a different section of their resume, additionally, it is important to weave them into descriptions under every one of your prior positions. 1 advantage for employers to internet resumes is the substantial cost saving in contrast to traditional hiring methods. Employment BOOST helps job seekers stand out daily, thus we wish to ensure you do, too. The Hidden Truth About Skills and Abilities on a Resume At this time theres still an opportunity to stick out from the competition being different. As you could have noticed, design is only one of several elements in your resume that may capture attention. Unless youre a graphic designer looking for employment, theres no need to over think the plan of your one-pager. There isnt anyone golden resume format. Speaking of unique, the main aim of your resume is to make you stick out from the remainder of the fol ks applying for equal job and another means to create that happen is to use action verbs and power words (also known as resume verbs). Getting the most of a resource that wont only help save you time, but is demonstrated to elevate your opportunity of scoring a work simply is reasonable. Well, regardless of what stage youre in your career, youre likely to should understand how to make a resume for a job interview and we are likely to demonstrate how A good can be difficult to discover so here is a good sample resume to assist you begin.

The Definitive Solution for Resume Tips

The Definitive Solution for Resume Tips Simply take a look at the work description, in case you have this, and customize your resume accordingly. Everything in your resume needs to align with what theyll be searching for in candidates. Understand there is no greater time than right now to begin looking for a job, reassemble your mindset, and begin searching. A similar sort of objective cant be used for every kind of job applied. A resume writer should be able to consider objectively when crafting the document, and thats why many people these days hire a professional resume writer. When you get prepared to update your resume, there are a couple of crucial measures to take before you begin writing. The career summary is likewise an important portion of the resume objective. In most instances, a resume objective is merely a couple of sentences long. New Questions About Resume Tips Writing objectives for resumes can be challenging. Job descriptions are full of keywords tha t you may use in your objective. Networking is notlage too hard. Resume objectives can be somewhat controversial. Your resume focus needs to be consistent throughout. With todays degree of competition for good jobs your resume has got only 1 chance to generate a terrific first impression. No matter your degree of work experience, your resume format is crucial to making your program stick out. The resume objective statement ought to take the format of a job-focused description of what it is possible to result in the employer. Its simple to find suggestions for how to format resumesjust Google proper resume format. The functional resume format is a powerful method to decrease the quantity of pages an employer might have to read and will present your application more impact. Hence it is crucial to select a suitable format for an IT professional CV. Tailoring your resume to the particular job which you are applying for will demonstrate the hiring manager youre seriously int erested in working for their organization. Too many resumes concentrate on job responsibilities, but describing achievements is far more powerful. Your resume objective needs to be strong and confident so that a prospective employer will learn that youre the very best candidate for the job. As a result, while your resume objective should incorporate information on the career which you want, you also wish to spell out why you are the perfect candidate for the job. Vital Pieces of Resume Tips One of the hazards of a resume objective is that youre able to focus too much on what you would like in your career, and not enough on how youll add value to the corporation. Instead, attempt to adjust or modify the objective needs to be to profile the job youre applying. So, your resume objective ought to be such that it always indicates that youre the one, the employer is trying to find. Stating an objective on your resume is a means to convince employers that you understand what you wa nt in work, though a profile explains what you need to provide the employer and can help sell your candidacy. A History of Resume Tips Refuted For instance, if you have experience in more than 1 function ( for instance, accounting and investment banking) or in case you have strong understanding of over 1 industry, you should write unique resumes for each one. Utilizing a free resume template is a remarkable idea. The majority of the skills are excellent search phrases. If youve checked the boxes of all the resume tips that are applicable to you, you ought to be prepared to submit your application. Resume Tips No Longer a Mystery The resume objective should be such it can be produced applicable to a massive number of similar kinds of jobs. The info within the purpose statement may want to get customized based on your industry also. Just if you do not find out how to create a professional resume, rest assured that there are hundreds and hundreds of individual professionals an d companies who focus on making resumes. Professionally presented resumes arent that expensive and are frequently worth the investment, particularly if it gets you the job.