Archive: November, 2008

The old print journalists got their reader feedback through snail mail. You’d have to be a pretty ticked off reader to go to that trouble. But with the convenient Feedback buttons located on everything they write, bloggers can now feel the hate instantly.

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When you write a blog for as long as I have, you learn to grow a pretty thick hide. Now that readers have only to click a button to tell you how much they hate you, you’re pretty much a sitting duck when it comes to criticism. At first, I didn’t think I’d ever get used to it, but I have. I have become the Teflon Blogger at this point.

Some e-mails I receive, however, still manage to shock me in that the person writing so clearly missed the point of what I was actually saying in my blog. Still other e-mails make me want to go out and buy a bulletproof vest. Here are some of my “favorites”:

Toni is a sexist bully. After I referred to my husband’s habit of not closing cabinet doors to illustrate a point about people who don’t complete tasks in the workplace, I received this e-mail:

“I am very tired of women hating on men. Do you feel better about yourself by bashing your husband? Honestly, if you pick losers, I think that says more about you than it does your significant other. Secondly, bashing the male population does not make the world a better place; in fact it makes it a worse place to live for all involved. I don’t think you see how negative comments like this work their way into the self perceptions of young people.  That negative self image rots their view of themselves. Furthermore, I am disgusted to think that I subscribe to a male bashing publication that quite honestly is most likely all male in the first place. So that leads me to wonder if you are qualified to be in the position you are in, do you not understand who your audience is? If you ever bring up the argument the same money for the same job, ask yourself if you are truly qualified for the position you are so lackingly filling.”

Funny, he refers to my husband as a “loser,” and yet he calls me a male basher. I thought about referring this guy to one of my past blogs, Lessons my big brothers taught me, but I’d honestly prefer that he didn’t hang around anymore.

Toni spelled a word wrong! I wrote a piece about the emotional phases one goes through after a layoff, using a still-sensitive experience of my own as an example. The piece contained a typo, from which one of my readers made this leap of logic: “Apparently the company from which you were laid off  made a good choice in letting you go.” Yeah, because we all know how corporations like to ferret out those who are capable of hitting the wrong letter on a keyboard.

Toni’s in the wrong line of work. Another reader had a problem with my advice and suggested that I seek other employment, “like being a garbage collector.” I decided to do that very thing and, thus, this list was born.

Toni just sucks. One e-mail came with one little question: “And you get paid to write this crap?” Not enough, my friend, not enough.

And the winner is… My all-time favorite e-mail arrived a day or two after my mug shot began appearing on my blog. It read simply and eloquently, “You have an ugly face.” I e-mailed the gentleman back, thanking him for his keen observation and wishing him good luck in the fourth grade. He responded with “I was just kidding.” What, he couldn’t have settled for a knock-knock joke?

Is a layoff in your future? It might be time to sniff out clues that might protect your own interests, as you can be certain your employers are protecting their own.

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This is a guest post from Deb Perelman of TechRepublic’s sister site ZDNet.

Before a company goes under, just about everybody knows it. And before everybody knows it, a bunch of people are already whispering in the corridors and around the water cooler, certain they see the writing on the wall. But what about you? Can you read the clues sprinkled like breadcrumbs down the cubicle aisles?

The benefits to the common worker of seeing the doom in your company’s future before they get around to mentioning that, oh, paychecks are running a few days behind this week, are immeasurable: First of all, the sooner one has the inkling that their organization isn’t doing so hot, the sooner they can get their resume in the hands of friends and former coworkers, in hopes to make an exit before the pink slips are shipped. Second, it is a lot easier to find a job if you already have one — or in this case, while you already have one. Finally, say you’re in an IT group of 1,000 at a company that has decided to offshore the whole shebang (there are almost too many examples to choose from, sadly) in a desperate cost-cutting measure one day. Rather than be in that job market flooded with techies with experience similar to yours, you could be ahead of the rush, and hopefully in the front of the line for the best positions.

Here are some of the most common things to look out for. Do any one of these mean you should go into a full-out panic and take the first job you can get? Of course not. But if some of them sound all too familiar, it might be time to sniff out further clues that might protect your own interests, as you can be certain your employers are protecting their own.

• It’s no longer focused on what was once its business. Straying from the business’s main product or service is a common occurrence when a company is struggling. You work for a widget manufacturer that’s suddenly making outside real estate investments? You’re absolutely right to find that fishy.
• Their customer base is limited. Say your company only sells their widgets to one or two buyers; if either of their accounts are lost to bankruptcy or the buyer is opting for a competitor’s widgets instead, your company may struggle to stay afloat until they can find a new one, if they find one at all.
• It hasn’t bounced back from its last downsizing. If two years after laying off 50 percent of the workforce, your company is still making the same number of widgets because employees are still doing the jobs of four people, you’re right to feel a little unsettled.

