by New York Times | Nov 29, 2019 | General
Say you have a job you like, but want to do even better and take on more challenging roles or maybe you are seeking a more prominent role in your organisation, commensurate with your skills and interests. Perhaps you have a nagging feeling that you aren’t being recognised for what you’ve brought to your team. Does any of these ring a bell?
In a perfect universe, this sense of dissatisfaction would solve itself. The boss would recognise your efforts and potential, and you’d receive better assignments, a better work shift and a raise, or a new job would open up in your organisation that would meet your professional goals and you’d move into it seamlessly.
Alas, good things don’t just happen on their own. Improving your situation at work will most likely require some proactive attention. It begins with a careful assessment of the person we’re dealing with.
As organisations and industries face a nearly non-stop need to reorganise and reset priorities, it is especially important for employees to have a clearly stated sense of what they want.
The goal here is a personal mission statement that can provide guidance throughout your career. It can be drawn up at any time.
You may already be asked annually for a self-assessment by your boss. This exercise is different. This one is purely for your own consumption and the goal is to establish a baseline of where you are, how you are doing and where you want to be.
Take the time to write this down, in whatever fashion you prefer, from a spreadsheet to a personal essay. Writing it down is important. It helps organise the flotsam of ideas and feelings about work that we carry with us every day and allows you to add or subtract things over time.
Once done, you should refer back to it regularly. Half-yearly doesn’t seem too often. Update it as necessary to reflect any changes in your situation.
Critical here is becoming aware of your own natural strengths and interests. You may already have a pretty firm grasp of them or you may discover them as you piece your self-assessment together. If you are unsure, turn to a trusted colleague or former boss. Their view will be especially valuable.
If you are still unsure, you could turn to the many self-assessment quizzes available online.
Knowing who you are and what you want prepares you for occasional conversations with your boss about your future. These conversations are times for information sharing between employers who like happy workers but have certain needs to fill and employees who want to be happy but also need jobs.
Raising your profile
You may look at your self-assessment and say: “I’m one of the best workers here and nobody knows it!” If so, it may be time to make an effort to raise your profile in the workplace. This will possibly take some extra work.
Here are a few suggestions:
- Step up to solve problems
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You and your co-workers can probably come up with dozens of small (or large) processes that don’t work for some reason – a software issue, a procedure issue, a deadline that no one can ever meet.
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But everyone is so busy that no one has time to find a solution. Make yourself that person. Take on one or two of these issues. The answer may simply involve getting the attention of the person in your organisation who can address it.
Suggest it
Be alert to ideas that could make your department’s work easier or better. Suggest them to your boss, and if she approves them, be ready to take the next step to make them a reality. Don’t be hurt if your idea gets turned down. These things are like batting averages; one out of three is excellent.
Speak up
Some people have absolutely no hesitation chatting away in group sessions and team meetings. Others have a natural reticence.
It is fine to keep quiet if you have nothing to add, but you aren’t doing anyone any good by withholding a helpful comment or good question.
If speaking in these settings doesn’t come naturally, try to take a moment before the meeting to develop some questions.
Some experts recommend trying to be the first person to speak up once the floor is opened up to questions – if only to quickly get the monkey off your back.
Don’t feel like you have to ask a Nobel Prize-winning question. It’ll be easier once you get started.
There are many other ways to make your role a little more prominent, such as:
• Looking for ways to solve a headache for your boss;
• Offering to mentor new employees or coach co-workers about a new technology or tool;
• Taking on a task or work a shift that isn’t exactly a favourite among the staff.
Our offices are tiny societies where teamwork is prized and we praise colleagues who do an outstanding job. However, someone who always tries to position themselves at the front of the parade can expect a cold reception from the team.
The bottom line is everything in moderation. If you want to stretch and do better for your department, go for it. Be the best you can be, but good work truly blooms when it is discovered, rather than placed under the boss’s nose.
