At Graduation with my mom and dad. Tons of pictures on Facebook.

For almost 2 years, I have worked with clients who needed human resources style help, e.g. learning to hire virtual employees or contractors, advice on employees vs contractors and other laws, total HR department replacement, and HR consulting.

In December, I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Leadership with a focus in HR. As I’m moving from a “full load” of undergrad classes, I have decided to open my coaching services to the public. (I did invitation only before). Next week I’ll be announcing several sales for my newsletter subscribers only, that will end on March 10th. I will have a special discount on coaching before I open it up on the website around Valentine’s Day. On March 12th, I will be starting Graduate School focused in Industrial and Organizational Psychology focused in Workplace Efficiency through the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. I’m really looking forward to being able to use those skills immediately with my clients.

If you would like to be notified of the sale and more details on my service offerings, please make sure you are signed up for my newsletter on the right.  Another plus, I’m working on a handy “cheat sheet” on differences between employees, contractors and vendors, with tons of legalities you need to look out for.

Have any questions? Comment below, email me or tweet me! I’d love to hear from you!

Erica

Three weeks ago, I came into my office on Mondayafter we’d had a party at my apartment over the weekend.

So during this volunteer project I’ve been working on, a blog post was written about sponsoring the event. In that post, my writer made a comment about networking and “stealing” employees that she connected with. A certain person who was unhappy that he wasn’t totally getting his way with the event tried to make a big deal out of this post, talking about how wrong it was for her to “poach employees”. So long story short, the writer is one of the sweetest people ever and her employees love her. In fact, below I’m pretty sure we came to the conclusion that Employee Poaching actually doesn’t exist.

What the big deal I see here is: Why would anyone be so worried that their employees would be easily poached? 

People who are happy with their jobs and their bosses are not going to readily leave from a single conversation at an event. If your employees are going out the door that fast, you really need to take a look at how you are managing them.

The IIAP (International Association of Admistrative Professionals) showed in a 2010 poll that over 45 percent of employees leave their job because of their boss. Only 32 percent said they would consider leaving a job if a better opportunity opened up elsewhere.

Gallup and Indiana University polls, among others, have shown the same findings in varying degrees, but bad-boss-equaling-headed-out-the-door far out weighed any other consideration. Even combining poor pay and poor work hours percentages don’t compare to the numbers.

So bosses, what the heck are you doing to your employees? 

Everyday bosses drive away employees and contractors by being unsympathetic and over-demanding, micromanaging, building business on the backs of their employees, and treating their subordinates like disposable paper cups, crushable and replaceable.

Rather than scheduling another team building exercise or yelling at employees, have you stepped back recently to review what little things you could do to make other’s jobs easier? What steps is your company forcing into play that really don’t matter or aren’t needed?

When was the last time you said “thank you” sincerely to someone who works for you? What doors do thank you’s open?  Danielle LaPorte said earlier this week that being able to say thank you is an honor.  A study published in the  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology last year suggested that just showing gratitude resulted in double the helpfulness from a request. Another similar study sought to show that being grateful made the giver and the receiver a boost in their immune system.

Employee Poaching happens all the time. Forbes Magazine has an article on it at least once a quarter. And maybe you aren’t in a position to revolutionize the company you work for but you can always be nice.

If you own your own company, there are a lot of little things you can do to make your employees much happier and secure feeling. Pay is usually not the most important thing. Think about telecommuting (unless you’re totally virtual based like me) or giving every other Friday off during the summer.

Jennifer Way is in Talent  Acquisition, as well as being a Certified Consultant for Careerbuilder. She commented below:

It’s a fact that you can’t “steal” someone who is happy.  Bottom line is that employment is voluntary.  We don’t “own” our employees.  We have to earn their employment just like they have to earn their paycheck.  Thanks for offering great perspective  on the issue.