Legal and HR experts are seeing an increase in the number of noncompete lawsuits filed by companies.

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In the present touch economic environment, it seems that more and more companies are taking precautions to protect their business. According to workforce.com:

As many executives are taking extra measures to protect their companies during the economic downturn, employment attorneys are seeing an increase in litigation around trade secrets. Specifically, employers are being more aggressive about suing former employees regarding noncompete agreements, attorneys say.

In the past, the majority of litigation around noncompetes has involved key executives or salespeople at the firms. But now, [experts are] seeing more litigation involving junior and midlevel employees. Even in these tough economic times, top-performing employees can be offered positions elsewhere, and companies want to be prepared for that.

This could become a very dicey situation in light of the increasing numbers of employee layoffs. Some people could not only lose their jobs but consequently be kept from accepting new positions.

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If you don’t learn how to deal with pressures at work, you could fall victim to what we call a Personal Implosion. Here’s how to avoid that.

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Are there days when you feel like the building in this video? Like you’re just going to collapse in upon yourself in a big heap? It’s not a surprising feeling. Here we are, in the midst of one of the worst economic environments in modern history. The new job perk? Just having one.

One of the offshoots of this poor outlook is that people are staying put in jobs that they don’t necessarily like. This is good in one sense because it forces people to develop coping strategies and make adjustments that can serve them well in all areas of their lives.

It’s bad in another sense because those who can’t adjust often fall victim to Personal Implosion. This is when you take all of the aggravations of your workplace and internalize them because you don’t want to tick anyone off. At some point, you just emotionally collapse into yourself, while everything around you goes on as normal.

OK, so you won’t exactly end up as a big pile of dust on the ground, but you’d be surprised at the physical problems stress can cause. Extreme stress can cause nausea, backaches, headaches, muscle tension, weight loss, weight gain, chest pain, and even frequent colds.

There are some workplace pressures you can’t eliminate short of just walking out, like if you work in a roomful of knife-yielding maniacs. But there are some you can control. You can control the burdens that are placed on you without coming across as someone who’s not a team player. Here’s how.

Be good at just a few things, rather than being just average at many.

Remember that you have the right to say no to any requests — it’s just a matter of how you say it. Contrary to what you might believe, people don’t really respect the people who’ll take on any task, no matter how large or small. They’ll just come to think of you as a receptacle for tasks they don’t want to do or have not gotten around to doing.

If you say no, be polite but firm. Avoid being wishy-washy too. Saying, “I’ll try to get this done,” does not do anyone any favors.

If your boss who has already thrown 800 tasks at you tries to throw toss another one on the pile, ask earnestly which of the tasks have priority. That way, you’re letting her know that you have other balls in the air, but you’re also getting information that will help you triage the tasks.

These are just several ideas. Anybody have any other suggestions that have worked for you?

With companies coming and going and employees switching jobs more, it’s difficult to keep track of your references.

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Earlier this month, I received an e-mail from a reader who expressed frustration at a problem that is pretty common these days. What do you do if the companies listed on your resume have been purchased by another company, are no longer in existence at all, or have had such drastic personnel changes that those who could verify your employment are no longer there? Here’s the e-mail:

“In today’s world, companies buy and sell each other at an unbelievable rate and you can’t get information, but there’s another hazard that may or may not be related to this phenomenon. The at times astronomical rate at which people move from one company to another also causes problems.

In my last job I had, I was there for over five years. I looked at my resume - almost every other place I have worked, the people for whom I worked are long gone from that company. Sometimes they just left; other times, the company was purchased by someone else. Sure, I can use one or two of them as a reference, but they don’t really know my current work habits because they haven’t worked with me for X number of years.

What is your advice for this? I have to put down that the manager is no longer working there, maybe add a note asking them to please contact HR for the company to verify employment. But I’m not sure that’s the right way to go about it, with or without the ‘please contact HR’ bit. Is what I am putting down OK?”

In short, yes, ask them to contact HR. Your dates of employment are all they’re likely to get anyway. Your note, however, brought up another issue. In the old days, one could list a former co-worker as a work reference by giving that person’s extension number at the old company. But people move around so much anymore, it’s hard to guarantee they’ll still be there to get the call.

You could try to keep a database of people you used to work with and for and update it on what, anymore, could be an hourly basis. But this might just be a job for a social network. While you’re working for a company and after you leave, you should try to add as many of your co-workers as possible to your list of contacts. The benefit of social networks like LinkedIn or Facebook is that people will update their own status fairly dependably, and they’re easier to contact to get their permission to be used as a reference.

Got a career scenario of your own? E-mail it to us here. We’ll post it anonymously, and see what kind of feedback your peers have to offer.

It’s never a good thing to be let go from a job. But, believe it or not, some ways are better than others.

