Review the creativity killers and see if you’ve fallen prey to multi-tasking, fear of rejection, lack of sleep, etc. It’s nice to see lack of sleep on there, btw.
GhostGirl forwarded me this definition of a work spouse from Wikipedia:
A work spouse is a co-worker (usually of the opposite sex)[1] with whom one shares a special relationship, having bonds similar to those of a marriage; such as, special confidences, loyalties, shared jokes and experiences, and an unusual degree of honesty or openness. The work spouse is a potentially key relationship when one’s actual spouse or boy/girlfriend is not able to understand the nuances of the workplace. While it is not unusual for the relationship to contain elements of flirtation, this relationship can be threatened rather than enhanced if it becomes sexual.
Oh dear, I thought. I’ve had several work spouses. Have you?
I just came across this article and felt compelled to post about it, because I found myself nodding sagely to almost every point.
I’m a manager. I’m not entirely certain how I got to be one, or even what I am doing, but there you are. And I often get questions to the effect of: “I worked my ass off and I got a good review. Why did I get such a small raise”, “Who decides how much I should get”, and “Don’t they realize I can get a better paying job elsewhere?” (To which I answer in my head, “Then why don’t you?”)
Here are the likely answers, and more:
1. For most companies, 3.9% is the average budget increase for salaries. Most of the people I have managed, at ANY company, have gotten between 2-3% raises, and the really good ones have gotten 4-5%, unless there was a promotion involved. If you are getting less than 2%, consider if you got a really good raise the previous year, or a promotion. Sometimes, if they know you’ve been well compensated in a previous year, they hold back a little in order to better reward others. It sucks, but it also stands to reason that there’s only so much money to go around. (Or, you may not be as great as you think you are.)
2. Your employer (or future employer) may not know the current salary averages. Yep. Though this strikes me as sort of stupid.
3. Most managers have a short memory. I know I do! I remember the Big Stuff, but not everything. So, sell yourself. With cold, hard numbers.
4. Your manager probably has little influence over your salary. It’s a game of telephone. I tell my boss, who wrangles with his boss, who wrangles with HR. By the time it gets back to me, it’s like “Bob is a great rabbit with 50 refrigerators, give him some heffalumps.”
5. Threatening to quit can result in a big wage increase (but it’s risky). Be damn sure you really are one of those indispensable employees because, frankly, most of the people who do this simply aren’t, and are allowed to leave–because it is easier for the company to hire and train a new employee than it is to sit there and worry that the person will leave regardless.
I’m convinced my left breast would be a better vice-presidential candidate than Sarah Palin, but I still find this sexist. What is with the obsession with her appearance? She has one. Move on to an actual issue, Huffington Post.
I like work-related dramas, so Jim rented The Dresden Files for me, which is basically a short-running series about a wizard who is a private investigator. And because I tend to be socially unaware of the sci-fi/fantasy world, I have a few questions for readers who are more familiar with TV than I am:
Is this the dumbest show ever? Again, my sci-fi/fantasy prejudice may be coming out here.
Is it in fact a copy of Magnum P.I. complete with a “bachelor” private investigator and an ancillary guy with a British accent who hangs around and gives out clues?
Why would you name a wizard Harry if you didn’t mean to make reference to Harry Potter?
Comments please. I’ve only seen two episodes, so I’m willing to be convinced it is not the dumbest show ever, but you’ll need to suggest a dumber show.
I have made a decision: I am not going to open any more mail from my financial manager, my 401k, or any other investment plan I have. It’s just too depressing to watch my retirement funds shrink and shrink. I think instead I will only open mail that says “free chocolate” or “chock full of kitten pictures.”
And yet. And yet. I am determined to do a timely and topical post about weird political news.
I’m pretty sure I could in some respects. At least I could go without buying coffee out or dinner at a restaurant or defer paying bills for a week. However, I probably couldn’t go without electricity, propane, water, or Internet access, which are all ways of spending money, unless I was backpacking.
Here’s a story in Real Simple (which is really not a simple magazine at all) about a guy who tries not to spend any money. It is not particularly deep as the writer simply gets other people to pay for stuff he wants. I suppose that’s one way to do it. In any case, I found it amusing in terms of the degree to which we are consumers. You might too.
I’m not sure quite what’s with my funk and obsession about Generation X getting screwed, but it does seem like more folks are writing about it:
While there is considerable debate about how projected budget surpluses turned into record deficits, there is virtually no question that the U.S.’s recent reversal of fortune is unprecedented. During the prime earning years of Generation X, the deficit will likely soar beyond $3 trillion, increasing the pressure to reduce spending on social services for the elderly and raise taxes for everyone. According to The Wall Street Journal , by 2030, one of every five dollars of income-tax revenue will be sucked up by Medicare alone, while the cost of education continues to dramatically outpace inflation.
“On top of personal debt and a highly volatile job market, this is the first generation that’s going to have much higher expenses when it comes to caring for the elderly,” said the CEPR’s Ms. Boushey. “Also, there’s a drop in the fertility rate because this group is delaying childbearing, because now you need two incomes to sustain a household.” Another thing the future holds for Gen-X is a host of unknowns. “There are a lot of social experiments being conducted on this cohort,” said Ms. Boushey, “We don’t know how it’s going to play out in the long run.”
