Greater Milwaukee Jobs

2 GREATERmilwaukeeJOBS • March 31, 2016 Map out your vision of vacation & A Q A. Even though there are no strict guidelines, give yourself a vacation budget to follow. All reasonable people agree that time away makes employees more valuable.We come back refreshed, re-energized, and with renewed enthusiasm for our work. It's not easy, perhaps, but invest some time internalizing that point. Consider your energy level when you're burned out vs. rested, and also think about the positive effects you've seen among your colleagues. This will underpin your confidence in being away. Also think about the reasons for the policy change. Some companies are looking for ways to broaden options for employees; for example, to take less time one year in favor of a longer break the next.What is your company's goal, and what behavior does your leadership team model? Give yourself a chance to dream. Do you imagine an ideal vacation life of many long weekends? Would you love a multiweek break? Setting aside thoughts of the work that needs to be done, just focus on your best vision for time away. Now, thinking about the upcoming year, use your past year's allocation (i.e., two or three weeks) as a guideline. Get out a calendar and map it out. Maybe there are some fixed items: a family reunion or time around the holidays. Maybe there are certain days off from school that you like to take with your kids. Then expand a bit. If you were forced to use every one of those days, when would you use them? Combine practical and visionary, thinking where you'd fit it in among known work peak times. If you like spontaneity, build that assumption in for a certain number of days. This is the start of your plan to keep from starving yourself of vaca- tion.Take this map to your boss and ask for feedback. If you have a longer-term hope of a month off for a longer break in the next couple of years, start talking about that vision now, and understand your company's expectations for that. The biggest challenge will be per- sonal barriers you put up in the moment.The "I'm too busy today" syndrome that derails the stayca- tion is a common trap. Hard though it may be to believe, the world will keep turning and the company run- ning if you don't check your e-mail on a day off. If this is your pattern, focus on trusting that your team can handle your absence – and that they aren't going to realize you're not needed at all. It's a big change, and you'll need to believe you're entitled to be recharged, and communicate your vision to make it work. Q. I've never been very good about using all my vacation time. I feel guilty both about not maintaining "work-life balance" and for burdening my co-workers when I'm away.We're moving to a "no vacation" policy where we don't have a fixed number of days; instead, we're free to take what we need. I fear I'm going to do even worse on taking time off with the new approach. By Liz Reyer Tribune News Service (TNS) 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. On a clear day: After Schreiner graduated in 2003, he landed a writing job at G4, a cable channel focused on video games, technology and enter- tainment. Schreiner eventually became head writer for "Attack of the Show," the network's most popular program. One particularly clear day after a storm, Schreiner caught his first glimpse of the San Gabriel Mountains. He took a drive up the next weekend and was sold. "It was such an amazing, tremendous resource that no one had told me about," Schreiner said. "Growing up on the East Coast, you never ever in a million years think of LA as an outdoors city." Idea is born: Schreiner start- ed crossing off trails every weekend, beginning with popu- lar trails in the Santa Monica Mountains and progressing to more difficult ones in the San Gabriels. Along the way, he'd post photos and write-ups to his personal Blogspot page. Play- ing around with the site's ana- lytic tools, he discovered that people often arrived at his blog after searching for specific trails in Los Angeles. Enough people were coming to the blog that he decided to separate the hiking content from personal commentary on politics or entertainment. In December 2006, he registered modernhik- er.com. Building a community: Writ- ing about outdoor experiences was an escape from his G4 work, which focused on Inter- net culture, gaming and tech- nology. "That was still indoor stuff," he said. "I wanted to do something that . utilized a total- ly different part of my brain and also gave me a sense of discovery as I was doing it." For the first two years he wrote for his own enjoyment, posting as he saw fit. But as a commu- nity built around the site, "I started to realize that I actually need to take this seriously," Schreiner said. "People are not going to tolerate it if I take three weeks off and don't post any content." Covering more terrain: What started as a guide to trails within striking distance of the city has grown into one that aspires to cover much of the western U.S. Modern Hiker differs from other guides in its editorial control, Schreiner said. Rather than crowdsourc- ing content from users who may not be committed to quali- ty, Modern Hiker has a dedicat- ed writing staff. Schreiner has eight writers working along the West Coast – from San Diego to Seattle. The goal, he said, is to capture a range of trails, from urban hikes to grueling 14-mile journeys in remote sec- tions of the San Gabriels. Building a community also has helped the staff keep up with changing conditions along the trails after rainstorms or fires. Too much information?: Schreiner has faced criticism from locals who don't want trails to become overrun. He often gets emails asking that trail guides be removed from the site. He said he understands the sentiment, but believes the best way to protect natural hikers ... from page 1 The job market clearly has heated up. Job fair notices hit my desk daily. And then there are the frus- trated emails from job can- didates. It's a different frustration from a few years ago when it was harder to nab a job interview than it is now to get through a day without hearing the word Trump. The new frustration is from job candidates who are get- ting interviews – more of them, in fact, than they'd like. I'm not talking about someone who is juggling multiple job offers. That's a lovely situation, but not if it involves sending excellent candidates through a long series of interviews for a position. "I'm on round four," complained one eager applicant. "I need a deci- sion." A recent essay in Work- force magazine and a newsletter from a profes- sional recruiter hit on the problem. Good job candi- dates are being pulled back for four, five or more inter- views, often at financial and emotional expense. Kris Dunn, a contribut- ing editor at Workforce, wrote that it now takes an average of 63 business days to fill a job, or 21 days longer than it did five years ago. He said that's ineffi- cient and doesn't do a better job detecting "fit" for the job. Nick Corcodilos, a recruiter who blogs at "Ask The Headhunter," said the problem with multiple interviews usually begins at the screening stage, where generalists are assigned to pare the candi- date pool without having detailed knowledge about the nuances of the job. You can trace the explo- sion of multiple interviews to the 2008 recession and subsequent job market col- lapse. Employers nearly had stopped hiring. When they decided to fill a job, they could be very, very particular. They had a sea of downsized talent to choose from. And, in many cases, they were trying to save money, too, so they weren't in a rush to hire. When hundreds of appli- cants vied for a single open- ing, it's not hard to under- stand why initial screenings were required. So, phone Job interview callbacks are good – until there are too many By Diane Stafford The Kansas City Star (TNS) see HIKERS . . . page 6 A publication of Conley Media Call Center Director: Cindy Shaske 262-306-5016 cshaske@conleynet.com Account Executive: Julie Sears 262-306-5008 jsears@conleynet.com Story Coordinator: Dan Muckelbauer 262-513-2626 dmuck@conleynet.com Production: Patricia Scheel 262-513-2690 GREATERmilwaukeeJOBS Volume 18 • Number 28 March 31, 2016 To place an ad: Call us at 262-306-5008 or fax us at 262-338-5271 deadline: Noon on Wednesdays Distributed by: Conley Distribution 262-513-2646 ©2016 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. Call 262-306-5008 for information. see JOB INTERVIEW. . . page 6

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