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This is a guest post from Deb Perelman of TechRepublic’s sister site ZDNet. You can read her ZDNet blog The IT Grind, or subscribe to the RSS feed.

I know what you’re probably thinking: What a ridiculous question. There is no gentle way to hand out a pink slip. There is no way to be told that “your services are no longer needed” but “here is the number to our local unemployment office” and/or “an explanation of why we won’t be offering severance packages this round” that doesn’t sting. Want to do it better? Don’t do it at all.

But, it is hard to argue that there aren’t better and worse ways to break bad news. Countless layoff horror stories abound- from IMs to being informed by security that you are just a “visitor” now and disabled network connections-suggesting that even the so-called smartest companies could use a little tutorial in how to break bad news with respect and tact.

Jason Calcanis, on the day his company, Mahalo, shed 10 percent of their staff, shared lessons he’d learned laying off employees in the past:

1. Don’t spread layoffs over multiple rounds: Rounds of layoffs is a “horrible idea”, says Calcanis, because it creates massive fear and uncertainty inside of your organization.
2. Lay people off in a group, not individually: Calcanis found that telling people one-by-one was not more humane.
3. Don’t sugarcoat the rationale: Be 100 percent honest and upfront about why you chose to keep some people and not others.
4. Cutting jobs is better than cutting salaries: Rather than angering everyone in the organization by hurting all of their bottom lines, cut a few salaries altogether and leave the people you want to keep as happy as possible.
5. Give severance even if you don’t have to, and freelancer work, where you can: Be as generous as you can be, said Calcanis, and don’t forget these people when you start hiring again.
6. Lay people off at the end of the day: No need to keep people around until the end of the day or week. When they’re done, let them leave.
7. Get over it and get back to work: The reality is, everyone else needs to get back to work.

How about you? If you’ve ever been laid off, how do you think it could have been handled better?

Having an employee who can complete a task and tie up loose ends is a godsend to bosses. Are you that type of person?

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There are two types of people in this world: Those who close drawers after they get something out and those who don’t. My husband is the latter. That man cannot close a cabinet door to save his life. It’s like his thinking goes as far as taking care of the task he is performing — getting that box of cereal out of the cupboard — but then halts responsibility directly after the task has been accomplished, leaving the cupboard door completely open. I know that if this is the worst marital strife I have to deal with, I should count my blessings, but FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, IT’S AGGRAVATING!

OK, so what does this have to do with one’s career? Well, in my opinion, in the average workplace, you’ll find those who are closers, and those who are leave-openers (oh, give me a break, I couldn’t think of better term). I’m not using the term “closer” in the sense it’s used in the sales biz — as someone who can close a sale. Or as aggressively as it’s addressed in the play and movie Glengarry Glen Ross (”Coffee is for closers!”).

I’m referring to someone who, basically, can be presented with a task, perform that task, and then tie up all loose ends. If you work with a closer, you appreciate it, even though sometimes you might not even know it. They just fix things and don’t leave things in a a state of upheaval once they’re done.

Closers are a boss’s dream. You assign a duty and then bim bam bang it’s done, and you don’t have to worry about tracking down straggling details. Having a lack of closers on one’s team is what sometimes gives birth to micromanagement.

You can sometimes manually encourage an environment of closers by setting specific completion dates for every duty, no matter how small. If you’re in a meeting and someone who’s out to impress the boss volunteers to “put that together,” ask on the spot for a due date. Make them go on record. For some people, being on record won’t matter, but for some it will.

Closing is not just a productivity matter — it’s also a driving force behind innovation. I’ve been in meetings where great ideas have been tossed out (really, I have!), but then when there’s no follow-through, the great idea loses momentum and dies quietly on the vine. Don’t let that happen –be a closer!

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Is your resume basically just a list of your daily job responsibilities? Prospective employers are more interested in the results you achieved in your job tenure. Here’s how to retool your resume to reflect that.

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It sounds kind of harsh, but the purpose of a resume is not so a prospective employer can see what a great person you are. What an employer is looking for is what you can do for his company.

The best way to illustrate that is to make known the results you realized at your previous positions. For example, everyone’s happy that you have 700 certifications. And such accomplishments do indicate that you are a trainable person — something employers also like. But an employer really wants to see how those certifications improved your job performance and enabled you to achieve results that were valuable to the company.

Here are a couple more tips on how to sell yourself in regard to your accomplishments, and thus value, to the company.

Don’t just list your job responsibilities. This is a pretty common practice. But by merely listing your duties at your current and previous jobs, you’re not saying you did them well or that your doing them produced any tangible results. Also, you’re then asking the person reading your resume to connect the dots between what you used to do and what you can do for them. Let’s say one of your current duties is to implement software upgrades. Responsibilities alone won’t sell you to employers because everyone has them and is expected to execute them. It’s results employers are looking for. How much time or money was saved or made when you did your job well? Did you meet or exceed all goals? Be specific.

