Surviving the Workday

Consider whether or not procrastination is the enemy. If you’re a writer (or anyone who works at home), you may tend to think of it as your nemesis, but there is often necessary mental work going on during procrastination. The last time I was truly procrastinating, I went bowling with a neighbor-friend. That worked out so poorly that I got straight to work when I came home.

Procrastination as your Ally breaks down what we do when we procrastinate into three categories: working on something trivial, working on something more important, and recreation, and suggests a number of cures.

I am having some sort of middle-aged brain freeze as I look for articles about work today. Nothing makes sense to me. It’s like my brain has stopped working.

 Apparently there is a victory for sexual privacy rights for public employees. It involves the military and don’t ask, don’t tell. That’s literally all I can tell you because nothing more makes sense.

A is for Apathy is about how managers have to conquer apathy. It’s an intriguing premise, and yet I’m apathetic halfway through.

Vacation envy is on the rise in Canada. Apparently not taking a vacation makes you jealous of others who return from one.

Vacation deprivation symptoms can lead to vacation envy - feelings of jealousy when a co-worker or friend returns from vacation. This year’s survey revealed that 42 per cent of Canadians admit they have felt vacation envy at some point in their life. Some Canadians are more susceptible to envy - women (48 per cent) are more likely than men (35 per cent) to have felt vacation envy and younger Canadians aged 18 to 34 (59 per cent) are twice as likely to have suffered from vacation envy, compared to those over the age of 54 (26 per cent).

I thought that The Language of Loss for the Jobless was going to be about using the language of grief to cope with loss of a job, but it’s far more about spinning your lay-off to folks in your life as you deal with it inwardly. That said, it’s always interesting to read how others cope. 

A bunch of colleagues were laid-off last week (ugh!), and it’s interesting to reflect on the language they’re using to discuss it (aside from the very real pain of the lay-off). I’m trying not to be too chaplain-like about it and encourage them to talk about their feelings (not a chaplain!), and instead just let them be with it.

On a related note, I joined an “alum” group for those of us on Linkedin who worked for the same corporate employer, and had my own dose of grief (or shock!). I read through the members of the group and was stunned by the number of smart, capable employees who no longer worked there, who presumably left on their accord or were laid-off. It makes me think about what some of the larger implications in our culture are for a generation used to being laid-off regularly.

I can’t claim to have had much success with receiving a dramatic raise without changing jobs, but reading What Not to Do (when asking for a raise) made me feel better about avoiding mistakes in the asking process. For example, at least I haven’t asked while drunk. That I haven’t done.

And, no, I’m not looking for advice on asking.

A Bible-based theme park in Tennessee has yet to woo locals:

The project’s developer Armon Bar-Tur, co-founder of New York-based SafeHarbor Holding, says he knows what comes to mind when people hear “Bible Park USA.”

“Commercializing and tacky and it being a Six Flags [theme park] over Jesus,” he says.

But that’s not what he’s going for. Unlike smaller religious attractions, Bar-Tur says, the park would focus on the historical aspects of the Bible — not on ministry.

What’s odd to me is that one of the actual ”rides” or “events” or “whatever”  in the park description is something that already exists. Moses parts the Red Sea at Universal Studios, dude. Now a swarm of locusts? That I haven’t seen as a ride.

I have to admit that someone telling me to “just relax” is about as annoying as presumptions such as “I know how you feel” (You don’t. Even if you think you do) and “It’s a no brainer”* (It’s probably not). I don’t relax. I don’t seem capable to relaxation by external command.

But apparently the commandment”Just relax!” is also non-relaxing for others. Steve at All Things Workplace runs down two recent studies on relaxing, and why it may not be helpful to instruct someone to relax (particularly at work).

 *”That’s a no brainer” is best said in a Massachusetts accent for the full effect.

Workplace Prof Blog notes that there has been a flurry of pregnancy discrimination discussions in the blogosphere of late, which is helpful because I thought it was just me, and then goes on to discuss the details of pregnancy discrimination in law enforcement in two new stories.

And as we’ve noted, there has been a surge of complaints and inquiries to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Then there’s that whole Bloomberg thing.

