Elana Centor's blog http://www.blogher.com/blog/50/atom/feed 2009-05-10T15:56:54-05:00 When You Quit Your Job Did You Tell Them The Real Reason? http://www.blogher.com/when-you-quit-your-job-did-you-tell-them-real-reason 2009-07-05T11:50:49-05:00 2009-07-05T11:50:49-05:00 Elana Centor As those who are paid to think out loud about stuff try to unpack the real reason why Sarah Palin decided to call it quits on Friday (the multi-million dollar book deal,legal problems, another pregnancy - yes CNN's Rick Sanchez actually lobbed that idea out loud to a stoic Candy Crowley-- or that she has simply become too big for Alaska), one thing is clear, the reasons people give for quitting a job are rarely the real or entire reasons.

]]> As those who are paid to think out loud about stuff try to unpack the real reason why Sarah Palin decided to call it quits on Friday (the multi-million dollar book deal,legal problems, another pregnancy - yes CNN's Rick Sanchez actually lobbed that idea out loud to a stoic Candy Crowley-- or that she has simply become too big for Alaska), one thing is clear, the reasons people give for quitting a job are rarely the real or entire reasons.

Last week a good friend handed in her resignation after months of trying to renegotiate job responsibilities and salary. She loves her job and it was with great sadness that she decided to give up her paycheck and benefits to go back to the roller coaster life of being a consultant. She's gambling. She was offered a six months project that will bring in three times the amount of money she was pulling in at her job. The gamble is that when that six months is over, there will be another contract to sign.

When her co-workers ask why she is leaving, her less than truthful response is that she had given the job six months and decided to go back to consulting. While there is a morsel of truth in that explanation,the real story is much more complicated: broken promises, an absentee manager,and a belief that her manager was not going to bat for her even when the manager claimed she was.

And so,in addition to writing the words, " Please accept this letter as my formal notice that I am resigning from ABC company. July 10, 2009 will be the last day of my employment," my friend included her real reason for resigning --that after multiple conversations and proposals for reconfiguring her job and responsibilities, she and her manager had not been able to negotiate an acceptable solution. My friend also shared that she would love to return to the organization in the future.

A risky move? Not if the office scuttlebutt is right and the manager is on thin ice with upper management.

Whether you opt to call it quitting my job, handing in my resignation, blowing that pop stand, or telling your boss to take this job and shove it, there is something deliciously thrilling for many of us in dreaming, plotting, and finally writing out the words in our resignation letter.It is as close as anything I have ever experienced that embodies the very essence of what freedom means.

Even though I have only written a handful of resignation letters, I never shared the real reasons for leaving my jobs. Never. I stayed on point, relishing the fact that I didn't owe or have to give anyone any explanation I didn't want to give. It was my choice what to say. My choice what not to say.

Some people like my friend want to make sure that the record shows they loved their job and under different circumstances they'd love to return.

Cake with resignation letter

Neil Berrett definitely wanted to keep the door open. When he decided to quit his job, he ordered a sheet cake and wrote the resignation on the frosting.

"Dear Mr. Bowers - During the past three years, my tenure at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard has been nothing short of pure excitement, joy and whim.

"However, I have decided to spend more time with my family and attend to health issues that have recently arisen. I am proud to have been part of such an outstanding team and I wish this organization only the finest in future endeavors.

"Please accept this cake as notification that I am leaving my position with NWT on March 27. Sincerely, W. Neil Berrett".

Now, maybe the reasons Mr. Berrett gave in the frosting are the absolute reasons. But there's probably more to the story. There usually is.

When I quit my very first job, my boss thought the reason was that I was moving from Richmond, VA to Minneapolis,MN. That was partially true. But the reason I decided to move out of Richmond is that I hated my job, didn't respect my boss, and wanted to get the hell out of dodge. The whole reason for moving out of Richmond was to escape my job and my career.

Sometimes people quit jobs they love. They quit for a family move. Some people quit to stay home with kids. Some quit for a better job. Some people quit to become their own bosses.Even in those situations, there are probably a long list of issues that are not shared in that resignation letter. Issues that should probably be addressed to make it a better place to work.
And yet, most of us walk out the door and never commit in writing to what we really think - letting our co-workers speculate about the real reasons why we are resigning.

Some bloggers thinking about resigning from their jobs.
Turkish Delight: To Quit or Not to Quit Job 1
Thirtysomething Reality: I Quit My Job
Asuccesfulwoman's Blog: How I Quit My Job to Folow My Dream

Image Credit:Neiltron on Flickr

]]> The Career I Will Never Have -Living Vicariously Through Summer Mystery Reading http://www.blogher.com/career-i-will-never-have-living-vicariously-through-summer-mystery-reading 2009-06-28T11:21:42-05:00 2009-06-28T11:21:42-05:00 Elana Centor When my daughter Berit was around 10-years-old she started keeping a running list of all the jobs she didn't want when she grew you. She either decided the traditional game of " When I Grow Up I Want To Be" was boring,or she simply misunderstood the rules. I'm not sure which. I just know that by the time she was 13,Berit's list of unacceptable jobs had become very long,with Berit eliminating just about every career known to womankind except one - writing.

]]> When my daughter Berit was around 10-years-old she started keeping a running list of all the jobs she didn't want when she grew you. She either decided the traditional game of " When I Grow Up I Want To Be" was boring,or she simply misunderstood the rules. I'm not sure which. I just know that by the time she was 13,Berit's list of unacceptable jobs had become very long,with Berit eliminating just about every career known to womankind except one - writing.

Growing up I didn't think much about careers options. There really weren't many to think about. Teacher or nurse just until....YGM.

With the exception of Cherry Ames student nurse,a mystery series that actively encouraged girls to become nurses during WWII, my reading favorites were jobless: Nancy Drew, seemed to have a lot of time on her hands,and Trixie Belden.was a 13-year-old sleuth.

Nevertheless, reading about Cherry's,Nancy's and Trixie's adventures did influence my career choice. One major misstep -- At first, I thought I might follow in Cherry Ames' footsteps. So at age 14 I became a candy striper - that career ended abruptly after I fainted on the job in front of a horrified patient, hit my head on a stone column, and had to be treated for a concussion.

What did leave an indelible inprint on my impressionable career psyche was that these girls investigated situations, put the pieces together,and figured them out. Did Cherry, Nancy,and Trixie influence my decision to be a journalist? I think so. On most days, journalism allows you to be a sleuth without endangering your life.

Even today my favorite light reading genre goes to a career that I will never have: crime solver.

Some of my favorites include: Lisa Scottoline - Most of her protagonists are attorneys but her latest book features a reporter for a Philadelphia Newsroom, Ellen Gleeson. The backdrop of the story includes the downsizing of newspapers, backstabbing colleagues, journalism ethics, and of course a sexy news editor - no Lou Grant in this newsroom.

Set against the backdrop of a floundering newspaper, with well-developed supporting characters, "Look Again" is a top-notch novel of suspense most of all because of its central character. Ellen is an everywoman — believable enough for readers to be able to imagine themselves in her situation — but with enough chutzpah to make her a compelling heroine in an unimaginable situation.
                                                                   Jennifer Roolf Laster,Express-News

Jeffery Deaver's Kathryn Dance is a new favorite. She started her career as a journalist, turned jury consultant,turned agent for the California Bureau of Investigation. She is an expert at kinesics - reading body language. What I really like about this character is that she has two children. Yes, she is a widow, but Kathryn has to balance her very dangerous and demanding career with two young children who are recovering from the death of their dad just several years ago.She doesn't cook much,and she relies on the support of her parents to manage her life.

This is a huge departure from most of my crime solving heroines who are constantly having inner debates on how they could possibly do the job they do and get married --much less have a child.

It is hugely refreshing and important to demonstrate that women can have demanding jobs and a family. As far as I know Kathryn is the only female crime solver with young kids - I would love to know of others.

The latest release, Roadside Crosses also deals with another passion -blogging. In this book, complete with links to a faux blog: TheChiltonReport, Deaver explores the convergence of the cyberworld with the real world.

Early clues lead Dance and her team to a local political blog that highlights local issues, including the recent death of two high school students in a car accident after a party.

Cyber Hero or Villain?

The blog post started innocently enough, but has degenerated into a slam of the driver, Travis Brigham, a loner who seems to prefer cyber-gaming to real life encounters. Has the cyber-bullying pushed Travis to violence. It certainly appears that way, especially since all of the attack victims either posted on "The Chilton Report" or have something to do with its operation. In fact, Dance is concerned that the owner of the blog, James Chilton, might be the ultimate target.

