Does Anyone Really Care What I Say? Thoughts on Job Changing

On December 20th, William C. Taylor posted a piece on Yahoo Financial entitled Is It Time To Leave Your Job? In the piece he asks several questions that may give you an indication that it is time to pack your bags and head out to another job depending on your answers. These questions include:

• Does my company stand for something-anything- special?
• Am I excited to see my colleagues when I show up to work on Monday morning?
• Do I have a voice at work-- does anyone who matters listen to what I say?
• Am I learning as fast as the world is changing?
• Am I making enough money?

The first question implies we all want to work for some "noble" cause such as world peace, curing cancer, etc. Well I am not sure that is necessary. I think rather than asking "does my company do anything special?" you should ask "how does my company do something special?" You don't have to be a "noble" company to make peoples lives easier, more fun, less stressful, more convienent, save them time, save them money, entertain them, etc. Whatever your company does think of it in terms of what "good" it does its customers.

The second one is a great indication of whether you should leave. If you don't like the people you work with then you do need to do something about finding another place. You spend far too much time in that environment to be miserable. But ask yourself "why do I not like these people?" You may discover the fault is yours and not theirs. If you have work habits that make you a less than desirable workmate that will not change if you change environments. So do some introspection before you jump ship.

The third question about having a voice at work also begs another question and that is "Why don't I have a voice at work?" Has your work been substandard? Do you seem uninterested? Do you seem irrelevant? If these are the reasons no one pays attention to your "voice" then work on correcting these items.

Am I learning as fast as the world is changing? At the rate knowledge doubles (every 5 to 8 years) it will be an absolutely impossible task to keep up. A more important question is are you keeping up on your relevant body of knowledge in order to stay relevant in what you do? Do you read? Do you study? As one of my favorite authors, Brian Tracy says "If you read an hour a day, one book per week, you will be an expert in your field in three years. You will be a national authority in five years, and you will be an international authority in seven years. All leaders are readers."

The last question of "Am I making enough money?" perhaps can be replaced by "Am I maximizing my efforts to make as much money as I can in my chosen field?" If the answer is "no" then do something to change that before you change jobs. If the answer is "yes" and you still feel you are not making enough money then you are in the wrong field and more than a job change is needed.

How would you respond to these questions? Have you ever asked them? What did you do?

HR Carnival: 46 Early Presents

How can you turn down 46 early Christmas presents? (Yes I know, not everyone celebrates Christmas, but would you turn down 46 presents just because of a technicality? Really?) These presents come in the form of blog posts featured on the mid-December HR Carnival, hosted by Lance Haun at Rehaul. Lance sorted through all these and put them in categories to make it easy to find a subject of interest. These categories included:

• His Favorite Five
• General HR
• Recruiting
• Calling BS
• How To
• Inspiring Stuff
• Learning, Development and Training
• and Careers

Many a great blogger can be found here and you will one educated HR pro by the time you finish reading this stuff.

When you are reading to do some learning then click on REHAUL HR Carnival – It’s All About Content.

Constant Learning is the Key to Hireability

To stay employed today you not only have to have a current skill set you also have to be aquiring a new one. An article in the WSJ Online entitled Many Companies Hire as They Fire had the subtitle As Employers Adapt to Changing Terrain, Different Skill Sets Are Required. The article talked about the fact that many companies are not doing across the board cutbacks. They are selectively terminating employees who have a skill set that no longer serves the competitive purposes of the company. Yet at the same time they are letting those people go they are hiring people who have a skill set that moves the company in the direction the corporate strategy requires. An example from the story was "National Public Radio has cut more than 70 jobs and two programs since December, but is hiring for its Web site, including bloggers and online news editors." Another example was "Boeing, for instance, plans to cut roughly 10,000 jobs in 2009, including 4,500 from the commercial-airplanes unit. Those affected include thousands of contingent, administrative and support staff, as well as hundreds of hourly manufacturing workers......At the same time, Boeing has more than 1,500 current and anticipated job openings -- in various stages of recruitment -- most for mechanical, electrical, software and other engineers."

According to the article "Some experts say the churn also shows changes in workplace policies. In past decades, many employers retrained and relocated underused workers, says Peter Cappelli, director of the Center for Human Resources at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. "Now they've discovered that you can restructure even faster by laying off and hiring." In a fast paced, "survival to the swift" type of global economy companies no longer have the luxury of retraining as much as they might like. They have to hire for the immediate skill set. This puts the burden of keeping ahead of the curve on the individual. You need to be a lifelong learner. You need to constantly be working at upgrading your skills, both soft and hard skills. Companies can, and should facilitate this, by offering educational opportunities to employees to enhance current skill sets and to acquire new ones. But when "push comes to shove" (click here to see what this idiom means) the individual has to take responsibility for increasing his or her own skills.

If you are in HR today and are not up on the uses of social media in the fields of recruitment, employee communication, employee relations and union organization you are behind the curve. If you are in benefits and you are not aware of discussions and movements in healthcare cost containment then you will be reactive and not proactive. If you are in global HR and are not aware of, and on top of, geopolitical changes then you are behind the curve. If you are in employee relations and you are not up-to-date with socio-economic and cultural changes then you may not be around much longer.

Learning, growing, changing and adapting is your key to success and continued employment throughout your career. As the old saying goes "If you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem." This is as valid and important at 60 years of age as it at 30 years of age.

Learning at a Conference: It Is More Than The Sessions

Over my career I have been to a decent number of conferences, both national and local. I have learned something every time. The conference sessions and keynote talks are sometimes informative, sometimes not. A known speaker will sometimes delight and sometimes disappoint. An unknown may reveal themselves as a "star" of the future.

I have found, however, that I do much of my learning about the future of HR in the marketplace. I always make sure I spend alot of time talking to the vendors (who have paid alot of money to be there.) They often have the latest technologies, methodologies and ideas and give you a glimpse of where the field is going. There have actually been a couple of times where I paid to go to the marketplace and totally skipped the learning sessions. You make contacts with potential suppliers and informative resources. Yes, you do have to hand out some business cards and you may get literature sent to you, and you may possibly get a sales call. But that is a small price to pay for the great learning opportunity you are presented with. Besides you get to register for some great prizes and you will never lack for pens and other goodies.

Despite this great opportunity however, many, dare I say most, HR people avoid the marketplace at a convention. They are afraid they may have to talk to someone or may be "sold to". Heaven forbid! If you are one of these people GET OVER IT! It is the best way to be progressive and future oriented. You may find something that will make you an HR hero back at the company.

And conventions that do not allow enough time for people to mix, mingle and shop in the marketplace are making a mistake. Make those breaks longer! People need time to return calls, go to the restroom, eat AND visit booths. Remember your vendors are footing much of the bill for the convention.

So if you are going to a convention anytime soon make sure you visit the vendors. You will be surprized at what you may learn.