I’m a big fan of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel and have the Tivo set to record it every week. If you haven’t seen it, essentially the host goes around each week and works with people who have a dirty job. Well, not just dirty, usually disgusting to the nth degree.

So I’m intrigued when I see this CareerJournal.com article – Putting the Spotlight
On the Grimiest Gigs. It’s a fun read and the host, Mike Rowe, is an interesting guy.

Read the article and you will find this great point (my emphasis):

Great point and I must confess I have used that platitude on many occasions.

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These surveys come out on a fairly regular basis. There is a part of me that believes 20 years down the road we will still be seeing similar results to the findings in Inc.com’s Employees Feeling Underappreciated.

Of more than 500 full- and part-time employees surveyed nationwide, 35 percent said the company they worked for was ineffective at rewarding strong performance, according to OfficeTeam, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based staffing services firm. At the same time, 30 percent of 150 senior executives surveyed admitted that employee recognition wasn’t a high enough priority.

The reason I mention this survey is that that Gen Y/Millenials have a different take on employment. They value work/life balance and look for different rewards from their employment (skill development, authority, horizontal organization, purpose). I don’t think these topics are new, but their prioritization of them is.

Retaining employees requires effort from their immediate managers. Understanding the employee’s motivations and rewards provides the recipe for building a stronger feeling of appreciation.

Most managers make the mistake of showing their appreciation by using rewards that reinforce their own personal motivation. I worked for one boss who always wanted to reward our team by taking us and our spouses out to expensive dinners. As nice as the meal was, I never looked forward to these outings. No matter what the setting, he was still the boss so the meal was not relaxing.

A $50 bill would have been far more pleasing to my Utilitarian motivation.

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It has been a while since I last posted about important upcoming dates. I was looking through a promotional calendar and started chuckling at some of the titles I was reading. Instead of highlighting just one this month, I thought I would provide all of July’s honor:

• National Recreation and Parks Month
• Blueberries Month
• Cell Phone Courtesy Month
• Family Reunion Month
• Herbal & Prescription Awareness Month
• National Baked Beans Month
• National Culinary Arts Month
• National Grilling Month
• National Hot Dog Month
• National Make a Difference to Children Month
• National Purposeful Parenting Month
• Skyscraper Month
• Social Wellness Month
• Women’s Motorcycle Month
• Mental Illness Awareness Month

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From CNNMoney.com comes a humorous article titled Do CEOs make lousy dads (and moms)?  The Q&A format is a discussion of an entertaining new book from a former comedy programmer at HBO.  The guy is now a CEO of an executive search firm in Los Angeles who almost lost his wife during an armed robbery.

The article starts with some stats from a monster.com survey:

…found that 58% think their employers should do more to accommodate the demands of fatherhood; 71% of those with a child under age 5 took a paternity leave when it was offered. The poll also found that, if money were no object, 68% of fathers would consider being stay-at-home dads.

I’m not sure what accommodations they are looking for and I know I could not be a stay-at-home dad.  There must be a happy medium in there.  Anyway, on to the author who was clearly out-of-control in his work/life balance:

I used to be the kind of guy who would be texting clients while riding the Matterhorn at Disneyland with my daughters. It was nuts.

And later on this tongue-in-cheek gem:

They (his family) like me better. I play with my kids now. I don’t take work calls at dinnertime anymore. I’ve accepted that, at home, I don’t have the control over events that I have at the office, which is why most CEOs have trouble with family life. You can’t fire your kids, although I am thinking of transferring them, as soon as I find the right storage facility.

It’s a fun article to read before Father’s Day with a good message.

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According to a recent study by World at Work:

The number of Americans whose employer allows them to work remotely at least one day per month increased 63 percent, from 7.6 million in 2004 to 12.4 million in 2006.

Based on government estimates of 149.3 million workers in the U.S. labor force, the 2006 data means that roughly 8 percent of American workers have an employer that allows them to telecommute one day per month.

The article goes on to say that this trend is a result of the proliferation of high speed broadband, wireless access and the willingness of more employers to embrace flexibility in regards to work-life balance.

I think we also need to look at the rising costs in gas and the sophistication of technology. VPN tunnels allow access to company documents without setting foot in the office, the new MS Office products now allow simultaneous group work on a document and VoIP phones allow business-grade phones into a home office. With a gallon of gas going over the $3 mark and the amount of time that is being wasted on commuting, I think we will see this number continue to rise.

The national average commute time is 24.4 minutes which amounts to approximately 4.5 days a year spent in commute. The number one city is New York City with an average commute time of 38.4 minutes, Chicago is second at 32.7, Philadelphia third at 30.3. Our hometown of Minneapolis is tied with Nashville at 52nd (21 minutes) and rounding out the list in last place (or should it be first?) is Wichita City, KS at 16.5 minutes.

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It’s 91° here in the Twin Cities today so vacation is on the brain.  CareerBuilder.com offers up some interesting survey results in Using or Losing Your Time Off?