My final recommendation for summer crime solving reading is Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo-- the first of the Millenium trilogy.The main characters are a business journalist who has just been found guilty of libel and sentenced to prison for several months,and 24-year old Lisbeth Salander, a compute hacker, a character the author says was inspired by Pippi Longstocking.

from an email sent from Stieg Larsson to his Swedish Publisher: "I have tried to swim against the tide compared to ordinary crime novels. I wanted to create main characters who differ dramatically from the ordinary crime characters. My point of departure was what Pippi Longstocking would be like as an adult. Would she be called a sociopath because she looked upon society in a different way and did not have any social competences? She turned into Lisbeth Salander who has many masculine features."
DJ's krimiblog

Some of the reviews of this book warn that the first 30 pages are slow going because they focus on the main character's legal problems as a financial journalist who has just been found guilty of libel. This was not my impression. In fact, I thought the whole concept was rivotting.

The author, Stieg Larsson, died at age 50 of a massive heart attack before the book was published. Originally he planned for there to be 10 Lisbeth Salander books. At the time of his death he had completed three,with portions of books four and five still on his laptop. They are all best-sellers.

The second in the trilogy will be published in the U.S. on July 23, 2009.

What books are you reading and is there any crossover to your career?

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness

]]> What's With All These Email Scandals? http://www.blogher.com/whats-all-these-email-scandals 2009-06-25T18:57:08-05:00 2009-06-25T18:57:08-05:00 Elana Centor When the news broke last night that the South Carolina newspaper,The State,T had exclusive emails between Governor Mark Sanford and Maria last name redacted,it took me a nano-second to feast my eyes.

]]> When the news broke last night that the South Carolina newspaper,The State,T had exclusive emails between Governor Mark Sanford and Maria last name redacted,it took me a nano-second to feast my eyes.

Same with the email exchange between Elizabeth, don't call me Liz Becton,and a poor schlub who was just trying to schedule a meeting for someone in his office with her boss -Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. As soon as I heard about it, I clicked my way to Politico.

Ditto that to the utterly offensive and racist email that Sherri Goforth, an assistant to Tenessee state Senator Diane Black sent to "the wrong list."

Yes I am a serial spectator to email scandals. That doesn't mean I'm proud of it. And, I'm thinking this latest peep into Governor Sanford's emails may just cure me for awhile. Despite the fact that politically I am at the opposite spectrum to Governor Sanford, I felt pretty ghoulish reading such intimidate emails. They were never supposed to be for public consumption. Even though more emails were published today, I decided to take a pass. I don't need to read them to get the whole picture: the hypocrisy, the betrayal,and for me the fact that from what I read, a guy who fell head over heels in love with Maria last name redacted.

Did the newspaper have to publish the emails? Yes, of course it did. It appears that these emails were sent via the state email system. But what if the Governor had sent these lovemails via gmail, yahoo or any other private email service, would it still be appropriate to make them public? Many would say that since it is an email from the Governor of a state that it's absolutely appropriate.

I'm not so sure.To me, even though they were sent via a state email system, they were still private and that means someone stole the emails. I am probably more uncomfortable that someone stole the emails, than the content of the emails.

The newspaper says they got the emails from an anonymous person and they say since The Governor has confessed to the affair with Maria last name redacted, that the source of the emails is now a moot point. David Corn of Mother Jones disagrees.

A moot point? Not at all. Whoever had those emails had been in a position for six months to pressure--or blackmail--Sanford. An enquiring newspaper person might want to know more about that. Had Sanford even been aware that someone possessed these emails? If so, did he take any actions based on that realization? The State engaged in great traditional reporting to get the scoop on Sanford's secret trip to Argentina. But now it seems it's ready to turn the story over to bloggers.

So far, there doesn't seem to be much reporting on this anonymous source. I do want to know who did it, why they did it, and anyone else's emails they hacked into. Just taking a wild guess here but there are probably some other fine citizens using the state of South Carolina email system that may have some incriminating or embarrassing emails and knowing that there is someone out there who has access and is reading them, is to me a huge concern.

It's not okay to hack into someone's email.

Corporate America promulgated no-privacy at work rules because they wanted to try to stop employee goof-offs and rip-offs. Also, to be honest, some were just control freaks and oppressive. Upper management lost track of the fact that these same rules applied to them too. In the next few years they will learn that lack of privacy has a dark side applicable to all employees, especially top officers. It can encourage witch-hunts against them as angry forces pursue a vendetta. A lot of innocents will get hurt in the rush to full discovery and media sensationalism. Once this lesson is learned, it will naturally lead to the development of privacy rights for all employees.
                                                                            e-Discovery Team

Unlike the person who turned over Governor Sanford's emails to The State, Politico got its hands on the bizarre Elizabeth, don't call me Liz, Becton email chain either from the person who sent them to Elizabeth or a someone he forwarded the exchange to. That person's name has been replaced with XXX. My question is why? If he or his friends are comfortable making Elizabeth Becton's correspondence public, why is the other person's privacy protected?

There were two people in the email exchange. And I would say, once he saw that she was acting kind a weird about the Liz/Elizabeth thing,it would have been better to cease and desist with the email and pick up the phone to try to get the appointment. In fact, it seems he egged her own. While bloggers describe it as a funny email exchange, it feels to me like we are watching someone have a mental meltdown.
There is nothing funny about that.

And then there is the case of Sherri Goforth.

She sent this photo in an email calling it "historical keepsake photo." When the email became public, Sherri Goforth, the admin assistant to a Tennessee state Senator Diane Black simply said, "I sent it to the wrong email list."
Ya think?

Who would the right list for such an atrocious photo be? As to her boss, this how she handled the situation...via email of course.

Sen Diane Black Email

Forget the fact that Ms. Goforth should be fired for sending that email to either the right or wrong list. I want to know who got their hands on this email and made it public? Last time I looked, personnel records were supposed to be private. Isn't it a violation of Ms. Goforth's rights to have this reprimand made public?
It's one thing to share that she received a written reprimand, it's something else to publicize the actual reprimand.Even bigots deserve to have their personnel records protected.

I'm assuming Ms. Goforth and Ms. Black have face to face meetings. Why did the reprimand have to be sent via email? Why not write the reprimand in Microsoft Word, print it out and put it in an actual personnel file?

Somehow I think if someone broke into a filing cabinet, took out the reprimand and then publicized it, people would have a much different attitude about the people who are supplying the media with these documents.

There are federal laws which say you can't open someone else's snail mail. It is mind-boggling to me that we don't treat email the same way.As a culture, we seem to have little sympathy or concern for the people whose emails get hacked and their private conversations become public entertainment.

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness.

]]> Attendance Is Great At Summer Art Fairs But Few Are Carrying Anything Away http://www.blogher.com/attendance-great-summer-art-fairs-few-are-carrying-anything-away 2009-06-21T20:37:48-05:00 2009-06-21T20:37:48-05:00 Elana Centor Stonearch Festival of The ARts
Given that I live a stone's throw from the Stone Arch Festival of the Arts, it was virtually impossible for me not to attend. The festival is held on the morning route I take for walking my dog.

]]> Stonearch Festival of The ARts
Given that I live a stone's throw from the Stone Arch Festival of the Arts, it was virtually impossible for me not to attend. The festival is held on the morning route I take for walking my dog.

Art Festivals have become the modern day equivalent of county fairs.Along with the art booths there's entertainment, food and at least at this art fair special activities for kids including a Lego creation station.

Despite the good weather on the first day and a solid stream of visitors,artists were not confident that they would be making much money this weekend.

Ellen Ljung and her husband Don were 1st place winners in the glass category at last year's festival. That honor gave them a free booth for this year's event. Ellen says, without that free booth, they probably would not have attended this year.

While the weather was great on the first day- as long as you like 85 degree weather-- day two of the fair was cloudy and the weather forecast was for thunderstorms.

Being at the mercy of the weather is one of the riskier parts of trying to earn a living at Art Fairs. Earlier this month, Maggie Latham was at an art fair that got rained out.

Unfortunately, It rained ‘Cats and Dogs’ (as us Brits say) all day with freakish thunderstorms.  My
booth was flooded with about a foot of water with rain coming in every
which way! I haven’t assessed the damage yet, but would say fifty
percent of my stock in prints and framed originals is probably damaged.
…..Ah well, we live and learn.[...]I
work too hard at my craft and invest a great deal of time and money in
expensive inks, mats and frames..... to have paintings, frames and
giclee prints ruined by the freaks of nature

Meanwhile in Michigan, the Arts, Beats& Eats Festival just lost its main sponsor-Chrysler.For the past five years the troubled auto maker had donated $350,000 to the festival.Festival organizers say despite the setback the festival will still go on. That is not the case for other festivals in Michigan that were dependent on the auto industry support.

If you’ve yet to hear
(and I hate to be the bearer of such bad news), the Detroit Festival of
the Arts has been canceled this year. Feel free to take a moment of
silence and reflect on years past. Better? OK.[...]While the Grand Prix is no more, and local fests in the burbs, from Sterling Heights to Taylor,
have been scaled back or canceled outright, festivals like CityFest and
River Days, which lost all of its backing from GM, its flagship
sponsor, adapt and live on.

