Work at Home Job Tips - Legitimate Work at Home Jobs

By Alison Doyle,

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Types of Legitimate Work From Jobs

There are companies that hire employees directly to work from their homes. Legitimate work from home jobs include customer service, recruiting, sales, scheduling, technical, writing, marketing, and telemarketing positions. A home based agent, for example, works from a home office gathering, entering and confirming customer information, answering customer questions, resolving issues, providing customer care, engaging in live chat, responding to email, and handling calls with customers.

Other work at home jobs that are for real include call center jobs, online tutor jobs, transcription jobs and virtual assistant jobs.

Finding Legitimate Work at Home Jobs
How can you find legitimate work from home job listings? Here are sites you can use to look for work at home job openings, but do be careful and research each and every company to make sure it and the job are legitimate.

• Work at Home Companies
• Work From Home Job Listings
• Work at Home Job Sites

Getting Paid
Some companies pay an hourly rate. In other cases, the jobs are part-time, commission-based, or pay a lump sum for a completed project.

Work at Home Job Search Tips
Tips for finding legitimate work at home jobs, finding companies to work for, and avoiding job and employment scams.

Job Scams
Information about job scams including how to check out job listings, how to avoid employment scams, how to report a scam, and where to find lists of scams.

Disclaimer:
You may see advertisements for work at home jobs on this page, because that's the topic of the article. Just because you see an ad here, that doesn't make it a legitimate company. Carefully investigate companies that you are interested in.

Business Letter Writing: Writing a Cover Letter when Applying for a Job

By Kenneth Beare

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

The cover letter should always be included when sending your resume or CV for a possible job interview. This letter of application serves the purpose or introducing you and asking for an interview. Here is an outline to writing a successful cover letter. To the right of the letter, look for important notes concerning the layout of the letter signaled by a number.

Cover Letter Outline

2520 Vista Avenue - 1
Olympia, Washington 98501
April 19, 2001

Mr. Bob Trimm, Personnel Manager - 2
Ideas Inc.
587 Lilly Road

Dear Mr. Trimm: - 3

Opening paragraph - Use one of the following to bring yourself to the attention of the reader and make clear what job you are applying for:

1. Summarize the opening
2. Name the opening
3. Request an opening
4. Question the availability of an opening

Middle paragraph(s)- Use one of the following in each of your middle paragraphs to provide the reader with plenty of reasons to invite you to an interview:

1. Education
2. Work experience
3. Ability to work with others and/or alone
4. Interest in your field
5. Interest in the company
6. Responsibilities in previous positions

Closing paragraph - Use the closing paragraph to ensure action on the part of the reader

The last paragraph needs to help ensure that action is taken. You can ask for an interview appointment time, stating that you will be happy to come to the employer's office when convenient. Make it easy for the reader to follow-up by providing your telephone number and email address.

Sincerely,

Kenneth Beare - 4

Enclosure

Important Salutation Notes

1 - Begin your cover letter by placing your address first, followed by the address of the company you are writing to.

2 - Use complete title and address; don't abbreviate.

3 - Always make an effort to write directly to the person in charge of hiring.

4 -Always sign letters.

Example Cover Letters

Example Letter

1: Responding to Advertisement

Example Letter

2: Requesting an Opening

If business letter writing is important to your career, I'd consider purchasing 3,001 Business and Sales letters. This reasonably priced package provides templates of English business letters for just about any business situation imaginable. For more detailed help with standard business writing skills, I highly recommend these business English books.

Top 6 Rules for Using Cell Phones at Work

By Dawn Rosenberg McKay

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

1. Turn Your Cell Phone Ringer Off

If you have your cell phone at work, it shouldn't ring. If you don't want to turn off your cell phone completely, at least set it to vibrate. The sounds of different ring tones going off all the time can be very annoying to others. In addition, you don't want your boss to know how often you get calls.

Having your cell phone at work can be useful but it can also be very disruptive. Your friends and family can reach you anytime, anywhere, which can be annoying.

When you're on your own time, the choice to turn off your cell phone is entirely yours. When it comes to using your cell phone at work, however, you have to be mindful of your co-workers and your boss, not to mention your own ability to get your job done. Here are some rules you should follow if you have your cell phone at work.

2. Use Your Cell Phone Only for Important Calls

If you have your cell phone at work, you should only use it for important calls. What should you classify as an important call? The school nurse calling to say your child is ill, your child calling to say he's arrived home from school safely, and family emergencies that you must deal with immediately are important. Your friend calling to chat, your child calling to say the dog had an accident, or your mom calling to tell you your cousin Tilly is engaged should not be considered important.

3. Let Your Cell Phone Calls Go to Voice Mail

While you are at work if you are in doubt about whether an incoming call is important, let voice mail pick it up. It will take much less time to check your messages than it will to answer the call and then tell the caller you can't talk.

4. Find a Private Place to Make Cell Phone Calls

While it's okay to use your cell phone at work for private calls during breaks, don't stay at your desk. Find somewhere else to talk, where your conversation can't be overheard, even if what you're discussing isn't personal. You may be on a break but your co-workers have a job to do.

5. Don't Bring Your Cell Phone Into the Restroom ... Ever

This rule should apply to using your cell phone at work or anywhere. Why? Well, if you must ask — you never know who's in there; the person on the other end of the line will hear bathroom sounds, e.g., toilets flushing; it is an invasion of your co-workers' privacy.

6. Don't Bring Your Cell Phone to Meetings

Even if you have your cell phone set to vibrate, if you receive a call you will be tempted to see who it's from. This is not only rude, it is a clear signal to your boss that your mind isn't 100 percent on your job. All calls can wait until your meeting is over or until there is a break. Remember, there was a time before we had cell phones.

Email Etiquette Tips for Professional Email

By Dawn Rosenberg McKay


Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Ninety two percent of Internet users in the United States use email. That's a huge number since 73% of those living in the U.S. use the Internet (Information Please® Database, Pearson Education, Inc., 2008). Many people use email for business communications, which stresses the importance of knowing proper email etiquette. While a lot of people understand the importance of following certain rules when writing a business letter, they often forget these rules when composing an email message. Here's a refresher.

• Mind Your Manners: Think of the basic rules you learned growing up, like saying please and thank you. Address people you don't know as Mr., Mrs., or Dr. Only address someone by first name if they imply it's okay to do so.

