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Coping with redundancy

 career advice, Career change, Redundancy  No Responses »
Oct 222009
 
Yotsuba & The Apprentice

Image by Manic* via Flickr

Redundancy is an unpleasant fact of the modern working environment. The concept of a job-for-life is a long distant memory in today’s world of mergers, takeovers, downsizing and organisational “restructuring”.

No matter how secure you think your job is today, things could change radically tomorrow, and, like it or not, the threat of redundancy is very real.

Organisations need to stay competitive in order to survive, and often look to restructure and re-organise in an attempt to minimise costs and maximise efficiency. That process could easily mean that your job becomes surplus to requirements.

Feelings of shock, fear, anger and despair are common when you first hear you’re being made redundant. As emotions jostle for supremacy, it’s easy to lose your sense of perspective. But retaining that perspective is vital if you’re going to come through the trauma of redundancy unscathed.

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 Posted by Calvin at 12:21 pm  Tagged with: ,

Dealing with a new boss

 career advice, workplace  No Responses »
Sep 212009
 
James, I think your cover's blown!

Image by laverrue via Flickr

Getting a new boss can be almost as daunting as getting a new job. Depending on how you felt about your old boss you may or may not welcome change, but change, as always, means uncertainty… and that’s uncomfortable.

If you’ve got a new boss starting at work, it always pays to approach the transition professionally, and to manage your relationship with them effectively right from the start.

Apart from yourself, your immediate superior is the person who has the biggest direct impact on your career. It’s your boss who sets the benchmarks against which your work will be measured, your boss who assesses your performance, your boss who communicates your achievements (or otherwise) to others, and your boss who controls the resources you need to do your job effectively. Keeping him or her on-side from the start is generally a good idea. But how do you manage a new boss?

  • Expect and accept change: your incoming boss will almost certainly do things differently to your old one, accept that things are going to change, be proactive. Remember that no matter what sort of relationship you had with your old boss, you’re starting with a clean slate now, and that’s often a good thing. By managing the transition carefully you can help yourself, your new boss and your entire team to get back into the swing of things quickly.
  • First impressions are crucial: that clean slate won’t stay clean for long… so you want to make sure you make a positive first impression. One of the best ways to do that is to make it as easy for your new boss to fit into their new role… remember, while you’re getting a new boss, they’re often starting a brand new job. They’re new, and you know the ropes, so help them to settle in by offering useful pointers and constructive advice where appropriate. Remember to offer suggestions, rather than instruction.

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 Posted by Calvin at 9:06 am  Tagged with: , , , ,

Coping with the transition to college life

 career advice, Education  No Responses »
Sep 032009
 
university_college_cork

Image by digitalismo via Flickr

Across the country thousands of student’s who’ve just accepted their place on a college or university course are eagerly awaiting the start of the new academic year. It herald the beginning of a brand new chapter in their lives as they enter third level education.

While this is a very exciting milestone, it can also be a daunting one. In the early days of college it can be difficult to find your feet, to get your bearings on- and off- campus, get your head around a completely new way of learning and coping with non-academic changes like living away from home and fending for yourself — which can be an adventure in itself.

Luckily, colleges and universities are well aware of the challenges faced by new students. Third level learning institutions want students to feel at home as quickly as possible, and often go out of their way to show newcomers the ropes and help them to settle into college life. Most places will issue every new student with a welcome pack before they arrive on campus, full of all the information they’ll need for their first few weeks of term: things like a guide to registration, important dates on the academic calendar, relevant contact details, maps of the campus, answers to the most frequently asked student questions and much more besides. So before term even starts students have the opportunity to familiarise themselves with their new environment.

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 Posted by Calvin at 11:19 am  Tagged with: , , ,

Politeness at work pays dividends

 books, career advice, Employer  1 Response »
Aug 192009
 

Buy "The Cost of Bad Behavior" from AmazonAccording to the co authors of a new book from the US, bad behaviour and rudeness in the workplace could be costing companies billions in lost productivity.

Professor Christine Porath of the USC Marshall School of Business and her co-author Christine Pearson, a professor of management at Thunderbird School of Global Management, discovered just how much poor manners at work can impact a company’s bottom line while researching "The Cost of Bad Behavior: How Incivility is Damaging Your Business and What to Do About It”.

Behaviour like texting in meetings, spreading malicious rumours, taking credit for other people’s work, ignoring emails and even refusing to say a simple "please" and "thank you" are much more than just annoyances, say the authors, who claim that stress caused by bad behaviour could be costing businesses a staggering $300 billion by affecting the performance of those on the receiving end.

