Month: September 2011

I’ll Take ANY Job!

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By Scot Feldmeyer – BarryStaff of Cincinnati Weekly Newsletter

      “I’ll take any job. I can do anything.”

      Sadly this is something that we hear all too often here at BarryStaff.   Job hunters often get to the point in their search where they have given up on finding the job they prefer or where they have expertise, so they resign themselves to taking any job they can get.   Their theory is that by saying, “I’ll take anything,” they will broaden their appeal to recruiters and hiring managers.   It would seem to mean more possibilities, no?

      Not really.   The idea of casting a wider net just hoping to catch any old job might sound like a good idea for someone needing a paycheck, but it can backfire when you’ve ended up applying for a job for which you are not qualified.   Candidates tell us that they are willing to take anything and that they can do anything.   But it’s not true.   There are jobs that they would quickly quit because of the hours or the conditions or the pay.   Not every job is for every person.   There is also the consequence of applying for jobs where you aren’t qualified.   We have jobs for machinist and programmers and skilled tradesmen.   If you have no experience in these areas, what were you going to do, just jump in there and wing it?

Our recruiters are constantly looking for the best match between the position and the candidate.   When applicants tell us they can do anything or will do anything we slow them down by asking, “Well, what have you done in the past?   What kind of experience do you have?   What past jobs have been successful for you?   What kind of job skills have you acquired?   In what area is your education and training?   What would you be happy doing?   What did not work out well for you?   What kind of things have been problems for you in past jobs?   The whole idea is to get the person in that position who is the best fit possible.   Being willing to settle for anything does not make an applicant more valuable.   Overselling yourself will get you in trouble and underselling will make you look desperate.   Nobody wants to put a person in a job where they will be gone as soon as they find a job better suited to them.

      So what do you do?   Don’t try to let quantity win out over quality.   Don’t apply to jobs by sending a general resume and hoping they somehow see a fit for you at their company.   Decide what job it is that you want and then try to highlight your experience to show how you can do the job.   Today’s word processors make changing a resume easy.   Just tailor it for the job you are seeking.   You’ll be better at this if you study the company before applying for a job there.

Recruiters and Managers will have a tough time matching you to a job if you don’t know what job you want.   You might just be trying to be “flexible” and trying to get a foot in the door but you could end up giving the impression that you aren’t sure what you really want.   In the end job hunters need to go after jobs where they will at least have a chance of being successful, productive, and happy.   If you find these things in a job then the recruiter or hiring manage will have an employee who is a true asset.

Facebook Firings: Top 10 Cases And The NLRB’s New Guidelines

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The nation’s labor laws needed a status update. With more workers finding themselves in trouble for comments they have made on social media websites, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has released a set of guidelines on what is — and is not — protected social media conduct.

The rules derive from established precedents for workers’ rights as well as the NLRB’s experience with prior social media cases. In the broadest terms, employees have long been protected from employer retaliation when engaging in a “concerted activity” to improve their working conditions. In deciding what to protect, the NLRB will continue to look for further constructive action, as opposed to an individual gripe. (Nasty wall posts are most likely not going to be protected.) And while the NLRB is more likely to protect actions made by a group, with or without the help of a union, there is precedent for the NLRB protecting individuals who seek to improve labor conditions on their own.

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The rules come after a spate of labor cases involving social media. Three of the more famous ones, Morton House, the Wal-Mart case and JT Porch, presented complicated scenarios for the NLRB. Is it enough that a worker is sharing wall posts with fellow employees, even if the comments do not amount to a plan for further action? Those cases, in which the identities have been protected, are joined below by examples of more egregious employee infractions on social media. (For instance, it’s probably never wise for a teacher to post comments on his students’ pages about their looks.)

Below are 10 wide-ranging examples of workers running afoul of their employer because of comments they made on Facebook.