• Watch Your Tone: Merriam-Webster defines tone as an "accent or inflection expressive of a mood or emotion." It is very difficult to express tone in writing. You want to come across as respectful, friendly, and approachable. You don't want to sound curt or demanding.

• Be Concise: Get to the point of your email as quickly as possible, but don't leave out important details that will help your recipient answer your query.

• Be Professional: This means, stay away from abbreviations and don't use emoticons (those little smiley faces). Don't use a cute or suggestive email address for business communications.

• Use Correct Spelling and Proper Grammar: Use a dictionary or a spell checker — whichever works better for you. While you can write in a conversational tone (contractions are okay), pay attention to basic rules of grammar.

• Ask Before You Send an Attachment: Because of computer viruses, many people won't open attachments unless they know the sender. Even that can be a mistake because many viruses come disguised in email messages from someone you know. Before sending an attachment, ask the recipient if you may do so.

• Wait to Fill in the "TO" Email Address: Career Planning Site visitor Larry Batchelor says, "I never fill in the 'TO' email address until I am completely through proofing my email and I am sure that it is exactly the way that I want it. This will keep you from accidentally sending an email prematurely. In the past, I have accidentally clicked on the send icon, when I really meant to click on the attachment icon."

Toward a More Civil Work Place Avoiding Offensive Behavior on the Job

By Dawn Rosenberg McKay

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Who Let the Dogs In?

Barbara quit her job last week. She just couldn't take it anymore. What made her quit? Was it a difficult boss? Was she bored with her work? Did she just feel it was time to move on? No, no, and no. None of the above. Barbara's boss insisted on bringing his dogs to work. Barbara, who had always been afraid of dogs, found out that she was also allergic to them. Her boss refused to leave the dogs at home so Barbara found another job. As if the allergies weren't enough, her boss's disrespect for her pushed Barbara over the edge.

Unfortunately, disrespect for one's co-workers (or subordinates) isn't that uncommon. And it often causes people to leave their jobs. For employers this means losing good people, and then having to hire and train new ones. For co-workers it means having to get used to working with new people, and picking up the slack until new employees can be found. The saddest part of the lack of respect in the workplace is that many people don't realize they are being disrespectful. They aren't trying to hurt someone's feelings. They just aren't trying to not do that. Barbara's boss, for example, was doing what he felt was best for his pets. He thought leaving them at home was cruel. He may have even felt that his employees would enjoy having the dogs there. He didn't consider the negative effect the dogs might have on someone.

The Actions to Avoid

How can we avoid offending the people we work with? It seems as if it should be blatently obvious. But if it were I wouldn't even be writing this article. Let's take a look now at actions that may offend your co-workers (in no particular order).

• Having loud telephone conversations

• Not cleaning up after yourself in the staff kitchen

• Showing up late for meetings

• Looking at a co-worker's computer screen over his or her shoulder

• Taking supplies from a co-worker's desk

• Neglecting to say please and thank you

• Wearing too much perfume

• Chewing gum loudly

• Taking the last of something without replacing it

• Talking behind someone's back

• Asking someone to lie for you

• Blaming someone else when you are at fault

• Taking credit for someone else's work

• Asking a subordinate to do something unrelated to work, i.e. run errands

• Trying to convert others to your political or religious beliefs

• Opening someone else's mail

• Sending unwanted email

• Telling offensive jokes

• Smoking in common areas

• Not pulling your own weight

• Complaining about the company, boss, and co-workers

• Having a condescending attitude toward others

Writing a Career Action Plan Part 3: Goals and Barriers

By Dawn Rosenberg McKay


Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Short Term and Long Term Career Plan/Occupational Goals

You should break your career plan down into goals you can reach in a year or less and goals you want to reach in five years or less. You can use increments of one or two years in this five year plan as well. This breakdown will make your plan easier for you to follow.

There's also a place to include your goals for education and training. Your occupational goals and your educational goals should correspond to one another, since reaching your occupational goals will usually be dependent upon reaching your educational goals.

If your long term occupational goal is to be a lawyer, here's what your short and long term plans might look like:

• Year One: Complete my bachelor's degree (12 credits left to go), apply to law school, get accepted to law school (a positive attitude is a good thing)
• Year Two through Year Four: Enter law school, study hard and earn good grades, graduate from law school with many job offers
• Year Five: Begin working in a law firm

Barriers to Reaching Goals

As you try to reach your goals you may face some barriers. If you want to pursue your goals, you will have to get around these barriers. In this section of your action plan you can list all the obstacles, or barriers, that may get in the way of being able to reach your goals. Then list the ways you can deal with them. For example you may be the primary caregiver for your children or elderly parents. This may interfere with your ability to complete your degree. You can deal with this barrier by enlisting the help of your spouse or another relative. Perhaps you can arrange for child or adult daycare.

You're On Your Way

A well-thought-out career action plan will prove to be a very useful tool. You've gone through the career planning process carefully choosing a suitable occupation. Setting goals and planning what you need to do to realize them will insure that you reach your career destination.

Writing a Career Action Plan Part II : What is It and How Can It Help Me?

By Dawn Rosenberg McKay

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Employment History/Educational Background

This part is straightforward. List any jobs you've had in reverse chronological order -- most recent to least recent. Include the location of the company, your job title, and the dates you worked at that job. When you put together your resume, having organized this information will prove very helpful. That goes for the next part as well -- Education and Training. List the schools you've attended, the dates you've attended them, and the credits, certificates, or degrees you've earned. Also list additional training and any professional licenses you hold. Next, list volunteer or other unpaid experience. You may find that several of these activities are relevant to your occupational goals. By volunteering you may have developed skills that will play an important role in your future career. Again, this information can be used on your resume. It can also be used in job interviews, or when applying to college or graduate school.

Self Assessment Results

If during the career planning process you met with a career development professional who used self assessment tools to help you gather information about yourself, this is where you can write down the results of those assessments. You can then list the occupations that were suggested to you during that phase. You may even want to attach the information you gathered when you explored those occupations in case you want to refer to your notes later on. Out of all the occupations you explored, at some point in the process you narrowed your choices down to one occupation. That is the one you plan to pursue. You may even have two occupations -- one to pursue in the short term and one to pursue in the long term. They should be related, the second being one that is a step up from the first. For example, you can say you want to first become a nurse's aid, and then after you get some experience you will pursue a career as a registered nurse.

