Construction is slowly increasing in the city, according to a new report.

The New York Building Congress reported Monday that private sector construction employment increased 2.4 percent in 2012.

And new construction is continuing to gain momentum in 2012, the report found, already up 1.3 percent from a year ago.

Wages remain unchanged, according to the report.

Construction employed 114,875 people in 2012, an increase from 112,192 in 2011.

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Working from home sounds like a dream, but the reality is that it requires a lot of skills. To work from home you must be self-disciplined and able to manage time, but there are many other characteristics that come with being a successful at-home worker.

Distinguish work time and play time: It’s easy to fall into the trap of constant connection when working remotely, but that doesn’t help your stamina. You lock yourself in a home office during work, so why not turn off your phone during personal time?

“You must make personal time off-limits for work as much as possible,” says Sabina Ptacin, co-founder of the online business community Tin Shingle. “This could mean no laptops in the bedroom or no calls during dinner. Try to be a realistic business and know when to turn off and on.”

Prepare for social isolation: Working outside of the office means no water cooler chatter.

“Because remote workers are isolated from their co-workers, supervisors and customers, they must be comfortable fulfilling their social needs outside of work or via electronic channels like instant messaging, phone and email,” says Jeff Facteau, vice president of professional services at SHL, a talent measurement company. When you find yourself longing for actual human interaction, schedule a lunch meeting.

Don’t forget, it’s still work: When you work according to your own schedule, deadlines can be tighter and resources may be harder to find. You have to treat work like work, regardless of what else is going on.

“Remember that bosses want employees who get things done. Deliver on what they want and they won’t care if you are in that cubicle or working out of a Starbucks,” suggests Jane Miller, founder of Janeknows.com and author of the upcoming book “Sleep your Way to the Top (and Other Myths About Business Success).”

“If you can get results and wear your bunny slippers, you’ll have the best of all worlds,” adds Miller.

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Pierre Khawand says that optimizing productivity depends on working in bursts.

Some days, you feel like you got nothing done at work. It’s not uncommon: The email inbox grows, an instant messages pop up and colleagues interrupt your workflow. Productivity consultant and author of “The Accomplishing More With Less Workbook” Pierre Khawand says: “When we are working a few minutes here and a few minutes there, we are staying at the superficial level and not getting deep into anything.” Here are his strategies for digging in deeper to get more work done.

How can people reach their level of optimal productivity?

The first element has to do with how results change with time when we are working on a task. When we start to work on the task, we get results. But at some point, the results level off and then diminish, because either we get mentally tired and are no longer productive, or we need someone else to do their part before we can continue. This is all good in theory, but what happens in reality is that a few minutes after we start to work on a task, we get interrupted. When we get interrupted, our results go down to zero — this happens again and again, and again. It’s part of life in today’s work environment.

So how do we stay on task?

A key element is starting the day by identifying what we intend to accomplish that day and ending the day with a reconciliation process. That ensures that we close the loops on open issues. Instead of starting the day with e-mail, we should stop for a minute or two to reflect on what is important and what we want to accomplish. Then, put it in writing.

The idea is that we need to stay focused long enough so that we can achieve in-depth thinking, creative problem solving and get meaningful things done. Depending on the task, it can be 15 minutes, 30 minutes or several hours. Once we have accomplished something meaningful, it is time to stop our “focused” session, and switch to being collaborative — handle email, phone calls, have live discussions. This is the collaborative work where we get the most of our team productivity and equally important results. After the collaborative session, it is time to take a break — do something that gets us re-energized and ready for the next focused session. No significant productivity gains, and therefore no significant accomplishments, can be achieved if we don’t optimize our workflow by recognizing the concepts described above: focus, collaborate, then play!

Burst out:

Working in bursts manages tasks, interruptions and energy. It makes you feel invigorated and accomplished as a result.

• Alternate between focus, collaboration and play.
• Be intensely and wholeheartedly in each burst. That’s what the “burst” label is for — to maximize output.
• Each burst should build toward and enhance the next burst.

For more tips and information, see here.

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In 2008 Dave Stewart was laid off from his maintenance tech position at a Pennsylvania nursing home. The news came as a shock and, as a result, he decided to take his career in a radically different direction.

Stewart is now one of a select few Americans that make their living through eBay. (The company claims 1.3 million sellers worldwide, but experts believe the number of individual, primary-income eBay-ers to be much smaller.)

“I no longer wanted to be dependent on someone else providing me with paycheck, because I saw that you couldn’t rely on it as much as I did,” says Stewart, from his home in Bucks County, Pa. “I wanted to be self-employed, but wasn’t quite sure how to get there.”

Inspiration struck, along with a bit of luck: He discovered a stockpile of obsolete car parts in his grandfather’s cavernous garage. While his family was skeptical, Stewart was convinced there was a market for outdated parts.

“It started out as an experiment — just a few parts on the [eBay] page. They really sold fast, and I had an inkling I was on to something,” says Stewart “Pretty soon, I had an eBay store, and I couldn’t keep up with the orders.”

