The Career Encouragement Blog

Humor for Monday!

The human resources director of a Fortune 500 company was interviewing a young man who had just graduated from college. The director was highly regarded for her advanced recruiting skills -- largely due to her innovative questions, which often revealed more about job seekers than conventional ho-hum questions.

As she wrapped up the interview with the recent college graduate she asked, "If you could have a conversation with someone living or dead, who would you choose?"

The young man, feeling confident about how well the interview had gone so far, answered immediately, "Definitely the living one."

Do you feel mighty today?

If you are ever having a day where you are struggling at work, or feeling small and insignificant, this site may encourage you. Just turn on your speakers, enter your name and feel the power!

Have a great start to your new work week!

Who deserves a flexible schedule? - Part 2

Thanks to Ann Bares for reading yesterday's post about flexible work arrangements and telling me about a recent article in the 2/23/07 Wall Street Journal on "Avoiding the Mommy Track" by Sue Shellenbarger.  (Click here for a link to the article, but note that since WSJ is a subscription paper, the link may not work for you.).

The article tells the experiences of Joyce Bordash, a manager for IBM, who wanted to work part-time while her children were young, but didn't want to compromise her career either.  She outlines several innovative strategies she used to keep her career interesting and rewarding while she worked a reduced schedule.  Some important points to take away from Ms. Bordash's story:

• She considered the needs of her employer: How can a parent cut back at work without skidding onto the Mommy Track? Joyce Bordash didn't want to be marginalized. She also knew that as a mother, she wanted to work part-time. ... she set out to make herself so valuable that her boss would let her call her own shots.
• She developed a niche expertise:  "When I made the decision for a reduced work week, I realized the importance of specialization. I needed to make myself indispensable, to have expertise my management team would recognize and value."
• She stayed focused on what she was trying to accomplish: "As I became increasingly specialized, I became a lot more selective in how I spent my time. I had to let go of the extraneous, general-awareness stuff -- to eliminate the nice-to-know information from the essential knowledge."
• She communicated professionally and proactively with co-workers: "I had to condition my co-workers to separate a 'high-priority' item from a 'time to panic' item. I tried to convey that because I worked a four-day work week, my Friday was like their Saturday. If they wanted me to participate in a business call on a Friday, I would tell them, "I can't do this on Friday, but I could do it on Saturday." And suddenly, they would decide it could wait until Monday."

Ms. Bordash is a great example of how to use win-win thinking to benefit the individual and the organization.  Her track record of successful performance gave her the credibility to propose and seek an alternative work arrangement. Her employer recognized that she was looking to make a contribution and they wisely cleared a path for her to do so. 

Who deserves a flexible schedule?

A few months ago I heard a researcher at the University of Minnesota talking about a survey she did of family friendly policies in Corporate America.  One of her criticisms was that alternative work arrangements (AWA's) such as part-time, flex-time, and telecommuting were typically offered as perks to high performers and weren't widely available to all employees.  It seemed as if she intended for this remark to shock the audience and ignite a fire of social justice against the corporate world.

As an HR professional, I'm not surprised (or moved to an activist stance) by her comment.  I'm well aware that AWA's are only available for performers who have proven themselves.  It's perfectly natural for bosses to be slightly distrustful of workers that routinely fail to perform adequately.  If an employee does not get his work done in an 8-hour day at the office, what is the incentive for a boss to allow him to telecommute?  Employees who desire a flexible schedule need to honestly reflect on their work habits and results and decide how they would answer the question: Can your boss trust you with a flexible schedule? 

The naive criticism about corporate life from the researcher is one more example of the gap between academia and the corporate realm.  In some ways it actually insults employees to treat them as helpless victims of a faceless corporate machine, rather than treating them as agents of change and creative beings who are capable of developing skills, doing great work, and making a positive contribution.  I would find the gap between academia and corporate life discouraging, but since my mission on this blog to to be encouraging, I just tell myself this is a great motivation for me to continue to slug it out in a PhD program so that  one day I can work on applied research that makes a positive difference for workers!