Leslie Mann of the Chicago Tribune recently wrote about the current challenges of art fairs. She says that despite the fact that artists are selling less, there seem to be more and more fairs. Mann talked with jeweler Jill Lawrence who has cut her fair attendance down from 10 a year to five. She replaced those five fairs with creating an online presence on Etsy.

"At a show, I make $200 to $700 a day, after show fees," Lawrence said."Through etsy, I make $200 a week, year-round, rain or shine, and have buyers worldwide, from France to Russia."

Despite hearing from artist-friends that fair sales so far this year are lousy, Lawrence said she won't give up art fairs because she appreciates the customer feedback. Patrons "tell me what they like, so I'm not working blindly,"
she said.

At 5:00 on Sunday afternoon I walked back to the fair to check in and see if the artists made any money.

For more on what is happening in Art Fairs check at the Art Fair Insider

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness

]]> Would You Work For The F-Word? http://www.blogher.com/would-you-work-f-word 2009-06-18T12:42:43-05:00 2009-06-18T12:42:43-05:00 Elana Centor A couple of months ago I got an email from a potential client from one of the world's most prestigious nonprofits asking if I would work for free.

]]> A couple of months ago I got an email from a potential client from one of the world's most prestigious nonprofits asking if I would work for free.

We had been in discussions for several months about a project and I had even flown out to New York and spent an afternoon with the team to discuss strategies and implementation of the work.

However,when it was time to start the work, I got an email from the client explaining their budget had been cut and the funds for my project were no longer available. Then she wrote, " Would you consider doing the work for free?" at the time I thought it took a lot of chutzpah to ask. What I wasn't aware is that asking people to work-for-free is an actual bona fide career trend.

The work-for-free strategy is like a furlough on steroids. This week British Airways sent an email to all of its employees saying in order to save the company--it needs employees to volunteer to work-for-free anywhere from one to four weeks.

Okay the request is a bit more complicated than that. Employee can opt to go on furlough instead of showing up for work,and the loss of wages can be spread over six months. But still...

To make the 40,000 plus employees feel better about, the CEO, Willie Walsh, said he would work for free in the month of July - foregoing his $100,000 monthly salary.

Quite frankly, if I were an employee of British Airways that gesture from the CEO would have been the one that would have made me the angriest. He's making $1.2 million a year and he thinks that a month of his loss wages is equivalent to the loss wages of someone making $40,000 a year?

I think if he is asking employees to work for free for a month, he should set an example and work for free for an entire quarter. He needs to show he has some real skin in the game. He needs to demonstrate that as someone who enjoys greater rewards than employees when business is good, that he is willing to make bigger sacrifices when business is bad.

Oh,and he can spread the loss of wages over six months pay as well so he'll still be taking in about $50,000 every month for the six month period.

As Alex, a commenter to a BBC piece on the situation said,
"Working for free is not a job, but a hobby."

How leadership participates in furloughs is important. For an example of how not to do it you just have to look at the city of Chicago. Employees are being asked to take three weeks of furlough this year. They've actually been on a furlough rotation since 2007.

In August, 2008 the Chicago Tribune reported that neither Mayor Daly or 30 of the city's 50 alderman had taken any furloughed days. When asked about it, Mayor Daly evidently joked,"Any Saturday that I work, I can take a furlough day."

Since then, the Mayor has taken 8 furloughed days but the attitude that because he works six or seven days a week makes him immune from the seeing a smaller paycheck reeks of hubris. I'm sure he works very hard. But I'm also sure that there are many dedicated workers for the city of Chicago who work beyond their agreed to contracts as well, and that doesn't mean they can be furlough exempt.

In an commentary about the British Airways work-for-free policy, The Independent Sophie Morris says,

What Walsh fails to realise is that many of his staff are already
putting in the hours for free, with 89 per cent of managers
consistently doing unpaid overtime which tots up to 40 days per year.
That's 50 per cent more than BA's proposed four weeks already. Five
million British workers claim to do regular overtime to the tune of
£4,955 per year. Women earn, on average, 17 per cent less than their
male colleagues, so already work for free for two months of the year.
Add to that the 40 days of overtime, and if you are a female manager
working for BA you're looking at the possibility of working without
remuneration for four-and-a-half months of the year.

The news about the BBC request came the same week that the New York Times reported on the failure of work furloughs. A furlough, of course, is when an employer forces staff to take unpaid leave. Furloughs are very much in vogue. Everyone from universities, to city and state governments to strapped manufacturing plants are saying to employees, you have a full time job, but you have to take unpaid leave.
As it turns out, furloughs are just another F-word for working- for-free.

“I think it’s a joke,” said Roland Becht, who works at the
California Department of Motor Vehicles in San Diego. (More than
200,000 state employees are supposed to have two furlough days each
month.) “I’ve tried to schedule furlough time and was denied because
we’re short-staffed.”

American workers are finding themselves at
a new frontier, and the rules are being written on the fly. Some
companies have strict policies forbidding work during furloughs, or
close down for days at a time. Others simply tell workers, however
unrealistically, to squeeze in furlough time when they can.

Charley Hannagan writes the shoptalk blog for the Post-Standard in Syracuse New York. Like many in the newspaper business, she has to take 10 furlough days between April and October. She opted to take some time to babysit her new born grandson. However, even though she was on furlough, she still checked into the office.

Now I love my grandson, and I can see his little angel face every
time I close my eyes, but I like my job too. So although I was out in
Michigan, essentially cut off from the adult world, I checked my email
and spoke by phone a couple of times with the people in the office.

Technically, that's working, and not getting paid for it.

Last September the employees of Minneapolis-based Sun Country airlines were asked to take a 50% pay cut. That request came after it was discovered that the Tom Petters, the owner of the airlines,had been running a Madoff like Ponzi scheme and that the money the airlines thought it could borrow from its parent company was no longer available.

What makes the Sun Country situation different is that the airlines has now repaid its employees for those cuts. That's right. Instead of pocketing all that money, the airlines treated it as deferred compensation. There's something to be learned here.

In tough economic times most employees who need to work and can't afford toview their jobs  as a hobby are willing to take pay cuts, furloughs, and work for free if they have a sense that when things improve they will benefit from that sacrifice.

However, what we are not seeing in these furloughs and work-for- free policies is a payback other than a paycheck, albeit a smaller paycheck than it used to be. How are companies going to reward the people whose sacrifices helped their companies survive?

The work-for-free strategy is not limited to companies asking employees to sacrifice. Start ups are offering jobs to people who are willing to work-for- free to demonstrate their value to potential employers.

Recently 400 people in San Francisco showed up at a bar to attend the Jobnob fair- they were expecting 100 and there was a line out the door of hopeful free employees. The employers did provide the drinks.

While some career consultants express concern over this strategy, others see it as a win-win offering the unemployed lots of upside including filling in a gap on a resume.

A gap on a resume is a common dread among job seekers. Working for free lets you add another layer of job experience to your resume and eliminates the stress of figuring out how to explain the gap. Be sure all of your tasks you take on for no pay will be worthy of a bullet point on your resume later.

What would it take for you to work for free? Would you do it to prove your worth for a new employer or would you donate your time to save your current employer?

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness

]]> Celebrating Your Birthday At Work. How Important Is It? http://www.blogher.com/celebrating-your-birthday-work-how-important-it 2009-06-14T13:07:05-05:00 2009-06-14T13:07:05-05:00 Elana Centor "So," I asked, "How are you celebrating your birthday on Tuesday?"

"Well," said Lynda,*tilting her head and giving me a look that had more to do with the fact I work out of my home and can do whatever I want on my birthday and less to do with how she is actually going to celebrate hers,"I have to go to work."

I have a birthday/work theory and I wanted to check it out with Lynda before I wrote this post.Lynda works in HR for a Fortune 100. I thought if anyone was up on corporate birthday policies she would be.

]]> "So," I asked, "How are you celebrating your birthday on Tuesday?"

"Well," said Lynda,*tilting her head and giving me a look that had more to do with the fact I work out of my home and can do whatever I want on my birthday and less to do with how she is actually going to celebrate hers,"I have to go to work."

I have a birthday/work theory and I wanted to check it out with Lynda before I wrote this post.Lynda works in HR for a Fortune 100. I thought if anyone was up on corporate birthday policies she would be.

So here's my theory.Employees really want their employers to acknowledge and wish them well on their birthday.
CareerBuilders has a YouTube video that says you can gauge your workplace worth by how people celebrate your birthday.

Now if you asked most adults if they care if their co-workers acknowledge their birthday, my hunch is that most people are too embarrassed to say it's important.

On the surface caring about your birthday seems juvenile.Our culture says its fine to be excited about your birthday until you turn 21,and then you are expected to be outwardly blaze about birthdays until you become an elder citizen.(that would be code for being older than the statistics for average longevity. Indeed something to celebrate.)

This was Lynda's response to my query. "I don't think we have a birthday policy," she said. Then added, "I think we get cakes for our assistants.But I'm not sure."

