Video about organizational view on Safety

My Critique of the HR Professional article “HR and the MBA” January 2013 Issue

I am very wary of when I get to read an article that quotes statistics and numbers, because they can be skewed in any direction that you want. This is usually done by omission and by interpreting insufficient data. This article does not push readers to any particular conclusion, by just saying that MBA is a personal choice, which in my opinion was evident before the survey. However the way the survey was reported leaves more to be desired.

First of all it does not identify their sample, “840 HR Professionals were contacted” can be very diverse or homogenous. What’s the response rate?, what’s the demographics breakdown? Is that a sufficient sample size for the population?. I don’t know any of this. Frankly, I started to skim through the rest of the article after not finding these facts reported in the article. These are the basics of covering the survey. I expect to find this kind of reporting in the professional magazine.

Unreasonable job requirements

I am sure that everyone has encountered these at some point. Being a recent graduate, you come across a lot of job postings during your job search and you see some crazy requirements posted by companies. Specifically I remember coming across an entry-level HR position that asks for 3 years of HR experience. Wait a minute, this company either thinks that their entry level is above other entry level jobs or they have another classification for the people that are entering their HR department without any experience. Intern or temp job titles come to mind. 

Last week I went into a dollar store and saw a job requirement for their store clerk position – it read: “5 years of retail experience required”. That’s excessive in my opinion, but there may be something else attached to that figure. Competence wise I am certain that 1 year of retail experience should qualify anyone to work at all stores that do not require product knowledge. This job certainly appears like one of the jobs that should not require product knowledge. They could be looking for somebody more “mature”, which is a more covert way to select people above a certain age without getting in trouble for age discrimination. And I have a problem with that.  I feel like the youth are already getting squeezed out of entry level jobs, and to discourage them from applying is wrong.

Siesta at European workplaces is another point for flexible work schedule

During my vacation to Spain I have encountered a mass siesta for the first time in a foreign culture. It was really curious to see mostly everyone just close up shop and go home in the afternoon for a couple of hours. Evidently this is a practice deep rooted in their history to cope with the climate, which is really hot in the afternoons. It sounds really nice to be able to go home in the afternoon and just nap for an hour or so. Apparently this is in line with our biorhythm of the afternoon slump that makes it desirable for us to take a nap. http://wellbeing.doctissimo.com/lifestyle/getting-a-good-nights-sleep/siestas-as-workplace-performance-enhancers.html

I feel like the presented benefits of the afternoon naps, just make it more enticing to adopt a flexible work schedule in the back office environment. It wouldn’t be anything new to the new employees coming in, that have more likely gotten some retail and shiftwork experience. Besides with the technological advancements many jobs in part can be completed remotely shall there be a particular deadline. I think that introducing flexible work environment would also prove to be a move towards becoming more competitive for the female talent. It’s rather widely known that majority of women value work flexibility more than money. To me it seems like a competitive edge type of move to make your job more flexible and more attractive.

Funny Job Application by a Yorkie

The Hiring manager should have had a sense of humor and done something about this situation, at least attempted to get the girls actual resume and cover letter.

Somehow i am not surprised that this happened to a York student.

Nevertheless this made me smile

here's her blog but i imagine she has way more visitors than me at this point

http://buenastardis.tumblr.com/post/26600983066/jesus-christ-i-accidentally-sent-my-potential

Cool, you graduated, but your dream job is not there

It means that you are one of the 300,000 other lucky new graduates with minty fresh diploma looking for work on the job market. Add to that the number of the unemployed people and a few thousand of people looking to change their job and you have your competitors of the job search marathon. Some are holding out for that perfect job that you thought you would be doing after school. Yep those are the new grads like you.

Hate to break it to you but it’s simply not there.

Why?

1.     You don’t have experience for your dream job.

The job may physically be there but don’t let that fool you, for you it does not exist. You simply have no idea how much time it would take for you to practice to become proficient enough in that job to be considered competent.  You need to pick up some practical skill along the way to do well in that job with minimal training.

2.     Your dream job is way too popular

Face it, really nice jobs are usually in high demand. They have sought after titles, pay and benefits. So they have plenty of people to choose from. What makes you think they would choose you?

3.     You don’t know what it is

Your dream job is defined right now by your assumptions of what the job entails. You don’t know what you like yet because you don’t have the complete idea of what is done during the day. You don’t know if you like the industry and so on and so forth.

It’s not all spoiled milk and eggs however.                                          What do you have?

1.     flexibility to move for work

You just finished school, and presumably looking to move out, so you should be super mobile and be open to move anywhere for work. Do you know that it’s easier to get a job in provinces that have employment boom like Alberta, and Saskatchewan?

2.     clean slate and opportunity to find a job in any field

Most entry level jobs don’t require you to have prior experience within the industry which means you can choose any industry you think you like. And you can switch easily if you don’t like it. It’s not going to kill you.

3.     Tenacity

Roll up them sleeves, and put in work. It’s 4^th quarter mentality all day everyday.

