Entries for June 2008

A layoff is distressing and embarrassing, but that's no reason not to send a card, reports the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C.

Hallmark makes cards specifically for layoffs, and sending them can "demonstrate your bonhomie and business etiquette," according to the story.

A layoff card from Hallmark reaffirms that the recipient has deeper value than the job title that's now a fading memory: "I hope you'll take pride in all you've accomplished and realize how much you have yet to give," the card reads. The subtext: We care about you, even if the system doesn't.

Earlier this month, the newspaper reported that Kansas City-based Hallmark would itself be cutting 335 jobs in the United States and Canada.

One more reason for employers to start snooping in your brown bag: A new study from ComPsych, a provider of employee assistance programs, found a significant correlation between balanced nutrition and at-work energy and productivity.

The study found that half of all employees with balanced diets reported having high energy, compared with only 5 percent of employees with unbalanced diets.

It might seem like a small thing, but if others decide you lied about business expenses, it's enough to get you removed from the bench.

An Orange County judge is appealing the decision by state officials to remove her from her office. She was reportedly authorized for a single night's hotel stay while attending a legal conference but stayed an extra three nights and, allegedly, lied about her conference schedule when she tried to claim the expenses.

It's Friday. Here are a few news tidbits to finish off the week:

Supplement your income—find a sponsor for your wedding.

Sea change: Children and family now headline small talk among men at the office.

You can get fired for slamming your employer on Facebook. (Is this news?)

Microsoft's careers blog does Bill Gates justice.

When I was a kid, there was only one job I definitely wanted when I grew up—supermarket cashier. I grew up in New Jersey when long nails were ubiquitous and UPC scanners hadn't yet come into their own. That meant cashiers were still tapping the register keys, making everyday concerts of their quick clicks. Nail polish—almost always accessorized with tiny jewels and floral motifs—was often dayglow orange or hot pink, and very nice to watch at work while you waited in long lines at Pathmark or Kings. A truly skilled cashier could whiz through our grocery cart, her eyes rarely glancing at the keys.

I spent many hours in training for my dream job. A set of press-on nails and an extra-large calculator enabled me to develop my skills at home. On occasion, I would get some real-world experience, when a cashier would generously let me come around the counter and key in the numbers for a can of Country Time or a jar of kosher pickles.

If you've ever offered someone your great career insight only to realize weeks (months, years) later how totally awful it was—welcome to the club.

This from Penelope Trunk:

The worst career advice I ever gave was to my brother's college roommate, Robert Buckley. He was one year out of college when he asked me if he should quit healthcare consulting to become an actor.

I said, 'No, that's the dumbest idea I ever heard.'

That Robert Buckley would be the Robert Buckley now starring in NBC's Lipstick Jungle.

So go praise Penelope for her mea culpa, and get her advice on defending your own dream career track from would-be advisers. Just remember, we're all lousy sages sometimes, and the bad advice you sometimes get is no doubt as bad as the advice you sometimes give. I should know. I tried to shake a close friend of his focus on a single, far-fetched dream job. Until he got it. He now splits his days between a Major League Baseball press box and dugout.

When it comes to family time in the work-life balance, one particular time may be the most important: the dinner hour.

A recent study from researchers at Brigham Young University suggests that long hours on the job cause higher work-life conflict when they regularly interrupt dinnertime.

Researchers looked at data from a large IBM survey and focused on 1,500 U.S. workers with children under 18. They found that the work-family conflict associated with working longer hours dropped significantly for women who didn't miss dinnertime. Indeed, working long hours can take a toll personally and professionally (it's called burnout), but making it home for dinner can mitigate the impact.

The takeaway: Companies may benefit if they find a way for employees to work long hours but make it home in time for dinner, according to the study.

It's one more reason—along with high gas prices—to lobby for a telecommuting day (or two).

Karen writes:

I recently lost a job because a younger person was also applying while I was there. I am in my 60s—not that old, good looking, professional, with lots of experience. Is there anything I need to do to secure the job despite my age? I obviously made an impression to be called back for the second interview, but I didn't get the job. I'm losing my confidence!

Karen, don't lose your confidence! But you may need to put a bit more effort into your search. Here are some tips:

Entry No. 17 in the book of Lessons for Safe Internet Use at Work:

While NBC held back announcing Meet the Press host Tim Russert's death for about an hour—long enough for his family to be informed—his Wikipedia entry was updated to reflect the news in about half that time.

So who told? An employee at Internet Broadcasting Services, which works with local NBC stations. From the New York Times:

The half-attentive, ever-antsy nature of our scrolling life on the Web may be making us stupid, the Atlantic Monthly says this month. The story reports on the findings of a University College London study of online research habits: "We may well be in the midst of a sea change in the way we read and think."

The authors of the study report:

It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense; indeed, there are signs that new forms of "reading" are emerging as users "power browse" horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.

I don't generally enjoy talking to the people with whom I'm forced to share intimate and recycled airplane air. The problem is that once you start—you're stuck. But yesterday I was in the mood to chat for reasons not altogether clear, perhaps a desire to think of something other than work. So I struck up a conversation with the woman sharing my row.

We began, like most, by discussing our jobs. She has worked a fascinating array of jobs in her career so far—each interesting and socially beneficial, if not overwhelmingly lucrative (by her own admission). She was smart and highly educated, and—despite the turbulence in the air—I mentally recorded her choice bits of wisdom.

Here are a few:

1. College is for training your mind. The goal is to learn to think critically and analytically.

2. Learn what you like at school—but take a statistics class. It's helpful to understand what that pie chart really means.

3. You don't need to have a life plan if each decision you make is a good one. The bigger picture will take care of itself.

4. Know the difference between competition and ambition. Wanting to do something great is different than wanting to be great by comparison.

Just when you thought that everything about careers and the workplace in our parents' generation had been obliterated and made obsolete by a trillion job board postings and a mountain of M.B.A.'s, here comes Campbell Robertson.

The New York Times reporter has covered the theater beat—from cast changes to courtroom dramas—and now he's going to Iraq.

I don't even need to spell out the lesson here. From the New York Observer:

There are two ways to look at the story of Nathaniel's Restaurant—a subject of particularly heated discussion in the Canadian and U.S. media right now.

It's pretty simple: One way is to see it as the story of a business in Owen Sound, Ontario, and the other is to see it as the story of waitress Stacey Fearnall.

The owner of Nathaniel's told Fearnall to take the summer off after she showed up at work with a shaved head and reportedly refused to don a wig.

What would you have said if your current employer had offered you a $1,000 bonus to quit after your first week on the job?

Online shoe-seller Zappos offers the unusual deal to its call center employees, reports Bill Taylor, author of the Game Changer Blog at HarvardBusiness.org. (Hat Tip to Calcanis.)

Zappos treats its new customer service hires to a four-week "deep immersion," in which they learn various aspects of the business—including exposure to the company's high-energy culture and values.

If you're like many Americans, you're making a solid income that now seems smaller in the face of food- and gas-price inflation and education costs and mortgage payments.

Should you play the sympathy card? Should you ask your boss for a raise, because, say, your son "needs new shoes"? Should you ask for a four-day workweek because gas is really pushing you over the edge and "the commute is killing the family budget"?

How do confession and hopes for sympathy play out professionally?

A reader recently wrote to the Financial Times's "Dear Lucy" column to ask about the best way to hang on to a job at a company that's been making cuts: "Losing my job now would be bad timing, to put it mildly—I have a young child, a pregnant wife, and an eye-watering mortgage. How can I make sure the axe does not fall on me? Should I attempt to play the sympathy vote with my boss?"