Exterminate ANTs this Week

Monday Morning Pep Talk

This post is about a different type of ant, far worse than the insect—it is the Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs) that invade workers minds throughout the day. How many times have you heard someone say?

(1)   “I will never find a job; no one will ever hire me. I can’t even get an interview.”

(2)  “This situation is hopeless; I might as well give up. Why bother?”

(3)  “I’m being set up to fail. My department doesn’t have the resources to do what I’m expected to do.”

(4)  “My boss gave me a terrible review. I’m probably going to get put on a performance improve plan or get fired.”

Maybe you heard them say it once.  Can you imagine someone running that phrase through their mind multiple times a day like a continuous loop? I get exhausted just knowing there are people living like this day after day.

Unfortunately, there is a free-floating anxiety, permeating Corporate America. Employees don’t feel empowered, morale plummets and the workplace becomes toxic.  For individuals, ANTs result in missed career opportunities, lower confidence, low productivity and research by Mark George, MD, National Institutes of Health reports negative thoughts inflamed brain areas often involved with depression and anxiety.

None of this exactly sounds quite like a Pep Talk, so let’s figure out how to exterminate the ANTs. Here are four tips to help your friends, relatives or co-workers when you notice ANTs creeping into the conversation. If you know of any other anti-ANT strategies, please leave them as a comment to this post. 

(1)   Remember ANTs are automatic, so when someone has an infestation the first step is the let them know, these pests can be eradicated. ANTs have to be acknowledged. They can be written down in a notebook or if that’s not convenient, suggest they repeat ANTs into a voice recorder on their cell phone. Make note of what situation or who around them brought the ANTs. In the future, they can limit interactions with the person or people who inspire ANTs and avoid situations that result in ANTs.

(2)  When ANTs emerge, suggest your co-worker ask a series of questions beginning with—is that negative thought true? How can they be sure? Have they ever faced and overcome a situation like this before? Are they likely to be able to succeed again?

(3)   Toxic workplaces foster environments that minimize what their employees do right and anything workers do wrong is turned into a disaster. With this in mind, remind your relative that while the workplace may be filled with ANTs; they do not have to bring them home. Flood their work areas with positive affirmations (their screen saver, their mouse pad, the pictures on the wall, etc.).

(4)  ANTs instill fear. Working in fear is an enormous waste of time, lowers productivity and keeps employees from their personal best. Someone came up with a great acronym for fear: False Evidence Appearing Real. (Feel free to borrow and share).

The ANTs didn’t show up over night and workers can’t expect to rid themselves of this problem in a day or two. If ANTs are persistent they could be part of social anxiety disorder or other issue that requires professional help. A company’s Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) is a good (free) place to start and there are many health care professionals and career coaches equipped to help employees exterminate their ANTs once and for all.

 Help everyone you know exterminate their ANTs and have a great week!

Increase Your Job Satisfaction

Recently I addressed an alumni group about navigating the multigenerational workforce and creating a satisfying career. The overall age of the audience is somewhat younger than the groups I generally present to—most of them were at or close to a decade in the workforce. This provided a great opportunity to learn how the work experience differed than what they expected in college. I also asked what the audience thought they might be doing if talked again in ten years.

Their responses were surprising. Over half the audience had aspirations to own a business. Now maybe it was because the audience was young, intelligent and ambitious (they were spending a Saturday morning at an alumni networking breakfast) or maybe this audience viewed their roles at work much differently than the 40+ worker.

I’m guessing it is the latter. Of the twelve participants that planned to evolve into entrepreneurs, all of them are currently employed by large business and many are already promoted into supervisory roles with direct reports. Three of the young 30-somethings had impressive budget responsibility and large organizations reporting to them. Rather than look at their current companies as a place to make the proverbial climb into the corner office with plush carpet, a gatekeeper in front of their door and other discreet executive perks; they appeared to view their jobs as an extension of their education. Their income was being used to pay off student loan debt, but what company’s name was on the business card could not have matter less. Emergency in the employee engagement aisle!

Employees joining the workforce in the 1970s and 1980s, came of age in more of a “carrot and stick” management style. The carrot was the first promotion. If Bob performed well as a technician II; then Bob become a technician III or (gasp)—a Senior Technician. That changed for many Fortune 500 companies in the mid-1990s as they dabbled in “Broadbanding”. If you worked for a company that missed the Broadbanding bus (lucky you)—it is when a company flattens the hierarchy, eliminates levels of management, makes it really difficult to get a promotional title change and replaces a large number of salary levels with a small number of salary grades with broad pay ranges. That is as simple as I can make it sound. It would take a highly paid consulting practice leader to make Broadbanding sound logical today. In the era of mergers/acquisitions that was the 1990s, a suave HR consultant could spin it to make sense. My audience impatiently expects titles and pay increases now--or they are leaving even with 8% unemployment.

The 40+ worker believed their company was the beginning and the end while this cohort of twenty-five to thirty-two year olds view their work as a means to an end.   They were much more interested in my four years of entrepreneurship and how I build blog traffic than an audience of their peers a decade or two older.  They appeared to be simultaneously engaged in their jobs today and could fire off a text with their resignation tomorrow. Corporate loyalty? They snickered as if my AARP card had fallen out of my wallet.

