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How to Face the Aftermath of a Demotion
Tweet Share on Facebook July 10, 2008 Comment (7)I have worked for a nonprofit for five years as an executive assistant. Good reviews—no problems—raises every year. I love what I do. Over the five years, I have expanded the duties of my position and they added another administrative assistant. I work for the director and two others. She works for three others in the department that do something in another area. She has the duties I outgrew. The boss told me Friday that he wanted to swap our duties around. Well, I flipped and started crying. I stated that this was a demotion; he stated it was not. I also make about double what the other girl does—because I have experience and can do the job. He wants to train and develop her. He basically said I would still have my title and pay but lighter duties. I wanted to go forward with my career, but this seems to set me back. I decided to fight. I wrote a letter to him, the president and the HR guy protesting this change. I am now sitting here doing my job and waiting [for] the ax to fall. What do you think?
I think you should polish up your résumé and start looking for a new job.
Yes, in an ideal world, you should be training the new person while you are being trained for a higher-level job. That clearly isn't happening here.
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If You Can't Be Googled, Do You Exist?
Tweet Share on Facebook July 9, 2008 Comment (12)Here in Internet-addicted Seattle, you don't hand new contacts a business card.
You say: "If you want to reach me, just Google my name."
A sign of extreme coolness is when people can find you by Googling only your first name.
Don't laugh. Even if you, like Working Girl, inhabit less rarefied circles, you still need to care about your Googleability—because many people (including some potential employers) now believe that if you aren't findable on the Internet, preferably on Page 1 of a search, it's the same as not existing.
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How to Raise Money for Your Start-up
Tweet Share on Facebook July 8, 2008 Comment (12)In as few words as possible, here are 20 ideas to help with the money-raising process:
1. Research the process. Others have done it.
2. Assuming you'll have outside investors, get legal help.
3. Sell common stock in the first round or two.
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Management Is Not a Popularity Contest
Tweet Share on Facebook July 7, 2008 Comment (6)Can a manager be both effective and well liked?
Nope. Not going to happen.
If you're a good manager, you're going to make decisions that anger and upset some people. You are going to tell some people their work isn't good enough. You are going to hold accountable people who don't want to be held accountable. You are going to institute and enforce policies that may exist for a good reason but still irritate the heck out of some people. You are going to fire people.
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How Regret Can Help You Love Your Career
Tweet Share on Facebook July 3, 2008 Comment (1)If you live your life on autopilot, responding only to external demands and expectations, the odds that you're going to create a career that lights you up are slim to none. It's too easy for entropy to take over and suddenly, before you know it, you've taken the path of least resistance down a road you didn't really want to travel.
How do you avoid that? Pay attention! One of the most effective ways to keep your head in the game is to continually ask yourself one simple question:
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Love Your Job—but Hate Your Boss?
Tweet Share on Facebook July 1, 2008 Comment (10)When my editor at U.S. News suggested I write on this topic, I felt as if she had just asked me to clean the garage with the Winnebago still parked inside—I can do it, but don't expect a decent job (in 250 words or less).
Yet employees are being asked to clean their garage (their job) with the Winnebago (bad boss) still inside. It's no wonder "bad boss" is cited as the No. 1 reason people quit their jobs. Doing a good job is hard enough without having such obstacles.
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