Writing a Career Action Plan Part 1: What is It and How Can It Help Me?

By Dawn Rosenberg McKay

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

An action plan can be considered a road map that will get you from point A -- choosing an occupation -- to Point B -- becoming employed in that occupation. It even helps you get past Point B, to Points C through Z, as you grow in that career. It is also referred to as an Individualized (or Individual) Career Plan or an Individualized (or Individual) Career Development Plan.

According to Individualized Career Plan Models - Eric Digest No. 71(ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult Career and Vocational Education), “Personal plans of action -- individualized career development plans -- are becoming important instruments that counselors and others are using to help their students and/or clients (both youth and adults) meet their changing goals, interests and needs in this fast-paced, rapidly changing society.” Though the ERIC Digest talks about individualized career plans being used by counselors and other professionals, you can develop a plan yourself. Even if you do work with a counselor, you will need to do some of the work yourself. For example, a counselor can't set your goals for you. He or she will just help you clarify your goals and help you find strategies to reach them. In addition, an action plan should be amended over time as your goals change, your priorities change, and your career grows. Let's begin now to take a look at how to develop a career action plan step-by-step.

Career Tests - Taking a Career Test

By Alison Doyle


Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Taking a career test is a little like playing "what do you want to be when you grow up?" with a twist. The twist is that career tests can give you ideas about what you possibly should do rather than you simply pondering what you want to do. A personality test can give you an indication of which jobs match your personality type and which careers you may have an aptitude for. You do need to remember that the test results are only an indicator and should not be relied on as an absolute assessment of which career is best for you.

Take a Career Test

That said, spend some time taking a career test or two, conduct a career assessment, review career options and consider how they may fit with your personality. Evaluating your goals and life style can provide insight into what types of jobs you are best suited for. You may also get some information on career options that you hadn't even thought of before. Also some of the tests are actually fun to take. If nothing else, you will gain information on potential careers that you can explore to see if they really are a good fit.

A variety of career tests are available online. Some are complicated, others are quick and easy. There are fees for some assessments, others are free. Start with the free tests to see how they work for you. Then consider the more in-depth analysis provided by the top rated assessment instruments like Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Strong Interest Inventory or the Keirsey Temperment Sorter which do charge a fee for products and services but may be well worth the investment.

Job Stress

By Dawn Rosenberg McKay

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, stress, in general, is “a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation.” One type of stress is job stress. With job stress, the stressors involved are work-related.

Causes of Job Stress

If you can figure out the cause of your job stress, then you can find a cure. Here are some possible causes:

• Overwork: working late, taking work home, not taking vacation

• Impending layoffs

• Being in the wrong career

• Conflict with boss or co-workers

Early Warning Signs^*

If you catch symptoms early, you have a better chance of fixing the problem so you don't end up with more chronic and serious problems. Here's what to look out for:

• Job dissatisfaction

• Sleep disturbances

• Short temper

• Upset stomach

• Headache

• Disturbed relationships with family and friends

• Low morale

• Teeth grinding

• Increased use of drugs or alcohol

Long-Term Problems

If left untreated, job stress can lead to some serious problems. They are:

• Cardiovascular disease

• Musculoskeletal disorders

• Psychological disorders

Cures

You'll need to be proactive if you want to cure your job stress. Here are some fixes that address the causes listed above:

• If overwork is your problem, take a vacation, leave work on time as often as possible, and avoid taking work home.

• If you're worried about layoffs, all you can do is make sure you're prepared should that happen.

• If you find that you made the wrong career choice, or your career is no longer fulfilling, it may be time for a change. Make your choices carefully.

• If you are having conflicts with your boss or co-workers, try to work them out. Although it may be difficult to resolve personality differences, you can try to figure out a way to get along better.

• If your stress is having a profound effect on your life, don't be afraid to get professional help.

Workplace Bullies

By Dawn Rosenberg McKay

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

What To Do About Workplace Bullies

Bullying is something we all hope not to have to deal with much beyond the eighth grade. Unfortunately workplace bullies are a problem many people face. Unlike playground bullies who often, not always, resort to using their fists, workplace bullies generally use words and actions to intimidate their victims.

A workplace bully may be your boss or your co-worker. No one should ever make you feel uncomfortable at work. If you are a victim of bullying in your workplace consider speaking to someone in the human resources department for help in dealing with it.

If you would like to try to deal with this situation before you report it, here are some tips. If you are being physically threatened don't waste a minute before you report it to both your employer and the police.

If you are dealing with a workplace bully:

• Seek the advice of a trusted mentor who may have dealt with this situation before.

• If you can, confront the bully in a professional manner, but only if your physical safety isn't threatened. Don't sink to his or her level. Stay as calm as possible. Don't yell or threaten. Often bullies are looking for this type of confrontation and it will encourage them to come back for more. Don't cry or show weakness either. That's usually what the bully is after in the first place.

• Don't try to win over other people to your side. The way in which you handle the situation will allow them to make their own judgements.

• Don't allow the bully to intimidate you or make you feel bad about yourself. You know your true worth. Don't forget what that is.

• Do your job and do it well. The workplace bully wants you to fail and when you don't he or she will be defeated.

• Make sure your superiors are aware of your work. Workplace bullies often try to spread the word that your are not doing your job well and will even go as far as to report the smallest infractions to your boss. Your actions will carry more weight than his or her words.

• Don't allow the bully to isolate you from your colleagues. Keep up your workplace friendships.

Women and Work: Then, Now, and Predicting the Future for Women in the Workplace Part III

By Susan M. Heathfield

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Business Women in Science and Technology

"According to 2001 Current Population Survey (CPS) data, one out of ten employed engineers was a woman, while two of ten employed engineering technologists and technicians were women. Among engineering specialties, industrial, chemical, and metallurgical/materials engineers were the only occupations in which women were more highly represented than the overall percent of total women engineers.

Among natural scientists, women represented 51.6 percent of medical scientists and 44.4 percent of biological and life scientists, but accounted for a smaller portion of geologists and geodesists (24.0 percent), physicists and astronomers (7.7 percent).

