Florida Jobing Community Blogs

As I write this message, I am frustrated.  Well, to be perfectly honest, I'm kind of ticked off.  My evening started out great.  I finished my original president's message for October, got home at a reasonable hour, had a nice meal, and then sat down with a favorite magazine that had been sitting unopened on my coffee table since it arrived in my mailbox a few weeks ago.  "You are not going to believe this," I told my husband with a few added expicatives.  Before I continue, you should know that my husband is not particularly interested in the magazine I was reading, and looked at me with apprehension when it appeared I wanted to discuss one of the articles.  You should also know that I had been crafting the original president's message since I returned from a fabulous two-week vacation in mid-September, but had not yet started putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) until last week.
 
Imagine my surprise, and dread, when this article had a similar theme and actually referenced a "do over". I was, and even now that three hours have passed, pretty peeved.  Although, I was mildly satisfied that a "real" writer was published using a theme similar to the one I used in my original message.  My first thoughts were all of the why's.  Why couldn't the article have been published in some magazine that no one reads, like Aviation Week or Popular Science (my apologies to Dad and to any other engineers who might happen across this message who enjoy those publications)?  Why me--aren't I too busy to write another message?   Next, I thought about using the original message with a footnote, briefly explaining the similarity in the event some of you subscribe to the same wildly popular magazine.   But, then I did what HR professionals do.  Adapt.
 
Instead of tossing and turning about how unfortunate it was to have that author come up with a similar theme for her article, I got out of bed and started writing.  HR professionals have to adapt every day, sometimes multiple times in one day.  I bet you've gone into work with your plan for the day mapped out and then, BAM, your CEO takes half of your morning to flesh out her latest and greatest ideas that she will need your immediate assistance to implement.  Or, you've been working on a project preparing employees for an upcoming organizational change and then, BAM, you're told the change is not going to occur in the same way (or at all) and you need to somehow communicate this to employees in a way that doesn't make the organization look, well, unorganized. 
 
One way to make sure you continue to adapt to the ever-changing landscape we operate within today is to stay on top of legislation affecting our profession.  While you need to know this information to perform your job effectively, you need to understand it in a way that will allow you to educate your executives and leaders at your organization.  At our November 19 Dinner Meeting, Eric Gordon and Arlene Kline of Akerman Senterfitt will present The Obama Agenda: Recent Changes and Pending Legislation in Employment Law.  Register today to ensure you have a seat at this great event.
 
Our members in transition have probably the most relevant and recent experience in adaptation.  Many of these members managed their organization through mass layoffs during the past year and assisted in the transition to a smaller workforce, including elimination of their own human resource function.  The Water Cooler Series is back this month, at 4:30 pm before the dinner meeting, as a free benefit to our members in transition.  Marilyn Durant, of Durant Resources, will be facilitating an open forum for our members in transition.  While the series is free of charge, members must register through our website to attend.
 
One way we all have learned to cope with the challenges of being an HR professional, and the constant adaptations, is to commiserate, I mean... network.  We would love to have you attend our holiday party at the Chesterfield Hotel in Palm Beach on December 10 at 6:30 pm.  We have arranged for cocktails and hors' dorves by the pool prior to the dinner inside the Leopard Lounge.  If you have not had a chance to meet many other members, this is a great time to get to know your fellow HR professionals.  But, please register soon because we anticipate a sold out event. 

The HRPBC Leadership Team is in the process of creating a brief survey for you to ensure we adapt to your needs.  Your thoughts and suggestions regarding the chapter and our events are very important to HRPBC’s success.  When you receive the survey, please be sure to fill it out.  Whether you regularly come to our events or not, we want to know what you think.  The survey should not take you more than a few minutes.  We are very interested in hearing from you.  Please keep in mind that you do not need to wait for a survey to let us know your thoughts.  You are always welcome to contact me or any other member of the Leadership Team at any time.

Well, I feel better now that I have vented and, essentially, written a second message to you.  And, if I could do it all over again, I would have written and distributed my original message before that darn magazine landed in my mailbox.
 