I consider this yet another reason not to buy diamonds: EEOC sues Sterling Jewelers for discrimination against women:
The EEOC found that Sterling Jewelers “pays its female retail sales employees less than male employees performing equal work and denies female employees promotional opportunities for which they are qualified.”
“Sterling Jewelers intentionally discriminates against female retail sales employees by maintaining a system for making promotion and compensation decisions that is excessively subjective, and through which Sterling Jewelers has permitted or encouraged managers to deny female employees equal access to promotion opportunities and the same compensation paid to similarly situated male employees,” the EEOC stated in its lawsuit.
I suppose we’ll see what happens in court. You may not have heard of Sterling Jewelers, but they are the parent company to Kay Jewelers and Jared the Galleria of Jewelry (Has anyone heard of Jared? That’s a strange business name).
Shifting gears with your small business is always difficult, and these are scary (startling, even, at least I’m startled) economic times. The New York Times profiles a guy, Christopher Hazlett, who has successfully shifted the direction of his business using these tips:
Be frugal. Mr. Hazlett never sought outside financing, and has no debt. In Integrate’s heyday, he thought about renting an office, but concluded there was no compelling reason to do so. He cut his salary last year, and even so, puts much of it into his personal savings account.
Switch to a new product or service if the one you are marketing is not selling. “I saw that we could only do one of two things: change or close our doors for good,” he said.
Be patient. “It takes time to get it right,” he says.
Look for opportunity in tough economic times. It was corporate cost-cutting that hurt him last year, he says, and so he is marketing Event Clipboard as a tool for the budget-conscious to save money.
Anyone considering shifting gears in his/her small business? I am, but I’m not sure what gear to shift to….
I find the bail-out extremely depressing. Perhaps because I don’t have a ton of money invested but still feel I’ve been screwed in some fashion by Wall Street. Perhaps because I think there’s absolutely no chance there will be any money for universal health care now. Or social security.
Setting those feelings aside, the bail-out has some interesting reprecussions for the workforce mainly in that Baby Boomers will be delaying their retirement. What does that mean for Generation X? It exacerbates several trends:
- It means those upper level management (or lower level for that matter) jobs will not be open anytime soon if Baby Boomers delay retirement. And keep in mind that we knew that Baby Boomers were already delaying retirement due to debt, kids in college, caring for parents, and the need to retain health care. Now we have another big reason that Boomers can’t retire.
- It means that Generation X will again have to learn how to create their own work because the system will not work for many of them. At least it won’t work well anytime soon.
Other thoughts on generational workplace issues with the bailout and workforce?
Hi there. Sorry I didn’t write last week. I had a new sofa delivered, and then I had to vacuum the floor where the old couch was, and dispose of all the crap my husband didn’t think to dispose of, and then lovingly rearrange all the rest of my furniture, and scowl at the curtains. And then it was bedtime and I had totally forgotten all about you. Sorry. Couch trumps anonymous internet. But the good news is, it’s a sleeper sofa, so now you can come and visit!
Meanwhile, a lot of weird stuff has happened in the workplace. Let’s see if I can catch you up:
I particularly liked this guest post at the Brazen Careerist on Dealing with Race at Work.
Here’s an excerpt of one of the five rules for addressing race:
Rule 2: Understand that diversity training is about protecting the company, not about educating you.
Diversity training rarely succeeds at reducing bias or increasing managerial diversity within organizations.So why do companies continue to spend millions of dollars on it every single year?
Because they’re afraid of costly lawsuits.
If a company gets sued for racial discrimination, it can point to its diversity training program as a good faith effort to eliminate racial discrimination and hopefully win the lawsuit.
Ultimately for most companies, diversity training isn’t about nurturing diversity in the workplace. It’s about protecting the company.
Would you like to add to the five rules? Subtract?
I’ve written a bit about this phenomenon before: The Anywhere, Anytime Office. It’s a (seeming) trend in the management of large office spaces to have non-assigned office spaces.
This raises some interesting issues for those of us who study the workplace. One of the suggestions that often comes up in spirituality and the workplace literature is to personalize your workspace (e.g., cube, locker) with photos and symbols of some sort that remind you that you are more than just a drone. But, of course, the non-assigned office space doesn’t allow for this. Under New Management describes this conflict pretty well:
Employers benefit from these setups, too, both by cutting real estate costs and by increasing their appeal to younger workers who tend to prefer jobs that let them work anywhere and any time.
But a traditional office has its advantages. Its workers can have neighbors, for example, and pictures on the wall. It can also provide a sense of community and a predictable structure.
Therein lies the challenge for managers seeking more fluid spaces: how to offer flexibility but keep employees feeling connected and engaged.
Personally, I’ve found that when I consult and end up in a non-assigned generic space, I feel like beating my head against the wall. I end up carrying a little portfolio of photos and symbols just to keep myself not-so-depressed in the office or cube. And that’s as a self-employed person with quite a bit of control over when and how I work. I can’t imagine being an employee and not having a place to hang my hat.
All of that said, would you like this sort of office space? A little? A lot? Not at all? Why? Your speculation is welcome in comments.
This shock doctrine is pretty much what I think is happening now. Not that there aren’t disasters, but that some folks take advantage of “disasters” to push their agendas.