The Career Encouragement Blog

The Need for Encouragement

I can totally accept that there are times when I am irrelevant.  But it's also nice to be reminded that the work I do is necessary.  

The other evening DH and I were puttering in the yard.  He was watering the 480 annuals I planted last week when a middle-aged man who was strolling down our street, paused, stared, and then yelled, "They'll never grow!"  My husband was a bit taken aback at the force of this unsolicited opinion, and unsure exactly how to respond chuckled politely and said, "I beg your pardon?"  "They'll NEVER grow," the stranger repeated emphatically.  Then he put his head down and hurried on his journey.  DH and I shrugged at each other and went back to work.

Now I realize that winter was long and cold this year, and that spring has been late to arrive to these parts.  In fact, some parts in the metro area had frost as late as last week.  So maybe my investment in annuals was a bit ambitious this year.  But still...to yell at a stranger like that?

I can only assume that some how, in some way, this poor man has recently been missing out on the great joys of living.  Perhaps he has lost a loved one, or received an unwelcome diagnosis.  On the other hand, it's possible he thought he was being helpful.  Perhaps he's a master gardener and he saw us doing something wrong and thought he was helping us out with his dire prophesies.  Or maybe he's just a poor old crank who never had the chance to do good work and be appreciated for it.   Maybe no one ever taught him that one of the most predictable roads to happiness is to a) develop your talents; and b) use them to make a contribution to others. 

Either way, clearly he needs encouragement.  I better get busy!

Sharing Hotel Rooms with Co-Workers?

Apparently it is very common for academic professionals (both students and professors) to room together at conferences in order to save costs.  In fact, it's considered bad form to pay extra for your own room because then you are denying a poor student with less resources the opportunity to share expenses with you. 

Whoa! 

This is a bit of a shocker to me after nearly 20 years in the corporate world where I have always had my own hotel room when I traveled on business.  In talking with some of my colleagues I have learned that more and more companies are asking employees (at least lower grade level employees) to share rooms in order to reduce costs associated with business travel. 

Again I say, Whoa!

I am against sharing rooms with colleagues for the following reasons:

1. People are vulnerable when they sleep.  They may talk in their sleep, they may walk in their sleep, they may drool or do other unpleasant things that they don't want co-workers to know about.  Shared sleeping space (with someone other than an intimate) increases the normal vulnerability associated with sleep-time.
2. Employees who share a hotel room with a colleague are always "on."  They never get the downtime that is so essential to being a productive worker for an 8- or 10- or 12-hour day.
3. There is no way to effectively manage a roommate selection process. If employees are allowed to choose, invariably someone will feel "left out" (sound like high school instead of the workplace?).  If the company assigns roommates, a few bad pairings are inevitable (see #1 above about vulnerability).

To my way of thinking, the costs simply do not outweigh the downsides of asking co-workers to share hotel rooms. 

What do you think?  Am I neurotic?  A Prude?  Or just a Sensible HR Lady? (ooh - a new blog identity, perhaps!!) ;-)

Job Search Rule #30 - Accept that Fact that Sometimes Your Skills are Irrelevant

Last summer my family took a road trip across the country.  We drove through thousands of miles of prairie land.  At times we would go for hours on two-lane rural roads.  We would go entire days without seeing shopping malls or suburban developments.  At night we stayed in small motels frequented by truckers, bikers, and a few other sight-seeing families.  During the day, our only contact with civilization might be a road-side gas station with a small selection of cold beverages and the obligatory rack of key chains by the cash register.

During this time I had no access to e-mail or voice mail.  And as the week droned on, I had a remarkable thought as we whizzed by an endless hayfield.  "I am irrelevant here."  Okay, maybe not me personally, because all humans have worth and value in the eyes of God.  But the work that I spend my days doing is SO very irrelevant here.  These folks do not care one bit about my blog, about career assessments, about organizational design, or about cross-functional training.  They are singularly focused on getting the crop in and preparing for winter.  The skills I have are of no use to them in these pursuits. Therefore, while they are likely perfectly friendly people who would be kind and helpful if I needed it, they are not going to go out of their way to seek me out to befriend me or to "network."  We're not a match, so to speak.

This same phenomenon happens occasionally in the job search.  It may be possible that a candidate comes to me with an incredible skill set, a strong work history, and a great personality. But if his skills are irrelevant to my needs, I simply can't spend a lot of time on him. I will always take the time to encourage him whenever possible, but I need to keep working toward the match. 

