Unhappy Labor Day

 Unhappy Labor Day

The 21^st Century workplace is a modern day coliseum with employees as gladiators (okay, I'm being a little melodramatic). Work isn’t what it used to be and if you were lucky enough to be employed in the rah-rah 1980s or the go-go 1990s, savor the memories. Those days, like our youth, are gone forever. This Labor Day let’s take a look at the new implied work contract between employers and their workers.

Work is a DIY Project:

Every job really is an independent contractor position. Workers are increasingly responsible for more out-of-pocket expenses and companies are relinquishing their role in everything from training to health care.

• As 401(k) and 403(b) plans for nonprofits replaced defined benefit pension plans, employees became more responsible for their financial security when their work years ended. The downsides include the employer choosing the mutual funds  in their plan which limits your investment options and the expenses related to them. Workers are at the mercy of stock market volatility. 
• If that’s not perilous enough, now companies are doing the same thing with health care savings accounts. Employees set aside THEIR money in a tax-deductible fund to pay for current and future health care costs. My advice? Don’t get sick with one of these plans. Combined with a high deductible health plan companies are offering, you’ll be ill and financially insolvent. 
• Now, employees have to train themselves. That’s right, few to no company-sponsored professional conferences and external training classes are available unless it is a regulatory requirement. Many of my former training and development colleagues are among the unemployed or under-employed. The mantra goes like this: (Shouted by management) “Who is responsible for my professional development and training?” The employees in unison are expected to chant in reply, “I am responsible for my development and training.” This is serious stuff, I heard about a company doing this. Companies often tout tuition reimbursement as a perk, however, once inside the company employees get to read the “fine print.” The courses must relate to the current position you hold (no working on your Masters in Fine Arts in the accounting department) and in some cases you must have a certain performance appraisal rating to qualify for tuition reimbursement. And as the cherry on the T&D sundae, your request must be approved by your manager and their boss (who are going to wonder where you'll find time to complete an outside course of study and do your job).

Organizations hire employees to do the task at hand and provide minimal cost-effective training to maximize task without injury (workers compensation expense) and required sexual harassment and diversity training (lawsuit prevention).

 Mean People Rule:

In 2011 a study appeared in the journals and the media titled, “Do Nice Guys and Gals Really Finish Last?” Spoiler Alert: Yes.  The University of Notre Dame, Cornell University and University of Western Ontario professors found that men who disagreed with co-workers more the most made 18% more or close to $10,000 above their more collaborative colleagues. The study examined data over 20 years and included more than 10,000 employees from three previous studies and appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The proper term for a workplace jerk in academia is “disagreeableness” and that is what their study focused on, however, it is the same traits that make more agreeable employees cringe.  More recently, The Workplace Bullying Institute—yes, this place exists—reported 35% of the U.S. workforce (over 50 million employees) admitted to being bullied at work. So, if you feel the workplace has lost a bit of civility and your co-workers are rude, your boss cuts people down in front of others or senior management has instituted a threatening culture, there’s research that says that’s the direction companies are headed. And, yes, disagreeable women make more money than nice ladies, so wipe that smile off your face.

There’s more in Part Two of Unhappy Labor Day.

 

Unhappy Labor Day (Part Two)

Unhappy Labor Day Part Two

Where did my Salary Go?

Some of you remember when we actually got double digit merit increases. One year, it is foggy now, but maybe in the 1980s I remember getting a 12% merit increase.  It was so exciting! Do you feel like you are making less money? There are a variety of reasons including the facts from Part 1 of this post— more of your work security is coming from you and not your employer. By the time you put money in your 401(k) or 403(b) plan, add money to your health care savings account, put some money in the Healthcare Flexible Spending Account to cover out-of-pocket expenses and take a trip to a professional conference to keep up your CEUs because you “own” your professional development----there’s not much left.