Why do I write a Blog

I have recently read this book Rework that talks about the importance of writing in the business, as a main tool of communication which is clearly essential. Good writers have plenty of transferable skills like omission of irrelevant information, larger vocabulary and clear understanding of ideas that help them write well. These are great skills that I should try to improve in myself and hence it gives me the reason to write on my blog. Hopefully with time i will become interesting to read, but for now I keep on practicing.

Blogging is a great medium for this kind of sparring, as it opens your work up to the world and allow for people to discover your writing. The better you become at writing the more people you will attract It's really that simple, so all you should do is start writing an with time you shall see results.
I came across this little video that talks about blogging today and it highlights some of the benefits of blogging, specifically the process of explaining yourself.

Underemployment just became more popular

How Employment Insurance changes will affect your job search | CanadianBusiness.com

Recent changes to EI eligibility made it compulsory for people to seek low-paying jobs aka McJobs before filing for unemployment benefits. This is the wheel that new Graduates often get stuck in: “Part-time job or 2 part-time jobs to offset the amount of hours that was available to you on one job. “ This may severely slow down the suitable job search for the candidate and result in a longer professional work break between jobs, which increases the risk of having to change career-path, regardless of how unwelcome it may be.

This is highly alarming, as I would expect to have some kind of benefit after I pay for EI throughout my employed period. Looking at this policy change in combination with the abolishment of the mandatory retirement, I am becoming concerned about the financial ability of the government to pay what they “owe” to the working people. You pay for what you don’t get it’s becoming like yet another insurance scam – auto, extended warranty and now employment insurances.  

If this was not the push to treat oneself like a business I don’t know what would do it. I feel like the most appropriate strategy in this job market is to take on finite employment obligations like contracts and always stay looking for the next opportunity, or even open up your own business/practice.

Coming Back

 This past weekend I came back home after being away for almost 7 months. It sounds pretty unreal just thinking about it, but this is yet another testament to the fact that time flies, as I certainly didn’t feel like it was 7 months maybe 2-3 at the most. 

I felt euphoric after my plane landed in Pearson International this Saturday, and I had imagined that coming home would be magical and exciting. It wasn’t that at all. I found that people had lives regardless if I was there or not. I didn’t expect people to drop everything and welcome me back, so this wasn’t as much of a shock for me. The thing that got me the most is the speed of this city.

Everything here just happens fast, especially downtown. I felt a little bit out of sync walking around the city.

A lot of things seem old but unfamiliar, it’s really a unique feeling that you get, I don’t know if there is anything like it. I imagine it would be much more distinct if I travel back to the town that I was born in, as I wasn’t there for 7 years already.

In other words, I am back I want to try to get some writing in so keep an eye out if you are reading this.

Dealing with regret >= Accepting regret

Let's examine the chart that was presented during the presentation that draws things that we regret the most. Focus on education and career in the survey results that were presented in this video indicate a common viewpoint of priorities that are shared by the people of the society. Certainly this is correlated to the cultural dimensions of North American people, and their protestant work ethic. This is something that we cannot escape and we will inevitable place more importance on these values, statistically speaking.

When talking about regret one has to have a reference point of comparison of their actions. Often if not always this comparison is found in the outside world, which is explained by cultural tendencies, or dimensions. For example, I regret not doing this major at school because it is in demand now, or because the one that I have is not sufficient or useful for me, both of which make me less competitive in the job market and competitiveness is highly valued in North American culture. 

I also believe that acceptance of regret can be used as a form of excuse for lack of action. Fact of the matter is bad decisions should be examined and if you are blessed enough to commit enough of them you can determine a pattern in the motivations and use that as a tool to understand yourself and turn that perceived weakness into your strength.

For example, I have discovered a while back that I have this tendency to doodle things when I ought to be focusing on the lecture that is being presented to me. Having to rely on these sporadic and rather useless notes caused plenty of regret. So I read up on note taking techniques and realized that perhaps I have a tendency to think visually, which later on I have included into my study methods. So when taking notes I draw plenty of dependency charts, which actually helped me significantly, furthermore when preparing for exams I would draw these Idea maps to cover the material that I had to memorize and that also helped me immensely.

My point is, things that you regret for the most part are culture driven, rather than merely accepting things as they happened everything you do can be turned into an opportunity to explore yourself, which in turn is an opportunity to better yourself. 

Don't be a thief, hit that snooze button

“Laboratory studies showed that sleep quantity is positively related to self-control resources and negative associated with unethical behavior”

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597811000239

Great news Occupy Wall Street protestors: Scientists have found a way to make people more ethical. All the Bank execs need to do is have some more sleep and they will not bet on subprime mortgages. This is a true progress in the world of organizational behavior and human psyche in general. Psyke!

I find it very amusing that such meaningless studies are posted. I will likely be amongst the majority of people that hold scientist to a higher standard in their work. Unfortunately they didn’t meet my expectation here, by banally confusing correlation and causation. Even though they don’t come out and state that in the abstract. And frankly speaking I’m too cheap to purchase this article to find out, but logically speaking the study would be even more meaningless if they simply just post the found correlation.

Off the top of my head I can say that sleep is essential to the nervous system in maintaining it’s proper function. I have doubt that the amount of sleep can drastically and solely impact the person’s judgment. I believe that the more appropriate way to pin point the root causes of unethical behavior is through inductive research, not deductive.