Jennifer makes two  points that I didn’t even get to in my post. A: Employee Poaching doesn’t really exist because the person was likely on the way out the door anyway. B: The more important point. We don’t own our employees. What are you doing or not doing to earn their employment? Those are the very changes I’m suggesting before your employees leave.

Concerned this is going on in your company? Fill out my contact form letting me know what’s going on and I’ll schedule a free 20 minute call with you to discuss some solutions. Call Jennifer if you’re ready for a new job. As a former Talent Manager myself, I know she knows what she’s doing. Plus we do her transcripts so I say without a doubt, you’d be in good hands.

Image Credit: I don’t know where that image came from. I know it’s the freaking truth and if you know where it did come from, please let me know so I can credit their genius.

Over the past few months, I’ve had two things bugging me. One: how incredibly high my internet bill was and two: How slow our internet was getting. It gradually got worse and worse even after two different service visits.

Today my modem finally died and I decided to act on something I’d been thinking about.

I cut off our internet through Comcast. 

The first thing my business partner said was “Uh, then how do you think you are going to keep working from home?”

That explanation takes a few parts:

First since I interviewed Johnny Truant about virtual assistants a few weeks ago, I have been interested in the trial he did only checking his email twice a day. I had never considered how truly addicted to being constantly connected I was until that interview and the thought of a disconnection fast, as Johnny mentions in his post sounds so peaceful.

So my plan was to turn on the 4G Hot Spot on my LG Revolution and only check my email 2-3 times a day, which also limits my Twitter time. I’m a total Twitter addict but I rarely get on Facebook. I have also noticed over the past 3 years while I’ve been home based that I get a lot more done in a shorter period if I work at a coffee shop or library for a few hours. I’m not sure if it’s the change of scenery or just the fact that I have to focus on what I’m doing, not laundry or household things.

I already had a wireless card in my desktop, and of course in my laptop and tablet so the most difficult thing about the process so far has been returning the dead modem to the Comcast office. I’ve been working via the Hot Spot for a few hours tonight and it’s actually faster than I expected. Uploading and downloading audio for my transcription company might have taken 10 seconds longer than before. Netflix on my Blu-Ray player worked fine too.

I might lose my mind and have it turned back on, since I’m running two businesses, finishing my last semester of college, and have two more weeks as Marketing Coordinator for  BarCamp Nashville 11. But I’m committing to at least a month of semi-disconnection to see how much more work I get done just from not being sucked into internet time wasting. It’s also going to save me almost $60 a month on my internet bill.

I’ll be sure to update the blog with my opinion: love, indifferent, or total meltdown.

**Update Day 2: So it’s almost 2 and my phone is almost dead. When they say to run a Revolution with the Hot Spot turned on plugged in, they mean it. Also since I have Dropbox, Evernote and Action Method on my phone, plus I just realized that I can get a CrashPlan app too, I could easily see myself going totally mobile. Except for the fact that I love my dual-monitors in my office.**

Photo Credit Flickr User: ilovememphis

In addition to coaching business owners and bosses on how to better manage the people that work for them, I also coach people who are having issues with their bosses.

This is a conversation from a recent call used with permission (name removed.)

Her: My boss fired me because a project was late while we were without power.

Me: So he was totally unsympathetic that there was a hurricane and you were without power for 4 days? (Referring to Hurricane Irene.)

Her: Yes. He didn’t seem to understand that it wasn’t just my house and I couldn’t just go to a coffee shop or something. Everyone was without power. Eventually my phone died so he just started screaming at my voicemail.

Me: And you said this project wasn’t urgent or for a client? Why was he so insistent?

Her: Actually it was something he’d only decided to do a few days before. It didn’t seem to be a priority at all until he couldn’t reach me.

Me: Ok. In your email you said you wanted to try to get your job back, right?

Her: Well.. yes I guess.

Me: Are you sure you want to work for someone like that? I think you already know it’s time to look for another job.

Her: (Sigh.)  It’s just a relief to hear someone else agree with me. I feel so guilty about the whole thing. I don’t think I’ve ever apologized so much.

