Employment Blog

I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a good book.
-Groucho Marx

Need Internet Access For Your Job Search? Need Help Learing How To Do an Online Job Search? Visit Your Public Library!

As we discussed in Part I of this series on how searching for a job has changed in the Internet age, the Web has become the place to begin the hunt for your next job.

However, if you’ve been laid off for a while — or are having a hard time finding that first job — you may be unable to afford the computer and/or Internet service provider fees that would allow you to conduct your online job search from home. You may also be concerned that you lack the computer skills to succeed in online job searching.

Fortunately, job-seekers have an easily accessible place to go for free Internet access — and you don’t even have to buy a cup of coffee.

That place is your local public library.

Oh — and don’t worry if you don’t have a computer or don’t know how to use one. Libraries let patrons use their computers for free, and will even teach people how to use them.

According to this recent article in the Huffington Post, “Three-fourths of all libraries offer information technology training to their patrons, including how to conduct online job searches and how to use standard office software applications.”

Photo courtesy webchicken via flickr

Variety of Job Search Services to Match Job Seekers’ Needs

In addition to providing Internet access and instruction in online job search, many libraries also offer services ranging from career counseling to resume-writing help. For example:

• The New York Public Library offered a career preparedness fair in January that drew 700 people.
• The Detroit Public Library has a Career Center that does everything from helping patrons prepare for pre-employment testing to presenting monthly workshops on how to conduct an online job search.
• In Lexington, KY, the library offers free resume and job application assistance on a walk-in basis.
• The Newport Beach, CA Public Library offers “…information on careers, exam prep books, newspapers and magazines, business reference databases, free WiFi, laptop computers for use in the library, and the expertise of reference librarians to assist in finding pertinent information.

“We’ve been in the job-search business for decades,” Paul LeClerc, the president of the New York Public Library, told the New York Times, while noting that President Obama has said that a librarian helped him find his first job as a community organizer. “This is a continuation,” said LeClerc.

Royal Oak, Michigan Library Director Metta Lansdale told me that her library began offering special programs for job seekers in January of this year.

“We began by offering a computer workshop to show people what we considered good job hunting websites and to give them pointers about the online environment, especially as it is related to job hunting,” Ms. Lansdale told me in a recent online interview. The librarians found that some of the workshop participants needed job-search help going beyond computer-related pointers. To accommodate this need, the library invited an area agency to give a general program on job hunting, not even using computer applications.

Adding that the job search resources and programs being offered by libraries are the “…kind of response to human needs,” that libraries have always fulfilled, Ms. Lansdale tole me that libraries “…definitely…have a role to play” in helping job seekers find jobs.

“Libraries are the ‘people’s university’, the great equalizer…” she said.

From Retail Jobs to Jobless Benefits

The library may well be the only place for some job seekers, as well as many people who are applying for unemployment benefits.

According to the American Library Association:

Libraries are helping level the playing field for job seekers as well. Less than 44 percent of the top 100 U.S. retailers accept in-store paper applications. Libraries continue to report that many patrons are turning to library computers to prepare resumes and cover letters, find work, apply for jobs online and open e-mail accounts.”

In addition, the Huffington Post article says:

The state of California actually requires applicants to apply online for unemployment benefits — but not everyone is computer-literate or savvy. Without free access to library computers and the Internet, how are these jobless folks expected to get back on their feet?

In the Face of Greater Need for Library Services — Budget Cuts

Despite the growing need for our public libraries’ job search and other services, their budgets are being cut as municipalities tighten their fiscal belts. Several sources I consulted for this article mentioned a dramatic increase in library use — from a 28% increase at the Howard County Library in Columbia, MD to a 60% increase in 2008 at her library cited by Royal Oak, Michigan’s Ms. Lansdale.

However, “I’m developing a budget with a 3% drop in revenue expected this year and another 12% drop expected next year, due to dropping property tax revenues,” Ms. Lansdale said. Other libraries are in similar predicaments.

In any event, our research and interviews indicate that many public libraries — and librarians — have a commitment to public service that includes helping job seekers, using online methods and otherwise. They also have knowledge of resources you may be unaware of. So whatever your level of comfort with computers, you may be well served by paying your local library a visit as you gear up your job search.

Find Your Public Library

To find the local library nearest you, visit the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics.

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A concession by a major health insurance trade group seems to be good news on the road to implementing badly-needed healthcare reforms and controlling health insurance costs. And that’s good news for employers.

Health Insurance Cost for Individuals and Health-Based Premium Discrimination

Major health insurance industry spokespersons have finally expressed a willingness to stop pricing individual health insurance based on health history and condition (i.e., discriminating against those with the greatest need for insurance) “if Congress adopted a comprehensive plan that provided coverage to all Americans.”

This position reportedly surprised lawmakers, and it could make it easier to pass some version of healthcare reform legislation “because it narrows the issues on which insurers are ready to fight the Democrats.”

Insurers said they were still staunchly opposed to creation of a new government-run health insurance plan, which, under many Democratic proposals, would compete directly with private insurers.

In effect, insurers said they were willing to discard an element of their longstanding business model, under which insurance policies are priced, in part, on the basis of a person’s medical condition or history.

In the past, insurers have warned that if they could not consider a person’s health in setting premiums, the rates charged to young, healthy people would soar, making coverage unaffordable.

But Karen M. Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a major trade group, told lawmakers on Tuesday [March 24, 2009] that insurers were exploring ideas to prevent such increases by spreading the risks and costs across a larger population of both healthy and unhealthy people.

Context of this Health Insurance Cost Development

Premium regulation in the individual insurance market is a matter of state law, so it varies considerably. Generally, there is considerable room for pricing discrimination based on health history.

According the the Times: “Premiums for a person with a history of serious illness are often 50 percent higher than premiums for younger, healthier people — if the sick people can get coverage at all … .”

Shortly after President Obama was elected on a platform including major healthcare reform, the insurance industry signaled willingness to give up the right to deny coverage entirely based on health history, if all Americans were required to have coverage. But this stated concession did not extend to premium discrimination.

The new position was stated in a letter to Congress from America’s Health Insurance Plans:

[I]f Congress enacted an enforceable requirement for everyone to carry health insurance, “we could guarantee issue of coverage with no pre-existing condition exclusions and phase out the practice of varying premiums based on health status in the individual market.”

However, the letter also said insurers wanted to retain the right to charge different premiums based on age, place of residence, and family size.

Note that America’s Health Insurance Plans was formed through the merger of the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) and the American Association of Health Plans (AAHP). HIAA ran the heavily criticized “Harry and Louise” advertisements that helped kill President Clinton’s health care reform efforts in the early 1990s.

So Is This a Step in the Right Direction for Healthcare Reform — Towards Increased Individual Health Insurance Affordability and Availability?

One thing’s for sure: It’s truly a sign of the times that the health insurance industry is finally putting this sacred cow on the chopping block. Apparently, carving up and cherry-picking the insured population, instead of spreading risk broadly, has long been a key to profitability in the industry.