This article first appeared in The New York Times.
by New York Times | Aug 23, 2019 | Employers, General
IN THE 1970s, some symphony orchestra directors tried a new way to hire musicians: blind hiring. Musicians played behind screens and walked on carpeted floors so the judges couldn’t tell if they were wearing heels.
Symphony musicians had mostly been white men. The new method increased the chances that women were hired and also encouraged more women to apply because they were confident they would be treated fairly.
Hiring is one of the most important parts of work, but it can also be the least rigorous. Managers often ask questions that don’t actually test what people will do on the job and people are attracted to people who are most similar to them, often unconsciously.
1. Watch your language
“Manage”, “exceptional” and “proven”. When job adverts include these words, more men apply. Words like “sympathetic,” “fosters” and “empathy” attract more women.
Instead, words that both men and women respond to in equal number are “extraordinary”, “visionary” or “premier”. Adverts with gender-neutral language fill 14 days faster and bring in more diverse candidates.
Benefits like family leave, an on-site gym and performance-based incentives filled jobs fastest. Offering holidays or sabbaticals, as opposed to leave, slowed down hiring and benefits like on-site massage or pet leave had no effect.
2. Treat people equally
Workplace discrimination can range from blatant to subtle. Here’s how to address these issues.
Hiring equitably is the first step. Next is treating colleagues respectfully. Discrimination happens in overt and subtle ways, like people interrupting in meetings, taking credit for ideas that weren’t theirs or handing out promotions and raises to people most similar to them. Not only is it hurtful, but it harms people’s careers and stifles the flow of good ideas. Groups that penalise such behaviour end up having more creative expression, found research by Jennifer Chatman of the Haas School of Business.
3. Practise what you learnt in preschool
Basic kindness goes a long way towards building respectful workplace cultures. Below are some of the manners suggested by Fran Sepler, a workplace training consultant:
1. Greet people;
2. Don’t interrupt;
3. Credit the people who come up with good ideas, not the people who most loudly take credit for them;
4. Don’t multitask during a conversation;
5. Don’t write in email anything you wouldn’t say in person.
4. Learn to listen
Meetings are cesspools of disrespectful workplace behaviour. There are ways to make sure everyone gets heard:
Certain people tend to dominate the conversation, so stop to ask if everyone has had a chance to speak. Don’t forget those on the phone or video conference.
Don’t allow others to take credit for other people’s ideas. Redirect the conversation back to the person who originally raised it, saying something like: “She just raised that same idea. Would she like to tell us more?”
In a brainstorming meeting, ask people to come up with ideas alone and then discuss them together, then have the leaders share last. That way people aren’t swayed by the group conversation or by people more senior than them.
5. If you’re a freelancer
Don’t be afraid to share your ideas and background. Remember that one reason companies hire freelancers is to add fresh ideas and diversity to workplaces that have grown dull and repetitive.
6. If you are a boss
Your actions speak louder than words. People are watching them closely.
Below are a few suggestions of small changes you can make that will help change the tone in your office:
• Set the example for a flexible, empathetic culture – leave before dinnertime, even if you keep working at home. If you leave a meeting early for family reasons, tell everyone that’s the reason.
• Embrace diversity, equality and respect for all – choose deputies who don’t look like you and have different backgrounds than yours. Show up at diversity and sexual harassment trainings, and parties celebrating someone’s promotion.
If you’re there, people will know it’s important.
• Tell people their work is important and show it, too – make sure they know how it fits into the organisation’s broader mission, no matter how junior the person is. Do the work yourself. Spend a day on sales calls or delivering products.
• Talk to your employees – ask people what they want to do in five years and how you can help them get there. Let people work on the stuff they’re most passionate about.
This article first appeared in The New York Times.
by New York Times | Aug 1, 2019 | Jobs
SEARCHING for a job but having no luck getting hired can be demoralising.