Me: I don’t think you’re responsible for a hurricane.

There are so many directions I could go to say how wrong this situation is. As our conversation continued, I could see she was almost abused in this business relationship because he blamed her for everything that went wrong. So she felt stuck between needing the job/money, feeling guilty and trying to fix things, and wanting to run for the hills.

I’ve tried a number of times to describe what dehumanizing employees and contractors is and this, my friends, is just that.  

Fortunately we made a game plan and she is well on her way to finding another job or taking on freelance clients. We discussed warning signs of bad bosses and clients to work with and what her ideal client would actually be. Similar to abusive dating relationships, it’s very easy to slide back into the pattern. So she and I will be both be carefully watching out because she doesn’t deserve to feel guilty enough to cry from relief again.

As for her former boss, I see several probably things happening. Because he won’t have anyone to blame and with his attitude he’ll have trouble finding a new assistant and within a few weeks I’m willing to bet he will call to be all smiles and sunshines begging her to come back.  After she turns him down, he’ll either go through a dozen assistants in the next year or unfortunately he’ll find someone else who will stay out of guilt.

What tips do you have for my client coming out of this nasty job relationship?

]]> http://theinvisibleoffice.com/cut-your-losses/feed/ 2 http://theinvisibleoffice.com/cut-your-losses/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheInvisibleOffice/~3/soZiz_tSfkk/ http://theinvisibleoffice.com/help-wanted/#comments Thu, 09 Jun 2011 02:37:59 +0000 Erica Cosminsky http://theinvisibleoffice.com/?p=823

Over the past few months, I have considered hiring an “intern” for my business. Well, it’s definitely time.

Intern/Assistant/Helper Wanted

I primarily need an assistant. Some tasks could be done remotely, but this person needs to be local to Murfreesboro, TN. This may not look like a typical Job Ad because this probably isn’t your typical job. For the right person, this will be an easy job with a laid back boss, who just wants things done correctly. (I really don’t care how you get it there.)

Tasks on my wish list currently include: opening and sorting mail, scanning receipts and documents, managing appointments and calendar, form letters, running errands (post office, etc), and managing email. Once the back log of tasks are caught up, we can move on to the fun stuff. There’s unlimited other tasks you could take on if you wanted them.

Schedule

Schedule is flexible and may vary week to week. Job will start out at 5 to 8 hours a week. But can become more as we learn what skills and jobs you can and want to add on.

Pay

Pay rate will be based on skills and tasks of the person hired (but at a minimum of $8 an hour.)

Extras

There is a possibility of some occasional travel if you want it (not a deal breaker.)

Caveats

Parts of this job will be preformed at my apartment. I do have cats and a 4 year old, although I would prefer for my assistant to be here on days she isn’t. I am a student through MTSU. I do not have any on-campus classes during the summer but I can understand scheduling needs for classes.

This will definitely not be one of those “don’t deviate outside your job title” positions. Send over any questions you have.

If you are interested, please email me at jobs@thesmallbusinesstranscriptionist.com with your typing speed, availability, preferred advanced tasks, resume and of course your questions. Include what information you have, and just mention what you don’t. If you want to know more about me, here’s a good place to start.

Thanks

Erica

I’ve been thinking a lot about intense focus. For the last 3 weeks, I have been taking a May-Mester class. So I’ve been in a classroom from 1-5 everyday of the week.

Believe it or not, I actually liked the set up. It was intensely focused. There was no mucking around because we had so much to get through. But the class was still fun and a small group. We started out with 13 and ended with 8. Because it was a small group, I’ll walk away with several really good friends.

The Cons

The biggest con I see to the intensity attention to one project is how far behind I am on everything else. I have gotten very little work, journaling or email checking done. This is one major reason I love Basecamp*. I can check only that email and I am up-to-date on contractor work and what my clients need. Even as scary as it seems to have like 8,000 other unread emails. :S

The Pros

Pro #1- After today, I’m done. And I have an A.

