Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

5 Truths About Work/Life Fit

My friend, Cali Yost, is an internationally-recognized expert on work/life fit.  In her new book, Tweak It: Make What Matters to You Happen Every Day, she suggests ways to hone in and make time for your most critical priorities.  But before you can do that, she shares some essential truths about work/life fit that are important to understand if we are to be satisfied at work and at home.

Truth #1:  A work/life mishmash is the new reality

As recently as the last decade, the hours of 9-to-5 were standard in most organizations.  You did your work during that period, and then you went home and took care of your personal life.  But the reality of people’s lives no longer matches those neat, rigid expectations.  The growing mismatch is causing people and business to suffer.

Truth #2: It’s not just your employer’s responsibility

Companies and managers alone can’t solve the work/life challenges of their employees.   Managers and HR departments can’t tell each person in the organization how to manage their work and life because everyone’s circumstances on and off the job are completely different.  Employers must create a work environment in which it is okay to discuss potential flexible work/life solutions.  Then we, individual employees, need to meet the organization halfway and come to the table with a plan that takes into consideration our needs and the needs of the business.

Truth #3: It’s work/life “fit,” not “balance”

Using “balance” to describe the goal of flexibility for individuals causes more problems than it solves.  That’s because there really isn’t a “balance” or ideal 50-50 split between work and life.  Most of the time, what we’re after is not working less, but working differently.  By shifting hours, allowing telecommuting, and changing the way work is completed, everyone can manage the way work fits into his or her life.  The goal is to create an environment where all of those different work/life fit realities can live together to achieve the goals of business over time.

For more truths from Cali's book, have a look at the full post on Intuit's Fast Track blog.

Building Culture in a Digital World

Quick quiz: true or false?

1. You don’t know anyone who works at your company.
2. You try not to involve yourself with your company’s digital networks.
3. When it comes to certain office protocols, you have no idea what is and isn’t acceptable.

If you answered ‘True’ to these statements, you’re part of the 20 percent of global employees who work on virtual teams, and your organization’s culture is a total mystery to you.

This is a problem, because even as we strive to enhance our cultures so our employees will stick around, our strategies mostly shut out employees who don’t come into our offices. If we want to encourage collaboration and track productivity, we have dozens of effective digital tools from which to choose. But when it comes to tools meant to inform and reinforce culture, there’s not much.

In a recent article for Fast Company, Austin Carr reported on a few new technologies that are a step in the right direction. Yammer, which is an enterprise social network that Microsoft acquired for $1.2 billion, acts like a Facebook for internal business use. It enables employees to exchange messages, media and status updates—integrating the option to “Like” a coworker’s post or give him or her “Praise” badges.

Taking it a step further is emotional intelligence company Kanjoya, which has a product called Crane that taps into an organization’s Yammer network and analyzes data to measure how employees are feeling at any given moment or on any given topic. Crane can tell, for instance if your employees are irritated by a new policy or don’t like the way management is handling a current issue. Although it’s not always clear what leaders should do with Crane’s data from a big picture perspective, the program at least allows them to address small details that might otherwise go unnoticed and fester.

For tips on how to effectively build culture in a digital world, check out my full post on the AMEX Open Forum.

Map Your Office Design to Your Culture

The 712,000-square-foot Deloitte University (DU) facility in Westlake, Texas, was once a controversial project. 

Some didn’t believe that the forward-thinking accounting company should invest significant resources in a non-virtual campus. But Deloitte executives were committed to growing the world’s best leaders through collaboration, and having a place where people could meet in person still seemed like the best path.

The cornerstone of the DU facility is a multi-touch, multi-user 20-foot media wall, which allows visitors to track others who are onsite in real-time. Attendees are encouraged to meet up in themed hang-out rooms on each floor, socialize in the facility’s many restaurants and lounges, and attend sessions in classrooms equipped with videoconferencing and wifi.

Working Together, Not Apart

Deloitte is a culture where people talk to and brainstorm with each other–a lot–so the new facility was designed to make that as easy as possible. New employees often start their Deloitte careers with training that takes place at DU, and by the time they leave they are accustomed to working in a highly interactive fashion and are likely to continue this approach in their home offices.

Deloitte’s perspective is illustrated in a recent article for Forbes, in which Steelcase CEO Jim Hackett explained that today’s organizations are shifting from the “I” space to the “we” space.  As the command-and-control leadership style fades, c-suite executives no longer wish to be isolated from their employees. This means that in the realm of physical space, the literal c-suite is becoming a thing of the past. 