"Employment of women has lagged in most of the high-tech occupations that show promise for future growth. Software and hardware providers have gained acceptance as mechanisms for preparing high-technology workers for employment opportunities in the field. The challenges for women are to find more pathways into high-tech occupations, and into opportunities in the new certification universe. They also need to enter high-tech occupations in greater numbers."

An increasing number of colleges are enrolling more women than men in their medical schools. "Women comprised just over 45 percent of applicants and new students at U.S. medical schools in 1999-2000. The proportion of women medical residents increased from 28 percent of all residents in 1989 to 38 percent in 1999 according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Women in US Academic Medicine Statistics 1999-2000."

In the field of veterinary medicine, the progress of women is even further along. "Now most students at veterinary schools are women, and by 2005, women will become the majority in the profession, says the American Veterinary Medical Association. While the number of female veterinarians in the United States has more than doubled since 1991, to 24,356, the number of male veterinarians has fallen 15 percent, to 33,461.”

Prediction:

Here's the challenge. Traditionally, career fields that became the purview of women became marginalized in terms of pay, prospects, and status. It's not the purpose of this article to trace that history, but think about careers that were once male dominated that are now overwhelmingly populated by women: clercal positions, administrative jobs, nursing, teaching, social work, and retail positions. Will veterinary medicine and the medical field follow the same path?

The answer, unfortunately, is 'yes.' I do believe when women dominate a field, the field becomes less appealing and attractive as an occupation.

Additionally, while we are making progress, as a society, the statistics I have seen show the percentage of women moving into education for high technology and hard science careers declining in 2002. (See the Wired News article below, as an example.

What Employers Can Do:

This is a tough area in which to make recommendations for employers. So much of an individual's set of interests and values is formulated early in life via the home and peer environment and school experiences and successes. While I'd like to believe we are making progress, as a society, girls and boys are still raised, counseled, and treated very differently. (This article, Why Girls Don't Compute, from Wired News, highlights some of the challenges.) There are, however, efforts employers can make.

Offer women training and education opportunities that will prepare them for promotion to positions in technology and science.

Hire an equal number of women into employer-sponsored training and education programs that will prepare them for a career path in higher paying, technology-related positions.

Expose women to technology and work with computers. Many have just not had the opportunity and may have an unrealistic understanding of the skills and knowledge required to successfully operate a computer.

Work with your local elementary school, middle school, high school, community college, and college to ensure that programs and educational opportunities are in place that expose girls to technology, math, and science, in addition to the helping careers, early. Ensure that clubs, science project competitions, and all other opportunities, reach out equally to girls.

In this work environment, given the challenges employers face in creating flexible work environments and promoting women in careers with high pay and high status, is it any wonder that women are starting their own businesses in droves.

Women and Work: Then, Now, and Predicting the Future for Women in the Workplace Part II

By Susan M. Heathfield

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Business Women's Earnings and Education

"The median weekly earnings of women age 35-44 as a percentage of men’s increased from 58.3 percent to 73.0 percent from 1979 to 1993, a rise of 14.7 percentage points.

There also was an increase in the female-to-male earnings ratio among those age 45 to 54 from 1979 to 1993."

"In 1998, women in managerial and professional occupations earned much more per week than women in other occupations. Their median weekly earnings were 56 percent greater than those of technical, sales, and administrative support workers, the next-highest category."

"A look at women’s earnings over the past 20 years shows a mixed picture of progress. Women’s inflation-adjusted earnings have increased nearly 14 percent since 1979, whereas men’s have declined by about 7 percent. But while women’s earnings have improved relative to men’s, full-time working women found themselves making only about 76 percent of what men earned in 1998. Earnings for women with college degrees shot up almost 22 percent over the past two decades but, for women without a post-secondary education, there was little advancement."

"Women employed full time in professional specialty occupations earned $682 in 1998, more than women employed in any other major occupational category. Within this occupation group, women working as physicians, pharmacists and lawyers had the highest median earnings.

"Women's share of employment in occupations typified by high earnings has grown. In 1998, 46.4 percent of full-time wage and salary workers in executive, administrative, and managerial occupations were women, up from 34.2 percent in 1983, the first year for which comparable data are available. Over the same time period, women as a proportion of professional specialty workers rose from 46.8 percent to 51.6 percent.

"In contrast, there was relatively little change in women's share of full-time wage and salary employment in the remaining occupational groups. In 1983, women held 77.7 percent of administrative support occupations; in 1998, they still held 76.3 percent of those jobs." Women represented 7.9 percent of precision production, craft and repair workers, in 1983 and in 1998.

Current:

"Among 1998 high school graduates, more women than men enrolled in college. As of October, 938,000 young women who graduated from high school in 1998 were in college while 906,000 young men were enrolled." The trend of more women attending college continues.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor: Women's Education

Prediction:

Pay to women will continue to lag the pay men earn in similar careers, even when the woman has more education. The trend of more women attending college will continue, although I'll look at the majors they are pursuing later in this feature. Chosen studies are affecting both their pay and their employability potential.

What Employers Can Do:

Employers, most importantly, need to be knowledgable about the pay gap that still exists between men and women doing comparable work. Managers, at all levels, who control salaries and budgets, need to make a commitment to paying people, regardless of gender, the same amount of money for comparable work.

Women need to stay in touch with their own workplace. If a woman knows she is making less money than a man, and all other issues appear to be equal, she owes it to herself to take the case to her boss and to Human Resources. She can help to create a more gender-friendly workplace and promote her own worth.

Employers need to pay more attention to the Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines. They exist to create equity and too many employers are still working them as if they are a numbers game because of tracking and reporting requirements. I'd be so happy to see a genuine commitment to paying people equitably based on contribution.

As recommended by the Women Employed Institute, make women more aware of careers that offer higher pay opportunities. Most women's jobs are clustered in "female" occupations that pay poorly. Promote and educate women about these opportunities so women pursue opportunities for education in these higher paying opportunities. Catalyst, which monitors the progress of women in the workplace, reported that as of 1998, only 2.7 percent of the highest-paid officers at Fortune 500 companies were women. Women continue to dominate lower paying domestic, clerical support, and administrative-type occupations.

{p}Next, let's take a look at current numbers of women in science and technology careers, predicted to offer great opportunities in the next decades. Then, we'll consider what employers can do to encourage the participation of women in these careers.

