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As it turns out, more than you might think

Posted on Wednesday 11 November 2009 at 01:32 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

What comes to mind when describing your day-to-day work environment? If you're like most of the respondents who took part in the Center for Work Life Policy’s recent 'Hidden Brain Drain' research, your response would likely be: "unbelievably stressful."

There's no doubt about it: The pressures of the recession are having a measurable effect on physical health and mental well-being. As I report in my new book Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business Is Down, recent research from the Center for Work-Life Policy shows that the number of high-echelon workers experiencing stress has more than doubled in the last 12 months, rising from 33% to dancing pearl 78%. Symptoms range from "crashing" at the end of the day (70% vs. 43% six months earlier) to an "emptied out" sex life (37% vs. 30%).

Participants in the study (on average, vice presidents and managing directors--in other words, the cream of the crop) also reported worrisome health issues including dependence on sleep medication, migraine headaches, anxiety attacks, immune system failure, problem drinking and overeating.

In addition, as they deal with brutal hours in tension-filled offices, many high performers can't prevent the strains at work from spilling over into their home lives, causing ill temper and spawning squabbles. With one spouse spending many hours at work, the partner often feels like a single parent: "It's obvious that I'm consumed by the company and the team and my spouse feels cheated and overburdened with the responsibility of figuring out the home and kids," said one strategy session participant. Another reported "more stupid fighting as we are both stressed and tired."

Sound familiar?

In previous columns, I've highlighted what smart companies are doing to try to break this vicious cycle. But what can you do on an individual level to get your own life back--and give the same gift to your team?

As it turns out, more than you might think.

Take Joan Amble, an EVP, Corporate Comptroller at American Express ( AXP - news - people ). Like the rest of the financial industry, her company was impacted by the economic meltdown and had to make double-digit cuts in its workforce. At the same time, the team was hit with a massive project that had to get done in literally a matter of weeks. Amble recalls worrying, "In this environment of cost and staffing cuts, how can I keep my people motivated? Given the increased pressure and minimal opportunity for reward, how can I best keep the team engaged and enthusiastic?"

Her solution came from a woman business owner in India, who her company was mentoring through the Global Women's Mentoring Partnership. Nandita runs a public relations firm. Nearly 90% of the 80 employees are women, many of whom care for young children. To freshwater pearl jewelry satisfy childcare needs, Nandita instilled a revolutionary rule: Everyone had to leave work by 6 p.m., unless they had prior approval. If clients wanted to schedule a meeting at 5:30, they were politely but firmly told that the meeting would have to take place in the morning.

As Amble listened to Nandita's story, she had a brain flash. "Wow! I can't promise my team bonuses but I can give them their life back."

She gathered her direct reports and they hammered out a four-part initiative.

Step one: Everyone had to be on their way home by 6:30. "I encouraged all my direct leaders to follow suit, because if they didn't do it, their people wouldn't."

Step two: No e-mails after 8 p.m. The first time Amble received an e-mail after 8 p.m., she sent out an auto-reply in capital letters: "PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU ARE IN VIOLATION OF OUR NEW E-MAIL POLICY. SIGNED, WORK-LIFE BALANCE POLICE." Amble recalls, "It was like the shot heard 'round the world."

Step three: No e-mail on weekends or vacations.

Step four: When you take vacation or personal time, you have to delegate authority. "Assuming you've done a good job as a leader, you've hired good people so you have someone to delegate to," Amble notes.

The initiative was backed up with leadership tools, such as protocols on how to run an effective meeting. And the results started to roll in. By forcing people to prioritize and to focus on what's really important, the new discipline not only enables people to work more efficiently--it encourages them to delegate authority and empower people, a win-win situation for everyone.

Furthermore, Amble noticed that people handle day-to-day stress better. When they return from vacation, they're rejuvenated. And with more time for outside interests and exercise to allow the mind to regroup, they're thinking more creatively.

Other managers have noticed the difference--and started to emulate Amble's strategy. As one said, "My people are so much happier now that they're not getting barraged by last-minute calls and weekend e-mails."

Even more striking: Despite the "perfect storm," the attrition rate--even on two of the most challenged global teams--was near zero. The overall team has become more productive in every sense--delivering better results than in previous quarters. "And," Amble says proudly, "you can count the number of people who worked on weekends on one hand."

Looking back, Amble is the first to pearl wholesale admit that she was driving much of the unhealthy behavior. "I thought I was being efficient by dealing with e-mail on weekends. Even though I told people not to respond, of course they responded." She likes to joke that soon after the new policy went into effect, "someone came to me and said, 'I think my BlackBerry is broken because I didn't get any e-mail this weekend.'

"You know, all we did was prioritize better," Amble says. "It was so easy. We should have done this a long time ago."