Luck or Hard Work? - Part 2

Last week I posted about Maura O'Neill's research on whether women think it's Luck or Hard Work that helps them move ahead in their career.  Today the Trusted Advisor Blog offered some insightful and in-depth commentary on O'Neill's research that you may also find interesting.  See Charles Green's post here.  He points out an important flaw in O'Neill's finding - which is that she equates connections with luck.  I agree with his thinking in this regard!  As mentioned in prior postings, Politics at Work (i.e., "connections") are a normal part of business culture that must be attended to in order for your career to grow!

The Importance of Work in Our Lives

I believe that work and relationships are two important building blocks on which a satisfying life is built.  They are the arenas in which we experience our greatest opportunities for challenge, satisfaction and growth.  You may be thinking, "Well, I have a job, but besides the paycheck, it's hardly a pillar on which I build my life." 

You may not be experiencing your dream job at this point in your life, but if you need a little encouragement to be grateful for what you have why not stop for a minute and reflect on what your job does provide for you?  Maybe ask yourself how you would feel if you became unemployed tomorrow?  I really like this quote by sociologist William Julius Wilson on the impact of unemployment on people:

“In the absence of regular employment, a person lacks not only a place in which to work and the receipt of regular income but also a coherent organization of the present – that is a concrete system of expectations and goals.  Regular employment provides the anchor for the spatial and temporal aspects of daily life.  It determines where you are going to be and when you are going to be there.  In the absence of regular employment, life, including family life, becomes less coherent.  Persistent unemployment, and irregular employment hinder rational planning in daily life, a necessary condition of adaptation to an industrial economy.”

I like how Wilson points out the invisible aspects of a job that are so beneficial to us - the way it helps us organize time and space in our life.  When you think of it that way, it's easy to see that work really is an important building block for us - even if we aren't in love with our job! 

Looking for your dream job?

I love this article on Dream Jobs that Aren't on the CareerBuilder.com website.  They review the pros and cons of three seemingly glamorous professions: restaurant critic, vineyard owner, and fashion merchandiser.  It's a great reality-check for anyone who has been pining away for more fun and/or more meaning in their work. 

As I've said before, Finding Meaning and Happiness is Work is much more about what we bring to our jobs than it is about what our jobs bring to us.  I wish the CareerBuilder article had profiled other jobs that we tend to think of as glamourous - for example: firefighter/EMT, journalist, disc jockey, detective, business owner, etc.   If you are interested in work and careers and the wide variety of things people do to make a living, I highly recommend Stud Terkel's book Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do. He recounts first-hand interviews with dozens of people across disciplines and professions.  It's a fascinating look at work and American culture.

Do you have a job that others classify as glamourous?  Do you have your own story to tell?  What is the cold, hard reality of it that you think others should know before selecting your profession?  Leave a comment and let us know!

How to Recover from "Overwhelm"

It's Friday!  Are you ready to relax this weekend or are you feeling like a victim of "overwhelm"?  In the article Code O: How to Recover from Overwhelm Susan R. Robinson uses "overwhelm" as a noun - a descriptor for the situation of having "tasks coming at us from all sides, and expectations for our work and personal life that simply cannot be met. "  She suggests several great strategies for dealing with this state of affairs:

• Breathe.  I know - I hate hearing this one too!  I cannot breathe when I am stressed, which is why I am glad she suggested that we:
• Move in slow motion.  Yes - I can do this!  Sitting still I am not so good at, but moving (even if slowly) I can succeed at.
• Make lists and then cross them off.  Oh I love this tip!  I am a compulsive list maker and it never fails to help me restore a semblance of order!

She has several other great strategies to help you bounce back from Overwhelm.  Check out the full article here, and have a great Friday!

