Wiser Worker Blog

Have you heard of this program?  I have driving down the Florida express way was the first time I heard of such a program and it seems that they are trying to make it nationwide not just state to state. In case you DON’T know what the Silver Alert program stands: developed to provide vital information to authorities to assist in the search and safe recovery of these individuals, and quickly reunite them with their loved ones and/or caregivers; primarily in cases of missing Alzheimer suffers. The premise is not much different than the amber alert as a matter of fact it’s modeled after this program.  

Similar to the Amber Alert, a Silver Alert is an emergency notification system that broadcasts regional or statewide alerts for missing seniors and/or other adults with Alzheimer’s or other cognitive disorders. A growing number of states are enacting laws that call for the development of the Silver Alert program and some have implemented their own notification systems. Activation criteria varies from state to state, see list below for information on the Silver Alert program in your state.

Quick Facts

• Approximately 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease.
• Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia among older people.
• Seniors are more vulnerable to crimes such as purse snatching, mugging and fraud.
• People age 80 and over, especially women, are at the greatest risk of experiencing elder abuse.
• 10 percent of consumers who reported that they were victims of identity theft are age 60 and older.
• About 52 percent of identity theft victims over 60 years of age reported that either new credit card accounts were opened in their name or that someone took over an existing account.
• Seniors, the largest consumers of medication, are at the highest risk for medication errors.

Social Security insures families against the loss of income caused by retirement, disability, or death, with nearly universal coverage; Social Security insurance covers 94 percent of workers in paid employment and self-employment. The program has been a success; however, Social Security has a long-term solvency challenge.

Social Security insurance protects all age groups.

Social Security provides a retirement benefit that is guaranteed for life and is adjusted to keep pace with inflation.

Social Security benefits are adequately funded for another 32 years.

Social Security is the principal source of family income for nearly half of older Americans.

Social Security keeps older Americans out of poverty.

Social Security provides critical income support to minorities.

Social Security is crucial for women.

Social Security is the foundation of workers’ retirement security, but it was never intended to be the only source.

Source AARP.org

In case you missed it, AARP is rumored to be in support of the healthcare bill. It’s all no it’s the ONLY conversation on the social marketing sites and everyone no matter what your party affiliations seems to have an opinion. However I’m left with tonight this thought…

What does this all mean?

What happens if this bill gets passed?

What does it mean to someone that HAS private insurance?

What does it mean to someone who does NOT have insurance?

How many generations will be paying for this bill?

How quickly will this all take effect?

Well if you can answer these questions answers then you are steps ahead….if you can’t you have a lot of catching up to do! If you want to read through the entire bill here’s a copy of the expected bill for Health Care reform. (whole bill) However I did find Health Care Reform Bill - A Plain English Translation. Whichever way you want to go, make sure you find a position and be informed!

In case you missed it, AARP is rumored to be in support of the healthcare bill. It’s all no it’s the ONLY conversation on the social marketing sites and everyone no matter what your party affiliations seems to have an opinion. However I’m left with tonight this thought…

What does this all mean?

What happens if this bill gets passed?

What does it mean to someone that HAS private insurance?

What does it mean to someone who does NOT have insurance?

How many generations will be paying for this bill?

How quickly will this all take effect?

Well if you can answer these questions answers then you are steps ahead….if you can’t you have a lot of catching up to do!

If you want to read through the entire bill here’s a copy of the expected bill for Health Care reform. (whole bill) However I did find Health Care Reform Bill - A Plain English Translation.

Whichever way you want to go, make sure you find a position and be informed!

November is National Family Care giving month.  With the population living longer, the odds are that you may find yourself in a situation where you are caring for an elderly parent or family member.  When you combine this with the stress of taking care of your own family and the demands of a full time job, this task can seem daunting.

The good news is that you are not alone. Take comfort in the fact that there are many people in your shoes and that there are plenty of resources available to help you.

One of the most important things is to remember to take care of yourself.  If you don’t take care of you, it becomes very hard to take care of anyone else.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help.  Friends, family may be willing to help out if you ask them. There are also local resources that can help you as well.

Just trust your instincts and you will be fine.  Taking steps to avoid burnout just may make this time in your lift and your family members life more enjoyable.

