Monday

Emails: Work and Play Don't Mix

Work emails aren't for one's pleasure.  Assigned to an employee, the work email is for work purposes.  Yet, how many workers use their professional email for personal business?  Does one know that on any given day he or she just might be fired for inappropriate use of one's email?  What's worse, the wrong words, sense of humor, comment, and more in an email just might aid in one's lay off or firing.

This simple reminder is for those who have blurred the lines between company business and personal pleasure when it comes to workplace emails.  Avoid becoming so comfortable with company email systems that you no longer care who sees an email you have written or received.

Nicholl McGuire

Wednesday

Layoffs, Dismissed -- What to Do Now?

It happened and there is nothing you can do about it.  One of the worst things that people do when they are let go from a company is complain, sit around, and do nothing!  Hit the ground running!  The moment you, who still have your job, hear news about people being laid off, you should be making every effort to make a smooth transition out of your old job and into your next one!

The best time to look for a job is when you already have one, but for those who don't, they will need to do something that will keep their minds fresh, body trained to wake up on time, and keep connections with others professionally and privately positive.  Just because someone you know had a hard time finding a job, got a divorced, ended up in the hospital or whatever else that happened--doesn't mean that these things and others will happen to you!

So what do you do while you collect pay without a job?

1.  You set goals for yourself to view as many sites as you can online for jobs of interest.  You purchase newspapers of the areas you desire to relocate to, if necessary. You utilize job search tools, headhunters, and employment agencies to assist you.  This workplace blog has some resources listed.

2.  You budget money in ways that reduce your monthly expenses.  In other words, you rid yourself of some of your smaller monthly bills.  You look around your home for items to sell and donate.  When you can give something away, do it, blessings have a way of coming back to you!

3.  You search for ways to make additional money, without paying for some over-hyped service or product--always do your research first before joining any business on or offline.

4.  Don't sleep on snail mail or fax machines.  If you have an address or a fax number, use it!  Send cover letters and resumes.

5.  Follow-up with contacts.

6.  Tell people you know/trust you are in search of a job and supply them with copies of cover letters and resumes.

7.  Depending on how much you are receiving after being let go, you might want to look into some government aid.  You paid into it, so you might as well use it!

8.  Be sure you check emails, voice mails, and all communications on a daily basis.  Time is money and when you don't have much, it can all get away from you!

9.  Don't grovel about the past, share personal details/updates about your life, or do other things that tarnish your reputation with previous bosses and co-workers.  Stick to business, always stick to business!  Remember, people you work with are not your friends!

10.  List personal life goals.  When you do this, you just might be open to career changes.  Do research about a position you might be curious about.  Update your resume and cover letter to reflect the duties required to obtain a certain position.

To your success!

Nicholl McGuire, see other blogs: Laboring to Love an Abusive Mate http://laboringtoloveanabusivemate.blogspot.com and Parents, Babies and Children http://parentsbabieschildren.blogspot.com

Thursday

Find Out the Latest Buzz about Your Company Layoffs, New Acquistions, Sold Property the Right Way

You have invested much time in that job, far more than you expected!  Your relationship sometimes is put on the back-burner, children's activities are missed, and you find yourself spending more money than you planned just to look professional and get to work on time each day.  So it would make sense to perform periodic research on your company at least once a month.  Why bother to listen to the gossips about your industry and company, yet never follow-up on what's truth and what is nothing more than an assumption, an exaggeration or an outright lie?

You can find your own personal peace about your job and whether or not it is worth continuing to stay, accept a job promotion, relocate, or do other things simply by conducting your own research and in-person interviews.

Before clicking on mainstream news websites, you might want to consider making a few phone calls to real people that you know who are in your industry.  The reason for this is that most of our media is owned by the same people who own the major companies in our land.  Do you really think you will get all the information you need to know from those sources?  Find out what is considered major news about your company later.  Take what you do know and ask questions, start with your company's competitors.  Find out from them things related to what concerns you.  Are people being laid off at the competition's site too?  What is being said about your business around the competitor's location?  Some people love to dish negative dirt about individuals and businesses, don't be so quick to defend.  Listen and learn.

After speaking with a few sources, you might want to take some people up on their suggestions if they have given you any such as: visiting certain websites, locations, making more careful observations at your business, and whatever else they deem might be important to you.

You will want to check up on your company online.  View sites that talk about scams, lay-offs, new acquisitions, and more.  Some of these sites might be newspaper types, television, radio, forums, micro-blogs, social bookmarking, press releases, comment sections, video, blogs, and many others.  Be sure you include the company name and any additional information you might want to know.  Once on the sites, perform other searches within.  Much data may be found in the archives of a site that may not come up in the major search engines.  Sometimes this happens by design.  A company that is doing quite badly, will spend much money to try to keep their business, so to speak, out of the street.

Another thing you will want to consider is getting those you trust to look out for company related information.  There may be some in your circle that might be able to help you learn more about what your company is up to.

Don't sleep on the library, coffee shops, laundry rooms, and any other public place a protester or activist might leave fliers sharing details about a company's misdeeds.

People within and outside departments will not always keep confidential information confidential so when this happens, there is the possibility that whoever wasn't supposed to talk, but did, might lose his or her job, be in danger, bullied, etc.  Think about the consequences, and if you have a faith, pray before you speak.  Whenever you get a break in news, be sure to keep it to yourself until the opportune time to reveal important communication, but never start talking when you have no proof and no one in leadership has given you the greenlight to share.

Nicholl McGuire has a background in journalism and communications.  She writes part-time and enjoys journaling family history.