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<b style="color: blue">Human Resource Associates</b>
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<span class="heading">HR - On The Job</span>
<p class="issue">Keeping Your Job and Moving Up in Tough Times</p>
<p>Keeping your job when so many about you are losing theirs can seem to be a career in itself. If you're selling your case to your supervisor by earnestly explaining how badly you need this job while your coworker is making the case about how badly this job needs him, your job keeping career may be about to end. So how do you go about keeping your job and while you're at it, consider how to go about moving up the ladder? Let's start with keeping the job you have.</p>
<p class="section">Keeping Your Job</p>
<p>The way to keep your job is about making the job need you more than you need the job.</p>
<p><b>Do more when you can get away with doing less.</b> Do you strive for excellence or do you focus on doing what's passable and quick? Excellent work is usually noticed. Bosses can tell if someone did more than is required for a particular job. Doing more than what's required as a habit is a path that goes up.</p>
<p><b>Give it your all.</b> Whatever you do, give it your best shot. Whether you volunteered for this job or it's a part of your regular responsibilities, do your work with pride and passion and own this job. Know that everything you do has your name on it and you will be judged by the work you do. When you gain a reputation for giving it your best, everyone wants to be on your team.</p>
<p><b>Keep your promises.</b> Cultivate a habit of keeping your promises. An agreement to a deadline and schedule is a promise. It can be as simple as sending that email to someone when you said you would. Deadlines and schedules affect others. Keep your end of the bargain and make sure to keep the work flowing smoothly. That says that you're reliable.</p>
<p><b>Take personal responsibility.</b> Don't play the blame game, ever! Take personal responsibility for the things you do. If you make a mistake, own up to it, deal with it and move on. In a team environment others rely on you to deliver in order for them to deliver. Be responsible so that they can be responsible.</p>
<p><b>Manage your time.</b> Understand the concept of time. Regardless of how young or old you are, time is irreplaceable. Once gone you cannot make up for it. Remove from your mind the concept that "I will make up for lost time". Lost time is just that, lost. <i>Almost every project that allows you to shine has a timeline to it!</i> When you lose that timeline your chance to shine begins to slip away. Learn to set priorities, learn to say no when you need to, learn to manage time.</p>
<p><b>Offer confidence, hope, encouragement and convenience.</b> Be a pillar of strength to your colleagues. Offer them <em>confidence</em> when they doubt themselves. Give people that ray of <em>hope</em> when things hit a snag. In the midst of the doomsayers, offer encouragement. Show people how there are solutions. Help make things more convenient for people by giving them a helping hand. This is not just meant for coworkers, even bosses need this some of the time. Being a center for strength is the start of being a leader.</p>
<p><b>Learn new things.</b> Nothing is stagnant. Everything is in a constant state of flux and that includes your industry, your company and your job. You can't stay in the picture if you don't fit in the picture anymore. Learn all you can about the work around you and decide which skills would enhance your value in this job. Consider what expanding this job would require of you. Consider what the next job up would require of you. Update your knowledge about your industry, your company and your field of work. Keep actively advancing. Sitting targets are easier to hit when lay-off time comes around. Now let's talk about moving up.</p>
<p class="section">Moving Up</p>
<p><b>Where are you now and why are you there?</b> Before you can move ahead or be promoted you will need to know if, when, and how much you are advancing. You need a reference point. Ask yourself where are you now and why are you there? Is there any key strength or skill that has brought you where you are now? How did you get here and what did it take?</p>
<p><b>Where do you want to be and how do you get there?</b> You need an objective and a plan. Just saying you want to be promoted isn't enough. Mark Twain was once quoted as saying, "If you don't know where you want to go, it doesn't make any difference what road you take". You need to be clear on what your next position is to be. Is it a promotion to a different department or a different kind of work? Write this down. Now, develop a plan to achieve that objective. Maybe this is something you can discuss with your boss? She may not be able to promise you that position, but she can certainly give you an idea of the expectations.</p>
<p><b>Put pride passion and belief in everything you do.</b> People who get promoted have a great sense of pride in their work. They are driven by genuine enthusiasm and a desire to do their best no matter how large or small the job. They believe in themselves and the goals of their company, and others can see this in them.</p>
<p><b>Back it up with skills, knowledge, direction and action.</b> Having that right attitude is essential but that's only part of moving up. You have to have and/or develop the skills and knowledge that support the job you have and the job you have your eye on. Focus on the direction you will be applying all that energy and skill toward. With the skill, knowledge and direction you now need to have the courage to take the actions you have decided on. You will be judged by the results of these steps.</p>
<p><b>See challenges as opportunities.</b> Extra work, additional assignments, emergency should not be looked upon as additional chores. The people who move ahead see them as challenges, as opportunities to shine. Don't complain about hard work or if your work was harder than your colleagues. No one wants to know how hard you work. In everyone's mind, their own work is the hardest!</p>
<p><b>Do your best now.</b> As in the Olympics, it's not about how good you were in practice sessions, it mean little whether you accomplished your personal best on your last job or the great grades you made when you were in school. That's all gone. And don't think too much about future projects that aren't at the door yet. That is the future. Focus on doing your best <em>now</em>, when it's needed, <em>now</em>, when it counts, <em>now</em>, while the judging is going on.</p>
<p><b>Do work from the next level up.</b> If you continue to do just the work for your current position, then you truly deserve your current position. People who want to get promoted know that if you want the position that is one level up, you start doing some of the work from that level now. This allows you to learn more about that job and to demonstrate that you may be capable of that position already.</p>