Then Lynda added, " I don't think anyone is getting me a cake but I have let everyone know that Tuesday is my birthday and I expect them to be nice to me," she said laughing,but laughing in a way that said 'aI really want them to be nice to me on my birthday.'

Without knowing it, Lynda confirmed my theory. Birthdays
are way more important to people, then people like to let on. As reluctant as many of us are to admit it, we do care if our co-workers wish us happy birthday. Many of us care a lot.

I didn't use to think my birthday was all that important to me. In the entire time I've been working, I don't think I've ever taken a day off for my birthday specifically, as I understood that even if I took the day off, my husband would have to take a vacation day also to have the time with me. I just celebrate it on the nearest weekend with a few friends - don't expect any presents, just enjoy going out and having a nice meal together, nothing more really than we do at other times during the year, anyway.

However, there was one year at my old workplace when a co-worker who was briefly there shared a birthday with me. Although we were in different departments, it was a small business, and I noticed as everyone made a tremendous fuss over her birthday and no one ever mentioned mine at all. It was kind of hurtful.

So I don't necessarily think it's silly for those who wish to have the days recognized by their friends and loved ones. That year I certainly wished a few people had made a bigger fuss, or that my husband had sent flowers to me at work so others would know that it was my birthday, too.

When my son was working in New York City at his first job, I remember talking to him the next day and asking how he celebrated at work. Now this is a kid who never cared about birthday parties,doesn't have the kind of sweet tooth where he would crave a birthday cake, and would never do as my friend Lynda has done and "leaked" that January 23rd is his birthday. He probably hoped that a group of co-workers would go out for a birthday drink. No one did.

And yet, I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was disappointed that no one bothered to say, "Happy Birthday." Not his co-workers. Not his manager. Of course his co-workers wouldn't know unless his manager said something to them, and she evidently didn't think that celebrating birthdays was part of her job description.

Last summer I was visiting a friend in Dallas and she explained that before we got on with our day we had to stop at the bakery and pickup a cupcake for her husband's assistant. Her husband is the COO of a major heath care organization. My friend bought two cupcakes for the assistant, one of her,and one to take home to her daughter.

I was there when The COO presented the birthday cupcake to the assistant. I was embarrassed. No card. No singing. Just this solitary cupcake. It was allegedly a gourmet cupcake,but it looked so lonely. While it was nice that he recognized her birthday,it also felt perfunctory.

Maybe I'm being too hard on the COO. I just don't understand what the big deal would have been to take 10 minutes and have other people on the floor share in a cupcake treat.

Earlier today I happened to catch this spot from the American Cancer Society. It's called the Official Sponsor of Birthdays. A good reminder to all of us why wishing our co-workers a Happy Birthday is a good thing to do.

So What about you? Do you take your birthday off? Do you look forward to people stopping by your desk and saying, "Happy Birthday?" If you manage people,what do you do to let them know their birthday is special?

*Lynda is a pseudonym

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness

]]> Gadgets, Gadgets, Everywhere Where But Not The One I Want http://www.blogher.com/gadgets-gadgets-everyone-where-not-one-i-want 2009-06-11T20:38:52-05:00 2009-06-11T20:39:44-05:00 Elana Centor Who doesn't love gadgets? They are so much fun. They can be so entertaining,yet useful.So whimsical, yet so practical. So quirky, yet so productive. I need some gadgets for my office. Specifically a new keyboard,and something that will get all the wires in my office under control. You would think that would be easy.

]]> Who doesn't love gadgets? They are so much fun. They can be so entertaining,yet useful.So whimsical, yet so practical. So quirky, yet so productive. I need some gadgets for my office. Specifically a new keyboard,and something that will get all the wires in my office under control. You would think that would be easy.

I have a perfectly fine keyboard. In fact I adore my keyboard. It's ergonomic and it would never have occurred to me that there was anything wrong with my keyboard until I facilitated a WebEx meeting.I was using the whiteboard feature and typing away when one of the participants wrote in the chat section, "whoever is typing should put their phone on mute."

The offender was me. I couldn't go on mute. I was the facilitator. I had to talk and type at the same time. Until that moment I hadn't realized that my beloved keyboard is a noise polluter.

Turns out that keyboards have evolved a lot in the past six years, and depending on your viewpoint,they can definitely be categorized as a gadget,which Merriam Webster defines as "an often small mechanical or electronic device with a practical use but often thought of as a novelty."

I guess a silent keyboard is considered a novelty.Not everyone is enthused about this invention, including Popgadget Personal Technology for Women who says she loves the clicking sound of keystrokes.

this Japanese-layout USB keyboard uses silicone springs that enable it to produce only 6.0db of noise. Compared to the 30.9db created from typing on a standard keyboard and the 40db measured in a residential-area library late at night,

On the gadget-o-meter scale, having a silent keyboard is really amateur stuff. There's a one-handed keyboard, called the Frogpad.  
Novelty Keyboards frogPadUberchick is a big fan.

w/o my FrogPad I could never tweet fast enough to "say" any thing, I could've never programmed again, most amazing about it is: Its a gift.

Novelty Keyboards keyless keyboardThere are also keyboards without keys,

Novelty Keyboardskeyboards with handwriting recognition and colorful keyboards.

One of my favorite places to window shop for gadgets is the SkyMall. Since I've given up buying People and Us Magazine when I travel, SkyMall is the perfect magazine to browse while I wait to reach a cruising level that allows me to turn on my iPod and start reading on my Kindle APP.
However, at least in the online version, the selection of office gadgets is extraordinarily disappointing. They only have 19 items under business tools and the most interesting gadget is a keychain memo recorder which has no appeal to me. Evidently the person who bought it wasn't impressed either. The product got a ONE STAR out of a possible five.

My goal was to find some gadgets that would help organize the office. I found a tape dispenser with four USB ports. But I promise you I won't be buying that.tape dispenser I can't remember the last time I used scotch tape

Then I found the remote telephone indicator. The idea is if you have to step away from your desk when you're expecting a call it creates a flashing red light on the ceiling.
Here's my solution. Forward your office phone to your mobile phone and you won't miss a call even if you are in the ladies room. There are so many problems with this product that I can't even begin to understand why anyone produced it.Besides the fact that you have to keep your eyes to the ceiling, just imagine if everyone in an office had these flashing red lights over the cubicles. It brings an entirely new meaning to red light district.

This is the stealth switch privacy foot pedal that lets you close your computer window without being obvious. It's targeted to people who are doing things on their website that they shouldn't be doing and is designed to let them close the guilty window without even a hand gesture. I'm obviously not their target audience since I work out of my home and no one, except my dog, Uma Thurman, is even allowed in my office.

Then there's the USB LED Beverage Cooler.USB beverage coolerfor people so engrossed in their work that they can't get up and go to the frig to get a cold drink. Hasn't anyone heard about the 10,000 steps a day initiative? Another USB product not yet on the market but getting a lot of pre-launch publicity isthe beanzawave mini microwave. beanzawave I guess by the time you get your mini frig and your mini microwave you may need that tape dispenser with the four extra USB ports.

When I went on this quest for great office gadgets I really wasn't interested in a mini microwave that has the potential create a usb overload. I really wanted to find some that would deal with all the messy wires on the floor of my office.
Alas and alack, I was disappointed. Instead of finding some brightly colored products that would make me smile, I found DIY instructions that involve carabiners, velcro straps and twisty ties. Unfortunately the instructions lost me at step one.

Use twist ties that come with garbage bags to bundle the cords. Tie each cord separately to make it easier to change out a piece of hardware if you need to. Get a bigger twist tie and tie all the bundles together to make one big bundle, which you can move out of the way.

Really, truly, that instruction gives me an anxiety attack. I have no idea what that means or how to do it. I cannot visualize what this looks like.What I do know is that I need something very festive to deal with all the wires that lay tangled at my feet.

If you can point me in the direction of that gadget, I would so appreciate it. Oh, and I'll even like it if it requires plugging into a USB port.

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness.

]]> Will Your Lack of Vacations Lead To A Heart Attack Or Will Going On Vacation Cause One? http://www.blogher.com/will-your-lack-vacations-lead-heart-attack-or-will-going-vacation-cause-one 2009-06-07T11:33:18-05:00 2009-06-07T11:33:18-05:00 Elana Centor It was question three on Savvy Sugar's four question quiz on vacation deprivation.

Vacation Deprivation

If you answered 35%, 20% or 10% , you would be so wrong. The correct answer, according to this quiz, is 50%.

]]> It was question three on Savvy Sugar's four question quiz on vacation deprivation.

Vacation Deprivation

If you answered 35%, 20% or 10% , you would be so wrong. The correct answer, according to this quiz, is 50%.

 Really? There is a scientific study somewhere that says if I don't take a regular vacation I'm 50% more likely to have a heart attack?  So what is the definition of a regular vacation? Would that be a vacation from work, or does it have to be a vacation from my regular life?

Is there a number of days that you have to be away from work to get the heart healthy benefits of a vacation? If I take long weekends can I reduce my heart attack tendencies by 25%?