Don’t list your dates of employment first. Most resume templates I have seen over the years do this. But think about it — how important is it to an employer to see the months and years you were employed by a company before you even talk about what you did there? Besides, you can never predict what an employer is going to infer from those dates. Some people are impressed by longevity, while others see it as complacency. List your accomplishments first, then add the years of service afterwards.

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As we learned from the Enron scandal, mandated accounting regulations often create IT jobs. Will that be the case with the latest financial crisis?

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No one really knows in what ways the recent financial crisis will affect the world of IT. Some experts are already predicting how some technology initiatives will be affected — you’ll likely see a stall in the implementation of new enterprise mobile apps, and there could be a pricing war in the SaaS (Software as a Service) arena — but in a silver lining kind of way, IT jobs may increase in some areas.

We’re all familiar with the regulations that came about due to the Enron financial scandal (Sarbanes-Oxley and that ilk). Some experts are predicting that there will be a slew of new regulations meant to curtail fancy lending practices of financial institutions. And is often the case with regulations, it will fall to IT to enforce them through technology systems.

In other words, the country is clamoring for a new wave of compliance, and IT pros are the only folks who can make it happen. Now, of course, this is both good news and bad news. Good news is the job opportunities that will arise, but bad for the people who loathed implementing Sarbanes-Oxley safeguards with every inch of their being.

And, according to InfoWorld, the new rounds of regulations resulting from the convoluted lending practices will be much more complex than Sarbanes-Oxley.

As these financial instruments were repackaged and resold, investors lost the ability to track what exactly was in each offering and what the actual risk was; even those trading in such instruments weren’t exactly sure what they were selling or buying. To prevent a recurrence of such murky instruments will require transparency in how companies and what they trade are linked together. That in turn requires increased use of auditing and tracking applications and the business processes behind them.

In a perfect world, if you interview for a job but don’t get it, you would get a letter letting you know. But in many cases, this doesn’t happen. Here’s why.

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A TechRepublic member recently e-mailed me and, boy, is he steamed:

What I would ask of ALL EMPLOYERS, is to have the professional courtesy to tell the interviewee of his status in the process; in other words, tell them when they have been disqualified or are no longer being considered for the position! Don’t just leave the poor slob hanging…

He has hopes and dreams, and has put a lot of time and effort into applying to this job. He’s done the research on the company, he’s pressed his best suit, he’s re-arranged his personal schedule to accommodate your only availability, etc…. He deserves the same consideration in ‘rejection’ he gets when there’s a possible ‘acceptance’…

I’m going through this very scenario right now. I’ve made it to the ‘final three’ in the interviewing process and all of a sudden, it’s like I’ve hit one of those ‘dead zones’ Verizon scares us with in their commercials.

I’m sitting here in THOUSANDS of dollars of debt in education loans, waiting for my “I’ve made it moment.” chewing my fingernails to the quick…AND NO ONE EVER CALLS AGAIN!!!!!HOW FRUSTRATING IS THAT?!?!

I agree that all interview candidates should receive some kind of notification that a job has been filled, especially if the search had been narrowed down to three people and you were one of those. And I’ll address that in a moment, but let me talk about the fingernail problem first. I know waiting is frustrating. You’re talking to the biggest Type A in the world. The trick is to fill the time you spend “actively” waiting with other pursuits. Put out a gazillion job feelers so that you’re not left sitting by the phone waiting for that one call. You won’t be able to change the behavior of the employers, but you can alleviate your reactions to it.

Now on to the employers: Bigger and more savvy companies (those with HR departments) often make it a policy to send out letters letting job candidates know if they didn’t get the job. Sometimes they even do this for people who have sent resumes but did not get an interview.

Unfortunately, some companies just don’t take that extra step. Why not? Three reasons:

Laziness. A lot of people don’t cross their t’s and dot their i’s in anything work-related, much less put appropriate closure on a hiring situation. It’s a real shame. They’re also hurting themselves because the next time they have a job opening people may be less likely to apply because of the previous treatment.

Cowardice. Many people are uncomfortable delivering bad news, especially when the purpose of it is telling someone they didn’t, in some way, measure up. I can understand the feeling, but if you want the manager job, you have to buck up on things like this.

Slyness. Some managers just want to leave the door open as long as possible. You could be the second or third choice for a job, and the hiring manager is waiting to see if the first candidate accepts the job offer. If that candidate doesn’t accept, then he can offer you the job. But he doesn’t want to tell you in the beginning that you might have the job if his first choice doesn’t pan out.

I would be interested in finding out from hiring managers why they don’t notify everyone they interview on the status of the job.

Got a career scenario of your own? E-mail it to us here. We’ll post it anonymously, and see what kind of feedback your peers have to offer.