Sylvia Ann Hewlett is an economist and the founding president of the Center for Work-Life Policy, a nonprofit think tank, where she leads the "Hidden Brain Drain" Task Force. She is the author of nine nonfiction books--including Off-Ramps and On-Ramps and Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business Is Down.

Posted by whoyg1675

Posted on Wednesday 11 November 2009 at 01:32 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Posted by whoyg1675 on Thursday, October 29, 2009 5:31:05 AM

For college students graduating next spring, there's good news (and bad) on the job front.

Worst things first. According to a recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), company recruiters plan to multi-strands pearl necklace visit 6.6% fewer campuses and hire 6.9% fewer graduates than last year. So say 220 relatively large (average size: 7,000 employees) corporations, including General Electric ( GE - news - people ), Wells Fargo ( WFC - news - people ), Ford Motor ( F - news - people ), Macy's ( M - news - people ) and Halliburton ( HAL - news - people ). Now for the better news: Most job offers will probably be solid. The class of 2009 got a rotten deal, when recruiters showed up at 19.4% fewer campuses and hired 21.7% fewer college grads than they did in the previous academic year. Additionally, NACE respondents said they rescinded 9% of all offers.

Next year should be quite a bit better. The take-back rate could be as low as 1%, guesses Edwin Koc, director of strategic and foundation research at NACE--which puts it in the range of most ''normal'' years. ''This year expectations are much lower and the overall economy is improving,'' Koc explains. ''If anything, I expect maybe a bit better outcome at the end of the period than what we start with.''

Jeff Rice, executive director of career management for the Fisher school of Business at Ohio State University, agrees. ''I do think that companies are more cautious in their hiring positions and not making offers unless they can stand by them,'' he says. Rice goes one step further: He's seen a 35% increase in on-campus recruiters from last year.

So where are the jobs? NACE reports that 20-plus percent of employers say they'll probably do less traveling and more stay-at-home recruiting. That should translate into more regional hiring. ''They're going to be more targeted in the career fairs and colleges they visit,'' says Koc, adding that many employers will fall back on ''the previous success they've had at [a particular] school.''

Regional opportunities are all over the map, so to speak. The West offers the grimmest prospects. Four in 10 companies in that part of the U.S. say they will hire fewer college students. It's pretty awful in the Southeast, too, where companies project a 9.9% drop in jobs offered to freshwater pearl new grads. There's a mixed picture in the Midwest, where 14.3% of employers say they intend to increase hiring, while 35.7% plan a decrease (total projected college hiring in the Midwest will fall by 3.2%).

The most hopeful front is the Northeast, where 17.6% of companies say they will increase their hiring of 2010 college graduates; total employment of this group, they expect, will rise by more than 5.6%. ''The biggest reason for the somewhat better outlook in the Northeast is that financial firms are indicating an interest in college hiring again this year,'' says Koc. "The other is that federal government agencies are one of the only sources of growth in hiring over the past two years, and we locate those agencies in the Northeast.''

Unsurprisingly, federal, state and local governments--some of them huge recipients of stimulus tax dollars--will be the biggest potential employers. Indeed, 38.5% of government employers reported projected increase in college hiring. Close behind, 33.3% of trade industry employers--consisting mainly of the broad categories of wholesalers and retailers--think they'll be filling more jobs. ''I think people need to be paying attention to where stimulus money is directed: government, health care, education and energy,'' says Ohio State's Rice.

While many of these sectors are concentrated in the Northeast, there are also biotech industries in California and solar and wind companies in the Southeast and Midwest. Rice also reckons there will be opportunities in consulting and accounting. We have chronic cost-cutting, mostly, to pearl strand thank for that.

Everything, of course, depends on a generally upward GDP. ''There are indications the economy is improving,'' says Koc. ''But traditionally it takes six months of profitability before companies pick up for hiring.''

The red stuff continues to flow

Posted on Wednesday 11 November 2009 at 01:30 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

The red stuff continues to flow, and I don't mean corn-syrupy Halloween-costume blood. Far scarier are the fountains of red ink spurting from thousands of small businesses plagued by lack of demand, shortage of credit and crushing health care costs. The knee-jerk reaction for many cash-strapped Mom and Pop shops: squeeze pennies until they wail.

I've got some news for you: Cost-cutting alone won't guarantee survival. Yes, you need enough cash to gemstone necklace fill orders, remunerate employees and cover interest payments. Lose sight of the customer, though, and you might as well pack it in right now.

Mark Cornett, co-owner of Northern Interiors, a furniture retailer in Potsdam, N.Y., gets it. Typical furniture retailers charge as much as three times wholesale costs, followed by frequent deep discounts to entice shoppers. There are two problems with that model. First, those spikes are hard to plan for; second, customers end up having a relationship with those discounts, not the store itself. "Over-priced products that encourage customers to wait for the next huge sale is the norm," says Cornett, 52.

