Archive for the 'Survival Guide' Category

Page 2 of 17

Tip Of the Week: Walking on Fire Is a Bad Way to Bond

Published on July 6, 2010 in Tip of the Week. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Trust falls? Nah. Singing “kumbaya”? Passe. Having a talking stick? Outdated.

One boss in Italy decided that the best way to build office camaraderie and get his employees to bond was to make them walk over hot coals. Alessandro Di Priamo, who is a “motivational trainer for companies” (that’s Italian for “guy who gets paid a bunch of money to make people do stupid bonding exercises and use buzzwords”) had employees at a large Italian real estate agency walk across fire, only to – surprise! – wind up in the hospital with burned feet.

Di Priamo claims he has done this exercise with other companies dozens of times and no one’s ever been hurt before. I would like to offer this up as evidence that forced corporate bonding retreats are, in fact, painful.

what we can learn from NBC

Published on February 3, 2010 in Survival Guide. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

As the entire universe apparently now knows, NBC bungled it big time when it came to letting Jay Leno retire and hand the reins of The Tonight Show over to Conan O’Brien. In addition to the obvious lessons we can learn from this disaster, such as “Jay Leno sucks” and “Conan O’Brien is hilarious,” FedLine (aka the Federal Times’ blog) points out some management lessons that we can learn from the mishandling of the whole situation. Let’s hope some TV executives take these tips to heart.

Lesson #1: Career progression is crucial to retaining top talent.

In other words, if your most talented people know they’ll be stuck in their jobs a long time because there’s nowhere for them to go internally, they will leave. And it will be your fault for not providing enough incentives.

Lesson #3: If you’re going to fire someone, just do it already.

One of the most embarrassing parts of the whole late night fiasco was the way that it was handled so publicly and that it took seemingly forever to resolve. That worked out nicely for Conan’s audience, who got to enjoy weeks’ worth of him taking potshots at NBC and putting together hilarious skits about wasting the network’s money, but it only protracted the whole situation. Good for viewers, not so good for NBC.

And while we’re on the subject of the lovely Mr. O’Brien, let’s all take his incredibly classy goodbye speech advice to heart:

Continue reading ‘what we can learn from NBC’

advice from the person interviewing you

Published on December 29, 2009 in Survival Guide and Tip of the Week. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

In the semi-regular feature here at STA, “The Other Side of the Aisle,” bosses get a chance to talk about work from their perspective. Here, one boss (we’ll call her “Cheryl”) talks about her experiences interviewing potential assistants and gives helpful pointers about what bosses want people to say or do in interviews.

__________________

As someone who interviews 15-20 people a year, mostly for part time admin positions, I see a variety of folks come through my office: some who think they have found the perfect job, others who are just simply in need of anything that will keep them busy or pay the bills. The following are a variety of patterns I have seen over and over again – they are truly meant to help people like you who are on the search. It may sound strict, but when you get over 200 applicants for one position, it’s the little things that stick out. Here are some simple tips that anyone can use to set themselves apart.

If you read this and these things sounds super crazy obvious, all the power to you- you’re probably already getting to the top of the resume piles!

DO: Follow the instructions on the job posting.

AND: If it says no calls, please don’t call. Even if you are super-qualified and experienced, it will likely get your name on a list of people who won’t get interviews because why bother interviewing someone who can’t follow directions?

DO: Show up on time for the interview.

AND: If you get to the area early, grab a coffee nearby or take some time for yourself to transition into “interview mode.” More than 15 minutes early is overdoing it – it’s tacky and if you’re interviewing at a small office, your presence can actually be awkward for those who are about to meet with you. If the folks interviewing you don’t jump to take you early, especially if they are just finishing with someone else, don’t act disappointed. I suggest waiting patiently with a magazine in the lobby or simply reviewing your resume. Yes, excessive text messaging will give the impression that this is what you will do with all of your in between time, or when the boss isn’t looking.

Continue reading ‘advice from the person interviewing you’

tip of the week: beware the facebook

Published on December 14, 2009 in Tip of the Week. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again – be careful what you post on Facebook and other social networking sites, because you never know who’s going to look at your profile. Now that the site has changed their privacy settings, it’s even easier for people to peek at your “private” photos and information. One Canadian woman recently learned this the very hard way. Nathalie Blanchard, who was on paid leave from her job for depression, lost her government benefits because the agent in charge of her case saw Facebook photos of Nathalie on vacation and partying. When her checks stopped coming, Nathalie called her insurance agent and found out why she’d lost her coverage.

For the record, Nathalie says that going on vacation was part of her treatment – after all, a nice sunny holiday can do wonders for depression, right?

tip of the week: don’t fire anyone you know

Published on December 7, 2009 in Tip of the Week. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Les Moonves – head of CBS and husband of Big Brother host Julie Chen – announced today that CBS was cancelling As The World Turns, the network’s last remaining soap opera, just months after industry stalwart Guiding Light went off the air for good. Besides fans of the show, Moonves managed to tick off one very important person – CNBC’s David Faber, who was interviewing him when he dropped the cancellation news. Why might Faber be upset? Probably because his mother-in-law, Marie Masters (pictured), plays a recurring role on the show. HARSH.

From Gawker:

At the end of the (boring) interview about ad spending and stupid business things, Faber couldn’t help but ask about the show getting dropped (do you think he could go home tonight if he didn’t?). Moonves said, “The days of the soap opera have changed very much. Guiding Light left earlier this year and As the World Turns will leave later next year. They’ve had long and distinguished runs and their days are over.” Burn! The saddest thing is, he says it with a bit of a smirk.

Nothing like telling a guy his mother-in-law is a dinosaur on live TV. Faber didn’t make much of a reaction on-air, but what he told Moonves when the cameras turned off probably depends on how he feels about his mother-in-law.