National Public Radio (NPR) sponsored a series several years ago called “Living in the Middle” about America’s middle class. Experienced workers know what it is like to slip from middle class to poverty level. Job searches that take years, raising grand-children in their 50s and 60s, helping adult children and sudden lay-offs require Baby Boomers to extend their work years while they can still earn an income. The U.S. economic climate has probably changed enough that it cannot support the middle class as I knew it growing up outside Chicago. Heavy manufacturing jobs were supported by labor unions employing  high school-educated (mostly) men earning a livable wage at the time. This year Mercer Consulting estimated midsize and large employers would increase their average raise in base pay to 2.9%.

 Wal-Mart employed 1% of the 140 million working Americans in 2010. 1.4 million Americans work for Wal-Mart. Their associates earned an average of $20,744 annually three years ago. Ponder that for a minute.

Employees: Work at Your Own Risk!

Despite protections from the NLRB, FLSA, ADEA, EEOC and any number of  acronyms describing federal, state and local agencies; talk with Baby Boomer employees and they will tell you how vulnerable they feel. Employment attorneys are not inexpensive and no individual has the financial wherewithal to fight even a small business. While companies are not legally required to offer severance packages, many do and in return for signing, laid off employees give up the right to pursue legal action or initiate a claims with regulatory agencies.  Employees are also losing out time after time with the highest court in the land. The Supreme Court most recently made filing for class action status more difficult when it struck down the appeal of Wal-Mart v. Dukes, the case of a female  50+ year-old  employee making a wage and promotion discrimination claim.

Employees protected by unions fell to a 70-year low in 2011. Government employees account for more half of all unionized workers. Yet, the federal workforce is shrinking even before sequestration. According to a New York Times story published in June 2013, about 45,000 government positions were eliminated this year. At the Pentagon, a large number of civilian workers will be required to be furloughed--off work and unpaid unless they have paid time off (PTO) for 11 days in 2013 to save money. Most of my business-owner colleagues dislike any type of government regulation and work hard to keep their businesses union-free. While I trust them and applaud practices they employ to keep their workforces equitably paid, treated well and safe---not all business owners take the same steps for their employees.

So, another Labor Day has come and gone. Surely, change is the only constant in workplaces today. For experienced employees, it is important to stay employed. Generating the highest income possible should also be a goal even it means taking a part-time job. Your money has to last a long time and as you get older your ability to earn unfortunately produces an inverse turn on the graph like the one illustrated.

HR and company leaders: Research supports the premise highly satisfied employees create increased  customer satisfaction. Company leaders also should also get out their offices and have face time with employees. Try catching workers doing something right. One corporate leader or business owner cannot change the statistics or troubling trends in employment. Employee bullying, lower productivity, devaluing others and workplace violence are on the increase. Each person charged with the management of subordinates has an obligation to engage with their workforce and leave the organization better than it was when they joined the department, division or company.

Resilience: A Skill to Increase Your Employability

Monday Morning Pep Talk

Do you bounce back from career disappointments, setbacks and frustrations relatively unscathed? Or, are you still angry about the “Meets Expectations” rating on your performance appraisal three managers ago?  Resiliency is one of the most critical success factors to develop as you spend time in the workforce. Being resilient is important for workers starting out as they face their initial disappointments of not getting the job they preferred or experiencing their first layoff.  As your career progresses, the stakes get higher, acceptable job options become more limited and the idea of bouncing back and landing on your feet is crucial. Resilience is a learned trait. Some of us may be born with a more positive outlook on life, a more bubbly personality or openness to taking risk—resilience can be developed.

No one writes or discusses the fact that work is a brutal experience for many employees. Like the school years that preceded it---work has a hierarchy, in-crowds and cliques, bullies and sometimes a bully-boss; workplaces have class clowns, prom queens and teacher’s pets. The special needs employees are mainstreamed into your workplace—and you could be working for or next to someone with very real emotional or mental issues. All of these personalities are made more complicated by having four generations in the work place for the first time in history! Does it make you feel better about your situation, knowing that no one taught your manager how to lead a multi-generational workforce? The key to surviving this potential madness is RESILIENCY.