That's why Northern Interiors charges in the neighborhood of 1.8 times cost and sticks to it. "Our approach was to offer better pricing consistently and to market the customer experience, eventually building a loyal, repeat customer base."

With average revenue per ticket on the wane in the recession, Cornett also has squeezed more out of each operating dollar by taking a closer look at what his customers were buying. Result: He stocked more popular items, including futons and drapes, and displayed them more prominently on Northern's Web site, while recliners and mattresses temporarily took a backseat.

Cornett also rationalized his labor costs. "We have carefully tracked store traffic, adjusting store hours to control labor while assuring we are open when we need to pearl jewelry wholesale be," he says. Throw in some cutbacks in print advertising and Cornett has managed to slash operating expenses by 19% in the last 12 months. And thanks to his customer-focused approach, even the top line is starting to move in the right direction. Adds Cornett: "Rather than go home at night worried about the future, I feel like we are beginning to see some light."

Dan Cook, owner of Harry L Cook, a 95-year-old chain of dry cleaners (with three locations) in Syracuse, N.Y., has an even more basic approach to delighting customers. "It's as simple as treating people like you want to be treated," says Cook, 67. "We know everybody that walks in by name. I tell all of my employees that if you don’t know their first names you better know their last. Find out something that is unique about them, have an open ear. My goal is to send a customer home smiling and have their spouse say: 'You have been at the dry cleaners again, haven't you?'"

Forging those sorts of relationships means combing scads of data, every day, without fail: "When I come in I usually spend the first half an hour getting caught up on who got a promotion, who lost a loved one, whose kid won an award," says Cook.

Charismatic, dedicated customer service is nice; offering a better product is nicer. To separate himself from the pack, Cook provides off-season clothing storage free of charge. While the market for the service has dropped a bit with the trend away from wool and toward natural fibers, Cook says he regularly stores upward of 500 boxes in numerical and alphabetic order. "And by the way, we clean all of the clothes," he adds.

As for pinching pennies in the recession, Cook isn't going overboard. "We did no actual cost cutting, but we have watched costs very carefully, especially our payroll, which needs to be 30% to pearl earrings wholesale 32% of revenue," he says. "It can turn into 50% quickly if you don't watch it."

Cook's final piece of advice: "If it's raining, you should grab an umbrella and meet your customer at the car." Don't have an umbrella? Get one, because there are plenty of rainy days ahead.

The home is well-appointed

Posted on Wednesday 11 November 2009 at 01:29 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

One might think of the late 1940s as wheat pearl a more modest era in homebuilding, but this property proves that architects of the time weren't afraid of a little gothic opulence. The imposing, three-story brick-façade estate sits behind an expansive front lawn in Charlotte, N.C.'s, Eastover subdivision. Its vaulted arches and sweeping height invoke suburban majesty while hinting at history.

The home is well-appointed with architectural details, from built-in copper lanterns to antique heart pine wainscoting and cedar closets. In the soaring family rooms, 12-foot ceilings lend an air of spacious elegance. Nineteenth-century timber wholesale pearl necklace ceiling beams intersect interior brick walls decked with wide, stately archways.

The grandeur extends to the home's exterior. Tasteful landscaping and a porch with outdoor fireplace give antique charm and high-end comfort to the backyard. Five bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, two "bonus rooms" for entertaining, a light-flooded office, laundry room and professional kitchen mean that finding a place to be alone in the home's nearly 6,000 square feet should never be a problem.

The old-world manor's asking price has been reduced in the more than six months it has been for sale, but only by a mere 5%. The sellers have reason to be confident: Home prices in the 28207 ZIP code have risen 19% over the past year, according to Forbes' Luxury Housing Index. Demand for housing in high-tech cities like Charlotte remains high, as young professionals flood to tin cup pearl necklace intellectual centers looking for specialized jobs and a culturally rich lifestyle, newly released census data show. At $1,695,000, the home beats its ZIP code's median asking price by 34% it.

Seasonally

Posted on Wednesday 11 November 2009 at 01:28 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Seasonally, you've also probably heard, "sell in May, and go away," which refers to the markets' tendency to produce greater gains during the November through April period than the May through October period. There's also the Santa Claus rally, the freshwater perl jewelry January effect and a few more.

Here's one you may not have heard about. It comes from options guru Larry McMillan in an October 23 hotline for his Option Strategistnewsletter subscribers. Essentially, the market, measured by the S&P 500 index has freshwater pearl jewelry traditionally performed well from Oct. 27 through Nov. 2.

"Traditionally, this is one of the best seasonal trades to be found," says McMillan. "It is a simple concept, based on observing historical price patterns...buy 'the market,' which we define at the S&P 500, at the close of trading on Oct. 27. Sell your position out at the close of trading on Nov. 2."
Click here to try Larry McMillan's Option Strategist and get dozens of freshwater pearl earrings recommended trades, including new positions in Juniper Networks and Potash Corp. Of Saskatchewan.