With just 21 working days left until Christmas, British offices could be facing a mass exodus as exhausted staff line up to take their remaining 2010 holiday allocation. A poll announced today from Monster.co.uk has shown that many workers could in fact be on holiday for over half the remaining time before Christmas – with an unbelievable 1 in 4 workers saying they have ten or more days of holiday left to take.

The poll, which surveyed over 3,200 UK workers, further demonstrated that many felt dissatisfied with their holiday process. 55 per cent of respondents felt that it was difficult to spend time with their friends and family because of work and felt that they were dissatisfied with the amount of holiday they’d been able to take this year.

Mum-of-two Joelle Seksum, 37, tells www.motherswhowork.co.uk how she set up her business Josoblu, www.Josoblu.co.uk, when she couldn’t find a suitable baby change bag when her first child was born.

What work did you do before you set up your company?

I renovated a few properties before having my first child, Lucie, and have been a full-time mother since.

How did you fund the business?

We raised the money for the business through a combination of personal loans, savings and great financial support from my family.

What was the motivating factor for starting your own business?

When Lucie was born I wanted to buy a pretty, sturdy and practical change bag I could take out with us, but the models on offer were quite dull. I thought to myself, ‘Yes these products need to be functional but there’s no reason at all why they can’t also be fun, bright and fashionable too’ and so decided to take the plunge and design my own range.

Having two young children meant that a flexible working arrangement was key and by setting up from home I could run my own business, whilst at the same time being able to spend lots of time with my children.

Maternity Leave can be complicated enough, but how does this apply and what happens if you aren’t prepared for becoming a parent? Our legal expert Sarah Calderwood tells us what to expect.

How to juggle the demands of bringing up a family and running a business, with a little help from Laura Tenison (founder of successful UK business, JoJo Maman Bébé) and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).

If you work every evening, at weekends and holidays “ALL THE TIME” (as your children or spouse may put it) then it could be a tell-tale sign that you're a workaholic

Mark November 30th in your diaries! Laura Tenison of JoJo Maman Bébé will be involved in the first ever ‘BlackBerry Business Group’ - a virtual gathering for ambitious people to learn and interact via the BlackBerry Messenger platform. There are 30 spaces available!

Each year around 150,000 women — a quarter of new mothers — don’t get the…

The opportunity to work flexibly will vary according to the sector and job type, for example those in field sales jobs or sales director jobs will have different elements of their roles which may determine whether they can feasibly work flexible hours or not.

Once you have done the marketing brainstorm, put things into action and reap the rewardsEvery…

Most people find that they can’t say no to someone asking them for something because they are so worried about upsetting them, or they lack the courage to turn down the request.

People often dislike disagreeing, or believe saying yes is easier than saying no. Others, just can’t say no.

However, there are often instances where it is best to say no to a request, so if you fit into any of the above descriptions, here is a quick lesson in the art of saying no.

Learn how to say no

Adopt simple strategies to say no, politely but firmly. You don’t need to make up stories in order to refuse – lies eventually catch up with you, and you end up wondering if the person you told it to believed you, or just feeling bad for not saying no. You don’t need to give lame excuses, either, you can say no without being dishonest.

Simon Cowell’s former girlfriend and X-Factor confidante Sinitta announced this week that she hopes to adopt her third child in 2011.

What some people don’t realise is that no matter whether the child being adopted is a baby or school-age, parents have the right to take adoption leave from work and could also be entitled to statutory adoption pay.

In order to receive either of these rights, there are certain criteria that adoptive parents must meet and these rules will differ depending on whether the child is adopted from abroad or within the UK.

It's never too late to take control of your career, and the retail industry provides numerous opportunities to re-ignite your working life.

Us working mums are forever juggling a number of balls at any given time, so it makes sense to use whatever is available to help stay on top of our constant organising and project managing.

If you are not a smartphone user, then you really are missing out. My personal favourit smartphone is the BlackBerry – I’ve been using them for a number of years now, and it really has revolutionised the way I work.

Here are some BlackBerry apps that I use to make juggling this website, two children, a full-time job, a hjusband and other businesses that little bit easier!

1. gwabbit

If you run a business, ten you’ll be used to getting emails from people that you know and want to follow up at some point. But it can be a bit of a  pain having to choose between adding their email address or their phone  number, then manually adding the one left over…not to mention their  addres is you need that, too. It’s no wonder then that it’s so easy to put  it off for later if all you want to do is get on with some admin.

Cari Parker, one of our BlackBerry Challenge winners gives a final round-up of her week working from her BlackBerry Curve.

The internet is one of the best places to discover business opportunities - you can do research, gather data, research competitors, and more. Find out other search engines besides Google that can help you find business opportunities.