Sincerely,
Lara Donlon, Esq., SPHR
Chapter President
 

I was reading a fantastic article on ERE the other day about social media recruiting strategies. There are a lot of blogs and articles on this topic lately and I often share my thoughts as well. This one was especially poignant because it spoke directly to strategy. Everyone is talking about what we should do and here is a great strategy to help get us there. For me, the biggest trigger to launch into a conversation about social media with recruiters is when they mention an employee referral program. Using our best to hire the best is nothing new. Using the social media networks of our best to hire the best is. It's about transitioning the traditional mindset into new media ways of communicating, and thus recruiting top talent.

There are no experts in this arena. Those who are finding success are doing so from shared and learned experiences. Just as the article states, "From experimentation comes innovation and learning!"

Employers, recruiters, business owners....What are your thoughts? I ask because for some time now we have heard speaker after speaker share on social media and I have noticed a definite change in our community in regards to the willingness to want to get started and a lot of reservations in regards to just not being sure where and how to start. So again....From experimentation comes innovation and learning...What are you doing to experiment? Have you started by building your own online social network? This will help you get comfortable and engaged in the social media world. Talk about your experiences and share with others.  Then watch and recognize how the brainstorms will just start to flow. Get engaged in our fan page....and share your innovations and learnings....Post a comment now and be one step closer to a great new world of user generated real time communication!

Facebook.com/SouthFloridaJobs

For this article, I went through the dozens of books I’ve reviewed in Career Jockey’s Book Review topic and forced myself to pick only three books. (BTW, Career Jockey has been totally revamped. You might want to check it out.) I had to make some tough calls, but these are the ones that together contain the meat of what every job seeker needs to know.

Book #1 - What Color Is Your Parachute? 2010: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers by Richard Nelson Bolles

I wrote my What Color Is Your Parachute book review within three weeks of launching CareerJockey.org. I’ve recommended it to almost every Back on Track Network job seeker I’ve met. (Back on Track Network is the nonprofit that lit my passion for helping job seekers.) Every one of my networking articles and presentations references the book’s first chapter to explain why networking through contacts is your best job hunt technique available.

I’ve developed several job hunter and career changer presentations using material from different this book. They are:

• The Five Worse Ways to Job Hunt. The Five Best Ways to Job Hunt
• The Importance of Goal Setting
• Finding Your True Calling
• Career Crossroads? Let Me Show You What One Looks Like

In Finding Your True Calling, I put myself through a Parachute’s career discernment exercise that helped me discover how strong a set of interpersonal skills I really had. It inspired me to consider a career change from software engineering to technical sales and marketing a few years back.

You can find What Color Is Your Parachute 2010 on Amazon.com or at any book store. You can find older copies in just about any used book store. You don’t even need the current year’s version. I still use my 2008 version because I can’t pry myself away from all the book marks, highlights and dog ears that help me get to the sections I need quickly.

(Note: Bolles also publishes a Parachute for Teens that I've also reviewed aimed at the high school and college crowd.)

Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi

A sales lead exchange group buddy of mine recommended this one to me a few years back. “It’s a great networking how-to book,” he told me. As a software engineer turned technology sales rep, I thought this was an area where I needed help so I went out a got me a copy. (This was also first Audible.com book download for listening on my IPOD – great for the car.)

In Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi explains how his networking skills helped propel him from his blue collar upbringing to his Yale, Deloitte and now Ferrazzi Green Light successes. This book is NOT a how-to book on better brown-nosing and kissing up to people in a self-serving way. It is filled with practical advice including how to effectively work a room and how best to follow up and stay in connected with people. More importantly, Never Eat Alone shows why it’s important to understand people’s needs and take an interest in sincerely helping them. He stresses how people can see through hypocrisy so your work must be driven by a desire to serve others. That’s the quality that leads to networking success.

In my Never Eat Alone book review I explain how I have used what I learned in my personal and professional dealings and how it can fuel a job hunt.

(I’ve also reviewed Ferrazzi’s Who’s Got Your Back and met him in July during his book tour. Follow these links and you can see Keith’s Good Morning, America appearance and his Larry King’s Ferrazzi interview.)

Real Life: Preparing for the 7 Most Challenging Days of Your Life by Dr. Phil McGraw

Losing a job can be one of life’s most punishing blows. It strikes at the core of how many of us define ourselves. It forces us to grieve, face our anger, consider our inadequacies and outright messes with us close to home. A former work associate of mine took his own life and his unemployment played a part in that.