Not being a match is not necessarily a bad thing.  Once I got over how strange it felt to be irrelevant, I found myself able to relax much more and enjoy myself.  I found that I liked being in a situation where my skills and work history didn't matter, and what others around me were doing was much more important.  It was interesting to watch people engaged in their work and appreciate that I didn't know how to do (or need to do) what they were doing.  It made me unexplainably happy to think of so many people in the world working productively to keep it all going - I truly felt gratitude for my fellow man.

So here's my point if you are in the middle of a job search: don't be afraid to acknowledge that you may be irrelevant for some jobs that you are tempted to go for.  You may have all the skills in the world, but if you are not a match for a particular job, learn to let go of wanting that job, and step back and admire the people who can do it.  I suspect that you will find that you appreciate your fellow man more, and you will free yourself up to find the place where you are a match.

Encouragement for Friday - The Law of the Garbage Truck

Wow!  How did a whole week go by with no blog posts?  It was partly taken up with helping my little family of 4 recover from the plague that hit us on a rotating basis 2 weeks ago (see HR Wench to learn just how awful  this plague is!); it was partly taken up with working on my Plan B; a marvelous part of the week was squandered in the garden where I planted 480 annuals to complement the evergreens and perennials (glorious 2 days in the sun!); and the rest of the time was frittered away shuttling the kids to soccer games and trying to keep everyone fed.  So here is my humble offering for this last day of the work week, thanks to my friend Kay:

The Law of the Garbage Truck

 

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.

 

So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost caused an accident and sent us to the hospital!' This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'

 

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, full of disappointment and rage. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't pick up their garbage and spread it to other people in your life, whether at work, at home, or to people that you don't even know on the streets.

 

Always remember that good people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so..... Love the people who treat you right and don't dwell on the ones who don't.

Friday Humor!

This one is such a great pick-me-up for Friday that I just have to repeat it.  Enjoy!

Carnival of HR!

It seems we HR types are a curious bunch.  In true blogging spirit we are asking and answering questions all over the place, and challenging our readers to ask and answer as well.  There's an African proverb that says "The one who asks questions doesn't lose his way."  If that's the case, than this month's offering is evidence that we are all well on the way!

Deb at 8 Hours and a Lunch leads off with the question Why does HR stink?" Ann Bares at CompForce picks up the theme of "stink" with "Do we stink at pay communication?"  John Agno at Coaching Tip has some ideas to address concerns about how well HR is performing overall and offers several questions to help you figure out if your CEO and HR have the same priorities.  Jon Ingham chimes in with "What can we all learn from Google?"

Once we get the HR group straightened out, we're ready to tackle talent management for the rest of the company, right? Ryan at World at Work wants to know is "talent" merely the word of the day...or is it the word of the decade?  He's joined by Alice Snell at Taleo who asks "Why talent management now?" Not to be outdone, Wayne, the Cranky Middle Manager, jumps in with What War for Talent? 

After we address Wayne's concerns we should have no trouble recruiting good people to good jobs.  Jackie over at Consult Cameron has a handle on the talent pool out there because she is currently helping a group of young people get ready for their upcoming job search.  She answers your questions about "What are the differences and similarities for Generations X and Y?"  Michael Haberman at HR Observations has some ideas about what to look for in candidates and asks and answers his own question - Enthusiasm! Should you hire for it?  Meanwhile, Maren at Fistful of Talent has some cautionary words about the hazards of title inflation and asks "what's in a name?"

As we bring all that great talent in the door, we'll want to make sure the policies are clean.  Jon at the Employers' Law Blog asks us to consider both the legal and human considerations of policies in The Softer Side of Employment Law.  Susan Heathfield at the Human Resource Blog answers the question why legislated paid sick days may not be a win-win after all. and Lary Crews at TrendWatcher answers your questions about how telecommuting affects employee morale and productivity. 

Speaking of policies, Kris Dunn at HR Capitalist exposes how dangerous the simple question "You're with us, right?"  can be in his posting about the proposed Employee Free Choice Act.  And speaking of things that are dangerous, Nurse Ratched relates a very scary story of workplace violence and explains why she asked her HR Director to "please don't stop needling me."

But policies are only the beginning.  Then the real fun begins as we help people grow as performers and develop their careers.  Dan McCarthy at the Great Leadership Blog was inspired by a question on the ASTD website and writes about great leadership development on the cheap.  Wally Bock at Three-Star Leadership has some thoughts about this complex endeavor and wonders Can leadership development be simplified into a step-by-step schematic?

Of course, as we invest in developing all these people, we want to make sure we are developing and rewarding the right things.  In his Last Lecture, (NOTE - Beg, borrow or steal or otherwise come up with 72 minutes to watch this video!!) Randy Pausch says "when there's an elephant in the room, introduce it." Jake Flanagin at Maximize Possibility introduces a pachyderm when he asks "Are your top performers really top performers?"