Cold, Hard Career Realities

I love this post by David Maister on cold, hard career realities.  Some realities he suggests we pay attention to are:

1. The cold, hard, truth is that you’ve got to look after yourself.
2. You can’t assume that anyone is really looking out for your best interests (in spite of what they may say.)
3. There may be a human resources department in your firm, managers, coaches and a mentoring system. But don’t get fooled. Your career is up to you and you alone.
4. No one will tell you what experience you should be obtaining, let alone help you get it.

(Check out the entire list here.)

Sound harsh?  David acknowledges in his posting the following day that his tone was a bit tough, but stands by his message.  Personally, I think his message isn't tough - it's encouraging.  Why?  Because just like eating candy will give you a quick energy boost and then a crash;  fluffy, feel-good career coaching will give you a temporary burst of inspiration and then a jolt when reality comes crashing home.  Many folks would rather rely on luck rather than Intelligent Career Management but the results are far less predictable, and we don't do our friends and colleagues any favors when we allow them to continue in this pattern.  I think it's far more encouraging, and even more kind, to be truthful with people even if it's not what they want to hear.

Case in point: I have a colleague who is frustrated with her current position. She has held the same job for 4 years and is getting bored.  When she was complaining to me the other day (as she has taken to doing lately), I gently, but truthfully, asked her, "Do you think it's possible your boss is also getting bored with you?"  She was surprised by my question, of course.  I went on to ask her what she was doing to make a contribution, and when was the last time she had developed and implemented a fresh idea for her department?  I suggested maybe her boss was getting tired of having to manage her so closely just to get basic results.  She acknowledged that she hadn't really been working that hard lately and that could be one reason she was feeling disengaged.  I'm not exactly sure where she'll go with this new insight, but it's a step on the right path!

It's possible that you think my questions were rude and confrontational.  The fact is, she thanked me for asking them.  The truth - spoken kindly and in context - is always the most encouraging approach.

What do you think?  Is there a cold, hard career reality you have learned that you would like to encourage others with?  Take some time to leave a comment and let us know!

Luck or Hard Work?

Men think hard work determines success.  Women think it's luck.  So says Maura O'Neill from Berkeley's Haas School of Business.  And she believes this difference in attitude - and not the Opt-Out Revolution - is the real reason women aren't making it to the top fast enough. 

In her recent Forbes article Luck or Hard Work? (membership required - it's free!), O'Neill describes the results of her research on whether people attribute success in life to luck and connections, or to hard work.  Among her findings:

• There is a significant gender perception gap that gets wider the higher you look in the professional hierarchy.
• 12% more men than women attribute success to hard work rather than luck.
• Of men and women who are supervisors or higher, 30% more men than women believe that it is hard work that determines success.
• The gap in perception between men and women is consistent across countries.

Bottom line, according to O'Neill: "Many women think getting to the top job pivots more on luck and connections that on hard work.  In short, the old boy network trumps 60-hour work weeks...If hard work in a corporate setting doesn't pay off as well as a roll of the dice maybe it makes more sense to stop aspiring to deliver the best results for the company at any personal cost.  Or maybe the best decision is to stop working all together."

Personally, having worked in HR for nearly 20 years now, I truly believe that it is hard work that pays off.  In fact I have often quoted Australian entrepreneur Alan Bond's famous statement, "The harder I worked, the luckier I got."  Luck can occasionally open a door, but it will only get you so far.  But I'm not so sure that my definition of luck is a job that requires me to "deliver the best results for the company at any personal cost" anyway.

So maybe the question about that prompted this study (attitudes towards success) was a bit distracting.  Perhaps what we should be asking is what work would women be willing to make personal sacrifices for?  O'Neill acknowledges that women will make more sacrifices when it is their own business, run their own way.  Maybe it's not that we're unwilling to work terrifically hard - maybe we just want to be sure that we can be proud of what we've done when we tell our children about it.

What do you think?  Working moms (and everyone else!) please take a minute to let us know!