Please don’t discount this book because of its author. Dr. Phil's done a good job here. It made my list. I read and reviewed Dr. Phil’s book this past Spring (2009) and really like how to laid out the grieving process that goes on when one suffers a loss. Four out of the book's seven most difficult days address issues most or all job seekers experience and especially those like me that have dealt with more traumatic firings involving personal friends. (We can sit down when you have some time and I’ll share my story with you.)

Together this collection of books covers three areas job seekers need to master in order to get through it all successfully.

Hope this helps.

I sit here in my office, with a job, with a home, and not having to chose between eating this week or taking prescribed medicine... and I think of next week. The meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday was never really something I did. I always thought about the food, and having the day off, but not about being thankful. Now... it is different this year. I am rrrrreeeeeaaaallllyyyyy thankful and aware of what might have been. What has gone on for the past year doesn't really equate to the uncertainty the original pilgrims went through, they faced death by starvation or disease or being killed by natives. The economic 'down turn' (who thinks up these euphemisms for skirting around words like economic recession or even depression) wasn't that. But with so many of my friends and acquaintances losing so much, having worked so hard for it in the first place, has slapped me in the face with my good fortune.  Oh I lost also, my 401K is still black and blue from the hits, so my retirement is going to have to be pushed back... it would have left me furious and scared before, but now instead I think, heck be grateful I have a 401K, and be grateful for the job I still have, that pays the mortgage for the home I still own. 

Next Thursday I will still be grateful for the day off and the food, but I will share my table with some who will also be grateful for a lot less than I have.  It will definitely be a day for looking at the glass half full and ignoring what isn't so great in favor of seeing all that is and saying thanks.

Keywords are a central feature of our business day.  We use them to search our resume databases and to parse through the profiles and resumes posted on job boards and social networking sites.  The problem, of course, is that we pesky humans have a bad habit of using different words to express the same idea.  That variability in human expression makes it difficult to know which keywords will actually identify the best candidates for each of your openings. 

So, what should you do?  How can you select the right keywords when there are so many competing alternatives?  The answer, I think, is to create a keyword taxonomy—an annotated list of search terms—that is rich in the language of the top talent in the specific career fields for which you are recruiting.  Think of it as a “set of master keys in words” that can unlock the candidate databases you are probing. 

Creating such a tool is not particularly difficult.  Doing so, however, is a departure from the current practice in many organizations.  It involves temporarily stepping outside the press of individual, day-to-day assignments and taking a longer term view of how keywords can best serve your recruiting strategy.  Here’s what I mean. 

The rule of thumb in developing a list of keywords has usually been to rely on the information provided to us in a job description or requisition.  The problem with this approach, of course, is that those documents are typically formulated by hiring managers—one of the least articulate populations on the planet.  The terminology they provide, therefore, is necessary but insufficient to unlock the best talent in an ATS or job board database.  It is a part of the master keyword set, but not all of it. 

How can you fill in the gaps? 

I suggest you borrow a page from your colleagues in sales and marketing and form a focus group.  Such a group is only useful, however, if it is composed of the right participants.  You’re trying to uncover the language used by the best talent for your openings, so your focus group should be populated with the same kind of people.  And, you have a ready source of such individuals among your organization’s “A” level performers in the career fields for which you’re recruiting.  They, better than anyone else, know exactly which terms their peers will use to describe their qualifications. 

Top performers are usually very busy, however, so you may have a hard time breaking them free for such an exercise.  If that’s the case in your organization, you can also build your set of master keywords by conducting a similar survey with your new hires during their orientation.  This approach is clearly more challenging to implement, however, because you will have to base your selection of the group’s participants not on their demonstrated excellence at work, but on your judgment of how they are likely to perform once they are on-the-job. 

In either case, your focus group will yield the best results if its work is conducted in three steps.

• First, build your baseline.  Ask the participants to list all of the terms they would use to describe the qualifications required for an individual to be able to perform their job effectively.  These attributes can include specific skills, occupational and/or industry knowledge, prior work experience, personality and any other factors that would bear on their ability to contribute.  If the group has a hard time knowing where to begin, ask them to review one or more of the keyword references that are currently available.  These include Google’s Keyword Tool, which will suggest keywords based on previous Google searches; Wordtracker, an online research tool; and WEDDLE’s 3 volume set, Finding Needles in a Haystack, which lists over 25,000 keywords and keyword phrases, across 5400 job and position titles in 28 industries and professions.
• Second, restate the terms in order of their importance.  Ask the group to prioritize each of their terms according to its impact on an individual’s job performance.  While there may be some disagreement among the group about the placement of specific terms, encourage them to arrive at a consensus rank ordering of the overall list.
• Third, group the terms into search baskets.  The best way to probe a resume or profile database is to conduct your search in concentric circles of ever greater specificity.  This approach enables you to hone in on and eventually determine a reasonable slate of the most qualified prospects in a database.  Therefore, ask the group to break their list into the following categories: absolutely critical, very important, somewhat important and nice to have.