1. The Patriots Cheerleader

When your boss is an outspoken member of the Jewish community, it might not be wise to have photos posted on Facebook of yourself with swastikas painted all over your body. Yet that’s exactly what 18-year-old Caitlin Davis did in 2008. Davis was working as a cheerleader for the New England Patriots, who are owned by Robert Kraft, who made his fortune as a packaging magnate with strong ties to the Jewish community. Photos surfaced on Facebook showing the Boston College undergrad passed out in a storm of sharpie scrawl. Among the drawings that appear on Davis and her friends bodies were swastikas, and the phrase, “I’m a Jew.” For Kraft and his team, it was too offensive a penalty to let slide. Davis was let go.

2. The Worker With Migraines

The excuse, “sick of computer use,” was pretty weak in the first place. But that’s the ailment that one Swiss woman used in 2009 with her employer, Nationale Suisse, in saying that she needed a day off from the monitor to help with her migraines. (Her name was not revealed by the company.) She came to an agreement with her boss that she’d spend the day in a dark room. But as she lay in bed, she couldn’t help herself from logging on to the social network from her iPhone. When the company noticed, she was fired for the breach of trust.

3. The Medical Technician

When Dawnmarie Souza posted on Facebook in 2010 how she “love[d] how the company allows a 17 to become a supervisor,” she was referring to her boss at the Hartford office of American Medical Response (AMR) of Connecticut. AMR uses the number “17” to refer to psychiatric patients. Even though Souza made the comments from the confines of her personal computer during non-working hours, she was soon fired. In February 2011, The NLRB told AMR that its policy prohibiting employees from making negative comments on social networks was “overly broad.” Before the case had a chance to test the law, though, Souza agreed to leave AMR in a settlement that also saw the company making plans to change its policies.

4. The Bartender

Among restaurant workers, there’s no touchier subject than tipping. So when JT’s Porch Saloon, located in Chicago, implemented a policy that wait staff were not required to share tips with bartenders, it was sure to irk a member or two of the bar staff. Taking to the pages of Facebook, one of them wrote in Fall 2010 via wall post that the policy “sucked.” (The staffer’s name was protected during ensuing legal proceedings.) When the bartender continued to rail against the policy on his step-sister’s wall, among those of other friends, he caught the attention of his employers, who sent him a message letting him know that he was no longer an employee of the saloon. After he appealed to the NLRB, the board ruled that the comments did not qualify as a “concerted activity” to be protected against employer retaliation, but rather as an individual grievance. The lack of NLRB protection was trend-setting for social media cases.

5. The Plankers

The very first Google search for the phrase, “why are people,” is currently completed with the word, “planking.” The trend of “the lying down game,” has been among the most curious developments of the last few years, but all can agree that a hospital may not be the best place to give the fad a whirl. Working an overnight shift at the Great Western Hospital in the southwestern English city of Swindon, eight employees took turns planking on hospital floors and stretchers, among other spots. Pictures were inevitably taken, and posted on the Facebook page for planking, which states, “you got a body, you got a plank.” The employees were suspended in August 2009 for the incident, but were soon reinstated. That decision was backed by a Facebook group called “Reinstate the Suspended 7.”

6. The Homeless Shelter Worker

Don’t work with the homeless if you are freaked out by those suffering from mental health problems. An employee of the Connecticut-based Martin House nonprofit residential facility found herself on an overnight shift all alone in 2010. In search of solace, she turned to Facebook, where she commented on her friend’s wall that the residents were “spooky.” Martin House responded by letting her go, saying that she was exploiting the home’s clients for personal amusement. After an appeal was made to the NLRB, the case was soon dismissed as the employee was in communication with her personal friends, and not fellow employees, and so it did not qualify as protected “concerted activity.”