Individualized health-based underwriting of individual health insurance policies has also had a number of effects that were helpful not only to insurers, but also to corporate America — as long as employers saw employee health benefits as a desirable perk to attract good employees, rather than the costly, undesirable millstone around their neck that it has become over the last 10-20 years.

These beneficial effects for larger employers of premium discrimination — and outright policy denial in some cases — in the individual health insurance market included:

• Attracting some employees who otherwise might prefer self-employment or small-business employment, but whose health histories made obtaining individual or small-group coverage problematic, costly, or even impossible.
• Deterring employees from departing to start small entreprenurial ventures, because obtaining post-departure health insurance could present challenges (though less so since COBRA).
• Providing health insurance cost advantages to the largest employers, which are able to buy in volume and spread risk across a large population.

These benefits of employer-provided health insurance now pale in comparison to its escalating cost. Significant elements of corporate America are ready to get out of the healthcare business entirely.

That’s not as troubling to the health insurers as these other developments, which are challenging their very raison d’etre:

• “Socialized medicine” and single-payer healthcare reform models look good to a near-majority (49%) of Americans, according to a recent poll.
• The growing support for cutting the insurance companies out of the loop entirely by single-payer health care reform includes some physicians. Physicians for a National Health Program is a non-profit organization of 16,000 physicians, medical students and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance.
• The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services now has a healthcare reform website, HealthReform.gov, supporting “Health Care for All Americans” as government policy, summarizing 3,276 group reports from local meetings about how to reform healthcare in America that were organized by the Presidential Transition Team, and soliciting citizen questions and ideas.
• Over one-quarter (27%) of the local meeting groups discussed the merits of a single-payer system, and a majority of them supported this idea, finding it a necessary step for healthcare reform.
• One of President Obama’s health reform care proposals is “offering a federal, Medicare-like insurance plan to anyone, at any age,” against which private health insurance could compete.
• The “liberal media” are not allowing themselves to be scared off by the label “socialized medicine.” For example, the Washington Post published this a year ago: “If socialized medicine means doing what our public-insurance programs and other nations’ health systems do to control costs, expand coverage and improve the quality of care, it’s high time for a little socialization.“

What the Health Insurers Fear, and How They Must Remake Themselves to Survive

Of course, the insurers fear single-payer, because in its pure form it wipes out their entire industry.

And the insurers fear a competing government plan because they know they won’t be competitive. That’s not because of government subsidies, but because private health insurance administration is more bloated, inefficient, and strewn with excess paperwork and administrative costs than the worst caricature of a government bureaucracy — and because there’s big chunks of shareholder profit and executive overcompensation in the private plans.

And the insurers fear this scenario: If everyone has the opportunity to buy individual health insurance on the same terms, without regard to health status, as the insurers now propose, many employers may well decide they’d just as soon offload their entire health insurance cost on employees (they’ve been doing this incrementally for years), using some or all of the savings to fatten paychecks. The employees would use that money to buy individual coverage. From that point forward, employers’ labor cost increases would be in wages and salaries, where they would not be subject to increases always vastly outpacing inflation.

What benefit would there then be to keeping the private health insurance industry afloat, instead of going to a strictly single-payer system?

The insurance companies thus have to prove that they can serve as something more than costly middlemen that push a ton of paper, interfere in doctor-patient relationships, and make high profits from the provision of medical care, which increasing numbers of Americans view as a public good — as most of the rest of the world does.

An impossible mission for the insurers? Maybe not. The tried and true appeal to market capitalism — though wearing thin in these days of capitalist-excess-gone-bust — could provide a rationale. Yes, market competition, but not competition to see who can best avoid providing coverage to sick people. Instead, it should be competition to improve policyholder health through lifestyle changes, medical compliance, preventive medicine, and the like.

Having multiple competing players could encourage innovation in this direction. The profit motive may even play a useful role in this regard. What the heck, this is still America!

Finally, I used strong language in referring to price “discrimination.” I think that’s exactly what it is when someone can’t help it that they have a health problem, but is denied coverage or has their premium jacked up because of it. I do not consider it discrimination to use financial incentives to encourage wellness, making healthcare more expensive for those, such as smokers, whose health problems are of their own making.

Resources

• Workforce Management: Business Group Seeks an End to Employer-Based Health Coverage
• Commonwealth Fund: The Path to a High Performance U.S. Health System — A 2020 Vision and the Policies to Pave the Way
• NYTimes.com: Insurers Ease Stance on Pre-Existing Conditions -
• NYTimes.com: A Health Plan for All and the Concerns It Raises
• NYTimes Economix Blog: Defining “Health Care Reform” (Princeton University economics professor Uwe E. Reinhardt)
• Washington Post: Socialized Medicine: Let’s Try a Dose. We’re Bound to Feel Better.
• American Health Care Reform.org
• HealthReform.gov

Today’s guest post on tips for teen job seekers is courtesy of TeenJobSection.

Whether you’re a teen job seeker preparing for your first job or a teen job seeker looking to change jobs or find a seasonal job, there are some common mistakes you should try your best to avoid.

Often teen job seekers decide to apply for a job for the wrong reasons. As a result, they end up frustrated or in a position they’re unhappy with. Staying away from these common mistakes will increase your chances of finding a teen job that’s enjoyable and fits you properly.

Do Your Research

It’s really important to investigate your options before applying for teen jobs. Oftentimes, teen job seekers are so excited about the possibility of getting hired that they don’t think about the responsibilities and duties associated with a position.

Make sure you do some research on the job description of the position you’re considering. You should attempt to find out what kind of work you’ll be performing, whether the position fits your schedule, and whether or not you have the required skills and/or experience.

Jumping into a job headfirst will likely leave you confused, surprised, and/or miserable.

Don’t Be Dishonest

Lying on your resume or in an interview will make the process of finding a job even more difficult. Make sure that all of your facts are accurate and that you represent yourself honestly.

If you get caught being untruthful, it can directly impact your future and make it next to impossible to get hired.

And even if you don’t get caught, you’ll be adding unnecessary pressure to yourself. You could get in way over your head if you make it sound like you know how to do something that you don’t.

Remember to let the employer see you for who you really are. Your mind will be at ease, and you’ll be much more likely to get the job that’s right for you.

Have a Good Reason for your Job-Hunting Choices

It’s really important for teens to pick jobs that are suited to their own needs and standards as opposed to someone else’s.

Teens frequently apply for a position because it offers them more money or is where their friends are working.

Neither of these reasons are good motivations for seeking a particular job. While it’s nice to make some extra cash and fun to work with your friends, it’s much better to have a job that suits your personality and allows you to achieve your goals.

There’s No Such Thing as a Perfect Job

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there isn’t a job in the world that’s perfect.

There are, however, jobs that are close-to-perfect for you. Sure, you’ll have good days and bad days at the “office,” but it’s important to recognize whether the good days make the bad days worth it.