Women and Work: Then, Now, and Predicting the Future for Women in the Workplace

By Susan M. Heathfield

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Business Women in the Workplace

Tired of reading about Carly Fiorina, the former Chairman and CEO of the merged Hewlett-Packard - Compaq? Fiorina and other successful women such as Condoleezza Rice, Sherry Lansing or Martha Stewart are the poster faces for the 'You've come a long way, baby' spin doctors. I applaud and laud the work success of these business women and hope all people learn from their wisdom and achievements. Indeed, some of these women are my heroes. Rock on!

However, what is happening for the rest of the women in the workforce? More importantly, what does the future hold for business women in the workplace?

Do you want to know what women have achieved now and what the future holds for women and work? Let's polish up our crystal ball and make a few predictions based on current statistics and projections about women and work. I'll show you the then and now statistics and discuss the future of women and work. I'll also recommend objectives and ideas to help employers continue to accomplish this progress for women in the workplace. Read on.

What Percentage of Women Work?

Current:

"In 1950 about one in three women participated in the labor force. By 1998, nearly three of every five women of working age were in the labor force. Among women age 16 and over, the labor force participation rate was 33.9 percent in 1950, compared with 59.8 percent in 1998.

63.3 percent of women age 16 to 24 worked in 1998 versus 43.9 percent in 1950.

76.3 percent of women age 25 to 34 worked in 1998 versus 34.0 percent in 1950.

77.1 percent of women age 35 to 44 worked in 1998 versus 39.1 percent in 1950.

76.2 percent of women age 45 to 54 worked in 1998 versus 37.9 percent in 1950.

51.2 percent of women age 55 to 64 worked in 1998 versus 27 percent in 1950.

8.6 percent of women age 65+ worked in 1998 versus 9.7 percent in 1950.

Current:

"As more women are added to the labor force, their share will approach that of men. In 2008, women will make up about 48 percent of the labor force and men 52 percent. In 1988, the respective shares were 45 and 55 percent."

Women and Absenteeism

Current:

As you might expect because of home and family matters, "in 1998, about 4 percent of full-time workers were absent from their job during an average work week — meaning they worked less than 35 hours during the week because of injury, illness, or a variety of other reasons. About 5.1 percent of women (including 5.6 percent of women aged 20 to 24) were absent in the average week, compared with 2.7 percent of men Among those absent, women were somewhat more likely to be absent for reasons other than injury or illness. One third of women’s compared with less than one-quarter of men’s absences were attributed to other reasons.

Prediction:

The number of women will continue to increase in the workforce. Women will continue to have primary responsibility for home and family matters, thus affecting work attendance negatively.

What Employers Can Do:

Employers will be challenged to provide family-friendly solutions for working people who need flexibility for child care and elder care. These solutions may include:

• job sharing,
• part-time employment,
• staff working from home or telecommuting,
• flexible starting and stop times and flexible core business hours, and
• periodic paid and unpaid work interruptions for child care and elder care.

Attendance systems that are inflexible will drive qualified and committed employees to employers that address family issues with creativity and concern.

Employers need to pay more attention to the Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines. They exist to create equity and too many employers are still working them as a numbers game because of reporting requirements.

As recommended by the Women Employed Institute, make women more aware of careers that offer higher pay opportunities. Most women's jobs are clustered in "female" occupations that pay poorly. Promote and educate women about these opportunities so women pursue opportunities for education in these higher paying opportunities. Catalyst, which monitors the progress of women in the workplace, reported that as of 1998, only 2.7 percent of the highest-paid officers at Fortune 500 companies were women. Women continue to dominate lower paying domestic, clerical support, and administrative-type occupations.

Next, we'll take a look at how women have progressed in earnings and education and consider employer opportunities to escalate the progress.

Don't Manage Time, Manage Yourself

By: David Beardsley

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Overworked overachievers suffer from a 'gnawing sense of anxiety.' Here's personal-productivity guru David Allen's cure.

The good news: You probably have something in common with one of the nation's leading heart surgeons, one of Microsoft's top marketing executives, and one of Wall Street's toughest deal-makers.

The bad news: That something has prompted each of these overachievers to seek professional help - all from the same high-priced coach and adviser.

What's their shared affliction? It's what personal-productivity guru David Allen calls GSA, or "gnawing sense of anxiety." An overloaded in-basket here, hundreds of unanswered emails there - soon enough, life feels as if it's spinning out of control. "The degree to which things gnaw at our minds is usually the degree to which they are 'stuck' in some way," he says. "You get things off your mind by making progress on them."

Allen, 52, teaches people how to get unstuck. His firm, David Allen & Co., based in Ojai, California, conducts seminars and one-on-one coaching sessions throughout the United States. Allen estimates that he has worked with 150,000 people over the last 20 years. His clients include Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, Fidelity Investments, L.L. Bean, and the U.S. Navy. He is also cofounder and director of Actioneer Inc. http://www.actioneer.com , a San Francisco-based software and education company that develops personal-productivity applications. Allen spoke with Fast Company about his techniques for treating GSA.

Why do we feel so overwhelmed?

We clutter our minds with vague promises about what we should do, what we could do. But there is always more to do than there is time to do it. Most of the stress that people feel doesn't come from having too much to do - it comes from not keeping agreements they've made with themselves. When you tell yourself you ought to do something and then don't do it, you experience self-doubt and frustration. You can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool yourself for a second.

Productivity is about completion. My system is based on identifying all the "incompletes" in your life - from mundane tasks to pressing responsibilities - and isolating the simplest next step to complete them.

It sounds simple. Why don't more people do it?

They think far too much. There's usually an inverse relationship between how much something is on your mind and how much you're actually doing about it. Ask yourself a question: From the minute you woke up this morning until right now, have you thought about something that you need to do but haven't done? If so, you're wasting your creative energy. You've got to get that item off your mind.

And you don't need to finish it to get it off your mind. You just need to clarify your agreement with yourself. For most people, that means making a list. Actually I suggest making five lists, which together make up what I call a "Total Life To-Do List." (See the sidebar, Four Tricks That Save Time.)

There are three things you have to understand about lists. One, it doesn't take long to get started. The first thing I do with clients is to lead them through all of their "incompletes." We create a series of lists and files to track those items. That process usually takes three to six hours.