7. The Elementary School Teacher

The interests section on Facebook is always an opportunity to show your best creative juices. Takes on “listening to music,” and “hanging with friends” are more than welcome among your friends. But when you are a teacher, stating an interest in “teaching chitlins in the ghetto of Charlotte,” you may be taking the humor a bit too far. Of course, chitlins are a soul food dish, and so the phrase has a direct racial connotation. Citing the inappropriate implication of such remarks, the elementary school teacher was placed on leave in 2008. (The North Carolina teacher’s name was protected during legal proceedings.) And any doubt over the sensitivity of the North Carolina teacher’s interests section was dispelled by her “About Me” section. In it she puts it plainly, “I teach at the most ghetto school in Charlotte.”

8. The Wal-Mart Employee

As far as the NLRB was concerned, it wasn’t enough that the Facebook user was complaining about his company to fellow employees. In a landmark 2010 case, one Wal-Mart employee was not given protection because his comments didn’t amount to the crucial NLRB doctrine of a “logical outgrowth of prior group activity.” Or, in plain English, he wasn’t involved in organizing group action against an employer. Not that the Wal-Mart employee wasn’t smoldering with discontent. “I swear if this tyranny doesn’t end in this store they are about to get a wakeup call because lots are about to quit,” he posted. Upon catching wind of the post, Wal-Mart responded with a one-day unpaid suspension and forced counseling. The relative slap-on-the-wrist still prompted the Wal-Mart employee to appeal to the NLRB, which rejected his claim on the basis that his comment was basically an individual gripe.

9. The Substitute Teacher

If you are a teacher, probably nothing good can come out of becoming Facebook friends with your students. Yet few would question that telling a student, her “boyfriend [did not] deserve a beautiful girl like you,” has no place in either the classroom or the comments section. Manhattan substitute teacher Stephen D’Andrilli crossed that line last year with several of his female students at the Essex Street Academy, regularly telling them that they were beautiful via Facebook posts. He was soon barred from subbing in New York City.

10. The Angry Employee

As Facebook is such a new force in our lives, the rules for proper decorum on the social website are still taking shape, as this article suggests. But then there’s the instance of a British woman known as Lindsay sounding off on her boss — who also happened to be one of her Facebook friends: “OMG I HATE MY JOB!! My boss is a total pervvy (sic) w**ker, always making me do s**t stuff just to p**s me off!! W**ker!” Since Lindsay was still in the trial phase of her job, the decision on her future was an easy one. Five hours after her post, her page was updated with a post from the boss, who noted: “I guess you forgot about adding me on here?… “Don’t bother coming in tomorrow. I’ll pop your P45 (pink slip) in the post, and you can come in whenever you like to pick up any stuff you’ve left here. And, yes, I’m serious.” The screen grab became a viral sensation back in 2009.

Are You Using the Right Resources to Find Your Next Position?

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What can you do to find that next great career opportunity? Notice I did not say find your next JOB because I think anyone can find a job when they want and need to but what people want nowadays is a career opportunity that brings a challenge and fulfillment. In my opinion there are a plethora of resources at your disposal to better prepare yourself for that next move but I have to warn you that it actually does take some effort on your part to succeed with this endeavor. The first place you need to look is pick up your resume and read it out loud. Does it make sense? How are you making yourself stand out from the crowd when it comes to competing against other Career Opportunity seekers. You will beat the job seekers hands down because their job search ends with putting together a resume. People will hire you if you can make them money, save them money or achieve some streamlined process that makes things run more efficiently. So bottom line HOW DO YOU stack up with achievements on your resume to speak about these areas?

How important are first impressions?

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Are first impressions really that important? The answer is… YES!

When the decision comes to hire a new employee, the candidates that are chosen almost always will share similar educational backgrounds, skills and experience. Because of this, it can be the small things that make the difference between getting the job or not. A lousy handshake or dirty shoes can be all it takes to lose out on getting the job.

Top tips to make sure that your first impression counts!

Dressing appropriately:

A person who looks professional portrays the image of being professional. A person who looks sloppy portrays an image of being sloppy. If two people walk into an office and candidate one is perfectly dressed with clean shoes a shirt tucked in and brushed hair, and candidate 2 walks in looking like they just woke up, it goes without saying which candidate will more likely get the job. Before even discussing their skills, the hiring manager’s first impression about professionalism has already been made.