Over dinner, I was discussing this event with friends for their assessment. One astute observation was that my audience included children of Baby Boomers. They lived through their parent’s being laid off in corporate downsizings; they were relocated as children when their parents moved to start new jobs and they understand that for as much as a company provides their payroll direct deposit today—these young people think like freelancers or 1099-workers. More experienced workers have additional considerations including aging parents, health issues, young adult children or in some cases second families with young children---adopting the mindset of a younger generation where it makes sense, could be your ticket to increased career satisfaction.

Monday Morning Pep Talk: July 23, 2012

(The Monday Morning Pep Talk is another new occasional feature for the blog. If you are interested in providing a "Pep Talk" of less than 500 words, I'm open to guest writers. Contact me!)

KEEPING IT IN PERSPECTIVE

It is Monday morning somewhere and what lies ahead is a week of possibilities, 168 hours that can shape the rest of your life. The intent of our first pep talk together is to motivate you to keep the week in perspective (especially the challenges, obstacles and delays). Initially, this inaugural installment was about setting goals. Then, Friday there was the mass murder during the Batman movie premiere in Aurora, Colorado. It was a startling reminder about the importance of perspective. Who wouldn't approach the week differently if we knew it were our last?

When a tragedy happens like the incident in Colorado—it reminds us that while we are in the hustle and bustle or working, looking for work or trying to move up at work—our occupations (though incredibly important) are just one facet of our total lives.  The most recent data says the average life expectancy of a woman in the United States is 80.8 years and for men it is 75.6 years. The fatalities in Colorado are not of people who reached those ages. Whatever happens this week, keep it in perspective—how important is it in a lifespan of 75-80 years?

Whether you are working at the job of your dreams this Monday morning or just trading your time for money to pay the bills; remember it is a job—not your life. Take some time to enjoy your kids before they go back to school.  Call your friend you’ve been meaning to talk to instead of communicating by Facebook or text. Let them know you are thinking about them even if you just leave a message on voicemail. Compliment someone at the store or gas station and make their day. Smile for no reason.

Maybe your Monday will be dominated by looking for a job— it could have been a while since you’ve worked or since you have earned the kind of money you’re accustomed to and this week you are searching for a career upgrade. Just because no one called you back last week-doesn’t mean the same thing will happen this week. And if no one calls you back, maybe it is time to change your tactics and your job-search strategy—join a job club, start a job club, update your LinkedIn profile and network with someone new or volunteer for something short-term to shake up your routine and meet some new people.

Ultimately, we are the authors of the story on how we spent our 168 hours. Make it a great week!

Life expectancies by countries around the world (as of 2010) :

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

Career Wisdom from the Legacy of Steve Jobs

iPads, iPhones, and iMacs spread the news of the death of Steve Jobs at age 56 on Wednesday. I was at a meeting in Naperville, IL (a Chicago suburb) when an Associated Press alert on my iPhone gave me the news. I shared the information with the people I was with and e-mailed it to two others. Later, we saw candles lit and flowers laid out in front of the Jefferson Street Apple Store in Naperville. Steve Jobs redefined media and the tools we use to access it; that is the legacy he leaves us.

At some point all of us will leave a legacy for our families, friends and work colleagues. I was talking about it with a good friend who said most people don’t care what their legacy will be which began a very spirited debate about why people do the things they do at work. We got into the concept about whether people work to live or live to work. Certainly we know the place “work” had in the life of Steve Jobs. He discussed his career when he gave the 2005 Stanford commencement address and a couple of key concepts came out of that talk that are even more applicable to midlife professionals than newly-minted college graduates.

#1: Careers Make More Sense When You Look Back on Them—

Steve Jobs told the graduating class, “you cannot connect dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”  How many times have you looked back on a career move and thought, “how did I end up here?” Later we realized we were right where we needed to be all along. We met people we needed to meet; had experiences we needed to have and learned essential things. It is hard sometimes to understand that when we’re in the thick of it. We've all experienced it; taking a backwards glance puts a lot of things (personal and professional) into perspective.

#2: You’ve Got To Find What You Love—

Jobs told the commencement audience, “I was lucky. I found what I loved to do quite early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parent’s garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion dollar company with over 4,000 employees.” Then he talked about getting very publicly fired. Talk about a backwards glance---he started NeXT and Pixar, met a woman he fell in love with and married. As he mentioned in #1 you cannot connect the dots looking forward. Apple purchased NeXT, the company he started and hired him back with a salary of $1 per year (he certainly didn’t need the money) and stock options. The rest, of course, is history.

#3: Living Your Own Life—

He advised the class to follow their hearts. “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” Even if we live much longer than Steve Jobs, life is still too short not to step out and do some of the things you always wanted to do. There’s never a “right time”; you’re never going to have enough saved and the economy will never make you feel comfortable. You have to take that leap of faith. I remember leaving a corporate job with good pay, great benefits and fantastic co-workers to start my own business in 2001. As a  one-income, single Mom with a 10-year-old, people thought I was crazy. I never worked harder or traveled more than I did those four years of entrepreneurial craziness. But the people I met, the experiences I had and the things I learned….Steve Jobs was right.