 

Those four baskets of search terms should then be added to the terms you derived from the hiring manager’s job description or requisition.  If those documents enable you to do so, assign each of those terms to one of the categories used in Step 3 above.  If not, the most politic course to assign them to the absolutely critical category.  The resulting integrated list of search terms is your set of master keywords.  

The above process is clearly labor and time intensive so think of it as an investment to develop an asset.  The product you create—your keyword taxonomy—is just such a resource.  It is a state-of-the-art search tool that can be used over and over again by the entire recruiting team.  No less important, that tool gives them a genuine competitive advantage because it will increase both their efficiency and their performance.  It should, therefore, be password protected and carefully monitored.  As with all assets, it will require updating from time-to-time, but the effort involved will be substantially less than of the original development. 

Keywords are typically viewed as one of the basic tools in our profession.  For better or worse, everybody uses them so it’s easy to assume they have little or no differentiating value.  When forged into a powerful asset, however, keywords can help an organization unlock talent other employers can’t reach.  That’s why no recruiting team should be without “a set of master keys in words.” 

Thanks for reading,

Peter

Visit me at Weddles.com 

Peter Weddle is the author of over two dozen employment-related books, including Recognizing Richard Rabbit, a fable of self-discovery for working adults, and Work Strong, Your Personal Career Fitness System. 

© Copyright 2009 WEDDLE’s LLC.  All Rights Reserved.

The positive growth turned in by the American economy in the third quarter of this year suggests that maybe, just maybe this Great Recession is now in our rear view mirror.  As it fades away, of course, the tales will begin about what we did during this terrible time.  While recounting those legends is surely important, so too is sharing the insights we’ve acquired from our experience. 

Cataclysmic events often alter our perceptions of the world around us.  That was true during the Great Depression, and it will be true as we emerge from this Great Recession, as well.  Some of these new views are opinions about what happened and why, but others are actually lessons that we’ve learned about how best to survive and prosper.  They’re the things we wish we had known before the event occurred because that knowledge would have undoubtedly enabled us to fare better than we did. 

I think the sharing of this wisdom is good for us—it’s cathartic to acknowledge that we’ve earned an advanced degree in the school of hard knocks—but it’s even more helpful for our kids and grandkids.  In a very real sense, we are giving them a gift, a roadmap for the future that may help them avoid the dead ends and dangerous potholes they are sure to encounter. 

Each of us has our own view of the lessons we should pass along.  For me, the following four insights are among the most important.  They are realizations everyone must have in order to chart a successful and fulfilling career in the 21^st Century world of work. 

Seeking job security makes you vulnerable.  In today’s turbulent economy, employers have no idea what will happen tomorrow or the day after.  They may promise you job security, but they can’t deliver it.  So, counting on it is likely to put you out for the count.  A far better objective is career security—the ability to stay employed in a job of your choosing regardless of the condition of any single employer or the economy as a whole.  Unlike job security, career security is a state you create for yourself.  You don’t have to rely on the good will of some employer.  You anticipate the changes in your career—the timing of a move from one boss or organization to another, the refocusing or reskilling that’s necessary to accommodate shifts in your industry or profession—and then you plan and execute those changes so they benefit you. 

Recognition is something you give yourself.  Most managers and supervisors mean well, but if you wait for them to recognize your accomplishments at work, you’re likely to be disappointed.  Some have the social skills of a brick and others are too worried about their own security to take care of yours.  That’s why it’s important for you to keep track of your own “career victories.”  Sure, it takes a little effort to maintain a contemporaneous record of what you’ve done and how well you’ve done it, but that account will give you more satisfaction than most managers ever will.  Don’t just write it out, however; also review it regularly.  Take the time to remember what you’ve done and pat yourself on the back when you deserve it or give yourself a little counseling if you’ve let yourself down. 