I’m very ADD so I’ve taken this class several times. It loses my interest after the first few weeks and I fail. Using the intense version, I didn’t have as much option to stray away. The times I have taken it before there have been groups of 60+ so I think the small group helped me too.

Business View

Obviously I’ve gotten no work done during this 3 week class, but it occurred to me this morning since I’m already behind I should take the next 3 weeks and wrap up projects. I have 2 ebooks that I got ADD on and never finished. My book manuscript is 90% finished and I got distracted (partially by this class.)

As I mentioned in my Creative Scheduling post, I have a hard time settling down to a schedule of creating. So I was very surprised how easily I conformed to this class. I went into it thinking I would re bel against the daily schedule by the first of the second week.

I often change things like my schedule or where I work. So over the next few weeks, I’m going to experiment with hyper-focus to get things completed. One of things that I discovered while working with Molly Mahar is that I bounce around too much. I have a great idea, and I’m off like a greyhound. But I don’t follow the  rabbit all the way around the track. I see something shiny and start a new race.

This experiment probably won’t help my blogging schedule but I think it will be interesting to see the final results.

Have you ever used hyper-focus to finish a project? I’m very interested in how you manage it.

Photo Credit: Flickr user ToolStop

My Intention is to set daily intentions and realize I can’t control everything. Doors open when I stop fighting it.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve mentioned my supposed quarter-life crisis a few times. The past 6 months a lot of doors have closed behind me and the next few months just as many more will be finally closed. It’s been a huge time of growth and expansion. Before the end of this year I will graduate from college, just in time to watch my daughter graduate pre-school and go off to kindergarten. My book will be published soon, another “baby” I’ll have to let go of.

Through my struggle, I found an overflowing ball of happiness to support me.

I’m talking about Molly Mahar of Stratejoy. I began reading her blog through the design goddess, Amanda Farough, right about the time I hit my full-blown crisis. My sort-of crisis was apprehension at what to do with myself. I had no focus of what the next few years of my life were going to hold. I felt like I was holding my business back as well. Uncertainty is the scariest thing I think I’ve ever faced.

Molly is awesome. A few more words to describe her, smart, lively, funny, energetic, always happy and excited. I started in one of her 5 week coaching groups and even though I’m in a little bit different place than the other ladies, we’ve meshed together well. Since I was already working with Molly, I was excited when she announced the launch of Joy Juice.

Joy Juice has been my therapy in an email.

Now if you are starting out fresh, I’d suggest you start with The Joy Equation. But let me explain what they both are.

The Joy Equation is a 30 day journaling course, complete with four 90 minute audio sessions, a 40 page workbook, 30 days of journaling prompts, plus weekly exercises. The course is designed for 20-30 year old women who are ready to take back their lives. Being that I do everything backwards, I bought Joy Juice first.

Joy Juice is a year’s worth of journal prompts that auto-deliver to your inbox every 3 days. I just finished prompt 6 and I had to go get a new journal. Once I started letting go, I filled the pages quickly. I also worked through some of my coaching exercises in the same journal but that was just a few pages.

How I’ve Used It.

I’m sure you know how personal journaling can be. It’s for you and you alone. So you can say things that you’d never open up to anyone else about. That was a huge key for me. I held back on the first post, like I was writing a note to someone else. But what I’ve found is that if I come back to the entry when my new prompt comes out, reread my affirmations, and write what’s changed (yes even in 3 days) and continue my thoughts I get much more out of the process. It also warms me up for my new prompt and I open up to myself more.

As far as Molly’s coaching has gone, I have a much clearer idea of where my business and I are headed over the next year. I’m sure you’ll hear more about that in a few weeks around this site. (Sign up for my newsletter for extra details!)

Shiny gift too!

When I ordered my Joy Juice subscription, I ordered one for my mom too. The prompts jumped out as something she needed to, in a different way than I did but in the same instant just as much for a changing life.