Two, lists work only if they are 100% leakproof. A partial system is almost worse than no system at all. If your "To-Call" list doesn't include all of the phone calls you have to make, then your mind still has to remember some of them.

Finally, not every item on every list requires immediate action. There's always more to do than what you can do. But you can feel good about what you're not doing only when you know what you're not doing.

How can you feel good about what you're not doing?

Years ago, I earned a black belt in karate - which is how I learned the concept of "relaxed focus." The typical businessperson experiences 170 interactions per day (phone calls, hallway conversations, emails) and has a backlog of 200 to 300 hours of uncompleted work. How do you relax and focus amid so much chaos? You need ruthless clarity. Ask two simple questions about everything that comes across the transom: What is it? Is it actionable? If it's not actionable, then you eliminate it or incubate it. If it is actionable, then you ask, What's the next step? You can do it, delegate it, or defer it. I call this "next-step management."

That doesn't mean always working on the "most important" stuff first. There are few occasions when you have the energy, the tools, and the time needed to work on your highest-priority items. Sometimes the most appropriate thing to do, if you have 10 free minutes, is to water your plants.

David Allen Interview Part II

From Scott Allen

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

SA: You're very hands-on, I know, in order to maintain that standard of quality. Does that put a self-imposed limit on your growth rate?
DA: Sure, there's a certain type of limit. Frankly, I'm more of a researcher, teacher, motivator, and coach than I am an entrepreneur. Anyway, I'm only willing and interested in growing the size of the business when I have an assurance that the delivery vehicles match the quality of the message. Now, with the book out, I'm willing to do "lite"-r versions of what I do, because I know the real meat is available for those who have ears to hear. So, I'm willing to grow the company as big as it wants to get, but I frankly don't care what that size is. I don't know yet, really, how ready the planet is for my message, and that's the thing I must guard.

SA: I love the fact that in the same breath, you say that you don't care about the size of the company, but talk about global exposure!
DA: It would be rude not to share what I know with those who want to hear it.

SA: LOL! Entrepreneurs are driven by a lot of different things - fame, fortune, ego, frustration with corporate life, a desire to change the world... What's your number one motivator to do what you do?
DA: To maintain an opportunity to extend my energy and love in ways that align with my spiritual values, and provide me with a lifestyle that sustains and expands my freedom and options for experiences and expressions.

SA: Wow! You've obviously thought this out. :)
DA: I did a minute ago...!

SA: OK, I'm going to shift gears on you a bit...
DA: Vrooom.

SA: You're big on figuring out the next step. While understanding that no one answer is going to be right for everyone, what's your take on the next step for people in the following situations:

SA: Still employed and considering starting a business on the side?
DA: If you'll be doing something you'd love to be doing anyway, get started, and don't kid yourself. If you're just thinking you'll putter around with something because it'll make you a little money, don't bother.

SA: Unable to find full-time employment and looking to start their own business?
DA: Do some real thinking and planning about how much $ you have, how much you need, by when, how much you can get, and what your business plan might look like. Too many variables in all that for a simple answer.

SA: Sure, but great answer anyway!

SA: Trying to decide what kind of business to start?
DA: What would be your ideal? What's the closest thing you can see in the immediate realities around you that would lead you in that direction?

SA: Trying to decide how to structure their new business?
DA: Form follows function. How big do you need or want to be, by when? I'd suggest leaner and meaner and add structure as truly necessary. Do it yourself until you can't afford to any more.

SA: Great lead-in to the next one... Looking for financing?
DA: Home equity loan. Cheapest money around.

SA: Looking for their first customer?
DA: Who can they give it away to who'll broadcast it to a great network?

SA: Great advice! OK - I've been all over the place with you on this interview... Any other tidbits you'd particularly like to share with my readers?
DA: Make sure you're asking yourself the right questions at the right intervals… What's the vision? What're the short term goals? How am I doing with all the hats I'm wearing? How're all my projects? What're all my next actions?

SA: Easy questions – not so easy answers! Thanks again for your time.
DA: My pleasure.

David Allen Interview

From Scott Allen

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Meet David Allen, the man Fast Company Magazine called "one of the world's most influential thinkers on productivity". He has coached top executives at Microsoft, New York Life, the World Bank, U.S. Navy, and more. He now travels the world speaking, coaching, and teaching public seminars on productivity.

We caught up with him on a rare weeknight at home, and he shared some particular insights for entrepreneurs, as well as the wisdom of own personal experience building a small business that functions on a global scale.

SA: Your book, Getting Things Done, covers skills that are beneficial to everyone from students to CEO's. What are some of the personal management issues that you see are a particular challenge for entrepreneurs?
DA: The main one is staying focused on both the big picture and the important details.

SA: So, in other words, you still have to do everything?
DA: Well, you have to wear all the hats that get distributed in larger organizations.

SA: Right. And as a result, many entrepreneurs end up as workaholics, not necessarily because that's their personality type, but out of a sense of necessity. How can they avoid that?
DA: What's a workaholic? DA: I ask because working long hours is part of the game...

SA: Fair question. I'd define it as someone who spends so much time at their work that it has a negative impact on other aspects of their life - family, spirituality, personal development. For some people, that may be at 50 hours a week, for others it may be at 80.
DA: Right, but only in the last 100 years in the whole history of the planet have people thought about "work" and "personal life" as separate things. Farmers never have.

SA: For many entrepreneurs, the ability to have flexible hours and to home office is part of the appeal. Many (like me) will see that as a trade-off for the long hours. There has to be some kind of balance you can achieve even when you're first starting out, though, isn't there?
DA: Obviously the balance among all the importances is critical for sustainability of the style of what you're doing. But it would be a mistake for entrepreneurs (or senior executives for that matter) to assume they're not going to have to heed the fire in the belly and all that entails.

SA: And for spouses and family - just hang on and try to enjoy the ride?
DA: Again, it's up to the importances. We must all constantly reevaluate and potentially renegotiate our agreements with ourselves, and many of those include other people.

SA: Your wife is your business partner, as well. I know a lot of our readers also work in husband-and-wife teams. What about that has been most rewarding?
DA: That we really are in this together. Saves a lot of updating and explaining...

SA: What about some of the challenges? How have you overcome them?
DA: We do a lot of work on ourselves, and we share a principle (which we use in our company as well): "we act as if we're all alone in this together."