If you do your best to find a job that fits your qualifications and suits your interests, it’s probable that you will be happy working in that position.

Especially as a teen, you’ll have to put up with a certain amount of “busywork,” “dirty work,” and maybe even some seemingly stupid tasks.

But if that work is preparing you for good things later on in life, it can build your character and teach you some valuable skills in patience, communication, and problem solving.

For more teen job tips, check out TeenJobSection.com

For summer jobs, check out SummerJobSection.com

Job and Career Books for Teens

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Photo courtesy webchicken via flickr

From Job Boards to Recruiters’ Sites, the Internet is the Place to Go For Job Opportunities

Anyone who has been searching for a job recently (in other words, a lot of us) are well aware that job searches don’t mean getting our fingers dirty with newspaper print anymore. No — today we hie ourselves to the Internet, which has become an international marketplace for jobs as well as for information, goods and services.

But what does this trend mean in terms of the job search process? How does the Internet help (or hinder) people in their job search, and how does it help (or hinder) employers looking to fill jobs?

Much that has been written on this subject is from the viewpoint of the person engaged in a job search. Other material is directed mainly to employers and recruiters looking for qualified employees. This series will attempt to take a holistic approach to the process instead, looking at it from both perspectives, and pointing out the pros and cons of various developments, Internet job search tools, and web sites for those on both the recruiting/hiring and job search sides of the process.

The Classifieds Have Gone Electric!

In the past ten years it has become impossible to avoid the Internet during a job search.

In 1999, it was reported that less than one-third of Fortune 500 companies were engaged in any form of online recruitment, including the posting of open positions on the firms’ own corporate websites. By 2003, that figure had jumped to 94%; today, it registers at 100%. Employers from professional firms to retailers like Whole Foods have turned to the Internet to wade through the resumes and qualifications of prospective employees.

In addition, job seekers are also focusing extensively — and in many cases, exclusively — on online sources while conducting job searches. In 2003, it was reported that 45% of job seekers confirmed having consulted the Internet as part of their job search. By 2006, a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management put the number of job seekers who used online resources in their job searches at a staggering 96%.

For professionals on both sides of the hiring equation, the notion of conducting a job search or candidate hunt offline is virtually inconceivable.

What Internet Tools Are Available for Your Online Job Search?

Job hunting resources on the Internet include:

• Corporate web sites
  From General Motors to Whole Foods, you can visit corporate sites to search jobs, post your resume, apply for specific jobs, and frequently also subscribe for job alerts when positions that fit your skills and experience are open.
• Federal, state, and municipal job postings
  The federal government has a site that functions in the same way as many corporate sites. You can also find jobs in specific branches of the U.S. Government, from the House and Senate to the White House. Individual states and many municipalities are also making good use of job boards and online application forms.
• Job boards and aggregators
  From Monster.com and Craigslist.org to the niche boards, there are over 40,000 job boards online that allow job seekers to look for jobs using search criteria ranging from position to location. In addition, job aggregators bring together jobs from many job boards, both general and frequently niche boards, into one searchable list. Many job aggregator sites also allow seekers to post resumes and/or set up “search agents” to alert them when jobs become available.
• Online versions of local and national newspapers
  The old-time classifieds without the dirty fingers.
• Social networking sites
  LinkedIn is the largest and best-known professional networking site, with more than 36 million members in over 200 countries. In addition, employers and job seekers alike are increasingly using sites like MySpace and Facebook to list jobs and to interact with each other. For more on using LinkedIn specifically, see this article by author and venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki.
• Blogs and personal websites
  Free hosting services like Wordpress.com and Blogger.com allow online job-seekers to build blogs and professional Web sites complete with resumes, work samples, references, photos and even videos “The Internet lets you flaunt things you can’t put on a resume,” says Cynthia Shapiro, author of “What Does Somebody Have to Do to Get a Job Around Here.” “If you don’t have that kind of presence on the Web, you are losing a critical opportunity to put yourself at the top of the list.”

Evaluating Job Boards

Even though you may be conducting your online job search while you’re unemployed, you still have only so many hours in a day. With more than 40,000 job boards and other job sites out there, how do you know where to get the best return on investment for your time?

This is a very important question, because Internet job search can become a time-consuming black hole, and much job search time should be devoted to other activities such as networking, informational interviews, researching businesses of interest, making personal contacts, etc.

Perhaps the best first stop you can make is WEDDLE’s, which has been in the business of evaluating job-related Web sites since 1996.

WEDDLE’s Users’ Choice Awards lets job seekers rank job sites using criteria including:

• How long the site has been in operation
• How many jobs are posted on the site
• The salary ranges of those jobs
• Whether the site has a resume database
• Whether the resume database has a confidentiality feature
• Whether the site offers a free job agent

You can find WEDDLE’s 2009 Users’ Choice Awards here.

Another useful resource is The 20 Best Job Search Web Sites from PC Magazine

Upcoming Topics in the Online Job Search and Recruitment Series

Now that we’ve covered some of the basics, look for the following topics in upcoming installments of the Online Job Search and Recruitment series, which we’ll attempt to run biweekly:

• The Online Recruitment Industry — Booming on a Computer Near You
• The Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Job Searches and Recruiting
• The Impact and Implications of Online Recruitment
• What to Include in Your Professional Web Site — And the Importance of Managing Your Online Image
• How to Be a Good “Passive” Job Candidate
• Researching Potential Employers and Employees on the Internet
• Stealth Job Hunting: Confidential Job Search Tips
• Making the Best Use of Your Company’s Online Recruitment Pages
• … and more …

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Entrepreneurs have always driven the American economy. They always will.

In fact, today’s economic dislocations, coupled with federal stimulus money, are creating fertile breeding grounds for another generation of startups.

This year, many folks will be stepping out on their own, partly out of necessity. Once a person has been laid off, those long-time dreams can look a lot more attractive than they did when looking out from a supposedly-secure job in the corner office, the cubicle, or on the factory floor.

The following are a few tips from experienced entrepreneurs to help new startup “bootstrappers” avoid some common pitfalls and keep them from joining the ranks of the many new businesses that fail in their early months and years.

Startup Pitfall #1 — Inadequate Awareness Employee Talent Is the Best Competitive Advantage You Have

Of course, a new business must have a unique selling proposition and marketing strategy. The business also needs and a product or service that better meets a need or does so at lower price or with better quality or customer attention.

But no matter what a startup sells, established or new competitors can easily overtake it. Success may ultimately depend on outworking and outmaneuvering everyone else.

This means your most important competitive advantage may ultimately be the talent you attract and retain.

Make sure employees know how grateful you are to have them. Invest in employee training, create a superior work environment, provide competitive benefits, and pay your employees as well as you can — given the constraints of your bootstrapping finances, of course.

Startup Pitfall #2 — Failure To Provide Appropriate Employee Incentives

Typically everyone at a bootstrapping start-up is working for less pay and benefits than they would receive at a more established company.