Whew!  All this work to manage talent is making us tired! Lisa at HR Thoughts wants to know how good leaders can sleep at night when there are business problems to resolve.  Nina Simosko offers some relevant insights on this same topic when she asks "What can leaders learn from Marion?" 

And bringing us home with one final question, Guatam Ghosh wants to know how often do employers fail to analyze attrition data to improve retention?  He's got a detailed slide show to help you think through this important topic.

Happy Carnivaling!  The next carnival will be hosted by Michael Moore at the PA Employment Law Blog.

 

Great Thought To Start the Week

Almostgotit has a great posting on coping when we feel insecure.  Okay - she called the posting something else, but the essence is on pulling ourselves together and moving forward even when we feel incapable.  She says:

Target Moments are what we have when we forget that everyone else is the same as us, scared to death much of the time and desperately wanting to be loved.  Remembering this is even better than thinking of the audience sitting in their underwear.  Generally speaking, no one really has it together any more than we do, and we’re all just bumbling along best we can.  This includes 100% of those well-dressed, efficient-looking EMPLOYED people, including those who might possibly consider hiring us.

Read on to learn about how using the "Schmuck Theorem" can pull you through this insecurity...then go on and have a great Monday!

Following My Own Advice

At this time in my life, part of my career is my work as a PhD student.  I recently applied for a summer funding opportunity in my department that I thought I was a shoe-in for.  My Advisor told me that she felt my application was very competitive, and she wrote a glowing letter of recommendation for me.  Last week I received the news that the funding went to someone else.  I'm not proud of my reaction, but the truth is that my immediate response was to cry "Foul!" - that underhanded politics were clearly at work.  I moved on from that attitude quickly to, "They just didn't understand my application because clearly I am the most qualified."

I was down in a funk for about a day and finally pulled it together.  After all, I am the Career Encourager.  So what would I advise me to do in this situation?  I began reading my past postings.  There is some good stuff there!  I've written before on what to do when you don't get the job.  I said it's important to be gracious and to accept the fact that if it's not a match on both sides then it's just not a good match.  I've also written about how if you don't get something you wanted, then maybe you didn't want it after all.  Here's the conclusion I've come to in my current circumstances:

First, I'm not going to second guess whether my application was good enough, if I could have worked harder/longer on it, or phrased things differently.  My Advisor reviewed it and said it was competitive. She's helped me write winning applications in the past, so I am going to accept her judgment on this one.

Next, I am going to run from the tendency to be suspicious and question the "politics" of the decision.  I've been on enough committees in my career to know that the criteria for what makes a "right decision" varies depending on the context.  Sometimes the right decision is the one that will have the most grass roots support.  Sometimes the right decision is the one the executive unilaterally deems is right.  It all depends on context.

Third, I'm going to humbly accept that in this case I am not a match. In hiring, often the right decision has to do with which candidate is a match for a particular context, not necessarily who has 3% more skills and is therefore "most qualified."  Those of you familiar with university funding procedures know that the concept of "match" is important in this arena as well.  Funders usually have very specific goals that go beyond funding students with the strongest academic record or the most experience.  There are a variety of reasons why the funding is spread around.  In this case, I was not the candidate who was the best match for the funder's goals.  I don't like it, but it's the truth.

Finally, I'm going to move on.  The best way to overcome a disappointment is to get busy on Plan B.  When I think about it, my whole career has been a combination of Plan B's and Plan C's with the occasional Plan A thrown in.  Overall I am pretty satisfied with how things are turning out, so I'm going to get busy with Plan B for my summer, and have a good time with it.  :-)

Surviving Economic Downturns

Last week I talked about the career value of economic downturns.  I shared information from the employer's side of the table so that employees can understand what goes into a layoff effort and take steps to protect themselves. This week Workforce.com has a great article further explaining how organizations can think through layoffs strategically - they advise employers to handle a recession with care.  It also offers great insights that can help you think through how you are handling your career. 

The Workforce.com article makes several great points - two that I want to highlight are:

1. First, a savvy organization will recognize that when other companies are doing layoffs, it can be a great time to pick up new talent in preparation for the long-predicted global talent shortage as this decade comes to a close.  This means that if you are a talented player who unfortunately gets caught up in a bad layoff situation, you have a chance to land in a more strategic organization who is using the economic downturn to grow their ranks rather than slash them.
2. Secondly, the article reiterates the important point that in a layoff situation, poor performers will usually go first.  As one boss said,  "I’m not going to let the high salaries go...I’m going to look at the lowest performers." So it's really important that you don't rest on your past efforts, but you assess if you can truly consider yourself a "high performer" in your current role. 

