ajcjobs > BlogBreak > Archives > 2008 > March
March 2008
The do’s and don’ts of using company electronics
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When email hit the scene big time, I met an IT person in a Federal agency where I was working who referenced an email I had sent earlier that week. I knew I had not sent it to him so needless to say, I was more than a little shocked. Big Brother was alive and well and still is.
While you may not land in prison for sending jokes to your friends it is helpful to know your company’s policy about technology privacy.
Can your company let you go for using their technology for your own personal use? Yes, they can. According to a recent American-Management Association/ePolicy Institute survey, 84 percent of employers had policies governing workers’ personal e-mail use and one half of employers said they have fired workers for misusing the Internet or e-mail at work. The main reason for this is their fear of liability. Emails, for instance can be subpoenaed by the court.
And while you may not be caught in the act like the Peachtree City police chief was recently, (he was arrested for participating in adult chatrooms/pedophila using the company/city laptop while at home).
It makes sense to know your company’s policy and use caution in what you view and send.
Does anyones company have some looser rules about conducting personal business on company time? I have heard about some organizations that limit personal usage to certain times of the day.
With the lines between work and personal time blurred, can there be solutions about personal technology use that are effective and legal?
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Game time in the office?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Most offices don’t have televisions dotted around the office (unless you work for the media!).
Are you a Georgia basketball fan and were stuck in the office without a TV? Were you even allowed to watch the game at work? Or was the station blocked? Perhaps you might have been streaming the game online.
If you did watch the game at work, was anyone getting any real work done?
How did you keep up with the score?
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What to do when a company strings you along…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
To avoid a company stringing you along after your interview, there are a few things you should do to minimize that chance. Follow-up is key and many people do not like to do it. Differentiate yourself by professional follow-up that will be sure to increase your chances of closing the deal.
1, At the end of the interview, you should ask the interviewer when they are looking to make a hiring decision for the position.
2, At the end of the interview, you should ask the interviewer (or anyone you spoke with during your visit) for their card. This gives you their name spelled correctly as well as their title, e-mail and mailing address.
3, When you are away from the interview, the follow up begins - first, send the key contact you spoke with an e-mail thanking them for the interview and the information they provided.
4, Next snail mail them a personalized thank you note reiterating points you discussed in the interview and remind them of why you are the perfect person for the position.
5, Contact your referrals to let them know they may be contacted.
6, Continue your job search - remember you do not want to only have one opportunity at a time - it could make you impatient and potentially more aggressive in your job search.
7, Wait a little less than the timeframe they gave you in the interview for making a decision, and then call the person(s) with whom you interviewed and reiterate your interest to remind them of you.
8, Now if they were noncommittal in the call and have given no timeframe in the future as to when they will know, ask them directly when you should make the next contact.
9, Call on the date specified that they suggested you make contact and mention that you are contacting them as requested in regard to the XYZ position with XYZ Company. Ask for any new information.
10, You should have a feel for the interviewer by now. How did the conversation go? You should directly ask if they have made a hiring decision. If they are still making a decision, when is a good time for you to contact them next? These questions should give you the information you need to make a decision on whether or not you still have a chance. It is probably time to make a decision about the position. If it does not seem promising and the hiring manager seems to be giving you the run around, then walk. If it seems the company is doing a more extensive review of your background, hold out.
No matter the decision, be professional. You never know when your professionalism could come back and serve as a benefit in your job search. Nothing is wasted time in a job search process. We all learn new things with every job we go for. Take what you’ve learned and apply it to the next job you go after.
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Coping with buyouts and moving on
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘Corporate restructuring’ seems to be the buzz word these days as companies continuously downsize to stay afloat.
But with the local job market closing in and unemployment ratio rising, when will these two factors stabilize?
Delta Air Lines announced today that it is offering more than half its workforce voluntary severance payouts.
Is this the first time you have been offered a buyout, or have you already gone through this process?
How did you deal with the situation and salvage your career?
Is your job a downer?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday’s ajcjobs lead story focused on people whose jobs deal with others who are going through difficult, emotional situations. A hospice nurse, a family law attorney and a funeral director shared how they cope with constant exposure to others’ pain.
There certainly are many other careers that also could be construed as “depressing” — at least by those of us who don’t hold such jobs. Nurses and doctors, military personnel, psychologists, prison guards and other jobs can involve working with people at low points in their lives.
Do you have a job that others may see as depressing, and, if so, how do you deal with it? What made you go into a career that is potentially emotionally draining, and how do you stay upbeat? If you don’t have such a job, what are some of the jobs you never could see yourself doing, and why?
How do you communicate best?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Corporate communication — from a frequency point of view — is at an all time high. In fact, most of us remain in a constant state of contact to the point that it’s obscene.
Eager, just-out-of-college professionals have to type with lightening speed to fire off IMs in the middle of almost anything they attempt to do. Most parents can’t make it through their kids’ soccer games without responding to at least one, if not more, emails.
Singles out to dinner have to take a fake break to the restroom to return their micro-managing boss’s fifth phone call of the night. DINKS (couples with double income and no kids) mostly just see the tops of each other’s heads as they stare at their respective SMART Phones, even while they’re on a romantic get-away vacation.
Maybe we have all just taken ET’s “phone home” concept a little overboard. We’re so communicative that we’ve actually forgotten the higher purpose of communicating—sharing, building relationships, and reinforcing a common purpose.
Ironically, the frenetic pace at which we use technology to stay connected is creating a large disconnect on a professional and personal level.