The Authors’ research suggests that eight out of 10 employees who are victims of insults or bullying in the workplace lose work time worrying about it, while a similar proportion feel that their commitment to work declines as a direct result. Civility costs nothing, but implementing a culture of civility in the workplace could have real payback in terms of productivity and bottom line profits. "It starts with the top," Porath insists. "There should be a thread of civility through everything a company does." When these threads start to break down, she warns, companies are in danger of losing their best employees, to the long-term detriment of the business. Even with currently high levels of unemployment she points out that there’s still "huge concern with Human Resource executives that there’s a shortage of talent. Businesses are fighting for talent."

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 Posted by Calvin at 4:29 pm  Tagged with: , , , ,

Managing stress at work

 career advice, workplace  2 Responses »
Aug 062009
 
Stressed Eric

Image via Wikipedia

Read about how to recognise workplace stress here

At home and at work there are countless things in our lives that cause us to become anxious and ultimately lead to stress. Things like our relationships with our family and our work colleagues, lack of sleep, a feeling of having too much to do and not enough time, not making the time to relax and unwind… the list is practically endless.

In the workplace stress inducing situations are rife. Common ones include strained working relationships, heavy workloads, long hours, unrealistic expectations, poor communications, insufficient or improper training or concerns about job security. Stress typically builds up when a variety of potentially stressful experiences combine to overwhelm us: when we perceive that we’re out of our depth and believe that we have little or no control.

One of the problems with trying to define exactly what causes stress is that its a subjective thing. We all have different stress thresholds and find different things stressful. Some people, for example, find the thought of changing jobs terrifying, while others relish the challenge such a change brings. What we find stressful  is a very personal thing.

The important thing is to recognise your own stress thresholds, and when your stress alarm bells start to ring, take steps to manage that stress before it starts to have a detrimental affect on your work, and more importantly your health. If you start to feel the pressure, here are a few things you could try to keep your stress levels under control.

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 Posted by Calvin at 7:22 am  Tagged with: , ,

10 Potentially Fatal Career Traits – Part 1

 career advice, Career tips, coaching  1 Response »
Jul 202009
 
The Lone Ranger

Image via Wikipedia

It’s great reading about all the things you should be doing to move your career in the right direction… but every now and then it can be useful to look at the flip side too. Finding the right job can take months, working your way up the career ladder takes years… but get things wrong and you’ll find sliding down that same ladder can happen much more quickly.

To avoid that, it’s important to stay aware of, and to steer a course around the many pitfalls that can trip you as you progress down your chosen career path. Keeping an eye on some of the main workplace faux pas, and actively working to avoid them, can help you to keep our career on track through challenging times.

  • Lone ranger: being self confident and self reliant are positive traits, but beware of crossing the line into arrogance and alienating your co-workers. Being a team player is every bit as important as excelling in your discipline. It’s the performance of the team, and ultimately the business, rather than the individual, that counts. If your personal brilliance disrupts that team environment, and results in a negative impact on team performance, you won’t last long, no matter how good you are.
  • Poor People Skills: it’s important to make a conscious effort to be affable and get on with people at work. Studies by respected bodies like the Harvard Business Review show that people prefer to work with likeable, less-skilled individuals than with highly competent but less friendly co-workers. According to researchers if an employee is generally disliked, it almost doesn’t matter that they’re good at what they do, because other people won’t work effectively with them.
  • Personal business at work: strictly speaking company e-mail and company phones should be reserved for company business. A few short personal phone calls is obviously OK, but limit their number and keep them brief. Similarly with e-mail, try to avoid using your business account for personal e-mail, never type anything in a business e-mail that you wouldn’t want your boss to read and steer clear of distributing chain-letters and jokes to company mailing lists.
  • Missing deadlines: if you commit to meeting a particular deadline, you need to make sure you meet it. Missing deadlines is unprofessional, has a knock-on impact on other people’s schedules and makes your boss look bad… which is never a good career move. Live by the maxim of "under-promise and over-deliver". That said, occasionally changing circumstances will mean you’re never going to make a deadline. In that case make sure you communicate effectively: tell everyone it’s likely to affect that you’re going to miss the deadline, and why, and let them know when you’ll get the work finished.
  • Isolation: being isolated makes you less effective. Work to develop your relationships within your organisation and your profession. Effective networking will give you the inside track when it comes to getting information and securing the resources you need to do your job efficiently.

With companies looking to cut costs (which often means jobs) at every opportunity, how you’re perceived at work, and making a positive impression is more important than ever. Check back next week for another five pitfalls to look out for.

Don’t forget to check out 10 Potentially Fatal Career Traits – Part 2.

Got more suggestions? Let us know by leaving a comment….

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 Posted by Calvin at 10:35 pm
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