Do you Blog?  Do you Tweet?  Are you LinkedIn?  Do you socialize on Facebook?

Have I just overwhelmed YOU? AM I speaking in another tongue? Well it’s okay… if you don’t know these terms today but you need to learn them…at least make yourself familiar with they mean and how they can make your job search helpful and more importantly successful!

Let’s get to the meat and potatoes of the situation, how they can help YOU. Well here it is…. recruiters frequently search sites of these nature to either look for job seekers or to post open jobs because they are all FREE.  If you can join the millions online you can help yourself right into a job! 

The best way to start is to jump in feet first and play around with the sites…you can’t break anything and heck you might have fun!  Enjoy!

Blog: “is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.”

Twitter: is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers.

LinkedIn: The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection.

Facebook: is a global social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc.^[1] Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region.

National Truck Driver Appreciation Week is November 1 – 7, 2009.  This week is designed to recognize truck drivers and their importance to our economy.

In honor of National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, CareersinGear.com is giving away a Teletype GPS to one lucky driver.  They are also giving away posting packages, banners and email campaigns to truck driving companies who are hiring drivers.  Check out Twitter for more information.

I finally made it to November; you see this is one of my favorite months, for many reasons, there are lots of holidays, Thanksgiving, Veteran’s Day but honestly it’s the weather.   You see usually by November even Arizona has started to have better weather, and when you live in the valley of the sun that’s a reason to celebrate!  However today as I was outside enjoying the outstanding weather I heard on the radio about an event that gives us one more reason to be thankful we have reached November: MOVEMBER

Movember is a month-long celebration of the moustache, highlighting men’s health issues - specifically prostate and testicular cancer. The idea for Movember was sparked in 2003 over a few beers in Melbourne, Australia.  The guys behind it joked about 80s fashion and decided it was time to bring the moustache back.  In order to justify their Mos (Australian slang for moustache), they used their new looks to raise money for prostate cancer research… never dreaming that facial hair would ultimately lead to a global movement that would get men talking about a taboo subject – their health.

What a neat event, you can start today by learning more about men’s health issues or you can start by growing your hairy ribbon of heath and take on a cause. Either way you will leave with a better education and that’s the real point! 

Happy Movember!

So I was watching my weekly dose of Law and Order when a peculiar “commercial” came on that caught my attention and stopped me from zapping through the commercials.  (I DO LOVE TIVO) Anyway it was a short message from Anthony Anderson from Law & Order and then a short “movie” about helping others. It caught my attention and held it, I immediately went to the web address and NEEDED to find out more.

What I found was pretty amazing….award-winning SHORT films and a provocative blog, The Liberty Mutual Responsibility Project designed to engages people worldwide in discussions on what it means to do the right thing. Now, NBC & Liberty Mutual have partnered to promote personal responsibility through a series of short films.

Take a moment to visit the site and watch the video, it’s incredible.

It seems that people didn’t worry about the flu soon enough; and you find yourself scrambling to find the vaccine.  Start your search  with major drug store chains, including Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid and Wal-Mart.  In addition to getting vaccinated you should also practice good health habits to keep yourself flu free this season.

Avoid Close Contact: Avoid close contact with people who are sick

Stay home when You are Sick: You will help prevent others from catching your illness.

Cover Your Mouth and Nose: It may prevent those around you from getting sick.

WASH your Hands: And was them often, washing your hands will protect you from germs.

Get Sleep and Exercise: This will keep your body able to fight off germs.

It’s a real threat out there and it’s called the flu, make sure you ward off the germs that can stop you in your tracks. It’s no fun to finally find the perfect job only to have to call in sick.  At WiserWorker.com we want you to be well and in tip top shape to start your new job!

No matter where you live Costco will begin to accept food stamps.  This begins as family across the national struggle to put food on the table. Costco made decision to accept food stamps to remain competitive with food chains as nearly 36 million Americans are reportedly now on food stamps.

“Costco joins warehouse-club competitor BJ’s Wholesale Corp., which started taking food stamps last April, and Sam’s Club, which began accepting them in the fall of 2008.” reports msnbc.com Research also proved that people would be willing to pay the $50.00 membership fees if they were able to buy better products at bulk sizes.

Stock up at a warehouse near you….