How to Stay Hired

We have all been there. Sweaty palms. Crinkled resumes. Scuffed shoes. It’s job interview day and despite sticking those germ-infested hooves in our mouth during an intense question, we snagged ourselves an illustrious position at our dream job. 

You see, several years ago, that was me. I remember what I was wearing, the weather, a few of the interview Q&A's.

After a while I got comfortable with everyone and work life proceeds. The mantra practice makes perfect fueled me through the day. However, a nagging question snuck in, how do I keep the dream alive? How do I stay hired?

And now I’ve planted it in your head…

Be On Time: Punctuality is equivalent to reliability. Not only should you be on time to plopping your fine rear anatomy at your desk in the morning (seriously, how many traffic jams can your encounter in a week. Seriously.) but you should be on time with handing your work into your boss and to your clients.

Be Honest: Own up to your mistakes. While it is a globally known fact that America is in crisis mode for an ever-growing debt, (you didn’t really think that was was a national secret, did you?) that is not the only deficit we own. We are deficient when it comes to taking responsibility.

Be Likeable: What does that even mean? If your coworkers grimace when you talk, that’s a strong indicator you are on the wrong spectrum of likeability. If you extend a BBQ invite and 80% of the office shows, you’re on the right track. Listen to people, share your food (be respective to food allergies and try not to get people severely harmed) and respect boundaries.

Be Open: Whether it’s opening up to others, being open to ideas or critique or helping others open up, shutting down means you lose out. Allow people to explore alongside you.

Be Proactive: Don’t wait for someone to ask you to do something. If you see the water is about to run over the sink ledge, for Niagara Fall’s sake, get up and shut it off even if you didn’t leave it on. A cautious person with a good set of eyes in the future who has the team’s back (quite the visual) is always an asset.

Be Versatile: Let people know about your multi-faceted skills and your willingness to use them whenever, however, and wherever needed. This may be your dream job in an illustrious team, but it takes many moving parts to make mighty things happen. Moreover, it takes all kinds of special too.

So finally, how to stay hired is to be hired. While being on time is essential, don’t just show up because it’s your dream. Be hired. And stay hired.

Here’s to many more years at Worx…because it just Worx for me.

Midnight Means Good Morning

“There’s no such thing as midnight because after 12 it’s a new day already.”

When a six-year-old tells you something so profound, you listen. And whenever 12am obnoxiously flashes across any digital devices, or the hour and minute hand perfectly overlay each other in a vertical position, these words will be sparked.

At that moment, however, I shook my head in wonder at how a mind so young could look at a world so large and complex and come to that conclusion. For him, 12am is an exciting time. For him it’s the promise that whenever mom said tomorrow, 12:01am marked a whole new journey. A clean slate. New possibilities. Endless possibilities

Meanwhile, we try to wrestle with the 24-hour time zone, going so far as to bargain with it through inventions such as fast-food, dishwashers, microwaves. All in an effort to speed up productivity rate while we can slow down our routine.

All it has done, however, is allowed for us to fill more hours with more fast-food mentality productivity. And we’re fried, no pun intended. See, time is one of the most coveted and yet casually treated commodities we can claim. Time has become a billable asset.

But to one little six-year-old kid, it was a discovery. He could recognize Sunday-Saturday, knew what yesterday, tomorrow and before or after meant. For a young guy, his reminiscing was sharp, but for as much as he lived in the now, he was always eager to live in the what’s next.

So much so, that that when trying to get him to sleep throughout the night he asked half-asleep and 100% disgruntled, “Why is it taking so long to wake up?” In other words, why wasn’t it time to get up?

All he wanted was for the morning to come so he could punch the possibilities in the face and conquer yet another day.

The only thing I want to punch in the morning is my alarm clock. (Did you know there’s actually a national holiday for this?) Regardless, we all have different schedules. We all live different lifestyles. But we all have developed a unique relationship with our bed that is hard to sever come wakey-wake time. But wouldn’t it be nice to develop some element of sentiment in which we look forward to getting up? 

Wouldn’t it be nicer if we got up in the morning and half the work was already done?

A Few Simple Ways to Kick-Start Your Day Wisely:

• Don’t Be an “I Have Nothing to Wear” Victim

Lay it all out…Our mom’s did this for us for years; it’s time we adopted the habit. This task includes more than matching an argyle vest with a checkered shirt. It’s about checking the weather to verify whether our clothing will be compatible with adverse weather conditions.

• Plan an Emergency Exit Strategy

Don’t get mad, get even? Yes, that doesn’t really work when you’re behind schedule, stuck in traffic or are still at home and unintentionally tried to give yourself a double shot of espresso via osmosis by spilling it down your front. No, don’t get mad, get up even earlier. Plan an exit strategy that will give you plenty of time to make your real entrance right on time.