Psychology Today has an interesting article on how we all live on credit, one way or another, and not the financial kind:

Certainly credit can be in the form of tangible reward, whether unexpected bonus, surprise vacation, or plum new assignment. But credit is also highly sought after when it stands alone, in the form of a public e-mail, an open compliment, or—simply, quietly—specific praise from the boss for a great idea or a job superbly executed. You can’t pay your mortgage with that credit, but we still hunger for it. In that universal desire, we are all puppies, and credit is the scratch behind the ears that gets us wagging.

As you rise in a company, the author claims, you may receive less credit (Is this true? I’m thinking I’ve frequently seen the opposite). Ideas tend to rise without a definite source in a company (This is definitely true, though sometimes I think the source has been deliberately removed).

There is also specific advice for those of us who work with credit snatchers, and those of us who simply work with others:

How much money would a stay-at-home-mom make, if a stay-at-home-mom made money? Salary.com, a website that is perhaps best known for its “cost of living” tool, has developed a wizard that helps compute the monetary value of a SAHM’s work.

According to their 2006 press release, Salary.com says they “consulted with Stay at Home and Working Moms and determined the top 10 jobs that make up a mom’s job description. If paid, Stay at Home Moms would earn $134,121 annually …. Working Moms would earn $85, 876 annually for the ‘mom portion’ of their work, in addition to their actual ‘work job’ salary.”

Any guesses at those top 10 jobs? Despite being the child of a former SAHM, a few of them never even crossed my mind. Compare your answers to theirs here.

The nice thing about the Mom Salary Wizard is that it’s not a generic figure tossed out, but a customizable one - this is important, because not every SAHM spends the same amount of time on the same tasks. It’s pitched as a potential “mother’s day gift” that children or partners can make for the moms in their lives, but I think it has more meaningful possibilities.

This came to me through a woman in my Real Wealth of Portland group, where we’re striving together to make aspects of our local “invisible economy” more visible. Author Riane Eisler notes that in 2004, a survey conducted by the Swiss government showed that if unpaid work done in the home were included as part of the Gross Domestic Product, it would represent 70% of the Swiss GDP.

So, what’s your mom (or dad) “worth?”

In Great Britain, a database listing employees with identifying information including photos, and their grounds for dismissal will be available for future employers to check on potential hires. The database, called the National Staff Dismissal Register (NSDR) raises a number of concerns for employees. First, and foremost, these grounds for dismissal don’t have to be reported for police. Employers seem to be able to literally enter any information without fear of penalty. Second, there is no method for addressing any inaccuracies in the database:

James Welch, the legal director of human rights group Liberty, also says that he is concerned that the register does not offer sufficient redress to the falsely accused.

“This scheme appears to bypass existing laws which protect employees by limiting the circumstances when information about possible criminal activity can be shared with potential employers.”

Aee. I’m all for sharing information, but as you can see in the comments, there seems to be a lot of room for abuse, and once on the list, what will you do for work?

Oooh! Look at this home office! It’s really a glorified shed, but so cute, bright, and tucked away in the shade in the yard. And, of course, if you put some wheels on the bottom, you might be able to get away building it without a permit. Not that I would ever suggest doing that. Never mind me forwarding this to someone I know who likes building sheds…..

Via Treehugger

After yesterday’s post, I remembered a survey in the United Kingdom of bosses and managers and how they felt weighed hiring people who might become pregnant (a pretty big group, mind you):

More than 75% of bosses would not take on a woman recruit if they knew she would become pregnant within six months of starting a job.
During the selection process, 52% of those surveyed will weigh up the chances of a candidate getting pregnant, taking into account age and whether they have just got married.
68% would like more rights to quiz candidates about their plans for a family.
Only 5% of bosses have employed someone knowing the candidate is pregnant.

I find the second and fourth point most disturbing. It’s interesting that in a place with paid maternity leave, there is what appears to be discrimination in hiring so as not to have to offer that paid leave and other parental leave and flexible work options.