If they share your vision, employees will give up some compensation now in hopes that their hard work will pay off once the company grows.

Nonetheless, startup owners should provide financial incentives to motivate exempt salaried employees who are asked to put in long hours. (Of course, nonexempt hourly and salaried employees must be paid minimum wage and overtime, as applicable.)

Vague promises of future benefits and the great “experience” of working for a startup only go so far. Provide equity, commissions, or regular performance bonuses — or your best employees will be gone.

Startup Pitfall #3 — Lack of Respect for Employee Work-Life Balance

As the startup owner, you’ll undoubtedly burn the candle at both ends for quite a while. Of course there are limits, and small business owners must somehow create balance between work demands and their own personal lives.

But as a bootstrapper, you must also respect your employees’ work-life balance needs.

The expectation is generally that salaried employees will have less time off at a startup than peers at established companies. Nevertheless, don’t be hard on employees who ask for occasional days off just because you never take a day off. Your exempt salaried employees are probably already working long hours, and the company is ultimately your dream, not theirs — especially if they lack equity.

Startup Pitfall #4 — Failure to Keep Your First Customers Happy

Startup owners cannot afford to ignore their first customers. When sales are going well, it’s natural to put your best resources towards getting and keeping bigger customers as a means to grow the business.

But it’s surprisingly common — and a huge mistake — for amateur small business owners to tell employees to ignore smaller clients’ phone calls or delay work for those clients when everyone is working on landing or servicing a big new customer.

Even if the smaller customers never figure out that you don’t value their business as much as you once did, maintaining their high level of satisfaction is invaluable in word-of-mouth marketing — the cheapest and best kind!

Startup Pitfall #5 — Lack of Attention to Cash Flow

Cash flow is king, especially now that credit is so tight. Today’s customer may not even be in business in a few months. Wasting time on accounts payable calls hurts growth and morale.

As much as possible, startup owners should require that new customers pay up front and establish a payment record before being allowed to buy on account. Explain that as a new business, you’ve had to take this line because others were late with payments. Most customers will understand.

Startup Pitfall #6 — Overselling

An entrepreneur has to sell their vision to friends, family, customers and even themselves.

Optimism for your new startup will be contagious and may help seal some deals.

But while you must maintain a positive attitude to overcome startup challenges, don’t become blind to reality and start selling hype. There’s is a difference between optimistically promoting your company and selling hype — and you need to avoid the latter.

Additional Resources For Startup Bootstrappers

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• Entrepreneurship & Self-Employment Books from our Employment Bookstore
• Bootstrapper’s Bible (pdf), by Seth Godin
• Inc. Magazine: Starting Up on a Shoestring (collection of many links)
• Bootstrap Online, (Similar to Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, but specifically for Bootstrap Entrepreneurs)

Thanks to Down to Business Editor, Richard Stefan Deeran for providing content for this post.

Down to Business is a no-holds-barred interview show and website experience that cuts through all the jargon to give fresh insight into the world of business.

Serial entrepreneur and business personality Pat Croce hosts, profiling an entertaining mix of industry leaders and innovators. Though temporarily on hiatus pending search for sponsors, a number of past interviews and blog posts are available at www.DowntoBusiness.com

“I expect you to be honest, hard working, and treat the company as if you own it.”
– C.V. Starr

“AIG’s ongoing efforts to be an outstanding corporate citizen and promote responsible and sustainable business practices are essential to our long-term business objective of creating value for our shareholders and serving the interests of our clients.”

“Honoring contractual commitments is at the heart of what we do in
the insurance business. I cannot have our clients lose faith in our desire and ability to do just that.”

– Quoting: AIG founder C.V. Starr in “Delivering on Our Commitments” section of AIG Employee Code of Conduct ; AIG Corporate Responsibility Statement ; and AIG CEO Ed Liddy’s March 14, 2009, Letter to Treasury Secretary Geithner, respectively.

We have earlier participated in the debate over Wall Street bonuses, including providing a forum for views sympathetic to the bonus recipients and warning against assuming they’re all undeserving millionaires responsible for causing the financial crisis.

The current controversy over the AIG bonuses finds us squarely joining what appears to be the vast majority of the public — and politicians of all stripes — in condemning outrageous waste of taxpayer bailout dollars.

Of course, much has been written about these bonuses — and more will be written daily as the situation continues to play out. Our angle today is the validity of the “but we have binding contracts” position taken by AIG and the obligations employer have to pay employees as agreed.

Is Contract Law As Simple As “A Deal’s A Deal”? Hardly.

Just the other day, as I puzzled over a challenging issue in a lawsuit, I made the offhand remark that although contract law seems very fixed and doctrinaire, creative lawyers and judges can always mold it to support the right result in a given case.

Little did I know how soon that thought would occur to me again in connection with a hot national news story. I’m not sure to what extent my conclusion about the malleability of contract law is my own and to what extent I owe it to my first-year contracts course in law school with Indiana’s legendary Harry Pratter.

It was just an off-the-cuff thought I had that there must be a way to avoid or invalidate payment of the AIG bonuses — as there seems to always be a contract theory available to avoid gross injustice perpetrated through application of a contract.

But I wasn’t sure what opinions would be expressed by academic lawyers and others treating the subject with deeper thought. Thus, I was pleased to see that the NY Times.com Room for Debate Blog put this very question to a panel of experts.

Before a brief summary of the experts’ opinions, which I read as largely affirming my general attitude, but in more detail, here are a few key facts:

Minting Millionaires by the Dozens

• NY Attorney General Cuomo wrote: “A.I.G. made more than 73 millionaires in the unit which lost so much money that it brought the firm to its knees, forcing a taxpayer bailout.”
  • The highest bonus was $6.4 million, and six others exceeded $4 million.
  • Fifteen others were over $2 million, and 51 between $1 million and $2 million.
  • Cuomo is considering applying fraudulent conveyance law. His theory would be that AIG was undercapitalized and the people who received bonuses did not earn them.
• Eleven recipients of “retention” bonuses of $1 million or more don’t require retention — they’ve already left the firm.

Contract Law Experts Speak

Tom Baker of the University of Pennsylvania Law School:

Contracts get repudiated, renegotiated, modified, delayed, worked out, managed … all the time. A.I.G. knows this. Its insurance businesses pioneered the use of commercial leverage to get people to accept less than what the contract supposedly required.


Coming from A.I.G., the contract defense was a gilt-edged invitation for the government to push back, to exercise the bare-knuckled power of the deal that A.I.G. surely would exercise if the shoe were on the other foot.

Our system requires a balance between “the sanctity of contract” and that “bare-knuckled approach.” I’d like to see it closer to the former, but having been involved in litigation for over twenty years I’m not naive about the fact that the reality is more “bare-knuckled” and “hardball.”

It’s certainly true that some of the companies and individuals most single-mindedly driven by short-term profit — such as those at the heart of the present crisis — often lean in the “bare-knuckled” direction, and giving it back to them seems perfectly appropriate here.