I can only imagine what their next family dinner is going to be like.

tip of the week: ignore customers

Published on November 19, 2009 in Tip of the Week. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

One day, a man named Dustin Curtis tried to book an American Airlines flight via the company’s official website, aa.com. A computer programmer and designer, he was horrified by how complicated it was to use the website. Rather than just being pissed off, Curtis published a post on his blog explaining how he would redesign the AA.com site to make it more efficient and user-friendly. The next day, he got an email from a designer at the company. Among other things, the email said:

The group running AA.com consists of at least 200 people spread out amongst many different groups, including, for example, QA, product planning, business analysis, code development, site operations, project planning, and user experience. We have a lot of people touching the site, and a lot more with their own vested interests in how the site presents its content and functionality. Fortunately, much of the public-facing functionality is funneled through UX, so any new features you see on the site should have been vetted through and designed by us before going public.

However, there are large exceptions. For example, our Interactive Marketing group designs and implements fare sales and specials (and doesn’t go through us to do it), and the Publishing group pushes content without much interaction with us… Oh, and don’t forget the AAdvantage team (which for some reason, runs its own little corner of the site) or the international sites (which have a lot of autonomy in how their domains are run)… Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is that AA.com is a huge corporate undertaking with a lot of tentacles that reach into a lot of interests. It’s not small, by any means.

Curtis printed parts of the letter on his blog, but left the employee’s name and position anonymous. That wasn’t good enough for pissed-off AA executives, who searched their employees’ emails until they found the culprit. The employee was then fired. They did have a good reason – namely, that the employee violated the Non-Disclosure Agreement he had signed promising not to disclose details of the company’s operation – but many believe that firing the employee was an act of spite.

Remember, kids: this is what happens when you tell people the truth about the lame bureaucracy at your job. What can we learn from this? Two things: one, if you’re going to respond to a blogger or customer who has some complaints about your department, do so from your personal email account; and two, don’t fly American.

maybe the best work angst song ever

Published on September 27, 2009 in Survival Guide and Video. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

I cannot fucking believe that I have been running this website for three years and have never posted this song. Time to remedy that immediately.

Fun fact: Prince wrote this song! He apparently had a huge crush on Susanna Hoffs, the lead singer, but she wasn’t interested.

Lame fact: I think I know all the words to this song. OK, that’s a lie. I definitely know all the words.

work advice from ‘law & order’

Published on September 25, 2009 in Survival Guide. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Law and Order, the show that wouldn’t die, airs its 20th season premiere tonight. In honor of that huge anniversary, Examiner.com has collected a list of workplace lessons you should have learned from past episodes of the show, including:

Literacy is important in any profession. When drug dealer Michael Ingrams is stiffed by a real estate agent in a deal, he needs to get revenge for the fraud. Obviously, it only makes good business sense to hire a contractor to do this dirty work for him, but little does he know his teenage hit man is illiterate. As a result, the hired killer goes to work at the wrong house. (Episode: Mushrooms, Season 1)

If you want to get revenge on a rival colleague, make sure you know where he lives. Physicist Edward Manning steals a revolutionary scientific idea from struggling scientist Max Weiss. Weiss, who is having trouble supporting his family, gets revenge by sending a bomb to his rival. However, he didn’t realize that Manning had moved when he separated from his wife, and as a result the unsuccessful scientist ends up killing her instead. (Episode: Big Bang, Season 4)

The rest is here.

how to stay active while unemployed

Published on August 19, 2009 in Survival Guide. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

When you get laid off, it’s really tempting to lie around on the couch, watch Law and Order reruns, and feel sorry for yourself. I think it’s fine to do that for a little while, but at some point you’re going to have to get off the recliner. Whether you’re looking for a job right away or have decided to enjoy some funemployment for awhile, there are a couple of things you should consider doing in order to a) keep yourself active and alert, and b) have some stuff to talk about when interviewers ask you about that gap on your resume.

  • Volunteer. I know it sounds crazy to encourage you to work for free while you’re struggling to find a new paying gig, but volunteering even a couple of hours a week – whether at an animal shelter, a nature preserve, or a soup kitchen – will give you something to think about every time you start wallowing in self-pity. Plus, it’s a good way to meet new people and possibly consider a different career path.
  • Consider temping or doing an internship in another field. If you’ve always secretly dreamed about pursuing that career in the music industry but never had the guts to do it, now’s your chance. You might learn that it’s not the gig for you but have some fun in the meantime, or you might figure out a way to leverage the skills you already have into your new dream job.
  • Bond with other unemployed people. The last thing you need to do is sit around the house all day being depressed. If you have other unemployed friends, try to meet up once or twice a week. You can serve as each others’ support systems during new job searches or just catch cheap afternoon matinees or scour the town for a good happy hour.

Continue reading ‘how to stay active while unemployed’

tips for finding your corporate voice

Published on August 17, 2009 in Buzzwords and Tip of the Week. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

The first time I had to write a professional work email and sign my boss’ name to it instead of my own, I was totally flummoxed. There was this particular art to that “corporatespeak” voice, and I couldn’t quite get it right. For those of you in similar situations, here are a couple of useful tips:

  • Talk in the royal “we.” It helps you to think about the company being one large voice/brain and reminds you not to be personal.
  • Use initials for everyone, no matter what. Why say that Joe Green and Frank Myers are having lunch tomorrow when you can say that JG and FM are having lunch tomorrow? Using any kind of code or shorthand is a good way to make people feel like they’re ‘in the know,’ plus you sound more efficient.
  • Use at least two cliches for each short email and more for longer emails. Good, common ones include “at the end of the day,” “all hands on deck,” “team player(s),” and “outside of the box.”