While research shows that people experience an increased sense of well-being just after losing their jobs, that trend reverses if they’re still hunting after 10 to 12 weeks. On top of the obvious financial stress that comes with being unemployed or underemployed, these groups also suffer from worse physical health, with rates of depression rising among the unemployed the longer they go without finding work.
The solution to job-search depression isn’t as easy as hitting the pavement and sending out more CVs. Even strong candidates aren’t guaranteed success, creating “this constant uncertainty of not knowing when the job search will end”, said Michelle Maidenberg, a professor of cognitive behavioural therapy and human behaviour. Whether you’re suffering from job-search depression or happily employed, learning the coping mechanisms needed to deal with things like uncertainty and loss of control will always come in handy, she said.
“So much of who we are is wrapped up in work, but you are more than your job,” said Alison Doyle, a job search specialist. When people imagine job-search depression, they often attribute it to financial instability and frequent rejection, but it turns out that “identity is a much bigger piece of the puzzle than people had previously thought”, said Dawn Norris, an associate professor of sociology.
“In fact, many of the people in my study said it was the most important thing to them, even beyond financial problems,” she said. Those who listed financial concerns as their biggest source of stress often cited a perceived loss of identity a close second. Besides the loss of income and identity that can come with being out of work, there’s also the loss of day-to-day structure. Sending out emails while wearing sweatpants on the sofa might seem like a fantasy to some, but after a while, the loss of scheduled time can lead to feelings of anxiety, depression and disconnection, Norris said.
The solution is to create structure for yourself inside the job hunt and out. Setting strict office hours can help keep the search from bleeding into every area of your life, with deadlines pushing you to work more efficiently. Simple rules, like a “No LinkedIn after 6pm” policy or a mandatory lunch hour, will give you the space to focus on other interests and relationships and recharge mentally. The stress of a job search can also make people feel as if they don’t deserve down time, but working overtime and pushing to the point of burnout will only worsen feelings of isolation and negativity.
Doyle said avoiding the temptation to set overambitious goals is especially important since failing to accomplish them will affect your well-being negatively and can even slow your overall progress. While it might feel hard to appreciate smaller successes, especially if they seem mundane or aren’t directly connected to the job hunt, the power of small wins means these moments can have a major impact on our mental and emotional health.
The stress of the job hunt can make it easy to miss out on a benefit of unemployment: more free time. The solution: “Look at the time in a way as a gift,” said Doyle, who recommended volunteering or taking free online classes. This can also be an opportunity to explore hobbies that you were too busy to nurture and probably won’t have time for once you land a job, Maidenberg said. Trying out new things and discovering other talents and interests can help us strengthen our identities and enjoy new sources of fulfilment.
If you’re interested in pursuing activities that relate to your professional skills, keeping your CV up to date isn’t the only benefit, Norris said. “Depending on what aspect of your identity is threatened, finding something to do that’s similar enough”. For example, a former manager could coach children’s sports and a laid-off emergency rescue worker might take a public safety course.
It can help reinforce the feeling that you are still the same person you were before, she said. One of the best ways to take a mental break from the job search and to reaffirm the parts of your identity that don’t have anything to do with your career, is to spend time with family and friends, Maidenberg said. It is also a good way to alleviate the isolation that many job seekers face.
Putting yourself out there isn’t always easy, especially given that there’s “definitely a stigma” around unemployment, she said. Research shows that the long unemployed spend less time with family and friends.
If you’re finding it hard to socialise, start small, Norris said. Online communities and support groups are good places to start, as are clubs and networking events in your area. If you’re having a hard time prioritising your health during your job search, go one step further and ask a loved one to act as your accountability partner.
If people ask what you do for a living? “It’s fine to say, ‘I’m looking for my next opportunity’,” Doyle said. Most importantly, she said: “Don’t feel bad that you’re unemployed, even if it’s your fault. It can happen to the best of us. You are not alone.”
This article first appeared in the New York Times