<p>So here are three career choices at your disposal:</p>
<ol>
<li>Losing the job you have now;</li>
<li>Keeping the job you have now; or </li>
<li>Moving on to the job ahead of the job you have now.</li>
</ol>
<p>Pick the one you want.</p>
<hr />
<p align="center"><b><i>Have an employment question?</i></b></p>
<p align="center">Send it to <a href="mailto:[email protected]?subject=From HR On The Job">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p align="center">Please include Company Name and Association in your e-mail. Company identification will be kept confidential.</p>
<hr />
<p class="heading">Hitchhiking on the Information Highway</p>
<p><b>Dateline:</b> May 2010</p>
<p><i>(Note: Although we attempt to provide the HRU update on the first of each month, we are normally delayed awaiting the release of several monthly government statistical reports. We will hereafter update the information as each report becomes available without waiting for all of them to be released.)</i></p>
<p class="section">Changes Coming - Ready or Not!</p>
<p>Nothing stays the same. Not the weather, our work or our culture. Everything is changing, everything is in flux. While some of us may pine for the "old days", they just aren't coming back. The world we live in is changing and many experts are forecasting that the following things are about become part of the passing parade.</p>
<p><b>The Post Office:</b> The post office has not been able to compete with private enterprise companies like Fed Ex, UPS and e-mail. They subsist today primarily on what most of us call "junk mail". Without that they would likely be out of business already. They are so deep in financial trouble that even more bail-outs won't save them. Eliminating Saturday delivery will be the first step.</p>
<p><b>The Check:</b> The cost of processing paper checks is so expensive to banks that that Great Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with them. Plastic cards and online transactions are so prevalent they many young adults today have never written a check. This is also adding to the demise of the post office. </p>
<p><b>The Newspaper:</b> The younger generation simply doesn't read newspapers. Some subscribe to the internet version but newspapers haven't figured out how to make that very profitable. Almost all of the local newspapers that were the life blood of our towns and cities over the last 300 years are gone along with many of the giants. Mobile internet devices and e-readers have driven the competing newspaper and magazine publishers to form alliances along with cell phone companies to develop new business models for related paid services.</p>
<p><b>The Book:</b> For most of us this doesn't seem likely. But that may be just stubbornness. We said the same thing about buying our music on vinyl, cassettes and CDs, but today, downloading music for half-price is changing that. Today you can browse a bookstore online and even read a chapter before you buy it at less than half the price of a printed book. And the readers of e-readers are saying that once you get lost in a story you don't know you're holding a gadget. And remember, that gadget may hold a number of books, magazines and maybe even movies.</p>
<p><b>The Land Line Telephone:</b> Unless you have a large family and make a lot of calls you may just not need it anymore. Thousands of homes don't even have a land line as the cell phone has become each individual's personal connection to the world. Many people have them just because they can't imagine not having them, but it costs a lot for that convenience.</p>
<p><b>Network Television:</b> Not just from a bad economy, but from the cable/satellite channels that offer more variety and can pinpoint individual tastes. But the bigger reason is that younger people are using their computers and hand held devices for entertainment, games and movies. Yes, it's true that older folks can't imagine watching their favorite movie on a 3 inch screen they're carrying around in their pocket, but the hi-tech generation seems to take to it very well and they're the big buyers. But even cable and satellite TV may be gone with the wind soon. With commercials every 4 and a half minutes and skyrocketing prices a lot of people are getting the same content on line and at Netflix.</p>
<p><b>Privacy:</b> Privacy is a strange concept. When shopping we show our driver's license, give our social security number, provide our address and phone number, and we post an epistle of bio on our social network and tell strangers at a social function our life story. But we feel we've been violated if we think the government has information about us. But privacy has been gone a long time. There are cameras on the street watching you and capturing your license plate. Every time you purchase something a plethora of information is correlated so that ads can be directed to you instantly. Even your computer and cell phones are storing and disseminating information about your every pattern and they have cameras too. Old classmates, relatives and strangers can Google you and your house and tell you what both are worth. In London, there is no square foot of ground that is not on video camera. And we're in the early stages yet.</p>
<p><b>Things:</b> Most of what we own now is in the form of a hard-copy possessions. "It's mine and it's in my pocket". But we may own much less in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud". Today your computer has a hard drive that is storing pictures, movies, music and documents. Our friends and business contacts have footers on their e-mail pages that say, "Please consider the environment before printing". You don't have to own that page. It's available even if you lose it. It's on your back-up drive or in that cloud. It can be retrieved but it's not in a file cabinet. Games can be purchased on line and downloaded, books can be as well. Apple, Microsoft and Google are finishing up their latest ‘cloud services". That means that when you buy a software program, you won't receive it as an object. It will be made available to you on line. Turn on your computer and you will find that the Internet is built into your operating system. So Apple, Microsoft, Google and the Mac OS will all be tied directly into and coming to you from, the Internet. If you click on an icon, it will open something in the internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved in the cloud. You will pay a monthly fee to the cloud provider.</p>
<p>The future ain't what it used to be.</p>
<p class="quote">"I believe the future is only<br />
the past again, entered<br />
through another gate<br />
- Arthur Wing Pinero</p>
<p class="quote">"Anything is possible if<br />
you don't know what<br />
you're talking about<br />