If this is the truth, then I need to know a whole lot more about vacations and how to do them up right. My heart health is at stake.

The source for this data is an MSNBC post by Rob Lovitt called Only you can prevent vacation deprivation. In that post, Lovitt credits  Take Back Your Time for the 50% statistic.

The folks at Take Back Your Time are vacation advocates. However, a quick scan of their website doesn't show me how they came up with the very frightening 50% statistic. It does have this factoid:

Time stress threatens our health. It leads to fatigue, accidents and injuries. It reduces time for exercise and encourages consumption of calorie-laden fast foods. Job stress and burnout costs the U.S. economy more than $300 billion a year.

You would think that they would be headlining the threat to our health with that 50% increase in heart attacks. I didn't find it. What I did find it when I tried to find some additional sources for lack of vacations and an increase in heart attacks is some very disturbing and contradictory facts.

It seems that going on a vacation can increase your chances of having a myocardial infarction.

Oy!

A 2003 study found that "heart attacks are the leading cause of death on vacations."

The study has found that traveling by car to one’s vacation destination and staying in a tent or mobile home during vacation are risk factors for a vacation heart attack.


A 2004 Online Harris Poll concurred:

84 percent of vacationers take part in behaviors that may increase the risk for a heart attack, the leading cause of vacation-related death.(1-5) The online poll of U.S. adults, conducted by Harris Interactive, shows that 53 percent of vacationers feel stress at times, 34 percent eat too much, 36 percent overindulge in alcohol and 59 percent of those that haven't been physically active lately overexert themselves.(1,6) In addition, 37 percent had not been checked for high blood pressure -- a critical risk factor for heart attack -- within three months of their trip.(1)

So depending on which statistic you side with, the fact that Americans continue to suffer from vacation deprivation might be a good thing. We continue to lead the world in being the most vacation deprived society.

Just as there seems to be a debate on whether or not vacations prevent or cause heart attacks, there is also contradictory advice on what employees should do while they are on vacation this year.
As Ann All shares on IT Business Edge, CareerBuilders is providing advice to readers on how to avoid checking in with the office while you are on vacation while Challenger Gray & Christmas says it s a good strategy to stay in touch with office while on vacation.

Among its tips: Check with your boss at least twice a day. Forward calls to your cell phone, and make sure you check messages and return calls. Make sure you are always have access to a wireless Internet connection.

Interestingly, a Challenger spokesman says it isn't about a working vacation. Rather, it's about "staying connected and letting people know you are available." Sounds like work to me.

Now all we need is someone to do a study on whether a working vacation increases or decreases your chance for a heart attack.

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness

]]> Before You Can Organize Your Office, You Need To Conduct An Assessment http://www.blogher.com/you-can-organized-your-office-you-need-conduct-assessment 2009-06-04T16:44:05-05:00 2009-06-04T18:27:25-05:00 Elana Centor Earlier today, I was on the phone with some co-workers and we were discussing how we would approach a social media proposal for a potential new client. As always, the first step is to do an Assessment. We believe we can't do the kind of job we need to do unless we understand the client's landscape. What kinds of messages are they currently giving ( in this case it's a start up)? Most important, what is the competition saying and doing?

]]> Earlier today, I was on the phone with some co-workers and we were discussing how we would approach a social media proposal for a potential new client. As always, the first step is to do an Assessment. We believe we can't do the kind of job we need to do unless we understand the client's landscape. What kinds of messages are they currently giving ( in this case it's a start up)? Most important, what is the competition saying and doing?

Sometimes clients balk at the extra step and the cost of doing the assessment. I believe it's so important that I probably wouldn't take an assignment if we couldn't do this step.

So it's kind of funny that I never considered the importance of assessing my office furniture and the role it plays in helping me have an organized office.

After I finished my phone call, I looked around my office and started  my office assessment. To paraphrase corporate speak. "I have lots of opportunities in my office"--starting with my storage system.
storage This little gem was gifted to me by one of my kids who didn't want it in their room anymore. I think it originally stored t-shirts, sweatshirts and that sort of stuff. It may be a great storage system for clothes but right now it's home to some old brochures that I wrote a lifetime ago, a bunch of USB cords . It's missing a drawer. Have no idea what happened to it. It's probably in my garage --one of many things that didn't get unpacked when I moved. Did I mention I moved in 2005?
There is one drawer on the floor and it has become a catchall for books. The stuff is so heavy in that plastic bin that if I attempted to put it back where it belongs I would never get it open again.
Not only does it not serve as useful purpose, I don't like the way it looks. It's junky. I want to get rid of it.

desk THis is a shot of a missing front to one of my desk drawers. I used to know where the missing piece was and I really would like to have it repaired but now I can't seem to find it. I'm not a do-it-yourself kind of gal. In fact, one of the best parts about being married was that my former husband was really good at doing this kind of thing. If I had lost the front of my desk when I was married, it would have been repaired the same day.  I honestly don't know how many years it's been since the front of the drawer is missing, and while I certainly could have had some friends fix it for me,( my friend Gary did fix a similar problem in my kitchen) I have this rule that no one is allowed in my office (see earlier post in get organized series)so that prevents anyone helping me with this problem.
The drawer has some staples, AHAVA hand cream, one of my son's bank statements from 2003 and some pre-moistened phone wipes for quick/easy clean up for phones and fax machines. I'm glad I looked. My phone needs some help.

Office Closet When I moved into my townhome the previous owners left this cabinet. Since the room is not big enough for my desk and the cabinet I got the brilliant idea of putting the cabinet in the closet. But then the closet doors wouldn't close and so we removed the doors - they're in my garage. At the time I was thinking it was a great solution. Today, as I am critically assessing the situation I have lots of wasted space that if I could take advantage of a closet system I would have really great storage and I could bring the doors up from the garage and maybe I'd even close the closet from time to time. I'm assessing that being able to close the closet might cheer me up. Of course, I have to figure out what to do with this piece of furniture which is uncommonly heavy.

Office Chair If there is one thing I wouldn't change in my office it's my chair. I love it. It's thirteen years old and I hope to have it til the very end. I had it custom made in the purple leather and somewhere in another closet there's enough purple leather left over for another chair. However, even 13 years ago it was an expensive chair-- one of the few splurges I have made for my office.
It's quite ergonomic. You can sit frontwards, backwards, sideways and it has a lot of other bells and whistles that if I had the owner's manual..which of course I don't ...I could pull it up and describe all the fun features.

I actually feel very good that I did this assessment. Until now I knew my office was a disaster but I really blamed it on the clutter. That's just part of the problem. Even when I get around to de-cluttering -- and they will be when my stress level comes down a few notches because de-cluttering when I am stressed is just no feasible So until I am not stressed --that's code for a positive cash flow-- I'm not dealing with my office.

Want some office inspiration?
Evidently the national office furniture show is being held in Chicago next week. According to one article, the trend  for 2009 is flex furniture.

When offices lose or gain employees, today's styles can be rebolted, reconfigured and renewed to cover the gaps.

Okamura Furniture, Screen Shot
Okamura, a Japanese furniture manufacturer has a new line of ergonomic chairs and desks that don't look like anything I've ever seen before. IThese lower than normal chairs and workstations are described as,
 “well-relaxed yet highly-concentrated condition suitable for intellectual and creative work”.

Want some help figuring out how you should be assessing your office furniture? The Publicist's Assistant has a checklist.

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness.

]]> Job Market for 2009 College Grads Called "Place Of Quiet Desperation." http://www.blogher.com/job-market-2009-college-grads-called-place-quiet-desperation 2009-05-31T11:05:10-05:00 2009-05-31T11:05:10-05:00 Elana Centor Two weeks after graduating from The University of Wisconsin in 2006, my son Noah was on a plane to New York City where he was about to start his professional career.He had the job lined up and one he had sent his regrets to before he had graduated. Noah was not alone - all of his friends found jobs either before or within weeks of graduating from college.

]]> Two weeks after graduating from The University of Wisconsin in 2006, my son Noah was on a plane to New York City where he was about to start his professional career.He had the job lined up and one he had sent his regrets to before he had graduated. Noah was not alone - all of his friends found jobs either before or within weeks of graduating from college.

Like Noah, their biggest dilemma was which job to accept. This year Noah decided to go back to graduate school. He only applied to one school. A very good business school. A hard to get into business school. Despite my suggestion that he might want to have a back up school, Noah was confident that his high GPA, his solid GRE scores,and his work experience would place him in the accepted category.

It did not. In talking with the admissions office after he got his, "regret to inform you" letter he was told in any other year he would have been part of the class of 2011. It's just that this year they had double the applicants.

Students who realize there are few jobs to go to have decided that this is a great time to go to  graduate school.

For Noah it's a blessing in disguise. It means he has another year as a ski instructor in Colorado. It has also given him a new perspective of himself. As he told me, "I was too confident. This has made me even more determined to go to graduate school and next year,I'm going to retake the GRE's to raise my score and I'll apply to several schools."