Think of it this way, a well-inflated ball will bounce when it encounters resistance or a hard surface. So, your first order of business is to find an appropriate level of self-confidence, belief in your abilities, knowledge of your intrinsic goodness/worth and remembering that you matter. Pump up your self-worth by thinking about the obstacles and challenges that appeared insurmountable and you have already overcome. This isn’t your first job or the first setback you’ve encountered. You’ve managed tough times before probably personally and professionally. I was recently at a mall in Dallas and a billboard showed a well-dressed shopper wearing lots of bling (aka jewelry) and the caption read, “Of course it’s Flashy, this IS Dallas!” That is called swagger. While rebuilding your confidence, remember what happens when the ball over-inflates!

I have known people enduring terrible situations at work while they looked for a new opportunity. When I ask how they survived their passive/aggressive boss or harsh treatment by co-workers all of them have mentioned strong relationships and interests away from work. Whether it is being involved in your children or grandchildren’s activities, volunteering for an organization you are passionate about or doing activities with your family that bring you joy; don’t make your life about work.  If you do, you are setting yourself up for inevitable disappointment. Reaching out to others outside your workplace so you are not constantly focused on the situation is a critical step in building resilience. Seeking professional help through a therapist to build problem-solving skills and gain perspective is also an option. Therapists also provide an objective sounding board to the situation. Counseling services are confidential and often free through an Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) or the cost of a co-pay through medical insurance.

It is also important to exercise adaptability and flexibility in building your resilience skills. Personal change management skills work together creating resilience as a core of our emotional intelligence. Researchers report empathy, compassion and self-awareness are attributes of resilient people. These are also components of emotional intelligence.  In today’s challenging work environment change is the only constant. Resilience is the only answer.  One of the greatest benefits of developing resilience is that it is a skill you can model for the children in your life because as we all know, these are even stressful times for kids.

You’ve got 168 hours, make it a great week!

How to Survive a Layoff

 

You will survive being laid off from your employer.

 

Monday Morning Pep Talk

 How well you survive and whether you thrive afterwards depends entirely up to you no matter what your profession, your age or where you live. This isn’t one of those kick-in-the-pants sermons, touchy feely “breathe and visualize the possibilities” moments or even the dismissive “one-door-closes-another-one opens, “you’ll be just fine” message. The fact is most people don’t know what to say to a worker who has lost their job. I’ve been suddenly laid off and it stinks. The company I worked for was sold 4 months after I relocated from Chicago to Los Angeles, which I had never visited before moving there for the corporate transfer.  I was a sales representative for a college textbook publisher and a buyer purchased the titles and did not keep the infrastructure—everyone from President to the lowest-paid employee lost their job when the Board of Directors made the announcement. The entire company literally shut down, the building was emptied yet the imprint still exists.

There are three areas to tend to when faced with sudden job loss for any reason. If you are not going to use the job loss as a bridge to retirement (which I do NOT recommend), you have to consider your emotional resources, your financial resources and your career resources.

EMOTIONAL RESCUE:

You have probably heard of Kubler-Ross’ work on The Five Stages of Grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Some workers grieve for their jobs like losing a loved one. Others have different emotions connected to the disruption to their careers.  It is a very personal experience. How a person processes job loss often depends on how long they have been with the company, how wrapped up their identity is connected to the job and how much of your social life and work/life were meshed. No matter what, it is difficult. Just like losing a loved one, you have to take care of yourself, but don’t forget job loss also may affect people around you---your spouse, children, parents and other close friends. Once children are old enough to understand what is going on, it is important to communicate with them on their level and share with them what they can understand. If you need help figuring out what to say, call your employer’s Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) for help in developing that conversation.  Use your remaining employee benefits if your company is required to give 60-days notice under the WARN Act, and use your company benefits to take care of yourself and preserve your emotional, physical and mental health. A job search takes energy, good health and preserverance, so take care of yourself.

FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS:
Job disruption can derail retirement plans and other goals employees set for themselves. Since everyone is in a different place financially, here are some general best practices. If your company offers a severance package and you need something more, consult an attorney in your state. Some companies use a verbal negotiation as a reason to terminate the severance offer. When I was laid off, I drove a company car and since Los Angeles is a city of drivers it was important that I had transportation while I figured out my next move. I called human resources and was able to keep the car an extra month before their fleet company picked it up. Did you know companies are under no obligation to offer severance benefits? Many companies do provide the severance safety net for employees in return for a signed release of lawsuits, EEOC and age discrimination complaints and more progressive companies are also adding bans on social media and digital to avoid disparaging remarks. Contact your unemployment office as soon as you have your paperwork to understand how your severance impacts unemployment. If your company offers a salary continuation severance, you may not be able to collect unemployment until it ends. If you are drowning in debt, you may want to contact your creditors to see if they offer some type of hardship assistance. After the recent recessions most banks and mortgage companies have developed programs to assist borrowers. It may be a good time to contact a financial planner to determine your options to meet your long-term goals.

Getting Back to Work:
Hopefully you networked throughout your career and everyone locally in your industry knows your name. Most of the jobs I have were through personal referrals. In turn, I have probably helped hundreds of others with introductions, leads on openings and giving what my friends call “the hook-up” to a recruiter or HR friend. LinkedIn makes this process a lot easier. I’ll put some LinkedIn tips in another post. Use LinkedIn, post your photo—we live in a visual world--connect. Don’t count on job boards to find a job (see post from August 6, 2011). Always apply on the company website and it does help to be a referral of a current employee in good standing. Other potential sources of employment leads include your alumni association and local job clubs. In Indianapolis there is a dynamic ministry hosting by The Church at the Crossing on the city's Northside. The work of Passport to Employment (p2e@golove.org) has helped over 300 people upgrade their jobs or find employment. Also, take advantage of outplacement services if your exit package includes the benefit. Outplacement counselors will help you write a resume, plan your job search strategy and you can practice interviewing with them.  They work with displaced people every day, so a good outplacement office will also understand what you are experiencing. Make sure you understand any non-compete clauses in your severance agreement or that you signed when you were hired. (It’s another good reason to retain an attorney to review and explain your severance paperwork even if you plan to sign it anyway). Realize that going back to work after a layoff is often more difficult than you think. Rigid hours, commuting, deadlines, stress and learning a new corporate culture are all part of going back into the rat race. Prepare yourself for the transition.

I’ll end where I began because it is true:  You will survive being laid off from your employer.

 

How Recruiters Read Resumes In 10 Seconds or Less by Brad Remillard

This great post is a reprint from http://www.impacthiringsolutions.com, an Executive Recruiting firm that offers Executive Job Search Coaching and Networking Strategy Development.