In my line of work I run a lot of search committees and I am privileged to hear what hiring managers and executives have to say about candidates on a regular basis.  Despite the looming threat of a recession, and HR Magazine's recent prediction that 2008 will be the biggest year for layoffs this decade, I remain convinced of the following:

• There is no shortage of need for good strong talent in the workforce today - great career opportunities abound!
• It is not that difficult to be a star performer in an interview.  Sadly - from the employer perspective - there is not a deep talent pool to draw from for most jobs. 
• Many people who have the tactical skills to do a job fall down on the soft skills - self presentation, interview savvy, interpersonal skills, etc.
• There are abundant resources to help you develop these skills - three favorites are: Ask A Manager (who better to learn from than someone who makes hiring decisions all day long?), Evil HR Lady (she's not really evil, and she has a lot of good insight to help you in your job search), and Awareness - Choices - Change by Jackie Cameron (she's a development coach, but a lot of her advice relates to the job search). 

It's not always easy, but with thoughtful planning and effort you CAN have a great career no matter what is going on in the economy!

It's Okay to Move on When You Don't Have a Match

Back in January, I posted about a career lesson I learned from dating.  Here's another random lesson I picked up along the way...

Many years ago I briefly dated an athletic, academic fellow with a slightly quirky personality.  Let's call him Hal.  Hal's quirks included that he had a minimal sense of humor - he rarely found things laugh-out-loud funny - and he had a tendency to think he was right about most things.  I, on the other hand, love to laugh.  I really appreciate a good sense of humor in the tough times as well as the good times. 

Hal didn't laugh at many of the things I laughed at, but he had a redeeming quality - he loved to dance.  I don't know what the options are for women who are in the dating scene these days, but 'back in my day' it seemed that there weren't a lot of guys who would admit to enjoying dancing (maybe I hung out in the wrong places?)  Anyway, Hal was an exceptionally good dancer and loved to organize groups to go hear bands and dance.   

So Hal and I began dating.  We connected rather intensely on a couple of things at an academic level, and we both loved to dance.  Not a perfect relationship, but definitely better than some other relationships I had  seen. Then an incident occurred where Hal revealed a fatal flaw that caused me to break up with him. Hal had an accident that cause him to lose 50% of the sight in one eye.  It seems he was holding a BB gun and for some reason decided to hold the barrel of the gun to his eye.  The gun randomly discharged a BB into his eye; hence the loss of sight.  I quit seeing him pretty soon thereafter. 

A few of my acquaintances chided me for breaking up with him right after a disabling accident - they said I was being harsh, and it wasn't "cool" to leave someone in their time of need.  But I felt differently.  I've always been a rather pragmatic person, so my approach to dating was never to just hang out and have fun forever.  I was dating because I expected to marry someday and share a lifelong commitment.  I didn't want to spend a lot of time an energy on a relationship that ultimately would make me and the other person unhappy.  And when I heard about Hal's accident I knew I could never marry him. I took gun safety class in high school.  The number one rule of gun safety is to always treat every gun as if it is [say it with me now] LOADED.  I simply couldn't trust a man with such poor judgment as to hold a gun to his eye and look down the barrel to be the father of my children. I would never feel safe leaving them alone with their dad!  When I put it all together - no laughter, always needing to be right, and poor judgment, I knew that the fact that he could dance, and the fact that he "needed me at this time" simply wasn't enough to make me stay in the relationship.   

So here's the career lesson...I have often talked with people who are unhappy in their job and want to leave, but "the company is going through some changes, and my boss is really relying on me." This happens at small companies when there are few resources to get the job done, and at large companies when an employee wants to move to another department, but his boss wants to hang on to him.  Essentially, they tell me they are staying in their job because they would feel guilty leaving.  Guilt is never a good foundation for a relationship - not for romantic relationships, and not for professional relationships.

If you are unhappy in your job, and you know that long term it is not going to be a match for your needs, don't feel guilty about moving on.   Of course, that's not to say you should jump ship immediately without making sure you are going to a better situation.  In my case with Hal, I firmly felt it was better to be single and "alone" rather than connected with someone whose judgment I could not respect. In the case of work, this means you need to consider your salary, benefits, training you are receiving, network you are building etc.  If, for example you hate your job, but you are building skills that will help you achieve your future goals, you may want to stick around.  Or if your boss knows you are considering other opportunities and says he needs you and offers you a decent retention bonus to stay through the end of the year, you may decide that it's worth it to stick around.  On the other hand, if the money, benefits and training don't stack up and you are only doing it because you feel guilted into it by a needy boss whose judgment you cannot respect, then it's okay to move on if you don't have a match!