• Block Time for Breakfast

For some of you that may not be food. But we all need to begin our day by digesting what energizes us. Maybe it’s exercise, maybe it’s reading, spending a few minutes with your children before they head off to school - maybe it is physical food. But what is the first portion of your day?

When we get up in the morning, we far too often see just another hour, another number and the endless tasks. I challenge you to see endless possibilities and that no matter what, 12:01am marks a whole new journey. A clean slate. New possibilities. Endless possibilities.

Communication

Learning to communicate is one of the first things we learn to do as an infant. We find ways to express our wants and needs to others without using words. As adults, somehow the use of words can make communicating more difficult. You would think it would ease the process. Learning to communicate effectively with people around us is important on a professional and personal level.

There are 3 key steps to this process:

1.  Thought: It enters your brain as a potential topic for future conversation.

2. Encoding: We as the communicator have to find the most accurate and best way to convey our ideas and thoughts to the listener.

3. Decoding: The listener has to understand and absorb our information, and we hope it is a similar translation on all levels.

Most often the communication stops at the first step. There are many more thoughts that aren’t shared with others than the ones that are, which is perfectly fine. However, when those thoughts turn into worries, concerns and topics that need to be addressed to achieve inner peace, following through steps 2 and 3 are critical. These steps can easily cause anxiety and guilt. What if I upset someone else? What if I’m crazy and no one understands me? What if I’m the only one? More than likely, the thought dwelling in your mind begging to be communicated will put you at ease once you let it out of the cage of your mind.

A few things to consider when communicating with the listener (decoder):

- Timing: Is this an appropriate time to bring this up? Consider things like time of day, how busy or distracted the listener will be and is it an appropriate setting? Nobody wants to cause a scene.

- Tone: How is the tone of your voice, body language and your heart? Be sincere without being over-dramatic.

- Technique: Are you remembering to not blame others or play victim? Are you willing to have an open-minded conversation with the listener? Are you ready to accept suggestions on how to come to a solution?

- Truth: Well… is it? Sometimes if we think something long enough, our heart and mind starts to believe it’s true. If you assume something you make an…well, you know the rest.

While it’s important to communicate both good and bad topics with others, these tips might seem more applicable in certain circumstances where communication might otherwise be uncomfortable. Communicating positive ideas and exciting thoughts might come more naturally for most people, so keep up the enthusiasm! Are you ready to improve your thought process, encoding practices and decoding skills? Try to incorporate these tips slowly into your life on personal and professional levels.

Six Signs I Might Be A Social Media Addict (and all other things online)

Social media is the sweet ‘n salty of technology, and I’m absolutely okay with that. It’s the caloric and sugar cane intake that I have to watch. No, I don’t count calories. Portion control? Yes, that’s more like it.

Extremes are fatal either way. If you want to live off the grid and go all George Orwell 1984 on us, then more power to you, but I think I’m just going to cut back and be realistic.

But here’s six signs you, er I, may need to consider pulling the power plug and intentionally allowing the battery to die once in awhile.

1.    You’re on Your Mobile Device During a Live-Event

You’re at a concert but are catching it behind your 3.5-inch screen. Or maybe you and your friends are out for supper, and your heads are bowed in reverence…to wait, what...Yelp? Instagram? Fandango? Minecraft?

Confession: My life is pretty mundane, but the few times I hashed out my #livetweet I missed out the good, gritty content and guess what. I misquoted. Everyone else, millions, where tweeting that same message. What’s one more? Moreover there are the times I missed out on the real-time conversations around me because I had to check the virtual comments.

2.    You’re All About Numbers and Not the Names

You collect virtual people and care more about how many Facebook friends you have and only know Twitter followers by their handles. Did you know that LinkedIn has more security than Facebook?

Confession: I took a break from Facebook for awhile because it fed my ego more than Ensure fed my intestines could. Also, my posts were not that interesting, despite how hilarious I thought, um think, I am.

3.    You Use Your Phone as Your Swiss Army, E-reader Alarm Clock

Remember the days when the Swiss Army Knife was the all-in-one tool? Now you struggle to turn your phone off at night for fear you will miss out on an important message, will be unable to read from a print edition book or hear a traditional alarm.

Confession: I used to work at a Verizon retail store when Android first launched their smartphones. I had what I thought was a great idea to sell more phones: I took an acrylic display box and went on an eBay-shopping spree, buying an internally broken digital camera, keyboard, Kindle, mp3 player and flashlight. I threw in a couple of games: a deck of cards, scrabble, etc. and a few other gadgets. Ah, and then the crowning glory. Atop the lid I placed a sleek, new demo phone showcasing how everything in that box was in that phone.

Unfortunately, I’ve taken that a bit too literal. I have the world in my hands, on the go in my pocket that I can always be in the know. Thank you dear WebMD and Wikipedia.