I wasn’t going to post this link, but I’ve seen it three or four workplace blogs, and it seems now that I’m deliberately not posting it, which really wasn’t my intention. Basically, an attorney was laid off promptly after having a miscarriage, and rather than signing an agreement not to talk about it in exchange for three months salary, she refused, and sent her email to everyone under the sun to expose the callousness of her employer.

A number of points aren’t clear in the email, but it does raise issues about how we deal with the tragedies in the lives of coworkers.  If a coworker tells you she has a miscarriage, you need to express sympathy. Many people compare a miscarriage to the death of a child, including in support group structure, and while I won’t do that, it is just that big for many of us.

From Eight Violent Truths About Freelancing:

3. Freelancers Work For More Jerks Than Anyone Else.

Wait, What? I thought freelancers got to be their own bosses! How does that work?

It’s easy. It works like this:

1. Client provides project specs.
2. Freelancer completes and submits project.
3. Client changes specs.
4. Freelancer revises and resubmits project.
5. Client drops the order altogether, posts both sets of submissions anyways.
6. Freelancer finds new client.
7. Repeat.

Maybe #5 becomes “client doesn’t pay the invoice for 6 months” or “client offers half the original bid amount“, but you get the idea.

And that explains my jerk expertise. Feel free to ask any jerk-related questions. We’re talking about coworkers and colleagues of course. I don’t think Ms. Theologian has received any queries in a long time.

Sometimes I enjoy reading Gawker a little bit too much. For example, one story I’ve been following is about a professor at Dartmouth who threatened her students via email with a lawsuit possibly regarding simply not liking her, and then the university got involved (also via email), and it’s all very interesting for those of us who are interested in forwarded internal emails exemplifying a lack of The Golden Rule via Gawker:

Now it’s official: everyone involved in any capacity with the Priya Venkatesan affiar annoys the hell out of us. To recap, Ms. Venkatesan was a Dartmouth lecturer who decided to sue her students for harassment or something because they heckled her. She is clearly a pompous tool. Her students are also probably pompous tools. Now a pompous tool who writes for the Wall Steet Journal editorial page weighs in with an indictment against academia. Joseph Rago attended Dartmouth, you see, though he totally didn’t like it very much and didn’t even try very hard in his classes. Because of post-modernism.

I’m really not sure it’s possible to follow this story coming in cold, but I am greatly amused with blaming post-modernism for anything.

I do wonder what happens with many of us in adulthood to make us so stingy with praise, so reluctant to compliment others, and so content to fault-find. I know part of my work history explains it: editing is all about fault-finding. But it’s not just a problem for editors.

Thanks for a Whole Lot of Nothing is an article that explores praise in marriage, Christian marriage, in particular, though applicable to all in the sense that it is important to become aware of the small gestures others make that make every day livable.

Miss Conduct weighed in on Writers, blogs, e-mail, and civil discourse, at least partially involving the airing of literary dirty laundry post that I wrote. She manages to find the larger issue that had escaped me, which is to say, what to make of taking private correspondence (or internal communications at an organization) and making it public? She gives a number of good examples. I had a few more thoughts about the larger workplace issues that this discussion brings up: (more…)

More Women Charge Bloomberg LP with discrimination describes how the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has used questionnaires to women who have left Bloomberg and who have taken maternity leave to find 58 women who had their pay cut or were demoted or denied opportunities because they became pregnant while employed at Bloomberg.

This is such a tricky issue to navigate on a practical level for women. On the one hand, being open and honest about pregnancy seems the best way to behave, but that’s in a perfect world. In the real world, particularly financial services, this is part of a much larger pattern of pregnancy and maternity discrimination.  

If you’d like to read more about pregnancy discrimination, the best resource I’ve found is the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Facts about Pregnancy Discrimination.

and perhaps should worry about your keyboard. And clean it.

I’ve collected a sampling of business travel-related writing:

Vacation Day Limits and Panicking Before Business Trips at the SF Chronicle

And from a special Business Travel section in the NY Times:

     Easing the Pain at Airports

     Making the Trip as Smooth as Possible

     Drumming Up Creativity (during Business Travel)

     A Cure-all for Jet Lag?

     A Checked Bag is Bound to Stray