Planes, Trains and Automobiles

A house in the suburbs, a happy and healthy family; on some days it may seem that you have it all. Then the perfect job offer rolls in -- over an hour away.

Now you are forced to make the decision between uprooting your family in favor of this new opportunity or turning down the perfect job….or are you? Since 9/11 when we started to see a shift in employee priorities, companies have been devising new ways of attracting top talent to their organization.

One of the latest business trends emerging in the workplace is extreme commuting, practiced by top-level executives who do not want to relocate for the purpose of a new position; they want to have their cake and eat it too. Different than telecommuting, these individuals actually make the long commute to the office which may find them on the road for as many as three hours each day.

Other executives may adopt a work schedule that sees them flying to the office on Sunday evening or Monday morning, and not returning home until Friday night (not dissimilar to the work schedule of many OTR truck drivers). For the right candidate match, companies are often willing to pay all living expenses, including rent, for executives who make the sacrifice of spending time away from home.

Read more here.

Posted by Shelly Paul, Career Management Coordinator, The H.S. Group

Blue Light Special

If you’re anything like 75% of the population out there, you probably haven’t finished your holiday shopping yet and the reason seems to be the same each time; you just don’t know what to get the person on your list. The same often applies with the awkward tradition of gift exchanges at the office. How much do I spend? What would she like? What do I give the boss?

Rachel Zupek at CareerBuilder.com offers a few suggestions should you find yourself a little overwhelmed by all the holiday stress associated with finding “the perfect gift.”

Do….

Give tasteful gifts that are not too intimate but relate to the individual’s interests.

Set and follow spending limits that are appropriate for all levels of employees.

Give a present that might be useful around the office.

Don’t….

Try to outdo co-workers by surpassing the set spending limits; it will only cause resentment from others involved.

Make a scene when giving the gift; it should not be an attention-grabbing device.

Give liquor; while it may be an appropriate gift for your brother-in-law, it is not appropriate for the office.


Some companies have bypassed gift giving entirely in favor of a company pot-luck in which everyone can participate. Beside, do you really need another (fill in the blanks) this year anyway?

Read more here.

For unusual (yet appropriate) gift ideas, click here.

Posted by Shelly Paul, Career Management Coordinator, The H.S. Group

E-mail Beware

“Nearly one-in-five (19 percent) outbound e-mails poses a legal, financial or regulatory risk to its company, according to the survey of 308 U.S. organizations with more than 1,000 employees.”

With figures like these, it’s no wonder the topic has been at the forefront of executives’ minds. As our world revolutionizes to one which is embedded in technology, our company policies and guidelines must follow. New forms of electronic information submittal are giving way to a need for a new strain of workplace policing--online.

In many instances, e-mail is taken too lightly and information can be easily misinterpreted. Because it’s an effortless and immediate form of communication, we forget that once we hit send, it becomes permanent. Unlike a conversation, there is a virtual “paper trail” left behind that can continue to spread with the press of a button. This includes confidential company plans, contacts and financial information.

Because of the risk associated with mishandled e-mails, companies must be stringent in enforcing their policies. “More than a quarter (27.6 percent) of companies said they’ve fired an employee in the last 12 months for violating e-mail policies and 45.5 percent have disciplined an employee for violating e-mail policy in the same time period.” Employees need to understand that e-mail composed at the office or with company-owned equipment is property of the employer, not the writer.

Learn more about technical policing.

Posted by Shelly Paul, Career Management Coordinator, The H.S. Group

No More Mr. Nice Guy...er, Girl

“Women working full time earn about 77 percent of the salaries of men working full time,” and researchers have finally begun to crack the code to explain why.

Recent experiments show that, given the opportunity, men tended to be four times more likely to ask for more money than women in the same circumstances. And the ability to ask (or lack thereof) is part of the problem. Women often shy away from demanding higher pay as they feel it will lead them to be perceived by their peers and superiors as less nice. According to Professor Linda Babcock of Carnegie Mellon University, “Men are simply more aggressive than women, perhaps because of a combination of genetics and upbringing.”

In addition, men who were surveyed displayed a preference to working with women who did not negotiate their salary. Whether or not these men felt threatened by more “aggressive” women remains to be seen.

Those individuals who fought for higher pay benefited more than you might imagine too. “Although differences in starting salaries are usually modest, small differences can have big effects down the road. If a 22-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman are offered $25,000 for their first job, for example, and one of them negotiates the amount up to $30,000, then over the next 28 years, the negotiator would make $361,171 more, assuming they both got 3 percent raises each year.”

However, it may not be as easy as encouraging women to be more self-assured or cutthroat; the passive response is merely a product of their environment. Read More about the social stigmas here.

Posted by Shelly Paul, Career Management Coordinator, The H.S. Group

You, Me and Baby Makes Three

From the point a couple decides to conceive, a slew of questions pop up: Are we ready for this? Can we afford this? Will we be good parents? Also weighing heavily on their minds is: How will my boss take the news?

While companies of at least 50 employees are covered under the family-leave law, provided the employee has worked there for at least a year, many individuals are not lucky enough to meet those qualifications and have no guarantee of financial support from their employer. “According to a 2005 study by the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit research group in New York, only 7% of companies offer at least six weeks off with some pay. Meanwhile, the number of employees who get fully paid maternity leave of any length dropped to 18% in 2005 from 27% in 1998.”

Even more surprising is that the United States is only one in a handful of countries whose governments don’t provide parental leave from work, joined by Papua New Guinea, Lesotho and Swaziland. To add insult to injury, we look to the other end of the spectrum where countries such as Sweden provide up to 480 days of paid leave to new mothers. 480 days!

Another concern employees may face during maternity leave, particularly if it is unpaid, is covering health insurance and continuing contributions to their 401k. Yet at a time when money is tight, it’s not hard to see why this financial burden can lead to added stress during and just after a pregnancy.

What types of coverage does your company offer its employees? Read more from MSN.

Posted by Shelly Paul, Career Management Coordinator, The H.S. Group