Hygiene:

As a hiring manager, I can tell you there is nothing more off putting than interviewing a candidate with bad hygiene. No matter what job you are applying for, bad breath or lack of hygiene is not going to help you to get ahead. There is a fine balance between wearing the right amount of perfume/aftershave or too much. If the interviewer can smell your perfume from across the table you are probably wearing too much!

Addressing the interviewer properly:

Showing respect toward the interviewer is paramount. Remember the interviewer is not your best friend who you have known for many years. Using slang or shortening their name (“Wassup Dave”) is not the correct way to make a good first impression.

Listening, not dominating:

A great mistake you can make in the interview is to speak too much and not answer questions. Interviewing is a 2-way process. Not only do you need to directly answer the interview questions, but you need to listen to what the interviewer is saying. Unless it is a direct yes or no answer, always provide examples and evidence to support what you are saying. Make sure you leave the interviewer with no doubts that you are the right person for the job.

Handshake and Smile:

When you walk into the interview, a solid handshake and smile will go a long way to building rapport with the interviewer and will also leave a positive memory in their minds after the interview has finished. Typically the person who is interviewing you will often be your boss, and therefore they will want to know that not only do you have the skills required to do the job, but that they are going to want to work with you on a daily basis.

Remembering 9/11

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By Scot Feldmeyer
BarryStaff of Cincinnati – Weekly Newsletter 9/15/11

      This last weekend was the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on our country and us.   Just like the December 7th anniversary of Peal Harbor for our parents and grandparents, most of us can remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when news of the attack broke.
      I was interviewing a very nice lady for an Administrative Assistant position with a client. A co-worker poked his head in to ask if I had heard that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center.  I thought he meant a little single engine plane and that the damage would be minimal.  Then word came about another plane flying into the second tower and we all crammed into the break room where we had a little TV tuned into the news.   We all stood there staring in disbelief but then I got a particularly sick feeling when they announced that a third plane had hit the Pentagon.
       That’s because my brother-in-law and best friend since high school was a career Army officer who was stationed at the Pentagon.   It had all been horrible enough just watching the destruction from afar on TV, but now someone in my family was a part of it all.   It wasn’t until later in the afternoon that one of Jim’s daughters was finally able to get through to him on his cell phone and we found out he was okay.   He had been in the building but in a section adjacent to the one hit by the plane.
       Almost three thousand people and their families were not so lucky.   New York Magazine recently broke down September 11 “By The Numbers.”   When the dust settled and the fires were out, here is how it added up as of September of 2002.

Number Killed in the attacks: 2,819
Number of firefighters and paramedics killed: 343
Number of NYPD officers: 23
Number of Port Authority police officers: 37
Number of nations whose citizens were killed in attacks: 115
Number of people who lost a spouse or partner in the attacks: 1,609
Estimated number of children who lost a parent: 3,051
Percentage of Americans who knew someone hurt or killed in the attacks: 20%
Jobs lost in New York owing to the attacks: 146,100
Estimated cost of cleanup: $600 million
Economic loss to New York in month following the attacks: $105 billion
Estimated amount of insurance paid worldwide related to 9/11: $40.2 billion

9/11 was a terrible tragedy, yet it may have made us a stronger country and helped to bind us tighter together as citizens.  “You never recover completely.   You always want to remember the people who perished. I think that is the lesson of 9/11:   You can never be complacent.” – Col. Franklin Childress, with the Army’s Office of the Chief of Public Affairs

Job Interview First Impressions

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Are first impressions really that important? The answer is… YES!

When the decision comes to hire a new employee, the candidates that are chosen almost always will share similar educational backgrounds, skills and experience. Because of this, it can be the small things that make the difference between getting the job or not. A lousy handshake or dirty shoes can be all it takes to lose out on getting the job.