While more students are avoiding the dismal job market by extending their education, not every student can afford to continue paying for educations that already have them in debt for many years.

Unfortunately, trying to find a job to help pay off that debt is really hard.

The most optimistic research suggests graduates in a recession earn less than their recession-free counterparts for up to 10 years; some studies say those effects last a lifetime. While experts say it’s too soon to tell how the crisis might permanently alter job prospects and spending habits, all agree that it isn’t a short-term problem.

Graduates need “to keep their expectations in place while they endure the next couple of years,” says Phil Gardner, who directs the Collegiate Employment Research Institute (CERI).

                                                             CSMonitor

Last week my friend Terri got a phone call from her daughter who just graduated from Georgetown University. The daughter very much wants to stay in D.C. On the phone call the daughter excitedly told my friend that she had just landed an unpaid internship. The daughter was ecstatic. My friend Terri had to remind her daughter that she needed to get a paying job or move back to Minnesota. The phone call ended with the daughter bursting into tears.

So far there are no statistics on whether there's an increase in the number of unpaid internships but the Associated Press' Joyce M. Rosenberg writes that these unpaid internships are on the increase.

O'Connell & Goldberg, a PR firm in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., hasn't been able to hire full-time staffers the past few months, so having two unpaid interns this summer will help fill the gap. If the interns do well, "when the economy turns around, obviously they'll be my first picks" for permanent jobs, co-owner Barbara Goldberg said.

Nancy Shenker has just hired her first unpaid interns for her Thornwood, N.Y.-based marketing firm, theONswitch. The economy was a factor in her deciding to have unpaid interns, but she also is impressed by students' commitment to the job even if it doesn't have a paycheck.

 

4,100 of this year's college grads will be teaching in poor communities through the Teach for America program. 35,000 students wanted those jobs and for the first time students who met the programs criteria were turned away.

Schools where Teach for America is the No. 1 employer of graduating seniors:

Albion College
Barnard College
Brown University
Emory University
Georgetown University
Loyola of New Orleans
Marquette University
Mount Holyoke College
Spelman College
Trinity College, Connecticut
Tulane University
University of Chicago
University of Connecticut
University of San Diego
Vanderbilt University

Schools with more than 5 percent of the senior class applying:

Spelman, 25 percent
Yale, 16 percent
Princeton University and Wellesley College, 15 percent
Brown, University of Chicago, Haverford College, 14 percent
Harvard, Bowdoin College, 13 percent
Columbia University, Cornell, Georgetown, Swarthmore College, Duke University, 11 percent
University of Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Amherst College, William & Mary, Tulane, 10 percent
University of Michigan, 8 percent

The job outlook is so bad for the grads that even careers that are supposed to be recession-proof are proving difficult - including nursing that's because experienced nurses who may have left the job market are now returning.

90% of RN's under the age of 55 are working, so the market for new grads is tighter than usual.

The average age of an RN in California is over 47, so as they approach retirement, the statewide shortage will worsen. CINHC projects California will have a shortfall of 108,000 nurses by 2020.

The problem isn't just in California. Nursing Students in South Dakota are also finding a grim job market.

Under the weight of a worsening economy, hospitals nationally are cutting pay, eliminating raises and laying off employees. Rapid City Regional Hospital, which employs 777 registered nurses, hired 64 nurses last year. This year, the hospital expects to cut back to just 40 to 50 new hires.

For nursing students who were expecting a smooth transition into the work force after graduation, the situation looks grim for getting their preferred job. 

"It’s been very nerve-wracking," Lenz said. "It was way different when I first decided to be a nurse."

How bad is it? ABC News recently reported that 80% of this year's college grads who have applied for work, are still unemployed.

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness.

]]> Would You Give Up Your Junk Drawer For An Organized One? http://www.blogher.com/would-you-give-your-junk-drawer-organized-one 2009-05-28T06:05:25-05:00 2009-05-28T06:05:25-05:00 Elana Centor What is amazing to me is that people who have the patience, ability and enthusiasm to label, shred, sort, throw out and manage their offices in an admirably organized way-- still have a junk draw. Maybe it's more organized than my drawers, but have you ever met anyone who doesn't say they have a junk drawer? Why is that?

Is it rebellion from the organization? Is it just a term for odds and ends? Is it a way for people to assure themselves that their organizational obsession is not a obsessive compulsive disorder?

]]> What is amazing to me is that people who have the patience, ability and enthusiasm to label, shred, sort, throw out and manage their offices in an admirably organized way-- still have a junk draw. Maybe it's more organized than my drawers, but have you ever met anyone who doesn't say they have a junk drawer? Why is that?

Is it rebellion from the organization? Is it just a term for odds and ends? Is it a way for people to assure themselves that their organizational obsession is not a obsessive compulsive disorder?

I find it curious and charming that so many who are committed to making sure every nook and cranny of their office is neat and tidy and proud to say, " I have a junk drawer."

I don't have one junk drawer. I have decided that my office is a junk drawer.

A few months ago my colleague Dan was staying at my home for several days. One day he asked to see my office. I demurred.The only people who have been in my office are my daughter. my son and my friend Gary who came in uninvited. Like my friend Dan, Gary was staying overnight, wanted me to print a document for him and came upstairs to hand me a flash drive.

For most people having a house guest walk upstairs to hand you a flash drive would be a very reasonable thing to do. How else would he get that document printed if he didn't have access to the printer? But I consider my office off limits, all the time, to everyone, including house guests.

Now when Gary visits I move my office to the dining room so he doesn't have to go to the second floor --that would be the floor where my office is.

It's obviously not about the clutter. I have had no problem sharing the chaos that is my office on YouTube and here at BlogHer. I really wasn't sure what my hesitancy was all about until I visited Paho Mann's blog featuring his photography of junk drawers. In explaining his interest in junk drawers, Mann writes.

there is an amazing wealth of information each individual reveals in near-privacy, spaces such as junk-drawers and medicine cabinets. The near-private nature of these spaces force the viewer to contend with the natural desire of humans to collect, categorize, and by doing so, manage to give clues about their personality and identity.

Since my the entire space of my office is the equivalent of a super-sized junk drawer, I'm thinking that allowing people to see my office in person allows them to see aspects of my personality that I am not ready/willing to share.

And, because I do not work in a traditional office where I would feel some peer pressure to keep my junk in a drawer rather than all over my office,I have had the luxury to ignore those wonderful spaces where I could hide things away from the intense and judging eyes of co-workers.

While the chances of me actually organizing my closet, cabinet and file drawer are slim to none in the near term, I absolutely love that so many people have great ideas on how to do this inexpensively.

I absolutely see and believe in the benefits of organized drawers.Mom Advice shares

  • The average disorganized person has 3,000 documents at home.
  • Clutter in the average home creates 40% more housework.
  • Americans waste one year of life looking for lost objects.
  • It can take from three hours to three days to organize a home office.

She also recommends waiting to buy files and organizing systems until you "weed through" your stuff so you know exactly what you need. Maybe that's part of my problem. Whenever I have thought about getting organized, I buy the stuff before I start the project. And then of course, I don't use the stuff but pile them in a corner of my office.

By waiting until the end of your weeding you have a much clearer idea of what you need and end up spending less money. Look for attractive wicker baskets for storing current magazines, a filing cabinet/box for your papers, expandable organizers for your magazine articles/bill folders, and look for shelving to store office supplies. Use your walls to hang more shelving for books- this is wasted space for where things can be organized.

Did I mention I can spend hours in a Get Organized Store? I know. Life is full of contradictions. And this is one of them. Here I am someone who wears her junk drawer on her sleeve and  then I turn around and say I love to spend time in a Get Organized Store. It's true.

It's kind of like baseball fans. They love the sport even if they may not be able to play it. That's how I am with all the organizing systems. I have a deep, honest and enthusiastic appreciation for what they can do even if I do not have the talent to use them.

Fortunately, there are lots of people who have both the talent and willingness to share their organizing recommendations with the reset of us. Here are some of my favorites that I wish I would someday do.

From Pure+simple

I love the idea of putting these hooks on my walls and then using these big clips as a filing system. I don't have a lot of wall space in my office but I could probably create nine or twelve clippy things.

I'm an Organizing Junkie offers up ways to create an organized office without buying anything from stores. She turned a Hope Chest into a filing cabinet and uses some other things from around the house as drawer dividers.

Drawer dividers are rarely the perfect fit for every situation.  Plus they can be expensive and sterile looking.  Instead, try empty stationary boxes and box tops as drawer organizers:

If the stumbling block to organizing your filing cabinet is not knowing what papers you have to keep and which ones you can throw away, File Cabinet Organization has a transcript of a panel of three leading officer organizers who provide advice on what to do with everything from credit card receipts to tax returns.

For archived documents you aren’t likely to refer to regularly, don’t feel obligated to store them in your filing cabinet. Keep a storage bin or plastic file box in the closet, basement or attic, and out of your way.

