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| Volume 9, Issue 7 |
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In This Issue:
 Top 10 job search & interview mistakes [out-going employees should avoid]
The equity factor at work
Smart presentations: Remember this
Productivity coach's corner: Reflect on one habit to improve your productivity
 Manage your boss
Getting over being passed over
Let Gen Y teach you tech
Even the employed lose with hour and wage cuts
 Keeping virtual teams on track
Engage people by showing how their work contributes
 Sharpening your skills: Managing teams
 How to fix a career in the dumps
With jobs scarce, age becomes an issue
 The best way to find (and fill) a job online
Too scared to take a vacation?
Eleven ways to boost your energy
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Top 10 job search and interview mistakes your out-going employees should avoid
With the national unemployment rate at 9.4 percent, and in the double digits in more than 100 U.S. metropolitan areas, it's important not to make a job-search or interview mistake, according to OI Partners, a global career transition and coaching firm. You might want to pass along that advice to employees you've let go.
"Employers are being inundated with resumes and applicants, and competition for jobs is fierce. You only get one chance to make a good first impression in a normal job market. But in today's economy, you need to be certain you are doing everything perfectly—from the beginning of your job search to the interview and through to
following up," says Tim Schoonover, chairman of OI Partners. OI Partners cautions job-seekers to beware of committing any of the following Top 10 Job Search and Interview Mistakes:...
Read the article. Back to top
The equity factor at work
Let's play a game. Here are the rules: We'll be asked to split a sum of money. I get to make the split, and you get to choose whether to accept or reject the split. And if you reject it, both of us will walk away empty-handed.
Rationally, I should realize my advantage and offer a lopsided split in my favor and you should accept the uneven split—because any amount of money is better than nothing. Right?
Wrong. If we're like everyone else who plays the game, we'll end up with an even split. Here's why...
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Smart presentations: Remember this
The greatest truths are the simplest.
Often, they touch what we know or believe, but with an economy of words and a clarity that cuts through all the B.S. and makes us realize the wisdom. Here's one that should be burned in the brain of anyone and everyone in business: Logic leads
to conclusions. Emotion leads to action. Makes sense, doesn't it? Think how much better...
Read the article. Back to top
Productivity coach's corner: Reflect on one habit to improve your productivity
Every day, productivity and energy is lost not because people manage their time poorly. Instead, their productivity "habits" slow them down and make things harder than they need to be.
At the end of a typical workday, do you reflect on how much you've accomplished? Or, on how much further you have to go? Of course, there is power in focusing on a goal—on what is not yet finished; athletes and other professionals do it all the
time. However, if you're constantly coming up short or consistently putting things off to the last minute, it may be time to look at your habits and behaviors...
Read the article. Back to top
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Manage your boss
Your job performance depends not only on how well your supervisor guides you but also on how you (strategically) guide him or her.
The moment has come for employees everywhere to be put through the midyear microscope, as supervisors assess their employees' performances for the first six months of 2009 and gauge what they need to focus on in the future. But this is also a useful time to remember one of Peter Drucker's most fundamental teachings: Your
success depends not just on how well you do your job. It also depends, a great deal, on how well the person to whom you report does his or hers. And that means you must become adept not only at managing yourself and those who work for you but also at managing the boss...
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Getting over being passed over
You didn't get the promotion you wanted, deserved, and expected? Don't get mad. Get going on further refining your professional profile.
"We've decided to go in a different direction." You can't believe you're hearing those words—or some variation—telling you someone else is getting the big job. This promotion—which seemed all but assured—was supposed to be your reward. You handled those dirty jobs no one would touch. You worked punishing hours; losing touch with
friends, forsaking hobbies, and missing precious moments with your family. You bit your tongue and swallowed your pride 1,000 times. Sure, your bosses will say, "we'll make it up to you." But you feel as if you're starting from scratch. They may as
well have demoted you... [But what do you do now (other than make sure you don't compose that resignation letter or angry e-mail)? Consider these strategies:...]
Read the article. Back to top
Let Gen Y teach you tech
Once derided as sandboxes for slackers, messaging and social networking sites are the new organizing centers, town halls, and news sources, says Sylvia Ann Hewlett.
You say you want a revolution? Better set up a Twitter or YouTube account. Once derided as sandboxes for Gen Y slackers, messaging and social networking sites are the new soapboxes, organizing centers, town halls and, as the recent events in Iran have shown, an increasingly powerful news source. Much has been made of the youth
engine driving Iran's demonstrations—half of the country's 71 million people are under the age of 25 and nearly two-thirds are under 30. "Just look at a single photo of a rally on www.youtube.com/citzentube to see hundreds of hands raised in the air and holding a cell-phone camera to get a sense of how tech-savvy this generation
is," says Steve Grove, head of news and politics for YouTube (now owned by Google). "Now the activism that young people have always engaged in is being reflected in mass platforms for mass distribution. But it's not just about documenting an event," he adds. "It opens a conversation about what's taking place."...
Read the article. Back to top
Even the employed lose with hour and wage cuts
Job losses tell only part of the story. Economists worry that falling work hours and pay will produce "the mother of all jobless recoveries".