The 10 or 20 seconds it takes to read a resume seems to always generate a lot of controversy. Candidates comment on how disrespectful it is, how one can’t possibly read a resume in that time and some get angry at recruiters when we talk about this. I hope this article will help everyone understand how we do this. I realize that some still may not like it and will still be angry, but at least you can understand how it works.
First, let me say I’ve been a recruiter for 30 years.  I’m sure I have reviewed over 500,000 resumes. I can’t prove this but I’m reasonably confident that this is the case, as this is only an average of about 46 a day. I know many days I have reviewed hundreds of resumes and most in less than 20 seconds. I would say the average is probably around 5 to 7 seconds.
So for the record when you hear or read about, “reading a resume in 20 seconds,” that isn’t completely true. It is more than likely, “reviewed the resume in 20 seconds.”
Here is my process for getting through 100′s of resumes in a short period of time. Others may have different ways and I welcome your comments.
I set up a hierarchy of certain “must haves” or you’re out, so at first I’m really just box checking. Generally, 80% of the time these are my knock out blows. There are exceptions to each of these, but I’m dealing with the 80/20 rule. These are not cumulative times.  This is box checking, if I see any one of these as I scan your resume you will be excluded.
1. Location. If the client is in Los Angeles, CA and you aren’t – goodbye. Few if any clients want to relocate anyone in this economy, and I believe most shouldn’t have to. Especially in a huge metropolitan area like Los Angeles. If they do have to consider relocation the position has to require some very unique experience that few jobs do. I can do this in about 1 second.
2. Industry. If my client is in banking and your background is primarily manufacturing – goodbye.  These two often are so different that the client isn’t open to considering such different industries. This works both ways, if you have a manufacturing background I’m not going to consider someone with banking. 2-3  seconds to determine this.
3. Function. If I’m doing a sales search and your background isn’t sales – goodbye. Generally companies are paying recruiters to find them a perfect fit. We never do find a perfect fit, but we have to be very close. They don’t need a recruiter to find them someone in a completely different function. 2 seconds to figure this one out.
4. Level. If I’m doing a VP level search and your title is “manager” and you have never been a VP – goodbye. There are exceptions to this, but again it is the 80/20 rule. Again, clients pay me to find them the perfect fit. It is generally way too big of a jump from manager level to VP level, all other things being equal. It works the other way too. If  I’m looking for a manager and you are a VP – goodbye. I know you are qualified to do a manager level role, but it is clear you have grown past. Most clients and recruiters aren’t willing to take the chance that when a VP level position comes along that you won’t be gone. Less than 5 seconds to figure out.
5. Recent Experience. There is some overlap on this one. If I’m searching for someone with international sales experience in the aerospace industry and the last time you held an international sales position in this industry was 20 years ago and since then you have been in retail – goodbye.  I can find people with more relevant experience and that is what my client expects me to do. 5 seconds to do this.
6. Education Like it or not, I will only work with people that have a college education and most of the time a master’s degree. This is mainly because, as I indicated before, I need to find the very best for my clients. I realize an education doesn’t mean by itself that the candidate is the best, but it is one qualifier of many. Also all of my clients require at least a BA.
7. Turnover. If you have had 6 jobs in the last 4 years, or have a track record of high turnover – goodbye. I realize there are good reasons for turnover and that falls into the 20% of the 80/20 rule. I can’t define high turnover, but I know it when I see it. 3 – 5 seconds.
8. Functional resume. I don’t read them. It is obvious when one has a functional resume they are trying to hide something and I’m rarely going to take the time to attempt to figure it out. 1 second.
9. Obvious things such as, spelling errors, poor format, errors in grammar, too long, verbose and rambling. If after reading it I still can’t figure out what you do, goodbye. 5 – 10 seconds
After all this, 80 – 100% have been eliminated. If there are any left, then I will take the time to actually read them in detail.
If this was helpful to you, please pass it along to help others in  your network. Consider adding it to your status on LinkedIn, posting on Twitter, or emailing the link to your network. Please help others if this helped you.


Brad Remillard, an executive recruiter with over 25 years of experience, has conducted over 50,000 interviews and been involved in more than 1,000 executive searches. A CPA and graduate of California State University, Fullerton, Brad previously served as President of CJA Executive Search, which was recognized as one of the top search firms in Southern California. Brad has conducted nationwide searches ranging from Fortune 500 executive vacancies to entrepreneurial companies. His search expertise includes General Management (CEO, COO, GM), Sales and Marketing, Manufacturing and Operations, Accounting, Finance, Human Resources, and Information Systems. Brad Remillard and Barry Deutsch are founding partners of IMPACT Hiring Solutions. 1-866-730-SOAR.
This was reposted with permission of IMPACT Hiring Solutions.

Size Does Matter: Dream Big!

Monday Morning Pep Talk!

How much longer do you want to perform the work you do today? Even if you are in job search mode are you searching for your dream job or are you looking for work?

There is no right answer because each reponse is as individual as our fingerprint. Financial obligations, family responsibilities and priorities change throughout our lives and impact how much we are willing to indulge in career dreams. In the process of doing what we do for a living don’t neglect to do what it takes to fulfill your life. According to the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, in 2013 the average life expectancy for a woman in the United States is 81 years and the average life expectancy for a man is shorter at 76 years, so plan accordingly because time is running out.

Here are five questions for your consideration:

(1)  What career/work would make you excited to wake up on Mondays?

(2)  Can you turn your passion into something you can make a living doing?

(3)  Who can you talk to and move your career dream closer to reality?

(4)  Can you learn more about or pursue your field of interest part-time or online?

(5)  What one step can you take this week to push your dream closer to reality?

I provide these five thought-starter questions because at the end of this week---the same 7 days, 168 hours and 10,080 minutes will pass for all of us. Your career dream will remain just that without you initiating some action.