Stewart’s success wasn’t based on luck alone. He operates his business with the systematic, detailed approach you’d expect in a much larger operation. Every one of the 1,600 items in his eBay store is researched thoroughly and displayed with precise photos and descriptions. These days, car parts represent less than half of the items in his store.

“To be successful on eBay, you have to be a salesman. It’s like other sales jobs: If you’re good at it, you can make a living — but only if you’re good,” says Stewart. “It’s all about keeping people’s interest with new merchandise. You can’t just let it sit there and expect to make something.”

Q & A
Temple University management professor Paul Pavlou has been studying eBay for 15 years, since the company’s early days. He gave his expert advice:
How has the eBay game changed in the past five years?
A lot has changed ­— some that’s good for the individual, and some that isn’t. eBay has attempted to attract much larger sellers, and they have adjusted their model somewhat because of that. However, it’s a larger platform now, and the access to the market, logistics and infrastructure is still quite remarkable for the individual.

What sells best on eBay right now?
We’ve seen a trend toward used cars and products for used cars. eBay Motors is now one of the most popular platforms.

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Fortune recently released a list of the Top 100 companies to work for. At the top of the list was Google, followed by the analytic software company SAS and CHG Healthcare Services in Salt Lake City. Each organization varies greatly in size and product, yet they are all developing a positive, successful environment.  Looking closer, it appears these companies are doing many of the same things right.

Fun and freedom are a common thread for the companies on Fortune’s list. “If it isn’t fun, no one is going to be there for very long. Team outings, ping pong tournaments — whatever fits your culture — create opportunities to laugh and to see each other outside of just your day-to-day professional titles,” explains Nick Worswick, corporate vice president and general manager, at Seamless.com.

CHG Healthcare, number three on the list, keeps things lively with employee talent shows and trivia tournaments. Casual get-togethers and friendly competition often aid in talent recognition and team-building.

These tactics keep employees happy, which is vital in the hospitality business. Coming in at No. 28 on Fortune’s list was Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, owners of Philadelphia’s Hotel Palomar and Hotel Monaco. “At Kimpton, fostering a culture of care with a focus on fun has proven to be a recipe for success,” explains Mike Depatie, CEO, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants. “Our employees are our brand, which is why we place an incredible amount of emphasis on making them feel their best at work.”

The perks of being an employee

It’s safe to say we all want work to be fun, but fun isn’t the only thing that makes for happy employees.

“While perks like free cappuccino, rock-climbing walls and nap rooms are very nice, they remain perks,” says Doug Claffey, CEO of employee survey company, Workplace Dynamics. “What we have found is that while these benefits are nice to have, they don’t drive true employee satisfaction.” According to a 2012 Workplace Dynamics survey of 1.7 million workers, people most desire the chance to be heard as well as a “visionary and inspirational leader that employees are confident in.” It probably doesn’t hurt, though, if that leader wants to put in a foosball table.

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If you’re on the train or bus right now, do this little self-check: Are you bending your neck to read this? Are you fidgeting from one foot to the next? Is there a gym bag or heavy purse on your shoulder? If so, those little aches and pains you’ve been complaining about might be due to how you get yourself to and from work each day.

“I hear this all the time with patients,” says Dr. Louis Peterson, a chiropractic physician in New York City (www.petersonchiropracticnyc.com). “They’ll come in [saying] ‘Oh, my neck’s sore.’ Those little things start to add up on the commute.”

And they can add up to long-term consequences, he says. “What you end up [getting is] a sprain-strain injury, where your neck actually gets strained. The muscle fibers start to get slight tears in them. Most people just aren’t aware.”

We asked Dr. Peterson to explain how we should be traveling to and from work.

Try to stay awake
Anyone looking for some extra Z’s shouldn’t find them on the subway: “When [commuters] fall asleep, with their neck stuck to one side, eventually problems [develop],” Dr. Peterson says. “It’s really not good. The neck gets strained.” The fix: “Have your neck up and supported.”

Make it a balancing act
“If you’re standing and holding on, you should try to distribute your weight. You shouldn’t be on one foot or the other,” Dr. Peterson says. And don’t get distracted: Using your phone or trying to read will make your head point downward, which you’re trying to avoid.

Hold your book (or your Nook, or your Metro!) up
“One of the biggest things I see is, when you’re commuting, you’re spending a lot of time reading and your head is face-down. That causes issues with the neck, and that’s always problematic.”

Hold your bags or purses correctly
“Backpacks are the acceptable bags, not having a single bag trying to balance on the shoulders,” Dr. Peterson warns. If you have a purse, “hold it in your hand, not on your shoulder, [because the shoulder] is where you get problems.” Indeed, if you rest a bag there, your shoulder can “get tilted one way or the other,” he says. “You tend to yank that shoulder up higher, and after a while your neck cricks up.”

Walk this way
Sorry, ladies, but you really should go for the whole suit-with-sneakers look. “You can put your heels on at work,” Dr. Peterson says. “When commuting, you should try to stay away from it. It puts an enormous amount of pressure in your lower back.”

Stretch
It’s not just for athletes: “If you have some pains, try simple stretches for the neck or the low back,” Dr. Peterson advises. “If it hurts, [use] ice; if you’re really dire, give me a call.”

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