Working tirelessly is a sure way to get tired.  Sadly, many people in today’s world of work find themselves wired up with no place to go.  They’ve learned the hard way that staying continuously in contact with the office doesn’t protect you.  It exhausts you.  We’re all worried about the H1N1 flu becoming a pandemic, but workaholism already is.  If you have any doubt about that, look left and right the next time you’re lying on the beach.  Every other person will be glued to their Blackberry or iPhone checking their email.  The impact of such behavior on both individual performance and wellbeing is already acute and likely to get worse.  In a knowledge-based economy, your worth is measured not by your connectivity, but by your contribution.  And, your contribution suffers when you don’t give your mind and body a chance to rest. 

Taking care of your career is the best way to take care of you.  The conventional approach to career self-management has been to get an annual checkup and leave it at that.  Historically, we paid attention to our career just once each year—during our performance appraisal and salary review.  That approach was dangerous then; today, it’s a sure-fire way to induce career cardiac arrest or what most of us call unemployment.  The only safe course in a workplace as turbulent as the one we now have is to develop career fitness the same way you develop physical fitness.  You have to commit yourself to building up the strength, endurance and reach of your career every single day.  Yes, that’s a lot of work, but it’s also a smart investment.  You spend one-third or more of your day in your profession, craft or trade, and you deserve an experience during that time that is every bit as good as the rest of your life. 

We have acquired many insights from our experience over the past two years, but these four maxims are the key lessons we have learned.  They are the things we wish we had known so they are now the things we want others to know. 

Thanks for reading,

Peter

Visit me at Weddles.com 

Peter Weddle is the author of over two dozen employment-related books, including Recognizing Richard Rabbit, a fable of self-discovery for working adults, and Work Strong, Your Personal Career Fitness System. 

© Copyright 2009 WEDDLE’s LLC.  All Rights Reserved.

This weekend I was introduced to Byron Katie. I am so grateful and thought instantly that I had to share her with our South Florida job seekers. Byron Katie provides a process to challenge our thoughts, our beliefs, our stories if you will. For me, quite often I find myself totally engaged in my head in a conversation with someone that hasn't happened or worrying about a situation that has not even occurred or thinking about what I think of something that someone said, etc. This is human nature, yet some people get "stuck" in it and some move through it. "The Work" of Byron Katie gives a process, she provides a solution. "The Work" is to simply question our thoughts. Pretty simple, right? On the surface sure, but making it a habit is the challenging part.  I was thinking about how this could support all the job seekers in our community who are struggling to stay focused and positive and even get an interview.

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about turning frustrations into solutions. Here is a great process to support moving out of the frustration, so for example:

Frustrated thought: "I can't get an interview!"

The Work:

Is it true?

Can you absolutely know that it's true?

How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?

Who would you be without the thought?

After we answer these questions the next step is to Turn it Around and look at it differently. There are so many "self help" type of books, speakers, and exercises out there today and it's hard to distinguish between what's valid and what isn't. All I can say is that this struck a cord with me and I invite you to check it out. Then please engage in our facebook fan page and share your experiences.

How might you and others benefit from relating this in the job search?

You are a unique, focused person with job experience that would apply to many positions.  You have skills that would be highly prized by almost any employer. 

For these reasons and more, you would not say yes these questions: 

Are you generic?  Do you have no experience that relates to the job you are applying for?  

However, if you use the same general resume for every application – your resume may be saying yes to those questions for you. 

If you find a position you want, take the time to tailor your resume to fit it.  Here are some quick tips to make your resume relevant

1.  If you have a long list of old positions, unrelated to the one you are applying to, remove them.  These positions are clutter and will do nothing to support that you are the right person for the job. 

2.  If you have long lists of duties that are unrelated to the job you are applying to – refine the list to emphasize the skills, knowledge and traits specifically listed in the job description. 

3.  If you were to remove the objective from the top of your resume – would a person be able to tell what it is?  Make sure that your objective is both clear and supported by the every detail of your resume.  Even if you are applying to a new field and the jobs on your resume are not the same as what you are looking for – if you emphasize the skills and traits that are transferable and support your objective, your career goals will be clear. 

If the job is unique, and you are a fit – bring your resume in line and your chances of success will improve!

(Quick Jobing.com Tip – Save up to ten unique resumes using your My Jobing! account so your relevant resume is ready-to-go!)