SA: That's great - I haven't heard that one before. Expand a little more on how that bears out in practice...
DA: You handle yourself, I handle myself, then where two or more are gathered, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

SA: You've obviously got a really tight relationship with your team, which now consists of nine other coaches and two international affiliates working for you. With your reputation at stake, how did you find the right people and turn them into a team you could trust?
DA: They as much found me as I did them. But the key is regular regrouping and conversation at the 40,000-ft level - here's what's driving me, where I'm going. How about you? Does this fit for your path to get there? If not, how can we make it so? Or, how can we elegantly part ways so we're not limiting each other?

SA: You worked for many years just by yourself. What was the decision point to hire your first employee?
DA: Actually I worked with others in small partnerships for most of my career. Six years ago I restructured and put my name on the masthead, with just Kathryn working with me. Our first employee after that was a part-time admin person in the office to offload some of the phone and bookkeeping stuff.

SA: And now you've built a tremendous brand around your persona. How do you extend the power of that brand beyond just you?
DA: Everything that we do reflects the quality, standards, focus, and spin (ideally in the positive sense) of what the brand stands for. I found it was easier to sell a personality than a process, but we've tried to simply use the personality as a vehicle for the message, not an ego thing.

Understanding Stress and Workplace Stress

By Susan M. Heathfield

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Stress is normal. Everyone feels stress related to work, family, decisions, your future, and more. Stress is both physical and mental. It is caused by major life events such as illness, the death of a loved one, a change in responsibilities or expectations at work, and job promotions, loss, or changes.

Smaller, daily events also cause stress. This stress is not as apparent to us, but the constant and cumulative impact of the small stressors adds up to big impact.

In response to these daily stresses, your body automatically increases blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, metabolism, and blood flow to your muscles. This stress response is intended to help your body react quickly and effectively to any high-pressure situation.

However, when you are constantly reacting to small or large stressful situations, without making physical, mental, and emotional adjustments to counter their effect, you can experience stress that can hurt your health and well-being. It is essential that you understand both your external and internal stress-causing events, no matter how you perceive those events.

Stress can also be positive. You need a certain amount of stress to perform your best at work. The key to stress management is to determine the right amount of stress that will give you energy, ambition, and enthusiasm versus the wrong amount which can harm your health and well-being.

Important Stress Causing Issues, Characteristics and Traits

While each person is different and has different events and issues that cause stress, there are some issues that almost universally affect people. These are the stressors you most want to understand and take measures to prevent.

• Feeling out of control,
• Feeling direction-less,
• Guilt over procrastination or failing to keep commitments,
• More commitments than time,
• Change, especially changes you didn't initiate or institute,
• Uncertainty, and
• High expectations of self.

What Affects Your Coping With Stress Skills?

During times of stress and uncertainty, you can anticipate some predictable issues, problems, and opportunities. For instance, during any change, members of an organization have:

• Different ways of regarding change. Some people have difficulty accepting and adjusting to change and uncertainty; others will relish the changes and view them as great opportunities. Some people initiate change; others prefer the status quo.



• Different amounts of experience and practice in stress management and change management. (What is devastating to one individual may excite another or only mildly irritate a third person.) Theoretically, people become better at managing stress and change with experience.



• Some people need to "talk it out." Others suffer silently. Some find relief in complaining. Some talk and talk and talk, but are really supportive of the change. Others find ways to sabotage changes and undermine efforts to move forward.



• Different levels of stress and change occurring in other areas of their lives.



• During change, people will experience different amounts of impact from the current changes and stress producing situations. The will also experience different amounts and types of support from their spouse, significant other, friends, supervisor, and coworkers.

Here are additional thoughts about what affects your ability to cope with stress at work. Learn more about stress.

All of these and other issues impact your ability to manage workplace stress and change, to continue to function productively. It is important to recognize that people who are experiencing serious stress and change may not be capable of performing exactly as they have in the past.

Stress can cause physical, emotional, and behavioral problems which can affect your health, energy, well-being, mental alertness, and personal and professional relationships. It can also cause defensiveness, lack of motivation, difficulty concentrating, accidents, reduced productivity, and interpersonal conflict.

Too much stress can cause minor problems such as sleep-loss, irritability, backaches, or headaches, and can also contribute to potentially life-threatening diseases such as high blood pressure and heart disease.

During stressful times or situations, people often blame themselves for being weak or for their inability "to handle it." Often managers in organizations do not understand the normal progression of change or stress-producing situations and they expect employees to immediately return to total productivity after a stressful event. It doesn’t happen.

Stress Results From Change

People have deep attachments to their work groups, organizational structures, personal responsibilities, and ways of accomplishing work. When any of these are disturbed, whether by personal choice or through an organizational process from which they may feel quite removed and uninvolved, a transition period occurs. During this transition, people can expect to experience a period of letting go of the old ways as they begin moving toward and integrating the new.

When you consider stress in the workplace, understanding these components about stress, situations that induce stress, and employee responses to stress, can help you help both yourself and your staff effectively manage stress and change.

Set Them Free: Two Musts For Employee Motivation Part II

By Susan M. Heathfield

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Make Employee Involvement a Plus in Employee Motivation

Too often employee involvement is a bad word. People think of employee involvement as something that is done aside from their "real" work in your organization. The best employee involvement does not require teams, special committees, and suggestion boxes.

Use these tips to create a work environment that emphasizes employee motivation through employee involvement.

• Express the expectation that people make decisions that will improve their work.

• Reward and recognize the people who make decisions about and improvements in their work as heroes.

• Make certain employees know and understand your organization's mission, vision, values, goals, and guidelines so they can funnel their involvement in appropriate directions. Education, communication, measurement feedback and coaching keep employee involvement from becoming a free-for-all.

• Never punish a thoughtful decision. You can coach and counsel and provide training and information following the decision. Don’t undermine the employee’s confidence that you are truly supportive of her involvement.

• If you are a supervisor and people come to you continually to ask permission and receive instructions about their work, ask yourself this question. What am I doing that makes people believe they must come to me for each decision or permission? You are probably communicating a mixed message which confuses people about your real intentions.

  When an employee comes to you, ask him what he thinks he should do in the situation. Assuming his response is reasonable, tell him his approach sounds fine and that he doesn’t need to consult with you about this type of decision in the future.
  
