National Edition - September 9, 2007  Profile of Lowe's Canada Lowe's is gearing up for a major expansion into Canada and is actively seeking employees and vendors for a slew of new locations in the Greater Toronto Area. With more than 175 positions to be filled in each of their upcoming stores, Lowe's is using the strength of a multi-media buy to advertise vacancies. Through Jobboom and the Toronto Sun, the company can post vacancies both online and in print. In the years to come, Lowe's expects to open some 100 stores across the country. People interested in joining their team can turn to http://torontosun.jobboom.com or in the Jobboom print section of the Toronto Sun. TRENDSPOTTING Headquarters in cyberspace Last week's news about companies consolidating their real estate holdings and employees playing musical chairs from cubicle to cubicle to home office is old news. There is nothing quite like seven 24-hour news cycles to prove someone wrong. This week, the workplace is disappearing completely from the real world and going online. So forget Dubai. A few brave companies are forging this frontier by having no real-world offices at all. Some have opted for a virtual presence in the realm of Second Life, an Internet world that's somewhat more geography-independent. (Source: ABC News) Freelancers forgo space Cubicleland Who's Who: (insert loon call). The freelancer is the most nomadic and adaptable of the workforce species. These mainly solitary creatures freely roam the urban jungle, alighting occasionally at an Internet café. Throughout their journeys they instinctively flip open their laptops in search of open wireless connections. When they do come together in small groups, they congregate in the comfort of a colleague's home office, loft, studio or apartment. Sheltered from the elements, they pass the workday hours in a mock society, with each involved in their own individual pursuits. (Source: Wired.com) NEWSWORTHY U.S. workers are most productive Americans take the cake in world productivity, staying longer at the office, getting more done per hour and producing more per person per year. It's an odd mathematical calculation devised by the International Labor Organization: dividing the country's gross domestic product, or GDP, by the number of people employed. The ILO says that Americans staying longer hours at work partially explains this year's results. (Source: Associated Press) CHANGING CAREERS Five bad reasons to change programs University campuses are rife with uncertainty in early September. From the first day back at class and new dorm mates, to frosh week and program flip-flopping. Everything seems to firm up, however, after the drop/add period?that's when students can't change their courses for the semester without losing money or blemishing their transcripts. But before that date, it's the wild west and everybody's adding new courses, deleting others, changing programs, transferring schools or dropping out altogether. (Source: Jobboom, Career Zone) NEGOTIATION TIPS Negotiating a flexible schedule Welcome to flextime, where you can never leave. Sure, come into work when you want in the morning, but you'll be answering calls from around the world on your BlackBerry at all hours of the night. People willingly make this sacrifice, and without the constraints of a fixed working schedule, they strive for a better work-life balance over a 24-hour period. Sometimes the justification is as simple as avoiding the bump-and-grind of rush-hour traffic congestion in both directions. However, trailblazer employees will have to prepare serious proposals if they want bosses to change their policies. (Source: Jobboom, Career Zone) Does your employer allow for "flextime," or must you arrive "on time" every day? To answer, visit Career zone, and check out the Your opinion matters section. Do you... write passive-aggressive notes at work? Now there's a blog where you can head for inspiration or post missives you've received. People really do some of their best work in this branch of internal corporate communications-a lost art some would say. Here's a sampling of notes people found posted around their workplaces. When glass shatters on the ceramic floor of the kitchen, people must watch the souls of their feet. When someone eats your lunch, they must be thanked, But they may ask for more... When colleagues neglect to make a new pot of coffee, they fail at life. (Source: Passive Aggressive Notes) September 17-18 Shifting Directions: Strategies that Work Vernon, BC September 19 British Computer Society of Upper Canada, 50th Anniversary Dinner and Award Presentation Toronto, ON September 19 - 20 Montreal Job and Training Fair Montreal, QC September 23 - 24 InVivo Life Sciences Career Fair Montreal, QC September 23 - 26 Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference Calgary, AB September 25 PROFIT 100 online summit Canada-wide September 25 - 26 The National Job Fair Toronto, ON October 10 - 13 Montreal Education Fair Montreal, QC October 17 - 19 Interpersonal Mediation Toronto, ON October 18-19 Making Sense of Biotechnology Edmonton, AB NOTICE: Jobboom and its sponsors do not necessarily endorse the opinions conveyed in the articles selected for this e-zine and do not assume any legal liability in consequence thereof. Comments: info@jobboom.com Research and editing: Austin Macdonald #noDossier#