- If you decide to keep your check registers to help you track down canceled checks, write the start and end dates and first and last check numbers on the front cover.

- Shred anything with personal ID numbers including account numbers, tax IDs and social security numbers to help prevent identity theft. This applies to credit card offers with reservation codes as well.

Do you have a junk drawer in your office and even if you commit to organizing everything else are you committed to keeping your junk drawer just the way it is.

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness

]]> The 3/50 Project Asks: What Three Independently Owned Businesses Would You Miss If You Disappeared? http://www.blogher.com/3-50-project-asks-what-three-independently-owned-businesses-would-you-miss-if-you-disappeared 2009-05-24T14:15:32-05:00 2009-05-26T08:52:33-05:00 Elana Centor Looking at my dining room window which is doubling as my office this morning, I have an unobstructed view of empty parking lot at West Photo and Surdyks's Liquor& Cheese Shop- neither are open for business on Sunday -- otherwise, the parking lot a Surdyks would be jammed.

]]> Looking at my dining room window which is doubling as my office this morning, I have an unobstructed view of empty parking lot at West Photo and Surdyks's Liquor& Cheese Shop- neither are open for business on Sunday -- otherwise, the parking lot a Surdyks would be jammed.

I live in the city. I walk to the grocery store - locally owned Lund's and I buy dog food one block away a Bone Adventure. Without stretching my neck too much, I can see their striped awning from my window.

Within a five block radius there are three coffee shops -all are locally owned: Taraccino Coffee, Wild Roast Cafe and  Caribou ( no longer independently owned.Started in Minneapolis, still headquartered in Minneapolis, even though it's publicly traded.)

One block down from Bone Adventure stands Rachel's - it's been empty since I moved into the neighborhood 3 1/2 years ago. It's supposed to be a restaurant with a great outdoor courtyard which would be perfect today on this absolutely glorious spring day in Minnesota.

Across the street from Rachel's,The Times Bar Cafe has taken down the sign in the window which had been there since early winter saying it's closed for remodeling. Isn't that code in the restaurant business for we need to get a new owner?

Just this week one of my neighbors asked if I had heard anything about the Irish Bar in our neighborhood. They had heard a rumor it's closing. I have not heard anything.

Spend any time talking to a local retailer and they will tell you they are hurting. Business is down and retailers are scrambling to figure out how to get customers back into their stores.

Enter Cinda Baxter, a Minnesota based retail consultant who has an idea how to help these local retailers. It's called the 3/50 project.

I learned about it yesterday at the Wild Roast Cafe- that's the shop five blocks from my home. I was there for a client meeting and as I was waiting for Jeff to get his iced tea I had time to read the tabletop.

The 3/50 project began as an idea shared on a blog post.In February  Cinda Baxter wrote a post called, The $50 Retail Challenge. Baxter was sharing a post from an unidentified Canadian blogger who challenged Canadians who currently have jobs to shop locally and spend $100 or $50. The Canadian blogger said if half of the eligible Canadians did that, it would add $1,660,634,800 to the Canadian economy.

Baxter then blogged what the implications would be for the U.S. economy if we took a $50 Challenge.

How ‘bout a cool $42,629,700,000…and that’s if only half the employed population spent only $50 per month.

About two weeks later, Baxter followed up with a post called Save The Economy Three Stores At A Time where she introduced the 3/50 Project.  The idea of 3/50  is a blend of the Canadian Retail Challenge and an idea inspired by Rievea Lesonsky, Consulting Editor at BizWomen.Com, Support Your Local Small Business.

 I’ve been thinking about which three stores I would most hate to see go
out of business, and how I can support them with my dollars. [...]

The
three small entrepreneurs you support regularly with your dollars could
be the little boutique on your town’s Main Street, the beauty salon
where you get your hair cut, or a local restaurant. It could mean using
a real live insurance agent rather than getting a quote from an someone
halfway across the country.. It could mean getting your shoes resoled
or repaired at the local shoe repair shop rather than buying a new pair
from a big department store.

 

In times like these, we all need to put our money where it counts. Whenever possible, shop locally.


The idea is catching on. Preservation Pink thinks she knows why.

There is always a lot of talk about shopping local and the benefits of
doing so, with vague explanations included, but until The 3/50 Project,
I had never seen it described so simplistically, so easy to for one
person to take action as an individual.

From the Flutterbygirls

The movementʼs success is attributed to the simplicity of the message, and the form in which itʼs delivered. While most Buy Local campaigns rely on terminology about “local living economies”and “sustainable micro-economics,” The 3/50 Project answers questions consumers are likely to ask in the language they speak at the dinner table: Whatʼs it going to cost, and how will this help?

Because of where I live I've been meeting this challenge without knowing it. However, reading that tabletop at Wild Roast reminded me that when given a choice, I do want and need to support the businesses in my neighborhood.

What about you? Are you intentionally shopping at your local retailers? Which three businesses would you miss if they disappeared?

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness.

]]> Could Disposaphobia Be The Reason Your Office Is Cluttered? http://www.blogher.com/could-disposaphobia-be-reason-your-office-cluttered 2009-05-21T14:14:10-05:00 2009-05-21T14:14:10-05:00 Elana Centor Disposaphobia is the fear of getting rid of stuff. Until today, I would never describe or think of my tendency to work in clutter as a phobia. I wear it as a badge of honor. I prefer to think of it as an indicator of my creativity. Doesn't everyone know that creative people have cluttered offices?

In response to a piece by Clive James in the BBC magazine, The brilliance of creative chaos in which James describes the clutter in his office, a commenter says,

]]> Disposaphobia is the fear of getting rid of stuff. Until today, I would never describe or think of my tendency to work in clutter as a phobia. I wear it as a badge of honor. I prefer to think of it as an indicator of my creativity. Doesn't everyone know that creative people have cluttered offices?

In response to a piece by Clive James in the BBC magazine, The brilliance of creative chaos in which James describes the clutter in his office, a commenter says,

Don't worry Clive, it just means that like me you're a creative "right brainer". You look for creative solutions to problems whereas our organised "left brain" brothers look for logical solutions to problems. Chaos breeds new ideas whereas as Order simply perpetuates old ones. Chaos is a creative force- order a maintaining one.
Matthew, Staines

That's the kind of comment that warms the cockles of my heart. It makes me feel connected to Mr. James. To all people creative. We are of the same ilk. The cluttered office ilk.

Are you familiar with Chris Argyris' Ladder of Inference? It's a mental model explained in Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building A Learning Organization. Basically, the theory is that of all the observable data that we can select to help make decisions, we only select data that reinforces our current belief system. It's called the Reflective Loop.

So in my case,my reflective loop takes me smack dab to Clive Jame's article, and it makes me feel good about myself.  Instead of seeing clutter as a potential problem. I seek the data the reaffirms that I am a creative individual instead of one suffering from the dregs of disposaphobia.

Now, for those of you familiar with Argyris' Ladder,you know that you can break the reflective loop by becoming aware of your own assumptions, and testing them by getting information that may stretch your belief system.

That is what happened today. I'm climbing down my ladder and looking a data that says, there could be a psychological explanation -- not a creative talent explanation-- as to why I still have CD's on my office shelf when I long ago uploaded them to iTunes,  unpacked boxes from 2005 when I moved to my current home, and stationary and the promotion kit to a newspaper column I once tried to syndicate. There's more. Lot's more. I have lots of stuff from the past on the shelves and drawers in my office.

Feng Shui Expert, Ellie Marshall sites a Stanford University study on disposaphobia that says it is a fear- based condition affecting just 5% of the population.

The study, conducted by Dr. Brian Knutson of Stanford University, found that some people can have an 'over attachment' to items that they own. They believe their possessions have many positive features even if they have owned them for a short time. Hence, these people, can not bear to part with even a piece of paper!

 

"When they get something, they just can't stand the thought of losing it. People don't like the thought that they might be deprived of that thing." says Brian Knutson, Ph.D., study author and associate of psychology and neuroscience at Stanford University.

Heather Grimshaw wrote a piece for the Denver Post on the Psychology of Clutter which poses the theory that in addition to the fear sited in the Stanford study, those of us who clutter  also suffer from low self-esteem and an inability to make decisions.

"It can be an obsessive disorder in which the person is immobilized in terms of action," says Elizabeth Robinson, a psychologist in Denver. "I think there is a great fear of making a decision that could be wrong, of feeling something like regret or loss or guilt about getting rid" of things.

While I have no problem making decisions, I do find it emotional to put my past in the trash. Even if it's that pile of 1994 canceled checks from my old business. It would make me sad ( okay maybe for just a moment, but  it still would  be a sad moment) to shred them and dispose of them, it would mean I will not have anything tangible from that previous experience. I like having tangible reminders of my past, it makes me feel more connected to it.

From that same article a spiritual counselor and clairvoyant Krista Socash likens the inability to throw out stuff as a drug addiction.


These are generally people who cannot walk through their rooms without tipping piles and become panicked by the thought of sorting through it all.