E-leashes and hectic schedules are cutting into vacation time as increasingly wired workers are finding it hard to leave the office at home. Although an improvement from 27 percent in 2006, 20 percent of workers say they plan to stay in touch with the office during their vacation this year, according to CareerBuilder.com’s annual vacation survey, conducted by Harris Interactive of more than 6,800 workers. Nearly 15 percent of workers say they gave up at least one of their vacation days in 2006 because they didn’t have time to use it. Ten percent gave up four or more days.

First off, “e-leash” is excellent.  I’ve never heard that term before but it is quite appropriate.

Second, we had a Chicago-based sales candidate take time away from her family vacation in Orlando to spend an hour on the phone with us.  The Rock Star had to work through getting her schedule to align with our client’s schedule (a President) which was no small feat.  The candidate did quite well on the phone interview and is moving through the process as I write.

Interestingly enough, the President thought the candidate should be available even though she was on vacation.  His comment was “that is the way of sales these days.”  I think he is right.

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From CNNMoney.com’s They work harder for the money:

The International Labor Organization (ILO), a United Nations agency, conducted a study of more than 50 countries and found that 22 percent of the total workforce surveyed (614.2 million people) worked more than 48 hours a week, an amount the ILO defines as excessive.

Among the developed nations covered in the report, ILO found that the countries with the highest percentage of workers putting in a longer than 48-hour workweek are:

• Japan: 39.3%
• United Kingdom: 25.7%
• Israel: 25.5%
• New Zealand: 23.6%
• Australia: 20.4%
• Switzerland: 19.2%
• United States: 18.1%

First off, it is a UN agency so that must be considered. I must admit I was surprised by some of the countries on this list.

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This week school will be out for our kids and I found this SHRM article (membership required) interesting and timely. The article discusses how we here in the US are opting to move our vacations from the 2 week long once a year vacations to more 3-4 day weekend stints. A study was conducted by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. that looked at vacation habits of U.S. workers.

€œWe are becoming a nation of the long weekend vacation, with workers looking ahead to each Monday/Friday holiday for the opportunity to turn a three-day weekend into a four- or five-day weekend. The switch to mini-vacations will only be accelerated by soaring gas prices as travelers stay close to home or even stay at home and use the time to work on the house or explore locally,€ firm President and CEO John A. Challenger said in a press release.

This was echoed in a survey conducted by CareerBuilder.com from Feb. 15 to March 6, 2007. They found:

€¢ 70 percent of workers receive two weeks or more of paid vacation, and nearly 25 percent receive four or more weeks.

€¢ 12 percent do not receive a paid vacation.

€¢ 9 percent lie to their employers, telling them they can€™t be reached while on vacation.

€¢ 20 percent won€™t take a vacation in 2007, 27 percent will take five days or less, and 9 percent will limit themselves to weekend getaways.

Now couple those statistics with the fact we are more available than ever before with cell phones, laptops and PDA’s. It is getting to be almost impossible to disappear for a couple of days to unwind. I’m in Dallas right now meeting with a couple clients and there is no disappearing from the office tasks. Emails still need responses, my cell phone keeps ringing . . . heck, I’m even writing this post. The thought of the family vacation as we knew it back in the ’60’s and ’70’s is quickly disappearing.

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I just read through a local business weekly that had a profile of a power player CEO. Her bio says she is married with 3 children all under the age of 3. The first thing listed under her hobbies section:

Spending time with her family

I know, this is probably just semantics, but spending time with your family is a hobby? I generally think of rollerblading, hunting and traveling as hobbies. Your family is more important than work and I would characterize family life as more than a hobby.

Again, maybe it is just semantics, but certainly not how I would state it.

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We’ve posted about no-email Fridays and those companies that want to encourage face-to-face meetings and phone calls that day. Now ManageSmarter.com offers a different perspective on being accessible – Office Vs. The Field: Accessibility.

The premise of their article is to pit one sales manager’s opinion against one salesperson’s opinion on a specific topic. This time the question is:

Should salespeople be accessible 24 hours a day?

Both manager and salesperson agree that they should be available. I concur. Technology today allows for salespeople to be responsive in ways that solidify the customer relationship. I particularly like the sales manager’s take on technology:

It€™s a salesperson’s responsibility to keep on top of BlackBerrys, cell phones, etc. While this may cut into relaxation, anyone who is determined to succeed must know that there is always a competitor out there, somewhere, gunning for your clients. Business is moving at the speed of light. The pace is a lot quicker and, if someone is out of reach, that can mean the business goes away.

Very true. Our business is one that operates 6 days a week for certain and sometimes into Sunday (though we do try to set that day aside). That is simply the way of the world. Interestingly enough, we often receive emails from CEOs, Presidents and Owners on Sunday evening as they prepare for their upcoming work week. Our PDA phones are invaluable for these communications.

Finally, the salesperson in this article shares his thoughts (again, with which I agree):

Ironically, the BlackBerry gives me the ability to have a life. I can go somewhere without having to be afraid that I€™m missing something.

I view it the same way. I have my Moto Q which allows me to be updated on email, voicemail and to carry around numerous files in case I need them. The technology enables more freedom while still being accessible.

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