Take a look on the city streets and you will no longer see bowler-hatted men in pin-stripe suits and a carrying brolly making their way to work. In their place the normal attire seems to have become a tatty t-shirt and shorts carrying a laptop.
Of course the bowler is “old hat” but dressing smartly for the office seems to have become a thing of the past and with it I think has gone much of the professionalism and well-earned respect.
There is something about wearing a suit which gives an impression of professionalism to both the client and the wearer. How can a customer have any respect for somebody dressed in informal attire?
But it is not only the dress-code which has changed. In public life politicians are continually being shown to be corrupt and untrustworthy, just point out any who have stood by their manifesto!
In business too there is a relentless drive for profit by whatever means, some decidedly shady and others more questionably so. The proposed anti-corruption laws are unlikely to have any impact on this.
The public and customers are understandably discontented but have little choice when all other options appear to be the same.
The rot has probably set in by now and it is unlikely that any real change is possible but it would be nice to see some effort being made.
Archive for May, 2012
Once upon a time you could expect to join a company and gradually progress through the ranks, either as the company grew or when older employees retired or left. This “job for life” is no longer and the onus is now on the employee to fend for themselves.
As a consequence in surveys more than 50% of workers expect to be with a different company within 5 years and at any one time as many as 25% will be actively looking for a new job.
This lack of loyalty to the company has many ramifications for productivity, staff retention and investment in staff training, after all why train someone who will leave soon anyway.
Coming back to the point in question how can an employee determine their true market worth? Answer: to test the market. In doing so they find they are worth more than they thought and tend to move much more often. This in turn fuels salary inflation, companies have to pay more for key staff and savvy employees exploit this to the full.
Less savvy employees get left behind and are effectively exploited by their employer.
So if you have:
Been with your company for more than 2 years
Not received any training for more than a year
Not had any promotion for more than 18 months
Not received a pay rise for more than 18 months
Seen high staff turnover as other employees leave
The chances are that you are worth more than you are currently earning so I would suggest you test the market, you may be pleasantly surprised!
There is a growing tendency for companies to communicate through text and email rather than verbally or face to face which is presumably a more effective use of staff time than making many phone calls.
There can be no excuse however for using these media to tell individuals that they no longer have a job. A number of instances have been made public, the most recent being that of Martin Wood who committed suicide after losing his job as a delivery driver.
It may just be that the new generation of managers do everything by email, voicemail or text or perhaps a fear of confrontation if they were to tell someone straight to their face, whatever the reason these people are human-beings and deserve to be treated with respect and consideration.
Business is now so cut-throat, driven by profit and ruled by accountants that it appears that common courtesy has been forgotten. It should be remembered that staff are a company’s greatest asset, lose their respect and loyalty and the consequences could be severe.
If you need to let staff go always seek professional advice in how best to address the issue or face the consequences.
Very few people that I talk to are satisfied in their job. This of course is to be expected because as a recruiter I will be dealing with those looking to move, either by way of career advancement or because their current employer is not offering the opportunity to progress.
No almost all are finding the work environment much more stressful and more bound up in red tape and petty rules and regulations which add to the burden and interfere with the effectiveness of the business.
Just this week I have spoken to two senior managers in their mid-fifties who have decided to hand in their notices for exactly these reasons. Most over 50 remember when the job was enjoyable, less stressful – even fun!
Is it the fault of big business or business schools who preach about keeping a lid on costs or the accountants employed to oversee the figures?
Whatever the reason it would seem that there are many who feel that the system is unnecessary, costly and a hindrance to efficient working. There are business opportunities, even in these bad economic times, which go unexploited through cost and budget constraints.
Fortune favours the brave so they say and it is likely to be small companies or even individuals who take the risk and gain the business, without this entrepreneurial spirit the UK cannot prosper.
That’s my excuse anyway!
Researchers have found a correlation between a high fructose diet and slower mental activity, admittedly in rats but fructose is already proven to contribute to diabetes, obesity and liver disease in earlier studies.
Insulin has a significant effect on the brain cells ability to function and anything affecting the level of insulin in the body must as a result reduce brain activity.
Fructose is manufactured from corn and used as a sweetener in most processed foods such as soft drinks but the good news is that the effects can be reduced if you also eat nuts, fish and omega 3 rich items.
Could this explain why so many people are unemployable?
As the politicians argue and procrastinate about the future of the whole Eurozone, whether Greece will be forced to leave the currency and the possible ramifications a whole raft of statistics paint a gloomy picture for the UK economy.
I suppose this should be expected as around 50% of our exports go to Europe so if those economies are suffering a lack of demand would be expected.
Uncertainty means that employers are reluctant to invest in the business, be it technology, machinery or staff so as a consequence many corporates are sitting on considerable sums of cash waiting for signs of an upturn.
Reducing costs is seen as essential and accountants (or their consultants) are hard at work devising new schemes to outsource work, reduce staff numbers, or both. According to a survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 8% of employers intend to offshore work currently undertaken in the UK in the next year.
