Greater Milwaukee Jobs

2 GREATERmilwaukeeJOBS • March 12, 2015 In today's workplace, athletes aren't the only free agents A publication of Conley Media Distributed by: Conley Distribution 262-513-2646 ©2004 by Conley Media, LLC Waukesha County Independent and Locally Owned GREATERmilwaukeeJOBS is published weekly by Conley Media – Waukesha County, 801 N. Barstow St., Waukesha, WI 53186. Contents of this publication may not be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the publisher. GREATERmilwaukeeJOBS assumes no liability for any error in copy or content. It is the advertiser's responsibility to be aware of the laws pertaining to employment advertising. Subscriptions are available for $34 (non-refundable) for a 6-month subscription. Call 262-306-5008 for information. Call Center Director: Cindy Shaske 262-306-5016 cshaske@conleynet.com Account Executive: Julie Sears 262-306-5008 jsears@conleynet.com Production: Patricia Scheel 262-513-2690 GREATERmilwaukeeJOBS Volume 17 • Number 26 March 12, 2015 To place an ad: Call us at 262-306-5008 or fax us at 262-542-6082 deadline: Noon on Wednesdays Liz Reyer is a credentialed coach with more than 20 years of business experience. Her company, Reyer Coaching & Consulting, offers services for organizations of all sizes. Submit questions or comments about this column at www.deliverchange.com/coachscorner or email her at lizdeliverchange.com. How to face impending layoffs By Liz Reyer Star Tribune (Minneapolis) & A Q Q. My company is going through a large layoff. Not much information has been shared, but I think it's likely that my team (including me) could be affected. In the meantime, we have a lot of work to do. What advice do you have to help us keep moving forward? A. Try to remain grounded in the present while making plans for a variety of futures. THE INNER GAME "Put on your own oxygen mask first" is a cliché, but it's true in this case. If you're falling apart, you can't help your team. So start by facing your fears.What's the worst thing that could happen? You lose your job? If that happens, you'll survive; in fact, I've talked with many who ended up in a better role than they had before. Or you keep your position, but your friends and co-workers are gone, and you're overworked? Under- stand your fears so you can demystify them. Now consider what you actually know, and your options for gaining more clarity. Check to see what your boss knows (or can share) and take advantage of information that your company may be shar- ing. Ask questions whenever you can; you have little to lose by being inquisitive, and it could help you put a realistic plan in place. Notice how well you're doing with managing the stress of the situation, and be sure to practice great self-care. Have some fun, get some exercise, eat good food, get enough sleep. Check in with your team, and determine how they're doing. Keep in mind that people will have different reactions and different needs.They will also have unique ways of showing their stress, so be attuned to that. THE OUTER GAME Realistically, each person on the team – including you – needs two plans: one for if you keep your job and one if you're let go. If you stay at your company, rec- ognize that it won't be the same place. If the layoffs are driven by a fundamental shift in corporate direction, you may need to adapt to new expectations. Further, you're going to need to be able to accept the new normal and have a positive attitude. That is going to be harder for some people than others, and it's because of this that some people choose to leave even if they were not laid off. To be blunt, if you won't be able to be happy or feel secure, you should explore new opportunities. Anticipating that you may be laid off, now is the time for exploring new opportunities, connecting with folks in your field, and having an updated resume. Don't wait until the company announces your fate – be laying the groundwork. And, even though it's difficult, you need to keep doing your job as well as you can, living up to your own standards of professionalism. Focus on having positive energy and help- ing your co-workers stay positive, too. Consider using your regular staff meetings to address both the positives and the negatives together so that your team is a support to all of you. THE LAST WORD There is a great deal outside your control, but acting on what you can control will help you get through this challenge. how that time aligns with the importance of the things you're doing. It's an idea that makes you say, 'Well that's obvious. Why didn't I think of that?' But that's the problem. We're often so busy that we don't think about anything. We just charge ahead and trust that our super-human abilities – the ones we don't actually have – will help us muddle through. 'The essence is taking a step back to look, doing a diagnosis, looking at who's important, what's important and what you can do that's under your control to produce better outcomes,' Friedman said. 'The big, big idea is being more conscious, more deliberate about the choices you make with respect to where you put your attention, your energy and your effort.' What I like about Fried- man's concept, aside from its common-sense simplicity, is that he has researched it extensively and found that people who move some of their focus away from work and put it on other parts of life actually tend to become more productive workers. He breaks life up into four domains: work, family, com- munity and self. Then he asks people to decide what level of importance they would assign to each domain, four percent- ages that will add up to 100 percent. The next step is to look at how much you actually focus on those four domains, again assigning a percentage to each one. Now you juxtapose the two sets of information and see which areas are out of whack. Maybe you think you should spend 10 percent of your time focusing on yourself, doing anything from exercise to reading to taking a class. But when you look at where your time is actually going, you see you're devoting almost no focus to that domain. Or maybe work is eating up 70 percent of your focus, cut- ting sharply into the amount of time you believe you should be devoting to your family. The disparities between where you want your atten- tion to go and where it's actu- ally going should prompt you to make changes. Friedman recommends making those changes in small increments, seeing if they're helpful and then continuing to tweak your focus and schedule until things fall better into line. For example, if you feel you're carrying too much work around with you during off hours – checking email on your phone or taking calls when you're with your family – try to create periods of times where you cut yourself off electronically. Don't do balanced life ... from page 1 In the mid-1990s, manage- ment guru Tom Peters warned employees to develop "a brand called you" because you need a brand to carry you from job to job. In 2002, another workplace thinker, Daniel Pink, cement- ed the trend with a big-picture name: "Free Agent Nation." They forecast today's work- place reality. Temporary, free- lance and contract work has encroached on the American career dream. We've been warned that the gold watch at retirement is all but dead. As the older baby boomers leave the workforce, the expectation of a lifetime job is departing with them. Career counselors tell us to have a Plan B, to not expect that Plan A is for keeps. They say you are responsible for your career plan, that no employer has the duty or intent to pave your path. They say full-time, long-term employment isn't the wave of the future. For many, the tem- porary and contract wave already washed ashore. A survey released March 5 by CareerBuilder found that jobs in temporary help servic- es grew 57 percent from 2009 to 2014. Looking forward to 2019, CareerBuilder's eco- nomic modeling suggested 13 percent growth. Looking at related jobs data, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found a 51.8 percent increase in temporary help employment from 2009 to 2014. However the precise calcula- tion was made, it's clear that you or someone in your family is increasingly likely to have temporary work experi- ence, making it all the more likely that your job changes often and that you don't have traditional employee benefits. That puts an even greater burden on you to communi- cate what you do well and to be able to see where your next opportunity might lie – before your current employment ends. And – very important – a succession of temp jobs or contract work (essentially self- employment) inflates your burden to be in charge of your own savings and retire- ment preparation. That's not easy. And it's really hard in lower-wage jobs. According to CareerBuilder's new report, these occupations – which mostly pay less than $15 an hour – are expected to By Diane Stafford The Kansas City Star (TNS) see WORKPLACE . . . page 6 see BALANCED LIFE . . . page 6

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