Don’t kick yourself if you just can’t make a move yet and you feel stuck. There may be a host of complex reasons. Maybe you feel like you don’t deserve to pursue your passion. Some of us are more comfortable in a pain that is familiar than stepping out into an unknown that is more fulfilling. I can recommend a popular older book you might consider checking out of the library, downloading or listening to on audible.com.

Your Own Worst Enemy: Breaking the Habit of Adult Underachievement by Ken Christian.

Personally, I’ve found it is often better to explore career fulfillment in baby steps than throwing everything overboard and starting fresh. When I left corporate America in 2001 as a single mother to become an entrepreneur, I developed a few clients while I still had a full-time job and income. After four years, I found my way back to corporate life in a different profession. However, I’ve known others who suddenly quit their jobs or invested severance packages into a franchise or starting a businesses and become very successful long and short-term.

If you are ready to get off the sidelines of wondering or wishing—“can I make a living doing something I love” and you want to “get in the game” with your dream, then do one thing to push your career dream forward this week. Maybe you make an appointment to discuss your idea with someone if you are taking a few vacation days next week for the 4^th of July holiday in the U.S. If you need an accountability partner, tell someone what you plan to do or post it on your Facebook page. Take that first step toward getting unstuck. I have one last question for you. If not now, when?

Make it a great week!

A Career Lesson from the Media Industry

John H. White lost his job last week. A lot of experienced people lose their jobs every week. I don’t even know John H. White personally, yet, hearing his story made me think about why I began career blogging. White is a Pulitzer prize-winning photographer formerly with the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper for forty-four years. In about twenty seconds management announced the photography department and staff were being_____________ (fill in the blank from one of the words below) walked out and turned the stunned staff of twenty-eight over to human resources to answer questions.

laid-off            furloughed       fired   
reorganized     re-deployed     let go  
realigned     optimized        terminated 
right-sized   re-engineered canned                 

It is the end of an era, and something more of us should think about as we manage our careers. The newspaper's management plans to have their reporters shoot photographs with iPhones. The rapid deployment of technology, the rise of the Internet and the dominance of social media can make many professions obsolete. How many more bank tellers were employed before ATM machines popped up everywhere? When was the last time you visited a full-service travel agency in a brick-and-mortar building? The Bureau of Labor Statistics has bad news for other media workers including newspaper reporters, radio disc jockeys and photojournalists, your jobs are in decline. Consumers are accessing media on their smartphones, online and in other digital formats. After 80 years, Newsweek ended publication of the print magazine and moved to an online-only format.

The same advice guidance counselors give students bound for college is important for experienced workers who are thinking career reinvention. Focus on the STEM professions:

Science           Technology               Engineering                Math

Focusing on careers that have historically been “high touch” is not even a 100% safe bet. I remember when teachers taught children in person in a classroom, complete with desks and those uncomfortable little chairs attached.  Now, students may take classes online from elementary school through a doctoral program. Companies are looking for teachers with experience in Blackboard (and I’m not talking about the one with chalk and erasers). Maybe we will not go back to school to major in civil engineering, however, keeping up with basic technology is within everyone’s grasp. Mastering the components of social media is available in a Saturday non-credit university extension course. There are online tutorials, seminars, and certificate programs at community colleges, short courses through university extension programs or opportunities to expand their talents through volunteering. Every day experienced workers need to think about how keep their skills current and what would be helpful to learn.

Let’s face it with advances in technology, work is being commoditized. With digital tools, customers can utilize self-service from a mobile device or online and the person who answers the phone if there is a question or problem can be 10,000 miles away. Experienced workers, it is important to be open to reinvention and figuring out how you can take the skills you have and think about transferring them to other jobs or industries.

John H. White is probably going to be okay. I read the 68-year-old photojournalist has a philosophy of faith, focus and flight. His Wikipedia biography quotes him as saying, "I'm faithful to my purpose, my mission, my assignment, my work, my dreams. I stay focused on what I'm doing and what's important. And I keep in flight—I spread my wings and do it.” The Sun-Times Media Group should be so fortunate.