Top tips to make sure that your first impression counts!
Dressing appropriately:
A person who looks professional portrays the image of being professional. A person who looks sloppy portrays an image of being sloppy. If two people walk into an office and candidate one is perfectly dressed with clean shoes a shirt tucked in and brushed hair, and candidate 2 walks in looking like they just woke up, it goes without saying which candidate will more likely get the job. Before even discussing their skills, the hiring manager’s first impression about professionalism has already been made.

Hygiene:
As a hiring manager, I can tell you there is nothing more off putting than interviewing a candidate with bad hygiene. No matter what job you are applying for, bad breath or lack of hygiene is not going to help you to get ahead. There is a fine balance between wearing the right amount of perfume/aftershave or too much. If the interviewer can smell your perfume from across the table you are probably wearing too much!

Addressing the interviewer properly:
Showing respect toward the interviewer is paramount. Remember the interviewer is not your best friend who you have known for many years. Using slang or shortening their name (“Wassup Dave”) is not the correct way to make a good first impression.

Listening, not dominating:
A great mistake you can make in the interview is to speak too much and not answer questions. Interviewing is a 2-way process. Not only do you need to directly answer the interview questions, but you need to listen to what the interviewer is saying. Unless it is a direct yes or no answer, always provide examples and evidence to support what you are saying. Make sure you leave the interviewer with no doubts that you are the right person for the job.

Handshake and Smile:
When you walk into the interview, a solid handshake and smile will go a long way to building rapport with the interviewer and will also leave a positive memory in their minds after the interview has finished. Typically the person who is interviewing you will often be your boss, and therefore they will want to know that not only do you have the skills required to do the job, but that they are going to want to work with you on a daily basis.

Labor Day! What’s It All About?

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By – Scot Feldmeyer

BarryStaff of Cincinnati – Newsletter 9/5/11

      What does Labor Day mean to you?  Back in the 70’s it signaled the time to put away my white shoes and matching white belt until the next Memorial Day.  But I didn’t really mind because I still had that spiffy polyester leisure suit to wear out on the town.  For other people, Labor Day is the traditional end of summer celebrated by picnics, parades and one last dip in the pool.  But what is Labor Day supposed to be?
      Labor Day was started as a holiday to salute the American worker and, in particular, labor unions.  The biggest strikes we hear about these days involve millionaire athletes trying to squeeze more money out of billionaire sports franchise owners.  But back in the late 1800’s things got kind of crazy between labor unions and corporations.  The big showdown started at the Pullman Company in Illinois.  The company made railroad cars and when a big “Economic Panic” hit in 1893, the demand for railroad cars plummeted.  The workers were given a cut in pay and this did not sit well with them seeing as how they were already working 16-hour days and were forced to rent housing and buy all of their food and goods from the Pullman company store.  To make matters worse when a delegation of workers issued complaints, company owner George Pullman “loftily declined to talk with them.”
      So they went on strike.  Now the Pullman workers were members of the American Railway Union.  So when they went on strike their fellow union members, about 125,000 workers, pretty much shut down railway traffic.  When the railroad companies tried to hire replacement workers, the workers were attacked by union strikers.  Well, one thing led to another and before you know it, buildings were being burned, trains were being derailed and people were getting killed.
      Since the railroads carried the mail, President Grover Cleveland felt it was necessary to call in Federal Marshals and 12,000 army troops to quell the riots.  In the fight that ensued 13 union members were killed, 57 were wounded and union members did about $9,000,000 worth of damage.  Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894 right after the strike when President Grover Cleveland and Congress made appeasement of organized labor a top priority.  Legislation for the holiday was pushed through Congress just six days after the strike ended.
      So today we grill hotdogs and hamburgers and enjoy a day off in the shade because of a huge labor strike over 120 years ago.  But here at BarryStaff we like to think of the day as a tribute to all of the workers who show up on time, do their jobs, and pay their taxes.  Without those people, ourselves included, where would this country be?