All this adds to the burden of the remaining staff and it can be no surprise that stress related illnesses are on the rise.
Official figures on jobs are looking more positive with more companies expecting to recruit and less to implement redundancies but these hide a considerable trend away from permanent staff. Latest figures also show 1.4 million individuals working part-time simply because they cannot find full-time work, almost 90% of advertised jobs have been for temporary or part-time roles over the last year. In some cases individuals are holding down more than one of these just to meet the cost of living.
A Department of Work & Pensions spokesman said “We firmly believe that being in some form of employment is better than being out of work. Part-time work or jobs in different sectors can be the first steps into employment providing vital experience and skills that employers will look for when the economy and labour market improve”. A reasonable statement apart from the fact that in many cases these jobs offer little in the way of prospects and the income falls short of that necessary to feed the family.
It is clear that politicians in Europe will continue to avoid tackling the issues for some time to come so it is essential for businesses to find new markets for their products in those countries least affected by the turmoil such as China, India and South America. To their credit the Government is doing its best to facilitate this but could do more to stimulate our economy.
A new syndrome dubbed “social jetlag” has been coined by researchers who believe that the increasing discrepancy between our internal body clock and hectic social lives is causing sleep-deprivation on a massive scale.
Sufferers are likely to be far less able to concentrate meaning poor performance at work, susceptibility to sickness and obesity, even a danger to other road users.
Further evidence indicates that there has been a significant rise of one-sixth in people prescribed sleeping tablets over the last 3 years, thought to be as a result of pressures bought on by the economic downturn. These stress-related conditions resulted in 15.3 million prescriptions last year. Others turn to alcohol and drugs to help them to cope and doctors are worried that people will become dependent, or even addicted, to their “little helpers”.
Technology means we can be contacted 24/7, there is increasing evidence that people are becoming addicted to their communication and internet devices and are foregoing social interaction to increasingly live “virtual lives”.
To me it seems we are reaching the limits of what the brain can handle. With all the pressures from work, family and hectic social lives it seems we have forgotten how to relax and get a good night’s sleep.
If a survey by The British Sleep Society last year is representative then as many as 61% of us have sleep problems costing the UK economy millions in lost productivity. The consequences for life expectancy could be significant.
I heard of a guy who had taken a camper van to work so he can take a nap at lunchtime on the radio this morning, perhaps we should all take notice, even a 20 minute “power nap” is supposed to be a benefit, it worked for Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill.
As the board of Yahoo discusses the future of its CEO following revelations that he had falsified his academic achievements on his CV it raises the question of just how far you should stretch the truth on your CV.
The temptation is to make oneself look good by claiming credit for team achievements but it appears that as many as 20% of people are now taking this further and making false claims of academic achievement or even buying degrees off of the internet.
A whole new industry has evolved to pre-screen CV’s and to do background checks in order to eliminate dishonest candidates at an early stage. It can be more difficult to identify those who have lied about job titles, exam grades, employment dates and reasons for leaving previous employers but these are highlighted to be covered at interview in the hope of catching candidates out. Additional aptitude and psychometric tests are used to uncover obvious failings.
It is all too easy to make mistakes when drawing up your CV, wrong dates or grades perhaps, but we have seen offers withdrawn when these simple errors are uncovered.
Be very careful to ensure that nothing in your CV can be checked and disproved. We all stretch the truth a little but you must be certain that at interview or through background checks you will not be found out. After all how can an employer trust somebody proven to have lied.
If in doubt take professional advice.
Time for a rethink?
Seeing the turmoil and unrest across the world as various countries go to the polls one wonders if it is time for a rethink of how we are governed?
For too long all so called democratic countries have had the choice of voting for party “A” or party “B” with a few votes being thrown around to lesser parties that up until now have had nearly no hope of making a difference.
We have seen world chaos because of debt; with politicians pointing the finger of blame 100% at the banks and no one mentioning the large loans or sovereign debt that cannot be repaid, nor any mention of shareholders demanding ever larger dividends which has also encouraged the debt and greed culture. If politicians had not been so vain and full of their own importance then perhaps they could have reigned in the banks and big business and stopped the problem before it became too late. (more…)
You are unemployed, you have attended an outplacement agency paid for by your company and come away armed with a reasonable CV, you have fired the CV out to numerous agencies; yet despite this there have been no interviews and no offers of employment.
What next?
If you went through traditional outplacement paid for by your last employer the chances are it was fairly basic in that they helped with a CV, told you how to network, offered you a desk PC and phone and chatted with you for a limited paid for consultation. You should understand that your last employer has no real interest in helping you to find a new job in the same industry as you have left in case you go to a rival company and then prosper; your last employer has only supplied basic outplacement with a known company as a way of making it seem that they are sorry to lose you and to try and reduce the possibility of legal action against them. (more…)