Since I’m being open (the first line up there is straight out of my journal), I am not an affiliate for Molly. I just LOVE her that much. Her blog is well worth a read, even if you aren’t ready to throw money at her yet. (It’s worth it!)

Erica

Recently I started using The Action Method by Behance. It’s based on the book Making Ideas Happen* which I picked up on the suggestion of Jeff Goins. Did you catch his guest post on Monday on Why You Need Creatives in the Workplace?

Let’s talk a little bit more about what I’ve learned from Jeff.

It’s OK to be a Creative

Even though I’ve been a poetry writer for as long as I can remember, I’ve done numerous writers’ camps and have a crafty side, I never though of myself as a “creative” or an artist. It wasn’t until after I started my company that it ever occurred to me. One of my clients who had taken a note of my knack for creating business names and catchy headlines made a comment about adding me to her list of creatives. But what really tipped me off was when I read an article about issues Creatives have in their jobs.

Quote from Jeff’s guest post: ”Creative professionals don’t work like the rest of us. They struggle with deadlines and typical 9-5 schedules. They procrastinate and sometimes make excuses. They can be unmotivated and even occasionally moody.”

The deal is I bounce from project to project. I have tons of “great” ideas. I get started, I work a little here and there. Then I feel like I have a lot of pans in the fire and never get anything finished. My work schedule is very atypical. I work in spurts and rarely am in the office at the same times each day. (I’m writing this blog post at 1 AM.)

When I worked in HR, I had systems. There were things that had to be done on particular days. I struggled every week to get the menial tasks done. I can tell you there was rarely a day I was in the office at 8 am. I also worked from home at 3 am more than once. Fortunately the company was screwed up and my boss was fired 3 weeks after I was hired. I approved my own payroll and expenses for the rest of the time I worked there because no one knew who my new boss was. (Yes I worked there for over 2 years.) I’ve made a life of being outside the norm.

Struggling with Schedules

In the post How I Get Things Done, Jeff talks about using one project management system and not spreading yourself across too many mediums. It’s very easy to get sucked into the pretty new tool mentality and feel like you have to use every one of them. This is a horrible idea. But you have to find the method that works for you.

Against that really good advice,  I use several project and task management systems. I use Basecamp* for my clients and contractors. It has a fantastic combination of messages, file storage, notifications and security. I use Google Calendar for my class work and my daughter’s schedule. All of my Basecamp projects show up on my Google Calendar using their API.

After reading Jeff’s post and reading Making Ideas Happen*, I started using the Action Method for my personal and business projects. The Action Method works on the idea that all items are categorized as one of three things: Action Steps, Reference items or Backburner items.

I use The Action Method paper planner during meetings and classes to capture all my notes and ideas and I’m very pleased with it. The Action Steps are colored blocks on the upper right side of the page like a bright to-do list. (I have the orange version- War Eagle.) The Reference area is a gridded page for drawings, tables or notes. The backburner section is below the colored section for items that can wait but you don’t want to lose. The Action Method Paper version has room for 11 action items.

After I return to the office, everything goes into the online version of the Action Method. I can make edits, change dates and check things off as they are finished. My favorite feature is the ability to categorize my to-do list by project. Like the paper version, there are focus sections and backburner sections. I love doing a brain dump into the backburner section and then focusing on finishing my projects before starting a new one.

The only issue I had with The Action Method was the apparently lack of mobile apps. I searched high and low before finding a forum thread 6 pages long to find out how to get the Android app for my tablet. I almost decided against using The Action Method because it took so long to find this information and I almost gave up. They also have an iPhone app but I’m not an Apple person.

So the key is it works.

I’m not saying these methods will work for everyone and if I could integrate The Action Method into my Basecamp area I would. Basecamp does have a to-do list and milestone feature but it definitely pales in comparison to the organization method behind The Action Method.  There are a number of “to-do” list programs out on the internet and available for download. Fortunately most of them offer trials so you can check out their features.

