Travel and Tourism

Tobay Dytham Swifft asked:


These days lots of young talents aspire to become a holiday rep, most of them see this field as one of the best methods of traveling the world and to have great time. However, there is a common misunderstanding between people as they do not realize that these job opportunities actually carry excellent deal of efforts and responsibilities.

Basically, a holiday rep has to work on a front line by representing a company and have to deal with several issues and complaints which may arise during a holiday tour. This means a holiday rep has to work for long hours with lots of stress and hard work. However, there are several benefits of becoming a holiday rep. If you are sick of working in the boring murmur of office work and cannot withstand the busy routine office job then the job of a holiday rep would certainly be an interesting field for you.

One of the biggest benefits of becoming a holiday rep is that you get a chance to tour the world without spending a penny from your pocket. As a holiday rep you can even join many communities from somewhere else which may be from Vietnam, Australia, Spain or even Germany. As, a holiday rep does not get a high salary, their main form of income is to earn a commission on advertising or selling excursions and even by adding extras to the holiday packages. If a person is really good in promoting or selling then there is no doubt that he or she can become a good earning holiday rep. This is a reality, no matter where you are in the world, either selling banana boat excursions in the Caribbean Island or selling dog sledding in a place called Scandinavia.

However, there are even downsides in this particular field. This type of representative job in the travel industry can actually be stressful because of the nature of this field. You have to always be ready to travel places and this may be difficult for those people who are closely attached to their families. There may be possibilities that you have to be away from your home for an extended period of time. Most of the people who have already made a career in this field understand that the initial 6 months are the hardest for any person to settle in this kind of environment. One of the main aspects of this job is that every person whoever wants to make a career in this particular field have to enjoy this job whole heartedly.

The job of holiday rep is not always entertaining because most of the time they have to take several responsibilities like they are in-charge of large group while on a tour. When working with a large group of people, holiday rep’s can come across several instances like serious injury and minor illness or even death. Trying to cope with every situation and even being able to be patient during these events is one of the most important parts of being a rep. The working schedule for holiday reps is not fixed; their responsibility is to look after the tourists staying in the resort and even greeting tourists. As flights arrive all the time, holiday rep has to work day and night which means they have no fixed working timings. All in all, the life of a holiday rep is very difficult but worthwhile. There are lots of difficulties in this particular job however the benefit of making sure that every tourist is having a great time can be rewarding.



Caffeinated Content

Paula Williams asked:


Charles Dickens made his opinions clear on employers who fail to adequately celebrate holidays in his masterpiece A Christmas Carol.  His Ebeneezer Scrooge character has been thoroughly denounced and even booed in movies and theatre performances for failing to give Bob Cratchitt the day of Christmas Eve.   Scrooge was punished for his lack of holiday spirit by being visited by nightmares of three ghosts. As a result of his fright, he resolved to change his ways and showed up the following morning at the Cratchitt¹s home with a huge turkey for the feast, joined their family celebration, and became a beloved character from that point on.

We all want to encourage our teams to be happy and festive, and we like to be generous. But I wonder what even the reformed Ebeneezer Scrooge would do when given a tight schedule, a tighter budget; and teams that celebrate Eid, Holi, the Lunar New Year and hundreds of other holidays!

The Solution

Most businesses can¹t afford the time or money to host a major party every couple of weeks. Some corporate environments become sterile and lifeless in

an effort to not favor any culture or holiday over another. I don¹t think that¹s the answer. I think holidays are a great opportunity to get to know each other and appreciate one another better.  Celebrating diverse holidays doesn¹t need to be disruptive, and can bring some color and life into our stressful and sometimes routine workplaces.

Here are some suggestions:



Make time off policies as flexible as possible

Have a gift policy that prevents discomfort, obligation or the appearance of impropriety

Award additional  time off as a performance incentive

Post a schedule of major holidays and keep it in mind when scheduling work projects.

Make the office festive without being obtrusive

Encourage employees to organize lunchtime potlucks or break room treats.



Make time off policies as flexible as possible, but encourage people to schedule their time off as far in advance as possible.   This allows them to balance their priorities and not miss out on any important family events. Some companies encourage employees to schedule half or most of their vacation at least a month in advance, keeping some in reserve for unplanned events, emergencies and illness.

Having a gift-giving policy that is in effect for all holidays prevents employees from feeling obligated or embarrassed at being caught empty-handed.  Many companies advocate a cap of $5 on any personal gifts between employees for birthdays, or holidays, or allow no personal gifts at all.   Bringing a community gift like a basket of food to a team for completing a project is often much more appropriate.