Recently I read an interesting book, entitled The Four-Hour Work Week. Although I would proceed with immense caution (if you like being employed) before taking some of the professional suggestions in this book, one thing that rang true with me is that email and other electronic forms of communication may be hindering, not helping—in either our productivity or the quality of our communication.
If the point of contacting someone is to communicate, maybe we should focus more on quality and less on frequency. More is not necessarily better. This incredible volume of corporate emails may actually serve as a way for people to evade one another, shroud the truth, and avoid the difficult conversations.
IM can be a way of establishing rapport, but it will never create the same degree of connectedness as a voice-to-voice conversation. Even though the phone humanizes communication more than electronics, facial expressions and body language can speak volumes more, especially when addressing high-stake issues.
I think there is a contagious phenomenon going on in the work world. People are becoming slaves to communication; however, they are saying less of what they really mean and more of what they think the corporate culture demands to hear.
Companies that endure the test of time often are the ones where genuine, less filtered communication is allowed to take place—ones where truth is encouraged, even when it is hard to tell and hard to accept.
Over time, regular communication should foster a sense of community among those who interface frequently. Possibly it is time to go back to basics when it comes to communicating and instead of relying on the least personal ways of expressing ourselves, we should consider having fewer, but more meaningful face-to-face interactions.
Who knows, maybe we could restore and even inspire good old-fashioned loyalty, trust, and team mentality across the all too familiar “money first, people-last” corporate landscape.
What your favorite method of communicating at work? Do you shot of hundreds of emails or prefer to call coworkers and clients to work issues out?
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Coping with office scandals
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With today’s news of New York’s Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s resignation due to his involvement in a prostitute ring, it’s hard not to think about his family and staff and what they must be going through.
What do you do if you and your boss are embroiled in a scandal of this magnitude? Do you keep quiet or gossip with coworkers at Starbucks? Will you even be able to look at your boss in the eye anymore?
Or as a manager or HR employee, should you provide a means for your staff to talk about the issue at hand and make sure communications are at all all-time high?
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Are there any recession-proof industries?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Alan Greenspan states that the U.S. is “clearly on edge of a recession,” and Warren Buffet said “the U.S. economy is essentially in a recession even if it hasn’t met the technical definition of one yet.” Who cares?
Didn’t we already go through one in 2002 and only found out years later? If we look ahead and factor this information into the equation, it will lessen the affect. It may be a good time to consider the sources. Take this information and apply it to your personal assessment of where you are in your current job. Here are a few industries that are recession-proof:
Education: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has shown that teaching is a recession-proof job. Demographics do play a role, but look around and see how your school district is performing. Is it growing or barely hanging on?
Health care: How will this industry be affected after the election? Nobody knows for sure, but many of the fast growing occupations are in the area of healing services, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
International Business: If you speak Chinese or are open culturally to other areas, look for jobs in other high-growth countries. There are amazing developments in some countries. For example, Dubai is certainly not seeing the construction downturn the U.S. is dealing with, so think outside the U.S.
Security: This is a great area for military-to-civilian résumés to channel. Crime does not stop because the stock market did not perform well or the country is seeing recessionary times. In fact, in this recession the stress of bills and increase in fuel and food costs could bring more pressure to people, which can result in higher crime.
Tip: Polish your résumé Be sure your résumé doesn’t mask the successes and accomplishments you have completed that put you ahead of your peers. Now is no time to be shy. Make your résumé stand out from the many others looking for work. Do this by demonstrating your career successes.
Nobody has a completely secure job, so be sure to be aware of changes in your industry due to all the changes in our economy. If you feel like changes may be coming your way, it never hurts to start looking for a job in an industry that is more likely to successfully weather the potential storm headed our way.
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We’ve made your job search easier!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wondering what those links under ajcjobs.com search results are?
We just added new tools to make your job search more effective. Have a look at these new features under the job title within search results:
Save - save a job to your “My Jobs” list, without leaving the search results page.
Hide Company - view only the jobs you want to see in your search results. Use it to hide jobs from companies you aren’t interested in. To unhide a company later, select “More Options” next to the Search button on search results pages, and go to “Companies You’ve Hidden.”
Email - email a job description to your friends, or even to yourself.
We hope you like these changes and let us know what you think.
Can you recession-proof your career?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was bound to come again. The slump in the economy, recession (or slowdown?) is here again. People are nervous about their work status. Will my job be there tomorrow?
With mergers and acquisitions, global change and a myriad of other factors, job security is an illusion. Sure, some jobs are more stable. But even formerly solid sectors of the economy, like the government, have been downsizing for years.
That said, are there any steps you can take to make your job more resilient? Can you decrease the likelihood of being the first to get “pink slipped”. Here are a few thoughts:
- Add value - Learn what problems your area or organization is faced with and seek ways to help. So your competitors are using video blogs to communicate with their customers? Can you learn how to do this and train others? You are also obtaining new skills that you can use later if you want or need to contract instead of working in an organization.
- Network before you must - get on sites like Linked In www.linkedin.com and re-energize your network so that you can tap into them throughout your career. Connect with professional associations to keep your external contacts and industry knowledge alive.
- Avoid gossip and negative people - Perception is everything so remain focused and don’t get caught up in the downward spiral that is common during organizational change.
- Keep your performance at a high level - You will be remembered for “staying the course” when job cuts are made.
- Revise your resume so it is ready to go. An additional benefit? Highlighting your recent accomplishments strengthens your confidence.
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