In some respects, Kristi Pohly is lucky. The 33-year-old marketing manager still has her job at Pharmatech Oncology in Denver, having worked there for more than six years. But the recession has hit Pohly from another angle. At the beginning of June, she and her co-workers took a 25% pay cut and switched to a 32-hour workweek. Pohly
had been earning $55,000 at Pharmatech; her pay is now $41,250, or about $400 per month less on a take-home basis. To keep up with the $1,100-per-month mortgage on her house, Pohly took in a roommate at the beginning of that month. The transition,
she says, hasn't been easy. "We are working 20% less, but getting paid 25% less. Morale has pretty much hit the floor." Pohly's plight reflects patterns emerging in the job market that go beyond...
Read the article. Back to top
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Keeping virtual teams on track
If virtual teams really are the future, as many predict, managers are going to have their work cut out, as new research has suggested 13 out of 14 of the most common workplace relationship problems happen more frequently in teams that are scattered across the globe.
A study of more than 500 people by corporate training body VitalSmarts has argued that problems with remote colleagues are significantly more difficult to solve and last longer than those with on-site colleagues. What's worse and even more challenging for managers is that the most common means of coping with the effects of
distance tend not only to be destructive to working relationships but can also be destructive to overall productivity, it argued. When people faced challenges with a colleague who worked in a different location, they either tended to...
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Engage people by showing how their work contributes
Day after day, Rick works hard. He likes his work, he's paid well, and he gets along with his coworkers. But Rick is considering looking for work elsewhere.
Why? Because Rick doesn't have a clue about what direction his company's goals or where they are heading. Practically everyone where Rick works is kept in the dark about the company's goals. Whenever Rick asks his boss about it he's routinely waived off. As a result, his commitment is starting to wear thin. Rick wants what
most workers want. That is to understand how his work contributes to the big picture. A school teacher I know, whom we'll call Jerri, hears about the big picture on a regular basis. Jerri teaches junior high school math, and she feels totally
plugged into what's going on at her school and how her work factors in. The reason? Her principal makes it a practice too...
Read the article. Back to top
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Sharpening your skills: Managing teams
Sharpening Your Skills dives into the HBS Working Knowledge archives to bring together articles on ways to improve your business skills.
Questions to be Answered
- How does a team leader win the confidence of the group?
- What's the best method for developing team goals?
- How can individual performers be developed into team players?
- How do teams learn?
How does a team leader win the confidence of the group?...
Read the article. Back to top
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How to fix a career in the dumps
Work is always a cause of stress, but lately, it seems like it's been even more so.
Layoffs have put millions out of work. People who are still employed are often seeing their workloads increase, but not their pay, and they're worried about their own job security. The book "Get A Life That Doesn't Suck" by workplace and
management consultant Michelle DeAngelis gives people strategies for coping. She recently spoke with The Journal's Grace L. Williams. Here are edited excerpts:...
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With jobs scarce, age becomes an issue
Age discrimination in the workplace has long been a concern for the 55-and-older set. In this downturn, however, younger workers may have as much to fear as their more-mature colleagues.
Employees in their 20s and 30s are finding themselves more at risk of a layoff, according to labor lawyers, as employers look to avoid age-discrimination lawsuits by adopting a "last one in, first one out" policy and turn to tenure as a means of conducting layoffs. In some cases, young, childless professionals say they feel
they're being targeted in layoffs, while employees who have families to support are given special consideration. While no age group is exempt from layoffs, younger workers seem to be shouldering a larger percentage of the burden, according to recent Labor Department figures. The unemployment rate...
Read the article. Back to top
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The best way to find (and fill) a job online
As the unemployment rate closes in on 9%, here's a rundown of the top job-placement Web sites.
For nearly 9% of the working U.S. population, finding a job has become a full-time job--and the search is only going to get tougher. The Web has come a long way in leveling the playing field for job seekers and employers alike. As the unemployed
ranks continue to swell, throngs of displaced workers are looking to job-placement sites for salvation. In April, such sites attracted...
Read the article. Back to top
Too scared to take a vacation?
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You're not alone. Here's what to do about it.
It always used to be that on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, almost everyone left early--if they went in to work at all. But as Paul Newman looked around his office at Oppenheimer Funds in Manhattan on that day this year, he saw a lot more people at their desk than in the past. "Typically, we'd have a fair amount of senior
associates and executives extending the holiday weekend. We're just not seeing that," he says. He's an assistant vice president for human resources, so he notices these things. "Compared with last year, we're up 20% to 30% in employee attendance. Employees want to impress their bosses by limiting their vacation time." Employees
have watched their colleagues get laid off, and they've read the unceasing reports of downsizing practically everywhere; as a result, many are too scared or guilty to take their allotted vacation time. Instead of recharging in a hammock or at the beach, they're putting their heads down and concentrating on the heftier workload
they've had since so many of their colleagues were let go--and they're hoping their bosses notice. "I hear a lot of guilt from people about the idea of taking off for a few days," says Eric Winegardner, a vice president at Monster.com. "They say they're
grateful just to have their jobs." But if you are now doing more work without additional compensation, time off isn't just a luxury, it's a necessity...
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Eleven ways to boost your energy
How to use nutrition, exercise, and stress relief to refuel your body and energize your mind.
Fatigue is one of the biggest problems of modern life. But most of us deal with the problem in all the wrong ways. We want a magic bullet--an energy bar or supplement or tonic that will make us feel like a superhero. So is there an easy and quick solution to our energy crisis? Yes and no...
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