Steelcase, which is a workspace design company, does not have traditional offices. Its “we” spaces are conference rooms focused around particular issues or initiatives, and there reside the relevant executives and employees. Like Deloitte, Steelcase’s goal is to promote non-stop collaboration. This environment, as Mr. Hackett told Forbes, aims to encourage eye contact, provide everyone with equal access to information and allow people to move around and participate freely.

Learn more about how to map office design to culture at the AMEX Open Forum.

Unconscious Bias is a Reality

Imagine that your employee has been talking about continuing his or her education, and is considering going back to grad school. You have a managerial position open for which this person would be perfect, but in the back of your mind, you worry that he or she will either leave or be overly distracted with school. So you create other reasons why another employee is better for the role, and leave this person as is.

This is just one example of the new workplace bias.

Bias Goes from Conscious to Unconscious

Bill Shackelford is the president of diversity consulting firm IEC Enterprises and the author of Minority Recruiting: Building the Strategies and Relationships for Effective Diversity Recruiting. In his article for Workforce Diversity Network, Shackelford says an understanding of how bias creeps into today’s enlightened workplace starts with an expanded definition, which is: 

Bias: “Intentional and unintentional, conscious and subconscious, attitudes, behaviors and actions that have a negative and differential impact on segments of the society, or favor one segment of the society.”       

As Shackelford points out, most employers have adopted fair employment practices designed to manage the classic forms of bias (i.e., intentional and conscious). Examples of intentional and conscious bias would be actions designed to intentionally discriminate against individuals because of their race, gender or ethnicity. Refusing to hire people because of their race or promote people because of their gender are classic examples from the past.  

But today’s most common forms of bias are more subtle, as in the case listed above. Decisions to hire and promote are often not based solely on the qualifications of the candidates, but are influenced by subjective criteria. When these subjective criteria relate to fixed diversity dimensions (race, gender, age, sexual orientation, etc.), the resulting decision is inherently biased.

Learn to combat unconscious bias over at the AMEX Open Forum.

Should You Get Rid of Classroom-Based Training?

My colleagues Bruce Tulgan and Jeff Coombs at Rainmaker Thinking have trained thousands of managers in their 20+ year careers as generational management experts.  In that time, they’ve identified five problems with the typical classroom-model of training.

Training is short-lived and event-based

When training occurs on one or two days every once in a while, it creates short-lived excitement and short-lived skill uptake and on-the-job application.

Training is in a bubble

Classroom training tends to be removed from the day to day work experience of the participants, both in terms of time and real world application.

Training is now or never

When an employee misses a training class due to other obligations or due to starting employment after the class, he/she is left behind until there is another opportunity to take the class and by that point the class may be “history” to the rest of the group.

For more issues with classroom-based training and alternative solutions you might consider, have a look at my full post at Intuit's Fast Track blog.

 

For Gen X, The Pressure's On

Perry Marshall is in the compression zone.  So are my husband and I.   So are most of our friends.

When I read Marshall’s blog post, Shout Out to the 30-Something Street Fightin Man, I thought a lot of you might be in the compression zone too.  According to Marshall, here’s what that phase of life involves:

Kid #3 just arrived.  Kid #2 is still in diapers and kid #1 is barely out of diapers.  The day starts when one of ‘em starts screaming at 3:45am and the sweet honey-dew of sleep is OVER.  Momma either stays at home, which means money is impossibly scarce, or momma goes to work and puts the kids in daycare, which means money is… impossibly scarce.  Everybody’s emotional tank is on “E” for Empty.

Dad works 1 1/2 jobs and he’s the “Go-To-Guy” in both of them.  His ‘superiors’ regard him as a promising young lad who has a lot of potential and a lot of heart, if only his daring adventures would pay off.  One morning he calls in late because a spat about loading the dishwasher all wrong turned into World War 3, and if we don’t sit down and talk this out right now, Momma’s probably gonna move in with her parents.

Deep in his heart he craves, yearns for, thirsts for… Respect.  From… somebody. Anybody.  “I wish SOMEBODY would listen to me. I wish ONE of these projects would come through as promised.  I wish ONE of these resumes I’m sending out would get an answer from a real manager instead of a form letter.”

When he was in the midst of the compression zone, a friend of Marshall’s told him:  “If you get through this and keep pressing forward, you’re gonna get to a next stage that’s a whole lot better.  It’s the harvest season of your life.  It’s when things really do start paying off.”