4.    Thunder ONLY Threatens You for Fear of Losing Internet Connection

You dim the light on your phone and hoard it like it’s December 31st 1999. You perspire at the thought of not being able to Pin.

Confession: My life’s in my Mac. I like to say I’m married to it, to Him. One time when there was a terrible storm I woke up abruptly and within 2 seconds jumped up from bed like a mummy, unplugging my laptop from a non-surge protectant plug.

The next day I informed my family that one day I would make a great mom; should ever there be an event where I would have to save my kids first, I would do so. (They didn’t agree.)

5.    You’re a “Workaholic”

(When you just love having an excuse to check your emails and have them synced.) There is a certain thrill when a notification sound comes through your purse or pocket.

Confession: On a day off I felt I missed too many emails –both personal and professional - in 24 hours so I set my notification to push messages, vibrate, blink and ping with an almost obnoxious notification ringtone. I successfully managed to respond to every message.

6.    Everything Online Seems Pinteresting

Your browser bar has a widget, your phone has an app and you know how to upload a picture from your computer: you are a Pinterest ninja, and no one knows your likes, pins, boards and re-pins better than you.

Confession: I pin a lot. I say it’s therapeutic. Ipso facto, the sixth sign I might be a social media addict.

Sometimes you suck at work

Well, that got your attention didn't it? It's true. There are days when you wake up unable to accomplish anything with grace and by the end of the day you wonder how on earth you survived. I'd like to call it being human. Even the most polished, well-rounded individuals have these days!

Let’s relive last Thursday...

I had several meetings scheduled, a few deadlines and some creative work to proof. Pretty standard day and I was looking forward to it! Then it happened. I lost my ability to act like a civilized human being. In my first meeting, I promise that my tongue and brain stopped communicating. I slurred over my words, forgot our Worx process and had a strange twitch in my neck; makes it kind of difficult to put on a professional front.

Then the afternoon came. Another wonderful opportunity with a potential new client! However, my brain decided it was ready for round 2. In mid-meeting, my elbow loudly slipped off of my folder and my entire body jerked. I took a big gulp of my iced coffee only to find my mouth full of about a teaspoon of sugar, causing me to cough loudly. And, then, in mid-sentence I lost my shoe under the table. So while I'm trying to carry on a professional conversation, my foot is rapidly searching for my lost sandal.

Thursday. You were not good to me.

Why on earth am I sharing this with you; To let you know that we're all human. We all have backwards days that leave us questioning our abilities. Sometimes you suck at work. Does it mean that you're incapable of overcoming it? No way!

I'll share a secret with you. When I'm having a day like this, I call myself out on it in front of people. Like the time I was giving a social media presentation in front of about 30 professionals. I accidentally inadvertently made a sexual reference not just once but twice in a row. As some people started to giggle, I realized that I needed to acknowledge my ridiculous mistake. I stopped mid sentence and said "I think we need to take a moment to acknowledge that I just publicly humiliated myself." We laughed as a group and went on with the presentation. I feel like people gain respect for you when you can admit your faults or low moments.

Everyone has their day and their moment when things don't go as planned. Instead of using it as an excuse to not move forward, I use it as a white flag to slow down. Sometimes these things happen because we're balancing too many things in life. Sometimes it happens for no reason at all! However, the important thing to remember is it doesn't have to define who you are. Don't wallow in your mistakes. Own them, acknowledge them and most importantly, laugh at them.

Tomorrow is another day. 

Relax!

Take a breather to take on the world.

Recently, I went on a weeklong camping trip in the wilderness of New England with my family. We had sporadic cell service, and even had to pull over and break out an ATLAS to find our way around. It was a nice escape from being available 24/7. It is no secret that taking time off can make you more productive. There is scientific evidence to prove it!

The more we try to keep up, the more trapped we become in the proverbial hamster wheel. The notion of accomplishing more by doing less seems absurd. A new and growing body of research across multiple disciplines shows that planned breaks – including daytime exercise, naps, longer sleep hours and more time away from the office can re-energize you; boosting productivity, creativity and job performance. I guess the boss was right all along in making us eat lunch away from our desks and encouraging walks outside on nice days.

In many work environments, downtime is considered wasted time. We rely on time to get things accomplished, but there is only a finite amount. We can’t make more hours in the day, but we can increase our energy. Energy also has a limit but, unlike time, it is renewable. Humans are not designed to burn continuous energy. We need periods of recovery to function. Our bodies are great at telling us when we need to recharge, but warning signs are often hidden by caffeine, sugar and stress hormones (adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol; respectively).

Working in 90-minute intervals with short breaks in between is a step in the right direction. Go outside: nature is more affordable than therapy. So is spending time doing things that matter. Taking the time for self-renewal can help you to be excellent at anything.