Charles Fried of Harvard Law School:

Since the alternative to the government bailout would have been bankruptcy with a resulting abrogation of these bonus promises along with other contractual obligations, was management remiss in not pressing for a renegotiation and were any of the recipients themselves involved in a self-dealing way in deciding not to renegotiate? And most pertinently, as these bonuses appear to have been related to performance of services, is it clear that the recipients faithfully performed the services for which they were being compensated?

Good questions all. I like the “bankruptcy is the alternative to a negotiated reduction” approach. But don’t make that threat unless you’re prepared to follow through on it.

Frank Snyder of Texas Wesleyan University, dissenting:

I don’t think there’s much chance of using contract law to get the money back from the employees. If some … were personally involved in causing the failure …, courts might allow recovery based on the equitable principle that no one should profit by his own wrongdoing. But most … weren’t the ones who led the ship onto the rocks.

[T]he taxpayers still might get repaid. If A.I.G. turns around, the government will probably demand payment of all of the bonus money from A.I.G. … If the A.I.G. directors violated their duty of loyalty in approving these bonuses, then A.I.G. shareholders can sue them to get reimbursed.

While I think he’s being too fatalistic about the creative contract law options, he makes a good point at the end: the money wasn’t a gift to AIG, was it? However they choose to spend federal aid, as long as it doesn’t prevent them from getting their act together and eventually making repayment, perhaps we taxpayers should be patient? (Not as if they’ve exactly earned our confidence in their business acumen!)

Glenn Greenwald, former constitutional lawyer and columnist at Salon.com:

As any lawyer knows, there are few things more common — or easier — than finding legal arguments that call into question the meaning and validity of contracts. Every day, America’s commercial courts are filled with litigations between parties to seemingly clear-cut agreements. Particularly in circumstances as extreme as those prevailing at A.I.G., there are arguments and legal strategies that any lawyer would immediately recognize that bestow A.I.G. with leverage either to be able to avoid these dubious payments or, at the very least, force substantial concessions.

The consensus of this “panel” surely is that the “we’re bound by contract” line is way too passive and uncreative.

James P. Tuthill, lawyer and lecturer at UC-Berkeley law school:

Every first-year law student learns that a court can invalidate a contract’s “unconscionable” terms, rescind it or reform it. If these bonus contracts benefiting the very people who have destroyed incalculable amounts of wealth in the pursuit of their own personal greed don’t warrant revision, rescission or reformation, then our legal system is seriously deficient.

A.I.G.’s argument is that it had to agree to these bonuses to retain the “best and brightest talent.” But how can these executives be the best and brightest talent when shareholders have been wiped out, bondholders have incurred substantial losses and the American taxpayer has pumped $170 billion into the company?
***
If we can’t find a way to void these egregious payments and recoup them, then we have a more serious problem because our legal system has grievously failed us by rewarding those who have wrought this economic destruction. Such a systemic failure will destroy confidence in our entire legal system.

Public confidence in the entire legal system is already poor.

Successful use of the system to achieve what is clearly the right result here, through contract law or by taxing away the bonuses, or any other creative ideas, might actually restore some confidence in lawyers and/or elected officials as the “good guys.”

Nonpayment of bonuses is clearly the right result here

Deborah W. Post, interim associate dean for academic affairs at Touro Law School, and co-president of Society of American Law Teachers:

Ask G.M. Union Workers About Binding Contracts

If the union workers at General Motors agreed to give up or modify their expectations, there is no reason the management at A.I.G. cannot be asked to do the same. There is nothing in the law that would prevent this. Intervention by the federal government should not be necessary. It is simply a matter of good business judgment.

This comment gets at the socioeconomic heart of the issue: With each passing day of economic downturn and financial crisis, we as a nation are having class divisions rubbed in our faces — and widened.

One danger is that the outcome will be bad economic policy based too much on emotional populism and too little on supporting the entrepreneurship and investment that creates jobs.

And Finally: My Favorite Soundbite from the Comments

As these erudite, knowledgable lawyer/writers above have said there are numerous arguments to be made and nobody is better at avoiding payments than insurance companies.

Indeed, having studied some insurance contracts pretty closely back in the day, and worked on plenty of employment contracts in more recent years, I would be quite surprised if these compensation agreements didn’t have some good exclusions and exceptions built in. Who’s ever hear of an insurance contract that didn’t have those?

Sources

• NY Times.com Room for Debate Blog: When Bonus Contracts Can Be Broken
• Cuomo Details Million-Dollar Bonuses at A.I.G.
• AIG CEO Ed Liddy’s March 14, 2009, Letter to Treasury Secretary Geithner
• AIG Corporate Responsibility Statement
• AIG Employee Code of Conduct ; AIG Corporate Responsibility Statement

photo credit: Daquella manera via flickr

News of layoffs has been rampant since our economy began lagging in 2007. Recently, it seems impossible to turn on the news without hearing about more people losing their jobs.

After all — the country is in a recession, businesses need to manage costs more closely, and layoffs are the best cost management tool, aren’t they?

Not necessarily. At least that’s the word from sources ranging from Furniture World Magazine to the New York Times. Those publications, the Wall Street Journal, and others have all published articles on cost-cutting alternatives to layoffs. (For balance: the WSJ also published an article on February 23 talking about companies that are both laying off staff and instituting other cuts.)

Reasons to Seek Cost-Cutting Alternatives to Layoffs

Avoiding layoffs while cutting other business costs makes sense, according to many writers and business leaders, because excessive, poorly thought-out layoffs have the following disadvantages:

• You risk being short-staffed — and facing considerable expenses to hire and train new people — when business picks up.
• Excessive cuts may put productive workers with important skills on the cutting board, leaving costly gaps in the work force — both immediately and long-term after the economy recovers.
• Layoffs lead to a loss of valuable institutional memory.
• You may have already cut back so much that few slackers remain on the payroll.
• Avoiding layoffs builds loyalty among workers.
• Layoffs decrease productivity among surviving workers.
• Avoiding layoffs also means avoiding the potential costs of severance packages, outplacement, redistributing work, and even perhaps lawsuits.

14 Alternative Ways to Cut Costs Without Layoffs

Given that layoffs can cost your company both now and in the future, how can your company cut business costs but avoid layoffs? My review of the most current literature lead me to these valuable tips:

1. Freeze hiring.
   How many companies do you know of that are laying off workers but also hiring? While some new hiring may be needed to adjust to changes in the direction of your business, retraining current employees may be a better and less costly alternative.
2. Reduce hours.
   Many of the companies that are avoiding or reducing layoffs are cutting hours, instituting four-day workweeks, and requiring workers to take unpaid holidays. Fewer hours are better than no hours at all, and the sense of shared sacrifice can build morale, rather than shattering that of both the laid-off workers and survivors. Depending on state law, unemployment compensation may even be available to employees working reduced hours.
3. Delay raises or cut salaries.
   It’s common sense that lower salaries can lead to fewer layoffs. Fear that employees will leave in droves in response to pay cuts may be overblown, given the limited opportunities under today’s economic conditions. It’s also common sense that those pay freezes and salary cuts should begin at the top. If you want your people to work with you, it’s best to work with them.
4. Eliminate bonuses.
   Would you rather have a bonus at Christmas time, or a job and paycheck the following March? That is not even a question…
5. Redeploy workers to busier business segments.
   Cross-training and redeploying workers will serve your company now (in employee loyalty and retention of institutional memory and expertise) and later, with increased teamwork and flexibility.
6. Offer early-retirement packages.