"These people are in a lot of pain," she says. "Much like people who use drugs as an (escape), some people cannot get rid of their stuff."

 


Until today, I thought of it as just being sentimental. I had no idea how much fear, pain, low self- esteem,and addiction I was exhibiting with my clutter. What I thought was comfort-stuff --  every time I open a draw and see those checks, CD's and old stationary, I always smile, is actually a window into my pained and distorted soul.

Everlasting Designs has a post on the Psychology of Clutter and tells me the tendency to clutters is rooted in "the endowment effect."

people (and some animals) place a higher value on objects they own than objects that they do not. It's believed to hearken back to a time when giving away something could help with survival or reproduction. At the risk of losing our essential survival tools we overvalue what we have and undervalue what we can gain often at the expense of our own peace of mind.

In other words that stack of 1995 canceled checks is an overvalued item and if I would just shred them, I would be released.

In writing about the psychology of organization, Christy Angel suggests that many of us are afraid to throw things out because of the space or void it creates.Over at The World of Psychology,Therese J. Borchard says that human beings crave order.

Cleaning is a therapeutic activity that distracts your stressed-out brain while delivering it something it desperately wants: order. As an architect, Eric is always telling me how my mess contributes to my anxiety–that the endless piles of paper on my desk can very definitely sabotage my mood. Every time I take his advice–and spend a day purging and organizing–I realize how right he is.

The more I read, the more despondent I got. Until I found a blog called The Psychology of Clutter. When I clicked, I was taken to this page.

Psychology of Clutter Blog

Priceless. Appropriate. And to me, laugh out loud funny.

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness

]]> How Paperless Is Your Office? http://www.blogher.com/how-paperless-your-office 2009-05-14T11:38:27-05:00 2009-05-14T11:38:27-05:00 Elana Centor To prepare for a meeting tomorrow, I just printed off 100 pages of documents. I didn't want to. If there were any way that I felt I could complete my assignment without printing out all those pages,I would have. I typically don't print out email attachments but in this case the amount of information is so extensive that I thought trying to make notations on these documents would take more time.

]]> To prepare for a meeting tomorrow, I just printed off 100 pages of documents. I didn't want to. If there were any way that I felt I could complete my assignment without printing out all those pages,I would have. I typically don't print out email attachments but in this case the amount of information is so extensive that I thought trying to make notations on these documents would take more time.

I did stop at the 217 page PDF the client sent for my review. I still haven't figured out how I'm going to read that document because the PDF is sideways and I can't figure out how to turn it around so I could read it on my computer.

I'm sure it's easy and there is probably a video on YouTube that I can check out later,I just didn't want to deal with that right this minute.

I hate paper in my office. It has a lot to do with my decision several years ago to stop pretending that I have a filing system. The reason I don't have a filing system is I can't stick to a consistent filing hierarchy. One day I might think a document should go under research while on another day I might create a file called "Product Info." As a result, I had to constantly go through all files because nothing was ever where I thought it would be anyway.

I personally have found it much easier to create a filing system on my computer-- not that I don't have inconsistent folders but thanks to the search feature, I can usually find the document I need regardless of which folder I have decided it belongs.

Still, anyone who has seen a picture of my office knows that I am trash can resistant. Always afraid that if I throw something out, I will need it later.
Despite my commitment last week to de-clutter my office, I have not made one step in that direction. No surprise.

Even with the mounds of paper that live on my desk and the floor of my office, it could be a lot worse. I could have newspapers strewn all over the place - I read newspapers online.


I could have even more books scattered around the office. Since Denise gave all of us a heads up about the Kindle application for iPhones and iPod Touches I have become an enthusiastic user and really don't care if I ever buy another paperback or hardcover book.

Experts say an easy way to reduce the paper in your office is to stop using paper coffee cups. Now, when I'm in my office I use a travel mug all day to keep my coffee warm. If I'm in a coffee shop that offers paper or mug, I go for the paper. I like having my coffee mug covered - keeps the coffee warmer for longer. What I am not good at doing is bringing my own travel mug with me.

Another strategy for reducing paper in your office is to use an e-Fax service. I've been doing that for years. Primarily because I don't file and having all my faxes delivered via email allows me to access faxes without searching for them on that problematic desk of mine.

Sonya, at Eco Child's Play has 10 suggestions of ways to create a paperless office.
Stephanie Bryant has an entire blog about a Paperless Home Office
The Paperless Office Solution features a variety of products to make it easier to go paperless.

Elana writes about business culture at FunnyBusiness

]]> Think Small. Artists Creating Mini Paintings To Survive During The Recession http://www.blogher.com/think-small-artists-creating-mini-paintings-survive-during-recession 2009-05-10T15:56:54-05:00 2009-05-10T15:56:54-05:00 Elana Centor Recently my friend Aaron was telling me about an artist friend of his who recently held her own stimulus art show. Instead of showing her regular art which used to fetch up to $20,000 a canvas, she held a show featuring miniature paintings --all going for $100.

She sold out. As she told Aaron,'just about everyone can afford to spend $100 on a splurge.'

Depending on your point of view she is either a survivor or a sell-out.

Throughout the country, galleries are having conversations with the artists they represent and encouraging them to create smaller pieces.

]]> Recently my friend Aaron was telling me about an artist friend of his who recently held her own stimulus art show. Instead of showing her regular art which used to fetch up to $20,000 a canvas, she held a show featuring miniature paintings --all going for $100.

She sold out. As she told Aaron,'just about everyone can afford to spend $100 on a splurge.'

Depending on your point of view she is either a survivor or a sell-out.

Throughout the country, galleries are having conversations with the artists they represent and encouraging them to create smaller pieces.
Anne Marchand who blogs at Painterly Visions is having a Small Piece Art Show in Washington , D.C.to benefit The Black Women's Agenda.

Anne Marchand's Stellar Series #2

The pieces in the show are all 5"x5" or 5"x7".

The idea of small paintings began before the economy crashed. In 2004, Duane Keiser started the Painting A Day genre.At the time, he would create his painting -- about the size of a postcard and then post it on his blog and eBay. Starting bid was always $100. Today the starting bid for one of his small pieces of art is $1000.

Today, there are thousands of artists who are trying to replicate the success that Keiser has enjoyed.

Demos
One of those artists is Carol Marine who has been doing a painting a day for the past two and half years.For Marine, participating in the small art genre has completely changed how she approaches her art and it's allowing her to earn a living.

Despite the recession , Marine says sales of in her Paint A Day Genre are only down 20%.

In addition to selling art on her blog and eBay, Marine was approached to start giving workshops on how to create a business doing a Painting A Day. Now, art schools throughout the country host her workshops and she says despite the recession, these workshops always have full registration.

The workshops not only cover the techniques of how you create small paintings but Marine spends time explaining to the artists how you have to market the art which includes having a blog and selling art on eBay.

Marine says she was originally reluctant to try the small art form and that it was her husband who thought it would be a great way to market her work.At the time she was doing large pieces for galleries and not making a living at it. Originally Marine tried to duplicate the style she was using for her large works. That didn't work and so Marine started experimenting with a looser,more impressionistic style.

She says, " I had always wanted to try this style but never did because it was too big of investment in supplies and time to experiment in the large form that I was used to working in."

Marine credits the discipline of doing a Painting A Day as helping her grow more as an artist than anything else she has ever done. Today, she is also creating larger work for galleries.

Going smaller solves a key issue for artists. While the value of art has plummeted, art organizations are encouraging artists not to lower their prices.

The worst thing you can do as an artist is to reduce your rates when the economy slows. “Many artists panic and lower their prices,” says Seattle gallery owner Patricia Rovzar. “A lot of artists have been ruined by lowering their prices after their rates have already been established by the market and collectors. Our economy ebbs and flows, and we need to ride out this kind of thing.”

Easier said then done. That's where the smaller art comes in. Even if it's not as small as the 5"x5" genre, galleries throughout the country are recommending that artists create smaller more affordable pieces.

The Financial Times is reporting that the value of art has dropped nearly 50% in one year.

The annual New York May art sales, the biggest event in the art world calendar, start on Monday in a drastically shrunken form, with Sotheby’s expecting its contemporary art auction to generate less than a quarter of the sales it did a year ago.

Does this recession mark the end of art as an investment? MoneyWeek Editor-In-Chief,Merryn Somerset Webb says the Art bubble has popped.

There was never a shortage of supply, and demand was more speculative than rational – as perhaps all art investment always is.

The truth is that the art market has pretty much everything you don't want in an investment.

Somerset Webb says the problem with art as an investment is that it' snot liquid, not transparent doesn't provide an income,is fashion-dependent and a poor performer unless you can get your hands by a dead artist.

Despite those drawbacks, Somerset Webb shared she recently paid £2,000 for a painting by Emily Gregory Smith and she doesn't expect to make any money on it. On the other hand, she says she will enjoy owning it.

Art for arts sake.

Elana blogs about business culture at FunnyBusiness

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