If paper works for you and you know that stick with it. For quite a long time I used the “Daily Docket” from Simple Mom’s blog. I loved that it included room for dinner planning and tracking my water intake.

What programs and methods work well for you?

*These lovely stars are disclosed affiliate links.

A Typical Creative's "Workspace" (Insert manly coffee mug if necessary.)

Today’s post is from my friend, Jeff Goins. Be sure to visit his site and follow him on Twitter below.

Creatives are weird. Plain and simple.

Creative professionals don’t work like the rest of us. They struggle with deadlines and typical 9-5 schedules. They procrastinate and sometimes make excuses. They can be unmotivated and even occasionally moody.

So why, in the world, would you ever want to hire a creative?

Because you need them. Before we go any further, let’s make sure we have our definitions correct.

What is a “Creative”?

If your grammatical intuition cringes when I use creative as a noun, that’s okay. That’s normal. But I’m going to keep doing it (sorry), because creatives are an emerging class of workers that the world is finally recognizing.

Creatives are just that — creative. They are designers and writers. They are creators of all things interesting and unusual. They are, in the purest sense of the word, artists.

Why You Need Them

Here are three reasons why creatives are indispensable for any organization (and how you can leverage them):

1. Creatives are visionary.

They people see what others do not. They have a sixth sense, a special intuition. They just know certain things. Ideas come naturally to them, and they can dream up possibilities that others would never imagine.

The shadow side of this, unfortunately, is that creatives sometimes struggle with getting things done. So how do you give them room to be visionary and hold them accountable to being productive? Give them a system that empowers them, but also has some ways of tracking success on a regular basis.

Something that I like to do is ask the person that is working for me for a realistic deadline. More often than not, a person’s self-assigned target date for an assignment is more demanding than mine would be.

2. Creatives are nonlinear.

They do not get stuck in process jams. If they encounter a roadblock in a project, they figure out a way to work around it and still get the job done.

Please take a moment and reflect on how many times you or your time got stuck because of a process issue. What did you do? Wouldn’t it have been great to have someone who doesn’t think in terms of traditional boundaries at that time?

The shadow side to this is that creatives struggle with submission to authority. Because they have little respect for bureaucracy (and because they’re visionary), they tend to not always submit to the powers that be.

In order to wield the visionary and nonlinear power of a creative, you’ll have to create some kind reporting system that fits their style. It often needs to be aesthetically pleasing and have the ability to capture ideas as they come. If your project management system doesn’t do this, you may need to work extra hard to help creatives with their projects and with reporting.

Again, I recommend asking the creative what they need. Most creatives recognize the downside of how they think and process ideas. They may even ask you for help in leading and guiding them. This is the perfect opportunity to ask for permission to lead, instead of demanding it.

3. Creatives are introspective.

Not only do they see into the future (i.e. they’re visionary), they see into themselves. This is where their art comes from — deep from within their soul.

As a result, creatives can be sensitive, which is a great dynamic to introduce to a team. Often in a business setting, sensitivity is seen as a flaw, but the fact is that most people are insecure about something.

When you have a creative on the team, they can sometimes help illuminate the reality that we all have pieces of us that we’d like to hide from others.

The shadow side, of course, is that sensitivity can lead to over-sensitivity or insecurity. Nobody wants to work with someone who requires you to walk on egg shells. The best way to leverage the introspective nature of creatives without pandering to sensitivity is to just be honest, without being harsh.

Also, taking the time to recognize the quality of work that a creative has done can build confidence like nothing else. Publicly affirm them; in fact, make that a core value of your professional culture (if it isn’t already).

While they’re not the easiest people to work with, creatives are a vital component of any successful business. Because of their capacity to be visionary, nonlinear, and introspective they add unique value to your organization.

Yes, they’re weird, but they’re also worth it.

For more on this, you may enjoy this post: Three Struggles of Creative People.

Jeff Goins is a writer, living in Nashville with his wife and dog. You can follow him on Twitter.

Photo Attribution: Nerdy Creative (Flickr). Fitting right…