This tried-and-true method maximizes the use of what amount to “voluntary layoffs.” The major disadvantage is a lack of control over who goes and who stays.

7. Cut temporary and contract staff.
   Temporary agencies and consulting firms include in their bills significant markups on compensation paid to employees you could hire directly yourself for less. Temp workers are also far less likely to be loyal to your company than the people you keep on your own payroll. Indeed, flexibility in shedding them when business slackens is a major reason for the increased use of such workers.
8. Trim spending on training, travel and marketing.
   Rather than hiring an expensive training consultant, form employee discussion groups so that your workers can meet and discuss the latest developments in your industry, or create in-house training options. Do you really need to fly an employee cross-country for a few hours of face time with that client/vendor/manager/customer, or can they meet by phone, Internet chat, or video conference? Does your marketing and advertising budget bring appropriate returns? Does it need redirection in light of rapid changes in where customer attention is focused (i.e., more on Internet, less on conventional media)?
9. Review your telecommuting and flex-time policies.
   Providing office space for all your employees is costly and often unnecessary. Besides, if you need to ask them to take a cut in pay, your telecommuting employees will appreciate spending less money on gas, auto expenses, and the purchase and maintenance of business attire — savings that can fully or partially offset the pay cut.
10. Regularly seek estimates from your suppliers and their competitors.
    Make sure you’re getting the most for your dollar. Your suppliers and their competitors may well be able to actively help you find ways to save money.
11. Involve employees in regularly adjusting operations to improve efficiency.
    Here’s the result of one such effort, courtesy of the Harvard Business Review’s Editor’s Blog:

    [A] telecom company [was burying] its cables at a depth of two meters. When asked why it was necessary to dig so deeply, managers replied that only at that depth would the cable be protected from a thermonuclear explosion. After reflecting on the bomb’s likely impact on customers, the company cut its cable depth to a meter, saving itself $80 million a year as a result.”

12. “Borrow” employees from less busy, non-competing firms; “loan” them to busier ones.

    This strategy was used to good result by a few architectural firms cited in this WallStreetJournal.com article.

13. “Insource” work back in house and give it to less busy employees.
    This is a great idea for employee loyalty and morale, and for your company’s PR.
14. Finally, watch capital expenditures.
    Remember that “that 80% of most companies’ capital budgets are made up of small items that get rubber stamped in the budget process.” Citing an article he read back in 2000, author David Champion says: “Wielding your hatchet to capex (capital expenditures) rather than the payroll also gets you more bang for your dollar. When Eastman Kodak cut its payroll by $400 million in the late 1990s, its market cap went up $2 billion. [The author of the original article] calculated that it would have needed to cut just $280 million in capex to get the same result.”

Save Jobs, Save Money, Preserve Your Company’s Image

This recession has hit so hard, so fast that it will stay in people’s memories for a very long time. So will the names of CEOs who took pay raises and bonuses while instituting widescale layoffs.

Following a policy that works with employees, shares the pain, and avoids or reduces layoffs may not just be good business practice during this recession. It could also be a valuable part of your recovery plan.

Lotsa Great Resources!

• Some Firms Cut Costs Without Resorting to Layoffs: Amid Flood of Job-Reduction Announcements, Some Employers Believe Axing People Can Be Short-Sighted Response (Wall Street Journal)
• Seven Ways to Cut Cost Without Cutting Your Lifeline (Furniture World)
• Alternatives to Layoffs: Layoffs, a short term fix, detrimental to the company, should be last resort (About.com)
• As Layoffs Spread, Innovative Alternatives May Soften the Blow (Wharton School HR)
• Creative Approaches to Layoffs (salary.com)
• Alternatives to Layoffs: Interim steps to reduce payroll costs less damaging to morale than wholesale firing (Business Week)

Just What Is The Employee Free Choice Act, and Why Are So Many People Excited About It?

President Obama supports the Employee Free Choice Act (”EFCA”). Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus called it, “A hostile takeover of American business,” and “the betrayal of a bedrock principle of U.S. democracy,” in a Sept. 22, 2008, article in Business Week, while organized labor is pushing for its passage.

On March 10, 2009, the EFCA was reintroduced in the current Congress as House Bill H.R. 1409, and it was referred to the House Education & Labor Committee. The bill has also been reintroduced in the Senate. And now, with the possibility of it becoming law far greater than it was under George W. Bush, the EFCA has become a matter of increased debate.

A recent Google search revealed that, in the past month alone, more than 2,000 news articles have been written that at least mention the Employee Free Choice Act.

Fortunately, here at the Blawg we’ve been covering the EFCA since November 2008.

The following is a quick refresher on what the bill as currently written will do — and what it won’t do — if passed.

The Employee Free Choice Act — A Radical Change in Labor Law Affecting Collective Bargaining

If passed as currently written, the Employee Free Choice Act would result in the following changes to federal labor law:

• Virtual elimination of employees’ right to cast a secret ballot concerning union representation. Instead, the organizing union would have to be recognized if a majority of employees sign cards in favor of union representation — which would likely occur in front of other employees or union organizers, not in secret. If 30%, but less than a majority of employees signed cards, the union could still ask for a secret ballot election as before.
• Once a union is certified, the employer would have 90 days to negotiate and sign a new collective bargaining agreement with it. After 90 days, the negotiations would be sent to mediation with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) for 30 days. If the employer and union don’t reach agreement during mediation, under the EFCA the dispute would go to binding arbitration, and the resulting contract would be binding for 2 years.
• Sharply increase penalties for employers that engage in unfair labor practices by harassing or firing pro-union employees.

More Discussion Of the Employee Free Choice Act

In January, George Lenard engaged in an in-depth, online look at the Employee Free Choice Act with recruiter and blogger Jessica Lee. The two discussed the ramifications of exchanging card check elections for secret ballots, the impact of binding arbitration on contract negotiations, and more — including what compromises could be made to improve the Act. We’ve taken some time to update that post, and we will continue to keep you informed as the Employee Free Choice Act makes its way through Congress — and, almost certainly, to President Obama’s desk.

The following guest post on informational interviews is by Alexia Vernon, a certified coach, trainer, speaker, and the owner of Catalyst of Action.

Unemployment has hit its highest level in 25-years. While the national unemployment rate is 8.1%, states like Michigan or my old stomping grounds, Nevada, are experiencing even higher rates, 11.6% and 9.4% respectively.

