Category Archives: Working For Others

Telecommuters – instant expansion for a micro-business

A micro-business, by its very nature, is a demonstration of thinking outside the box.

What happens when a micro-business becomes so successful that it has to add management-level staff in order to handle tasks that were once handled successfully by the owner of the business?

Using conventional thinking, the growing company would have to add office space, extra phone lines, computers, and all of the other expenses that are required to support additional staff. This really blows the idea of an incremental increase in expenses right out of the water.

As a result, many micro-business owners delay adding critically needed staff until they are so overworked that their families are worried about their health and sanity.

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A litmus test for your job

Sometimes when I write about the corporate quagmire, people say, “You are describing my particular department at Hell, Inc.!

Others like my wife Gretchen, who is sometimes too goodhearted to believe, will say, “You are unfairly categorizing Human Resources people as minions of the Devil!”

Still others say, This job is killing me, but I think it’s my fault for not being more proactive!”

All of the above statements are true. If you are interested, I will fill in the background for you and describe a test you can do to see if you are a victim, a minion, or a survivor.

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The check is in the mail and other corporate fables

Some of you appear to be on the verge of changing jobs and I thought I might do my part to demystify the process of figuring out what the prospective employer or HR person really means when making any of the following statements:

1. We are looking for someone with an advanced degree for this position

2. You are really overqualified for this job

3. We will start you on a provisional basis and in six months, after you have proved yourself, we will give you a raise based on your performance

4. I know we didn’t get the offer letter out, but we’d like you to start immediately

5. Your interview travel reimbursement check will be cut at the end of the month

6. We don’t have a workstation for you yet. Do you have a laptop of your own?

7. We are like a family here.

All of these statements have been said to me at one time or other, and they were delivered with the utmost sincerity. The reason I am writing this is that all of these statements were totally false.

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Is there life in the fast food workplace?

I have written many posts on finding work and on starting out on your own, but I am always inspired to write more when I visit Curt Rosengren’s weblog. His unwearying enthusiasm for occupational adventure seems to energize my thinking.

His recent provocative post has to do with a developing a passion for work in jobs that are just inherently menial and uninspiring. I had never given this any thought before. I wasn’t even sure it was possible. Now I know differently.

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