Activist or Pacifist?
Here's
a sober truth for all of you out there who are happily employed: If you're not
looking for your next job, you're probably looking at a period of forced
unemployment.
What do I mean?
Peter Weddle stated the following in an article in 2005:
Consider this: Of the world's 2,500 largest companies, 355 or 14% fired their
CEO last year for lousy performance. While many of those executives walked away
with lucrative severance packages, the companies they left behind were often
forced to trim benefits, cut pay and, ultimately, lay employees off. For
example:
- Crooks at Enron put 21,000 people, including
even the most loyal and high performing employees, out of work, into financial
distress or both.
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Bernard Ebbers, the former Chairman of
WorldCom bankrupted the company with an $11 billion fraud that caused countless
hard-working, completely innocent employees to lose their jobs.
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Carly
Fiorina was a media darling as the CEO of Hewlett Packard, but so weakened the
company with her business strategies that it fired her and announced a layoff
of 15,000 workers, abrogating a longstanding corporate commitment to employees.
In other words, the sobering truth is that, in today's world of work, the quality
of your individual performance and the dedication that you show to your
employer give you limited job security. While there are obviously
exceptions to that rule, there is no guarantee that you are working for one of
them.
How can you
protect yourself in such an environment? Become a "career activist."
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Become a Career Activist.
A career activist is someone who:
- Sets the direction for their career (by
identifying near, mid and longer term goals that are interesting, challenging
and meaningful to them); and
- Initiates the specific actions (e.g.,
finding a mentor, acquiring a certain kind of experience, learning new skills)
that will enable them to make steady progress toward and actually accomplish
those goals.
In other words, a career activist is in charge of the change in their career,
rather than its victim.
Does that mean
that a career activist is simply a serial job seeker? No. A job seeker wants
something that employers control: a job. Their success is based on someone
else's decision. A career activist, in contrast, focuses on what they control:
their career. They make the decisions, and they do so to meet their own goals.
Sometimes that may mean deciding to move from one employer to another,
sometimes it may mean moving from one job to another within the same employer,
and sometimes it may mean staying right where you are and overcoming a
challenge in your current job. The selection of one course over another,
however, is always based on a single guiding tenet: it is to advance you toward a state in which you are the best you can be at your
profession, craft or trade.
More...
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Career Tip
Don't Be a
Cyber-Idiot
Over Exposure on Social Networking/Blogs
Perhaps
you've seen the tape of the incident as it was endlessly replayed on news and
sports shows in 2005. It showed a young man sitting dazed on top of a net
over the home plate crowd at Yankee Stadium after he had jumped off the upper
deck during a ball game. It seems he wanted to impress his friends and maybe
land on an ESPN highlight reel. What he got instead was a court date and a new
moniker. Courtesy of The New York Post, he's now known as "the
village idiot." He wasn't smart enough to think about the consequences of
his actions.
While most of us shake our heads at the stupid things people do to be the centre of attention, there
are some who are guilty of acting the same way, at least on the
Internet. What do I mean?- They trash their previous and even their
current employers on blogs and discussion forums;
- They trade in malicious gossip with e-mails
about their former or current co-workers and bosses; and
- They exercise their right to express their
opinions by venting their spleen in crude and defamatory language.
And when they engage in such behavior, they are ignoring its consequences. They
are acting like "cyber-idiots."
The village idiot was dumb on two counts: he could have hurt himself
with his ignorant behavior and, perhaps worse, he could have hurt others if
that net had ripped and sent him flying into the crowd beneath it. The same can
be said for cyber-idiots.
More... |
Activism in your career is a positive thing,
partner with SmartHire
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How to Increase Your Compensation
Getting a raise
starts far before the day you walk into the boss' office. You must be seen as a
valuable asset to the company through your past performance. If you have
consistently exceeded the company's expectations and if you display exemplary
on-the job behaviour, then it might be realistic for you to ask for a raise.
But remember, even if both these things are true, you are more likely to
succeed only if the company is in a position to pay and if the compensation you
are asking for is reasonable.
Before meeting with the decision maker in your company, do your homework.
When you are negotiating your raise, your goal is to strike the best deal
without over-pricing yourself. Find out the compensation range that is
typically given to others who are working in similar jobs (in your company and
within the industry.) Only once you are armed with information, are you ready
to approach the decision maker. However, do not discuss needs, concerns, and disappointments with co-workers as that may derail your strategy.
When you do meet with the company representative, negotiate in a
professional, upbeat, and ethical manner. Don't focus on your personal and
family requirements the company only needs to know that you deserve the raise.
Instead, discuss your very best accomplishments. Tell clear and concise stories
that remind the decision maker how you have exceeded expectations. When
discussing the actual salary, think about other perks that you might benefit
from. Understand the employers point of view and seek a good compromise.
If you cannot reach an agreement on-the-spot, dont walk away angry. You
might find that the employer is working on your behalf behind the scenes and
you will eventually get that well-deserved raise.
Sharon Graham, CRS, CIS, CCS,
CPRW, CEIP
Career Professionals of Canada, Executive Director
Graham Management Group, Principal Resume Writer
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"The most intense competition between firms is in
the marketplace: the marketplace for customers and the marketplace for
talent."
Jo Owens,
Management Stripped Bare
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This link will currently take you to the Grasslands Group website. It will be updated once the new site is online.
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Dona Plewis, RPRdona@smarthire.caSmartHire1-888-778-0570Currently, links will still take you to the Grasslands Group website. This link will be updated once the new site is online.
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