This is sobering news for job hunters, but it should not be grounds for giving up on finding a job or for calling friends and family for a couch to crash on until the recession ends.

It’s simply a reminder that traditional ways of conducting a job search, from perusing online sites like Monster and CareerBuilder to attending regional job fairs, probably aren’t going to enable you to close the gap from job seeker to gainfully employed.

People who get employment in a down economy don’t wait for opportunities to appear. They create them. They know where their expertise lies and how they can marry their strengths with unfulfilled needs in the marketplace. (And believe me, those needs exist.)

Perhaps most importantly, they are proactive about reaching out to leaders in their fields for informational interviews so that they can learn from and make a positive impact on these key players.

Informational Interview Step 1: Scoring Face Time

So how do you land an informational interview?

1. You compose a brief cover letter (no more than one page) and email it — both in the body of your email and as an attachment — to the prospective interviewee.
2. You explain succinctly and dynamically who you are, what results you have achieved, and why this person should give you the time to discuss existing and anticipated opportunities in the field.
3. If somebody recommended that you reach out or you have read this person’s column, blog, tweets, etc., you mention this early in the letter.
4. Finally, you state that you will call in the next week to set up a face-to-face, or if you are out of the area, telephone interview.

You DON’T attach a resume and you DON’T ask for a job.

While job opportunities often come out of informational interviews, this is not what informational interviews are for.

Your goal should be to introduce a leader in your field to what you have done and what you plan to achieve next, learn as much as you can from this person’s experiences, and make yourself so irresistibly attractive during the interview that the interviewee keeps his/her ear to the pavement for opportunities for you, many of which may actually be outside of the person’s organization.

Informational Interview Step 2: Breathe and then Bulldoze Forward

You called your prospect when you said you would. And after a few rounds of phone tag, you have converted the person into an informational interviewee. Most likely you have a couple of weeks to prepare.

It’s important to celebrate this victory, and recognize that a little bit of smart work has paid off. Acknowledging the objectives we achieve en route to our goals keeps us motivated and engaged.

But after a night off from online job searching (old habits are hard to shake, so you’re probably still trying out different keywords on Indeed.com), it’s time to get back into preparation mode.

Informational Interview Step 3: Develop Your Self-Marketing Strategy

Personal branding is the rage right now, and there are oodles of articles, blogs, magazines, and books dedicated to the art of developing and pitching one’s self. Anything written by Dan Schwabel is a good place to start.

As with any interview, it’s important to remember that everything you wear, communicate, or do creates a narrative about you, and this becomes your brand.

Take some time to reflect on three words your closest friends, family, co-workers, teachers, and mentors would use to describe you. Muse on how to tailor your performance in your informational interview to show these traits.

To be clear, this is not an exercise in creative fiction. You are not seeking to become the person you think others want you to be. Inauthenticity is incredibly unsexy and can be smelled from miles away. Instead, you are being intentional about which of your real qualities to play up during the informational interview.

Informational Interview Step 4: Be Curious

Know what the heck it is you want to discover by the end of your informational interview and make sure that you have prepared questions that enable you to get the answers you seek.

There are oodles of great informational interview questions online. One of my favorite compilations is from Quintessential Careers.

I suggest customizing your questions to your particular industry and focusing your specific questions around five or six major themes (e.g. emerging trends in the field, recommended academic and experiential qualifications, opportunities for career advancement and learning, or workplace culture and values) rather than trying to cover dozens of different topics. This will enable you to walk away with a deeper understanding of your field.

Informational Interview Step 5: Make Your Interviewee Comfortable

From the moment you step into your interviewee’s office throughout the life of the relationship you’re cultivating, you want your interviewee to share information that’s really going to inform the development of your career.

Regardless of the questions you ask, you want to encourage this person to talk about him/herself as much as possible. This will keep the interviewee engaged, but more importantly, enable you to get as much of an insider perspective on the job and field as possible.

Ask for examples or stories to illustrate what your interviewee is stating.

Unlike a job interview where you are on the hot seat, you are the host of this show. Make it fun for yourself and the interviewee, and solicit information you couldn’t read in a book or on a website.

Informational Interview Step 6: Learn What Goes on Within the Organization’s Four Walls

Job satisfaction is not about landing in an industry we find interesting. Rather, it’s about consistently performing tasks that enable us to play to our strengths, engage in meaningful relationships, and feel like our work makes an impact.

It’s no easy feat finding a work environment that enables us to thrive.

Think through how you can ask questions that enable you to ascertain whether this company can provide what you desire — or whether your interviewee can provide leads to others that can.

Informational Interview Step 7: Sell Yourself.

Ultimately, you’d like to move into a job that allows you to be successful and happy. You know this. So does your interviewee. While you’re not interviewing for a job, you are sniffing around for opportunities the person sitting before you can help you land.

Give this person both a reason and an opportunity to give you what you want. Find repeated reasons to tell your interviewee of your unique strengths. Share with them what you have previously achieved. Help them imagine what new things you will accomplish when given the right opportunity.

If you know this person can offer you something, gosh darn it, ask for it. And be specific.

I recently had an informational interviewer ask me to identify my three favorite coaches and make introductions to them for her. And I did. I’d much rather put myself on the line for someone who knows what she wants than hem and haw over how to help someone who doesn’t give me any parameters for how I can be of use.

Informational Interview Step 8: Solicit Feedback

Every informational interview is successful if you have learned something.

One of the greatest gifts an interviewee can offer is feedback on how we can make ourselves more competitive to prospective employers.

Ask if the interviewee will take a look at your resume or make a recommendation for a course or hands-on learning opportunity.

Give your interviewee the permission to tell you where your strengths and limitations lie. Sometimes the truth hurts. But even if we make the choice not to acknowledge it, it’s still there.

Informational Interview Step 9: End With a Bang, Not a Whimper

While first impressions are important, so are final ones. When you are wrapping up with your interviewee, (as the interviewer, you should have agreed to and stayed within a time limit), you want to reinforce what makes you a standout from your competition (your unique selling point).

Ask for permission to follow up with your interviewee. You also want to take this opportunity to ask if there’s anything you can do to help them.

The platinum rule of networking is you have to give to receive. Showing that you are committed to investing in relationships, not just taking from them, will score you many bonus points.

Informational Interview Step 10: Find Reasons to Reconnect

Send your email or handwritten thank-you note to your interviewee within twenty-four hours, reflect on the experience, and try to find a reason to be in touch within the next one to two weeks.

If your interviewee is a member of any online or face-to-face social networks, join and use these as an opportunity to reconnect.

If you see an article the person might like, forward it along.

Relationship building works best when we invest continuously in it and provide value to those in our network.

Guest post by Alexia Vernon, a certified coach, trainer, speaker, and the owner of Catalyst of Action, a leadership development company that empowers emerging and evolving leaders to build companies and careers that are successful, sustainable, and make a positive social impact.