Confidentiality in your job search – choose the level that is right for you!

On Jobing.com you have the ability to make your resume searchable, confidential, or hide your resume from individual employers. 

Here is an easy step-by-step list of how to adjust/view the privacy settings on your resume:

1. Log into your My Jobing.com Account.

2. Click on the Resume tab.

3. Click on the Update icon next to your Active Resume

4. This will lead you to a page that has a section named "Resume Availability". In that section there are four options to choose from that determine how you want your resume viewed

A. searchable by employers on Jobing.com only

B. searchable by recruiters on Jobing.com only (i.e. – staffing and temporary agencies)

C. searchable by employers and recruiters on Jobing.com

D. confidential – viewable only by employers you submit your resume to

E. individual employer block (which is located at the bottom of this section – where it says "Click here to hide this resume from specific employers/companies" – follow instructions on page for this feature).

Get your resume out there to as many or as few employers as you want.  Best of luck to you in your search for your next great employer!

Education is a sure fire way to increase your marketability in the workforce. Yet, if you are seeking a career change, education can be a very time intensive and lengthy process. When considering this change there are many options to weigh.

• How long will the process take?
• Do you need a degree or do certificates or graduate programs exist?
• Is there demand for the job, once you are educated?
• What is motivating your change? True passion or a fleeting interest?

Education is a commitment, and one you must take seriously. When considering the time the program will take, you must be confident you are happy in your current job. Will you have the patience to wait until the end of your program before you are working in your new a career?

Considering the education options, what is truly needed? Is a full 4 year degree necessary, or will a 2 year degree help you get into the industry? Often passion and enthusiasm for the job will set you apart from others who have formal degrees. Using teaching as an example, you must be certified, so you much complete the degree. Yet, going from business to HR may simply require a certification. Investigate what is truly necessary to get your foot in the door.

As you embark on your change, is there a future for it? Fleeting interest fields often see a rise in people in the market and a drop off of demand. This was evident in crime scene investigation, due to the popularity of police shows. Not only ensure that you can gauge a demand for your career once your education is complete, but that you have a true passion for it. A fleeting interest or a fad will not last long.

The resources Jobing.com has to offer to help you find a great educational program include JobingEducation. Additionally, if you are seeking the benefit of a graduate degree, Grand Canyon University offers adults great online opportunities.

Use education to make a career change – for life.

Did you ever look at people holding signs outside apartment buildings or waving at you from the roadside dressed as Lady Liberty and feel bad for them? Well, you probably don't need to. Not only are they earning a wage, but they may actually be well on their way to a successful career. Sometimes, with creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit or simple hard work and perspiration (a lot of that in Florida), these types of jobs can pay off. Besides, in my opinion, I would much rather see one of my clients take a "low" position while pursuing a dream than settling for a "respectable" high paying position that really misses the mark in terms of overall satisfaction.

I recently read an article in the November edition of Entrepreneur magazine which first had me stunned and then wondering, "why didn't I think of that?". Did you know that, in some areas, sign spinners earn $25 an hour? Moreover, the most sought after spinners command a handsome wage of $75 an hour! In Florida, most college educated executives aren't being compensated in this manner, so, in most likelihood, the good folks working on our local corners probably aren't either. However, it goes to show that, given the right drive and circumstance, they could. Anything is possible and the company, Arrow Sign Spinners, is proving it.

Arrow Sign Spinners has capitalized on this market and is now projecting sales into the $4-5 million dollar range simply by providing businesses with well trained sign people. Initially, the founders, had thirty or so tricks that they taught to their new recruits, but this list has expanded to a "trictionary" of over 450 physical stunts that they use to draw attention to the business that is being promoted.

If the entrepreneurial bug has bitten you, then perhaps Arrow Signs is a franchise that you want to look into. More important than focusing on this specific franchise, is the success story. This company has turned the street performer who others may feel pity upon into a celebrity and they have defined the work as an art form. In fact, the founder, Justin Brown goes on to say, "Sign spinning is like ballroom dancing, except your partner has no life of its own". And, apparently others agree with him, because he has been seen on CNBC and auditioned for America's Got Talent.