Awarding additional time off as a performance incentive often costs less than financial bonuses. You can put conditions on this additional time off (it needs to be taken within a certain timeframe, may not be taken during particularly busy periods, the employee must negotiate with his team for coverage of vital functions, etc.) and it can still be very motivating without being unduly disruptive of your business.

Post a schedule of major holidays and use it for reference when planning major projects. Recognizing conflicts early gives you more options to negotiate with your teams to get the best possible outcome for everyone. One of the positive factors in multicultural teams is that not everyone will want the same holidays off.  Coverage of vital functions becomes easier when you recognize and schedule time off early.

Make the office festive without being obtrusive.   Allowing employees to decorate certain parts of the office seasonally can make a nice change, can educate employees about each other¹s cultures. Have a wall or an area that can be decorated by employees based on the season or holiday.  Post a schedule and some guidelines (nothing overtly religious, for example, or that could be considered offensive to other employees.)

Encourage employees to organize lunchtime potlucks or break room treats.  I really enjoyed a Diwali potluck at a Wells Fargo Web Services office in San Francisco.  Many employees of Indian descent brought their specialties and decorated the break room.  Everyone appreciated the effort that our ³hosts² had gone to, and other groups reciprocated with a Lunar New Year potluck, and other holiday celebrations. This did not take much more time than people normally take for lunch.  The company supplied paper plates and utensils, (as usual) and employees provided everything else, including cleanup. Everyone pitched in and it was a great experience.

Baskets of fruit, cheese, crackers and candy in the break room are inexpensive and make the office seem festive for employees that have to work during holidays.

A Word of Warning

Don’t make any assumptions about which employees celebrate which holidays based on ethnic background, country of origin, or anything else other than personal preference. We’re all very complex people with very complex families. Your employees of Chinese descent may take “Indian” holidays, your employees of American descent may take Arabic holidays, and so on. Leave all the options open to everyone.

Conclusion

You don¹t have to go ³all or nothing² over holidays in the office. You don¹t have to have huge expensive parties; and you don¹t have to outlaw holidays altogether for fear of being partial.  Placing some commonsense guidelines in place will allow you and your teams to enjoy the holidays without undue friction, stress or expense.



List of Holidays By Country

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_holidays_by_country



Caffeinated Content

Andri Irawan asked:


Travel nursing is nursing that allows a nurse to work for a few months in one hospital before moving on to another hospital that is in a different part of the country. Hospitals and medical facility’s use travel nurses because they feel that they can benefit from the travel nurses expertise, to help get a new facility up and running, and to act as a mentor for a novice staff. But why would anybody become a travel nurse.

A huge reason nurses pursue travel nursing careers is the money. Travel nurses make significantly more money per hour then their contemporaries who work in just one hospital. Travel nurses do not get paid directly by the hospital they are working for. Typically the travel nursing agency collects and hands out the travel nurses salary.

Travel nurses love traveling. Through their jobs they can not only visit different parts of the country they can actually live and work in various parts of the country. They get to see how medical services differ from one part of the country to the next.

Travel nurses know that if and when they meet a co-worker that they don’t get along with, they know that it isn’t a big deal. They will only have to deal with them for a few months and then they will be moving onto a different location.

Travel nurses make lots and lots of new friends all over the county.

The average travel nurse enjoys excellent medical and dental benefits. In most situations agencies that specialize in travel nurses offer these medical and dental benefits to lure travel nurses to their agency. Some nursing agencies also have 401K plans.

Working as a travel nurse is an excellent way to build a fantastic resume. The things a nurse learns during their experience as a travel nurse will go a long way to obtaining a successful job in a home hospital when the nurse is ready to cease their nomadic ways. The people you meet working as a travel nurse will be valuable references, before completing a work assignment make sure you keep a record of names and phone numbers that you can use as references when you are ready to find a permanent nursing position.

Some travel nursing agencies offer their nurses an additional way to make some extra money by offering a bonus each time the nurse makes a successful referral. Because the travel nurse is constantly working at hospitals and medical facility’s that are full of brand new nurses the opportunity to encourage referrals is endless. Some agency’s also offer their travel nurses a completion bonus when a job has been finished.

Some times friends who have gone through nursing school together decide that travel nursing is something they can do together. Working in tandem means that the travel nurse always see familiar face no matter where they go.

Some travel nurses enjoy the experience of working in various parts of the country they decide to further their traveling careers by offering to work at missionaries and hospitals all over the world.

Natural Health, Weight Loss and Fitness Blog



LoanAlrt.com