Is there really a light at the end of the tunnel?  More at Intuit's Fast Track blog.

In the Workplace, Appearance Still Counts for A Lot

In June of 2012, the University of Virginia announced the resignation of its president, Teresa Sullivan.  Faculty members received an e-mail indicating that the dismissal was due to a “philosophical difference of opinion” with the institution’s governing board.  Sullivan had been with the university just two years, and in the opinion of some, had been let go for little or no reason.

College presidents are chief executives too

In the New York Times Magazine, Sullivan’s allies suggested that she didn’t fit the governing board’s image of a chief executive.  Sullivan’s fashion sense, which was typically academic, had apparently offended the higher-ups.  During Sullivan’s performance review, she received comments that her dress was too informal. “I don’t know what the unprofessional dress was,” Sullivan told the Times. “I do live here at the university, so when I’m working out or doing something else here, people will see me.”

Would the same criticism be given to a man? Here what I think over at Intuit's Fast Track blog.

Turn Your Temp Job Into Full Time Gold

When most people think of temp work, they picture young professionals with no or very recent college diplomas working a series of low-level administrative jobs.

I’ve recently learned that this perception is very outdated.  In New York City recently, I sat down with Rebecca Cenni, CEO of Atrium Staffing, to talk about how the new kind of temporary worker is actually a mid-level professional who takes on a short-term consulting assignment in order to bolster her portfolio and fill in the employment gap while looking for a full-time job.

According to Rebecca, large and small organizations are increasingly turning to temporary workers as a way to mitigate the risk of hiring full-time employees in what is still considered a down economy.  By working with what Rebecca calls an “applicant-centric” staffing agency, professionals at all levels can assess the market and their individual options.

For many, those options might include a 2 week-3 month short-term assignment at an established company that might be more difficult to break into as a full-timer.  During the stint, their benefits would be paid by the staffing agency.

The question I’m sure you’re asking, though, involves how you can turn a temporary assignment into a full-time and more stable job. 

Understand what you’re getting into

Unlike full-time employees, you will initially lack context regarding how you are expected to perform and why.  To combat this, research the company ahead of your assignment and ask your staffing counselor or recruiter to tell you about how to get along in this particular culture.

Check out the full post on Intuit's Fast Track blog for more from Rebecca.

Gen Y Employment Trends for 2013

Members of Generation Y are desperate for jobs.  

Born after 1979, most have come of age during the recession, and their professional opportunities have been limited. Payscale, a provider of compensation data and software, and Millennial Branding, a Gen-Y research company led by personal branding expert Dan Schawbel, recently found that in general, Gen Y is unemployed and underemployed at a greater rate than the rest of the working population.

Gen Y Goes Retail

The research showed that although those in Gen Y admire companies such as Qualcomm, Google, Medtronic, Intel and Microsoft, they aren't holding out for jobs that would use advanced skills such as data analysis and social media optimization, opting instead to take lower-skilled jobs to pay the rent. In 2012, many Gen Y college grads hold either full or part-time jobs as retail floor clerks and sales associates.

They Do It Their Way

While they may be working at the mall now, Generation Y entrepreneurial ambitions. According to a recent study from freelancing website Elance, Gen Y workers are embracing the freelance lifestyle at a faster rate than their older peers.  And Schawbel and his colleagues uncovered that the third most-popular major for Gen Y college students was entrepreneurial studies.

For more on what Gen Y is looking for in a work environment, check out the full article at the AMEX Open Forum.

Independent Work is Increasingly Common

Having your own business was once a rarity. 

I remember when I first took the leap. I’d go to a party and tell people what I did, and oohs and ahs would ensue. The admiration bestowed on me then was similar to that of a movie star or a neurosurgeon. Most could not even imagine being their own boss.

Today, they’re not just imagining it. They’re doing it.

MBO Partners, an advisor to organizations who want to efficiently manage their  contingent workforces, recently released its second State of Independence in America study and the results of its first Independent Workforce Index. Since 2011, the independent workforce has grown by nearly a million people and currently contributes about one trillion dollars in revenue to the U.S. economy. 

Most interestingly, though, the research tells us a great deal about the face of the independent worker–defined as people who work at least 15 hours or more per week in non-traditional, non-permanent, full- or part-time employment–in 2013.

For more on the face of the independent workforce, read my Culture Beat column at the AMEX Open Forum.