Ms. Vernon is the Corporate Leadership columnist for the Newark Examiner and is the author of Musings from the Generation We Coach

Keeping the Recession from Leading to Personal Depression

Maybe you’ve been laid off recently. Maybe, like me, you’ve been looking for a long time now.

But whether you’re dealing with the fresh kick in the gut of a recently-lost job or the long and winding grind of an extended job search, there are several things you can do to help keep your attitude positive.

Keeping your morale high and your attitude positive will serve you in many ways, no matter how long you’re searching: you’ll be in a better position to avoid stress-related illnesses; you’ll be able to project yourself well during your interactions with prospective employers; and when you start working again, you’ll be able to start your new job in a state of high energy.

Granted, the millions of us who are unemployed or underemployed in this economy know that keeping a positive attitude during these hard times takes work. Given that this work will help us in both the short and the long term, however, it’s more than worth the effort.

The following Top 15 Tips come from my recent research and my own experience of what seems to be working.

The Obvious Tips

Some of these very obvious tips are also some of the most important; they are the foundation that will allow us to keep up our health and energy throughout our job search.

1. Create a regular schedule for yourself – treat your job search like a job.

   This tip reeks of common sense. After all, we’ve been used to a regular schedule. And while it can be tempting to let that schedule go, doing so can make us feel more lost and out of touch with the working world that we need to re-join.

2. Be realistic.
   You may find your next job in a week. After all, anything’s possible. It’s far more likely, however, that it will take much longer than that.
3. Make time to exercise, and eat as healthy and well-balanced a diet as you can.
   Yes, healthy food is more expensive. But fast food and other unhealthy foods cost more in the long run in medical bills; nor will those kinds of foods give you the lasting energy you need to keep going. As for exercise, I’ve found that working out actually helps me relieve stress, so I have to agree with the experts on this one.
4. Harden yourself to rejection, and don’t take hiring decisions personally.
   This advice is relevant in good times and bad. As long as you can’t point to anything you did incorrectly, it’s more than likely that you’ve been rejected for reasons that had little to nothing to do with you personally.
5. Create achievable, small goals for yourself - and celebrate your successes.
   Make your goals quantifiable –- a specific number of resumes sent and follow-up calls done per day, for example. And make sure to pat yourself on the back when you’ve done them. A job or career search is a process, especially during a recession, and we need all of the encouragement we can give ourselves to get through it.
6. Communicate with your family.
   Make time to walk away from your computer and interact with the people whom you love and who love you. Your immediate family doesn’t just count on you for a paycheck; you ought to be able to count on each other for making plans, creating financial coping strategies, and mutual support. If you don’t let them in, don’t expect them to know how to help you
7. Find a local support group.
   Communicating with your family is good. But constantly venting to your family (and/or your friends) will only increase everyone’s stress. Finding other people who are also going through what you’re experiencing, however, will not only give you support but give you an opportunity to feel useful by supporting others.
8. Remind yourself as often as you can that your unemployment is temporary.
   Think of the worst experience you’ve ever had. That’s right — “had,” meaning that it’s over now and you’ve come out the other end. Someday, you’ll also be able to look back on the time when you were unemployed. Looking forward to that day can be a helpful way to get through this day.
9. Stay away from naysayers.
   If all your good friend Charlie can do is talk about how bad things are, it’s time to take a break from Charlie. And while staying up with current events is an important duty, taking a break from keeping up depressing economic news will probably help you conserve energy for dealing with your personal economy. Nor are the experts always right –- for example, in 2007 the experts said that Barack Obama didn’t have a shot at the presidency.

The Not-So Obvious Tips

While I could have come up with most of the above list of obvious tips from my current experience and with a bit of thought, the following tips from my research sounded so fantastic that I plan on using them for the rest of my job search, and perhaps beyond.

10. Make the time to enjoy your extra time.
    Yes, it’s important to maintain a schedule -– but be sure to include time for you in that schedule. This is the time to visit museums, your local library, zoos, and to do the things that give you joy and make your feel rewarded. You can use this time to stretch your mind -– I’ve taken up chess again after not playing since my teens –- and to learn new skills that will serve you in your next job.
11. Evaluate your priorities for your career and your life.
    Granted, the need to find that next job feels all-consuming. It can be very difficult to see this time as what it is: a huge opportunity to decide and get ourselves on a track that will bring us personal happiness as well as financial security. If you felt at least somewhat relieved to be laid off, this is the time to evaluate what did not suit you about your last job and to refine your career and life goals. Yes, you may need to take anything that offers itself for now, but having a clear set of goals and priorities will help you move beyond the job that’s available now to the one you’ll want to have in the near or mid-term future.
12. Volunteer.
    But, don’t we want and need to be paid? Yes, and eventually we will be. In the meantime, giving some of our time to our community organizations and/or advocacy organizations can help us feel productive, give us contacts to aid in our job search, and perhaps even help our local community and nation recover more quickly from this recession.
13. Keep a journal.
    As a writer, you may think I would have thought of this tip myself, but I hadn’t. You can bet that now, having come across it in my research, I’m going to start keeping a journal of all of the steps in my job search and my day-to-day feelings while searching. Doing this isn’t just cathartic –- it’ll help you stay organized and provide you a valuable tool to see what is and is not working before you’ve spent a lot of time on failed tactics.
14. Keep up with your hobbies.
    Don’t punish yourself by denying yourself the activities that made you feel like a complete person when you were working. Playing an instrument, gardening, doing cross stitch –- make sure to keep these things up to the extent that your budget will allow. It’s not healthy to let a job, or a job search, become the entire focus of your life.
15. Never let anyone, particularly strangers who don’t really know you, make you feel bad about yourself.
    In America we have a bad habit of defining ourselves by the jobs we do. You may find people who have kept their job (so far) being judgmental of you for having lost yours. Don’t let them affect your feelings about yourself; they’re probably just being harsh with you to cover up their own self-esteem issues and job fears anyway.

Remember –- Control the Things You Can

So, have I been able to religiously follow even the Obvious Tips on a daily basis? No. But I am becoming increasingly aware that there are things I can control – and you can control them, too. Using the above tips may well help all of us discover that we have far more control over our lives and our fortunes than we’d ever thought possible.

Dawn Wolfe, the Associate Editor and Staff Writer for George’s Employment Blawg, is seeking full-time, part-time, and/or additional freelance writing work. For more information about Dawn and what she can do, visit her Linked In profile.

Books to Help With Your Job Search

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Or try the Job Interview Success System — Simple, Step-by-step System To Ace The Interview And Get The Job!

YouTube Videos on How to Find a Job

Sources

• 11 Ways to Reduce the Stress During Your Job Search by author and Five O’Clock Club COO Dr. Richard Bayer. Bayer is also the author of The Good Person Guidebook: Transforming Your Personal Life
• Learn to stay positive during long job search by Lily Whiteman, the author of Get Hired! How to Land the Ideal Federal Job and Negotiate a Top Salary
• Seven Strategies for Reducing Stress During a Job Search by Barbara Safani, owner of Career Solvers