My favorite quote of all time is by Helen Keller, she said, "I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble". Whether you choose to start your own service company, such as landscaping or housecleaning, or opt to accept this role as a job, understand that there is a certain dignity in becoming the very best you can be in any field. If you approach all that you do with sincere intent, you may be able to create something new and unique out of it or use it as a stepping stone to your next great adventure. Everyone recognizes art when they see it whether it is in their backyard, on a street corner or in their own office building. It's time to do something noteworthy and get noticed wherever you are right now in your career.

Work is demanding!

Today marks 3o calendar days since I had my last day off at work.  It has been 15 years since I worked that many consecutive days without a break.  This is not a complaint about the awfulness of my employer or being unfairly treated.  The employer isn’t awful, and I am not being treated unfairly.

This  just my way of trying to place this minor insanity in context.

Why have I worked 30 days in a row, you may ask?

I am heavily involved in a project that requires my presence in various places on weekends, and entails a fair amount of preparation and research during the week.  This means that it is difficult to take alternative days while pulling the weekend duty.

What happens when you work 30 straight days?  I don’t know about you, but I have tendency to become obsessive, cranky, and my personal bandwidth narrows tremendously.    It becomes difficult to think about anything but the project, and I lose pretty much anything resembling a personal life.

This is tremendously unhealthy on an emotional level.

Once upon a time, an unhealthy workaholic

Looking back fifteen years, I didn’t just work 30 consecutive days a lot, I worked 6-7 days a week for months on end. Nobody was twisting my arm.   Much of the work I was doing in these extra hours was just busy work.  I was at the office because it was the only place that I was allowing to have any space in my life.   This period of my life was not the best time I have ever had.  I rarely get depressed, but for reasons that are still not clear, I become very morose about my life and my place in the universe.  I was NOT suicidal, but I didn’t like myself, or anyone else very much at all.   No matter where I was, I wanted to be somewhere else.  No matter what I tried to do, I lost interest almost immediately.   I had no focus in life outside of two things, going to work every day, and doing what I needed to do to support my family.

The sad part is that while I was working to support my family, and spending 60-70 hours a week at the office, I also resented the obligations, and frankly hated most of the hours that I spent doing what I believed I had to do.   I didn’t do bad work. I actually was pretty successful during this time.  But inside, I was unhappy and sinking deeper into unhappiness every day.

I had only myself to blame.  I failed to realize that in order to enjoy life, you have to be a balanced individual, not just some work obsessed stiff who was unable to have an iota of fun.   Fortunately, I finally decided to talk to someone at our EAP about my frustrations, and general anger with life.    He turned out to be own personal Yoda.  We went through several sessions of typical shrink psycho-bullshit which pissed me off and left me unenthusiastic about the process and any prospects for success.  And then one day, halfway through a session, he asked me this question:

“What do you like to do for yourself?”

I didn’t have a clue.  The best answers I could come up with were “read books and see movies”.   It was at that moment that Ted gave me one of the most significant pieces of advice that anyone has ever given me in my life.   He wrote the following single line on his prescription pad and told me not to come back to see him until I could tell him how I had solved what he had written.   His prescription for my issues was as follows:

Find something that you want to do just for yourself and go do it

It took me quite a while to really figure this out, but I was able to use this advice to get the process started.

I had always wanted to travel, but could never really afford it, but I decided I was going to figure out how to do some traveling.    I did some camping.   I planned short weekend trips to places I had never been.   I stopped going to the office 7 days a week.  I began to invest time in myself, and this helped me to become a much healthier and well rounded individual.  I began to appreciate my family again.   I changed jobs into a position that met my professional needs much better, and offered me a chance to travel.  I changed a long standing personal policy about never socializing with people from work, and actually began to develop personal friendships at the place where we spend the most time.

It took some personal effort, but I learned not to spend time at the office on the weekends unless it was absolutely necessary.  I began to use all my vacation every year, instead of turning days or weeks back in, or getting paid in lieu of time off.  I actually went out and got a life.

Tips for getting your own life back

1. Never forget that you are your most important personal asset.   You need to make sure that you are providing yourself with sustenance on a physical, profession, emotional and spiritual level in order to have a fully rounded life.
2. Make time to relax.  Use your vacation.
3. Don’t sublimate.   Follow your passion. Don’t let work and obligation derail from some time with those things that nurture your soul and spirit.
4. If you find yourself growing resentful and angry, take the time to reflect on why this is happening.  It is impossible to work your way through this if you are imbalanced in your personal and professional life.
5. Analyze your self-established limitations.   Are you living up to impossible rules and standards for no good reason?  Stop it, now!
6. Are you staying in a bad situation because of obligation?  If so, evaluate it carefully.  It could be literally killing you.
7. Go get help if you need to. I did, and it paid off.
8. Find something that you want to do just for yourself and go do it

My project will be taking a pause on December 6th.    I will be taking some time off starting December 7th.