  If you can assist the employee to find a better answer, act as a consultant without taking the monkey onto your own shoulders. You will reinforce his belief in his own decision making ability. You also reinforce his belief that you are telling the truth about trusting his competency.

• If you see an employee embark on a course of action you know will fail or cause a problem for a customer, intervene as a coach. Ask good questions that help the individual find a better approach. Never allow a person to fail to "teach her a lesson."

Helpful Hints

• If you already know what you will do in a particular situation, don’t solicit ideas and feedback. You insult your employees, create an atmosphere of distrust, and guarantee unrest, unhappiness, and low motivation in your workplace. If you are genuinely open to ideas and feedback, your employees will know. It is not so much what you say as what you do that communicates your wishes and intentions to them.

• If you are not open to feedback, step back and ask yourself, "Why?" Almost any decision is improved with feedback and input. Even more importantly, the people who have to live with or implement the decision will own the decision. This ownership creates motivation and channels energy in the directions that will help your organization succeed.

• Examine your beliefs about people. The majority of people do not get up in the morning and come to work with the intention of causing problems. How many people do you know who want to go home at the end of a work day feeling as if they failed all day? Not many, if any.
  
  When you experience a problem at work, ask yourself the Dr. W. Edwards Deming-attributed question, “What about the work system caused this person to fail?” You'll be happy you took this approach when employees problem solve rather than pointing fingers and placing blame.

I’ve covered two critical aspects about creating a work environment in which people will choose to contribute and succeed. Workplaces that are successful in fostering employee motivation strike a balance between needed policies and rule overkill.

They create the expectation for employee involvement. They give employees control over decisions that affect their work without turning the workplace into a free-for-all.

These work environments are perceived as fair and structured just enough for perceived emotional safety. At the same time, your more courageous employees feel unfettered and encouraged in their efforts to make a difference. Set them free.

Remove the barriers that discourage work place motivation. Consequent actions and motivation displayed by ordinary people will amaze and gratify you. Can it get any better than this?

Set Them Free: Two Musts For Employee Motivation

By Susan M. Heathfield

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Minimize Rules and Policies

Every person is motivated. The challenge at work is to create an environment in which people are motivated about work priorities. Too often, organizations fail to pay attention to the employee relations, communication, recognition, and involvement issues that are most important to people. The first step in creating a motivating work environment is to stop taking actions that are guaranteed to demotivate people. Identify and take the actions that will motivate people. It’s a balancing act. Employers walk a fine line between meeting the needs of the organization and its customers and meeting the needs of its internal staff. Do both well and thrive.

An attention-getting Gallup Poll about disengaged employees was highlighted in a recent Wall Street Journal. Gallup found 19 percent of 1,000 people interviewed "actively disengaged" at work. These workers complain that they don't have the tools they need to do their jobs. They don't know what is expected of them. Their bosses don't listen to them.

Based on these interviews and survey data from its consulting practice, Gallup says actively disengaged workers cost employers $292 billion to $355 billion a year. Furthermore, Gallup concluded that disengaged workers miss more days of work and are less loyal to employers. With this in mind, let’s look at a couple of areas in which balance is critically needed for employee motivation in organizations today. Rules and Policies
Want to be a cop? That’s how some supervisors feel in organizations that operate on the assumption that people are untrustworthy. You’ve seen the company handbooks that list pages and pages of rules. Step out of line? Fifty-seven potential infractions, with resultant punishment, are listed on page 74. Need time off for your grandma’s funeral? You get three paid days off to travel 600 miles. Have a question? We have answers. In fact, we’ve got policies that answer almost every question.

Supervisory discretion? What’s that? We’ve got employees who, left to their own devices, will choose to do bad things. You can’t trust supervisors to treat employees fairly and consistently either. John in Accounting is a softy. People who work for him get away with anything, everything. If you work for Beth in Sales however, you can count on the rulebook guiding every decision.

Sound familiar? I‘ve heard these reasons and many more to justify the need for hundreds of rules and policies in organizations.

Guidelines for a Motivating Work Environment

• Make only the minimum number of rules and policies needed to protect your organization legally and create order in the work place.

• Publish the rules and policies and educate all employees.

• With the involvement of many employees, identify organizational values and write value statements and a professional code of conduct.

• Develop guidelines for supervisors and educate them about the fair and consistent application of the few rules and policies.

• Address individual dysfunctional behaviors on a “need-to” basis with counseling, progressive discipline, and performance improvement plans.

• Clearly communicate work place expectations and guidelines for professional behavior.

Helpful Hints for Employee Motivation

• Solicit employee feedback on potential policies, areas in which policies are needed, and so on. (Do not, as one company did recently, announce a new attendance policy by posting it on a bulletin board.)

• If you decide to adhere to and hold employees accountable for an existing policy, don’t ambush your company members. If you have not enforced the policy in the past, meet with employees and explain the policy, the intent of the policy, why the policy is necessary, and why it was not enforced in the past. Then, tell everyone that following the meeting, everyone is accountable for adherence to the policy.

• You’ll be surprised how much support for legitimate policies and rules you receive from the people in your organization. People like a well-organized work place in which expectations are clear. People thrive in a work place in which all employees live by the same rules.

If you create an environment that is viewed as fair and consistent, you give people little to push against. You open up a space in which people are focused on contribution and productive activities rather than gossip, unrest, and unhappiness. Which workplace would you choose?

Involve People

In one university department, a committee of ten people met for several months and then recommended space use to their dean. He had formed the committee, provided guidelines, and requested their feedback. Talking to a committee member several months after they submitted their recommendations, I was informed they had never received any feedback about their work.

They had repeatedly asked for feedback and decisions but received none. They felt as if their recommendations had gone into a dark hole, never to be seen again. Demotivated? You bet. These staff members are loath to volunteer for another committee in the future, as well. Fool me once, poor me; fool me twice …

Most people want involvement in decisions that affect their work. Some may not want the final accountability. Ask why. Have people been punished for decisions they made in the past? Have organization leaders provided the time, tools, and information needed to make good decisions? Or have people made decisions that were over-ridden by their managers?

Does the clear expectation for employee involvement exist in your workplace? Are the people who make decisions and contribute ideas rewarded and recognized? These are critical questions if you want involved, motivated employees.