Signs That Your Job May be in Jeopardy
You may just be having a bad week, but you’ve been feeling something in the air at the office. Trust your instincts; your job may be in jeopardy of any of these things start happening on a regular basis.
Category: Office
Ink versus Inc.
Will your ink affect your career? Surveys say yes. For a related article from my Times-Union column, click here. (Infographic courtesy: salary.com)
Motivation: The Do It Yourself Model
Managers are continually wondering how to motivate workers. Brown and Fenske would argue that the best employees, the winners, motivate themselves. The write that “motivation is the fuel that keeps your Effort Accelerator going and keeps you…trained on the things that are important.”
Are you the Right Fit for the Company?
When you go through the interview process for a job, you go to great lengths to demonstrate that your skills are a great match for the position. Common sense, right? What if everything you thought about the hiring process was reversed? Rather than spend time talking to them about your experience, maybe you should spend time on how you think and feel.
Manners Matter
Along with cursive penmanship and letter writing, formal etiquette seems to be a lost art. Do manners still matter in the age of texting and flip flops at the White House?
Stranger in a Strange Land
In a typical day of running errands in Jacksonville, I’ll encounter workers who have come from all over the world: Vietnam, Africa, Europe, India, and South America. I have enormous admiration for someone who chooses to locate to another country and master language, culture and new job skills. I spoke recently to an American who chose to work outside the U.S. and master those same skills.
Insufficiently Exuberant Teams
Burkeman goes on to say that research shows that forced fun doesn’t work. “…researchers found that many experienced the party atmosphere as a burden, not a boon. Prêt a Manger, the British sandwich chain with branches in America, reportedly sends mystery shoppers to its cafes, withholding bonuses from insufficiently exuberant teams.”
You Are What You Drive
I have this theory that your car reflects your approach to taking care of business: your job, your attention to detail, how well organized you are in general. I knew a recruiter once who used to send someone out to observe applicants’ cars. If they were well cared for and well organized, she would tend to believe them when they talked about being organized on the job. But if the cars were a mess: dirty, filled with trash, in general disrepair, it threw up a red flag for her.
Know, Like and Trust
Bob Burg is a networking expert who is well known for his philosophy on relationships (from his book Endless Referrals): “All things being equal, people do business with, and refer business to people they know, like and trust.”
What are you doing every day to make sure more people know you, like you and trust you?
Never Let This Happen Again: Using the Lessons of Unemployment to Bulletproof Your Career
How can the lessons of a job loss actually strengthen your career–and your own native resilience—over the long term?
Your Work, Your Way 