Reading you may find useful (from Zemanta)

• Why You Have to Deal With Anger or Depression (stepbysteptips.com)
• Being Happy is free (momblognetwork.com)
• And sometimes it isn’t… (walt.lishost.org)
• Positive Thoughts and Positive Feelings… (tokitover.com)
• Out of LSD? Just 15 Minutes of Sensory Deprivation Triggers Hallucinations (wired.com)
• Are You Grateful Enough To Be Happy? (allthingsworkplace.com)

It was a good one!

SHRMA welcomed 5 new members, heard from Dana Chatelain, our HR State Council representative, received a few short legislative updates and found out about the holiday party!

Reminder... Because SHRMA is having the holiday party in the evening next month, there will not be a morning breakfast meeting in December. Visit the calendar of events to learn more.

The speaker at the November meeting was Ron Hamilton of Practical Human Resources Solutions. Ron's presentation "Measuring HR: What's the ROI?" was both informative and interactive. He got us all involved with a few simple activities that really made us think about the direct impact HR has in relation to helping achieve the overall business goal of an organization. We learned that metrics in HR aren't just about determining the cost per hire, but can have a larger impact in the overall business strategy of the organization.

HR is more than just a department that fills empty seats, right? Everyone in the HR department knows this but it's a challenge to get the rest of the organization to feel just as strongly. HR is directly responsible for filling positions with the right candidate - one who will have a direct impact on the profitability of the organization and success in reaching business goals of the organization.

In order to achieve those goals, we need to look at the various types of metrics (activity-driven and value-driven-impact) as well as the typical metrics we see in Employment (cost per hire, time to fill, turnover rate). How are the metrics being used by your HR department help to contribute to the overall success of the organization? When was the last time you re-evaluated the metrics used and made changes based on the results of say the annual employee survey or the exit interview?

Ron's point to our group was simply that HR's credibility can increase when HR can directly link the functions of the HR department to "organizational performance and articulate it in financial/business terms." Think "What does my CEO/CFO want to hear?" How will changes you make in HR positively affect the organization? Can you save money by decreasing turnover?

If you are not yet a member of SHRMA, visit their membership page for information.

 

 

 

 

 

I read an excellent article awhile back that listed the top 10 things job seekers hate and I must admit it hit home.  I spent this morning networking with several human resources professionals in transition.  

As job seekers and professionals; most agreed on their dissapointment by the lack of courtesy and respect from recruiters.   One SPHR certified professional recruiter voiced her determination to remember her transition period when interacting with candidates.  

I hear you recruiters; yes it is their perception and yes they probably do not know how overworked you are.  Remember however; their perception as job seekers is also their reality as consumers.

Careers, like relationships, need a little work to keep the spark alive, especially when you begin to crave a change.  Take advantage of the charge in the air - seize this opportunity to fall in love with your career all over again!

Here are some ideas to reignite the passion in your work:
 
1.  Find a new way to expand something you love about your job.  Is there an activity, process or part of your day that you routinely look forward to – where time just zooms by?  Chances are, your love for the task makes you a pro at it.  Go ahead and see if you can take on more or maybe channel all of that passion in raising your performance in this area to the next level.  You might not be able remove everything you don’t favor from your work day – so adding more of what you love can help balance the scales.

2.  Look through your day – is there a part of it that needs a new approach?  Is there a project or task you haven’t been able to complete?  A person you haven’t been able to connect with.  Start over.  Doing things a new way can bring new results and the satisfaction of solving nagging issues can make anyone’s day.

3.  Give.  Recognize a coworker, vendor or client for something outstanding they have done – that may otherwise go unnoticed.  Recognition can be as simple as a hand written card, phone call or a mention in a meeting.  It can be personal or anonymous.  When the occasion is appropriate – it can be as elaborate as a party or an award.  If you really want to love your job, imagine the power of giving what you want - to someone else.   I once heard it explained by this quote:  “The fragrance of a rose remains on the hand who gives it".