- H.R. Norty</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: center"><sub>© William J. Cook</sub></p>
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<span class="heading">Labor Stats</span>
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<b>Federal Minimum Wage</b>
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<p align="center">
<b>$7.25</b>/hour<br />
</p>
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<b>Average Income</b>
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<p align="center">
<u>Hourly</u><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>May 2010</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>$22.48</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>May 2009</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>$22.14</b></span><br />
</p>
<p align="center">
<u>Weekly</u><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>May 2010</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b> $771.55</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>May 2009</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>$750.55</b></span><br />
</p>
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<b>Federal Povery Level</b>
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<p>
<span style="float: left"><i>one person</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>$10,830</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>family of four</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>$22,050</b></span><br />
</p>
<hr />
<b>IRS Mileage Allowance</b>
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<p align="center">
As of <b>January 2010</b><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>business</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>50</b> cents/mile</span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>medical or moving</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>16.5</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>charitable</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>14</b></span><br />
</p>
<hr />
<b>Postage</b>
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<p align="center">
<span style="float: left"><i>1 oz</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>44</b> cents</span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>postcard</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>28</b></span><br />
</p>
<hr />
<b>Population</b>
<hr />
<p align="center">
<span style="float: left"><i>world</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>6.8 billion</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>U.S.</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>308.8 million</b></span><br />
<i>one birth every </i><b>7</b><i> seconds;</i><br />
<i>one death every </i><b>13</b><i> seconds;</i><br />
<i>one new immigrant every </i><b>35</b><i> seconds;</i><br />
net gain: <i>one person every </i><b>11</b><i> seconds.</i>
</p>
<hr />
<b>U.S. Civilian Workforce</b>
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<p align="center">
<u>May 2010</u><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>Total</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>154,393,000</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>Employed</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>139,420,000</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>Unemployed</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>14,973,000</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>Want A Job</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>5,734,000</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>Unemployment Rate</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>9.7%</b></span><br />
</p>
<p align="center">
<u>May 2009</u><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>Total</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>154,956,000</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>Employed</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>140,438,000</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>Unemployed</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>14,518,000</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>Want A Job</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>5,965,000</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>Unemployment Rate</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>9.4%</b></span><br />
</p>
<br /><hr />
<b>U.S. Workforce Productivity</b><br />
<sub><i>(The amount of goods produced, divided by the number of work hours it took to produce it)</i></sub>
<hr />
<p align="center">
<span style="float: left"><i>1992</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>3.7%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>1993</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>0.5%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>1994</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>1.3%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>1995</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>0.9%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>1996</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>2.5%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>1997</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>2.0%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>1998</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>2.6%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>1999</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>3.3%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>2000</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>3.4%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>2001</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>2.9%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>2002</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>4.6%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>2003</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>3.7%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>2004</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>2.8%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>2005</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>1.7%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>2006</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>0.9%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>2007</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>1.9%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>2008</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>1.8%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>2009</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>+5.8%</b></span><br />
<span style="float: left"><i>2010 1st quarter</i></span>
<span style="float: right"><b>+2.8%</b></span><br />
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