Weather and Working From Home

There are lots of reasons why I work from home. The short commute. Not paying a landlord and a mortgage. A fully stocked fridge, and not the dorm fridge I used to have in my old office. Getting my laundry done in between resume projects.

Another big reason is that I live in Nebraska. If you look at the map above, it's the state just above all the pink stuff in the middle of the country. That wintry mix is headed our way, with a mixture of freezing rain, ice, sleet, and snow expected for tomorrow.

In the first eight years of our business, it would have been an excuse to call into the voice mail messaging system and record an "out of the office" greeting. Tomorrow, I'll head downstairs in my PJs and slippers and put in a couple of hours of work before donning my boots, gloves, and hat and heading outside to fire up the snowblower.

It's the antithesis of the late August days when I sit outside on my back deck with my laptop and soak up a little sun while little kids splash and play in the neighborhood pool across the street.

Ah, the joys of working from home.

That's Not a Job Search System

I subscribe to About.com's Job Searching e-newsletter because I'm always looking for resources I can recommend to my clients ... or to you, wonderful readers.

So I opened up Alison Doyle's latest missive and found this tantalizing link:
"Start a Job Search System." Oooh, I thought. I always recommend an action plan for my clients -- maybe here are some new resources.

The tagline below the link sounded promising:
It's important to have a system in place when you start a job search. Start by searching the top job sites, your local job sites, and the job sites that focus on your career field(s) of interest each and every day.

Unfortunately, if you (like I did) clicked through to the link, her "job search system" involved searching online career sites, and using online career agents.

Not exactly what I'd consider a "Job Search System."

Career Business Plan

Do you encourage your clients to prepare a "Career Business Plan"? Perhaps you should.

"In all too many cases, the most important decisions about your career will be made at a time unknown to you, at a place where you are not present, by people who don't know you well," writes Dave E. Marley, author of "Promote Yourself! Creating a Personal Promotion Plan for Your Career." (Published 2002; currently out of print).

Marley writes that personal promotion efforts must have more than one focus; it's not enough to promote yourself inside your current circle or the company where you are currently employed, because companies fail, merge, and redirect themselves and their employees to different markets and industries.

The book defines professional equity as the career value you own -- your reputation, skills, experience, and contacts. Help your clients by emphasizing building "professional equity" -- those assets that establish your unique value.

Work-Related Statistics - Part 1

Some interesting statistics:

• 73% of managers say their company typically looks at the current employee base first when conducting a job search before considering any other candidates.
• 33% of managers report they found their jobs through networking.
• 41% of workers expect to stay with their current employer for more than six years.
  

—Hudson

• 33% of U.S. organizations lose 10-25% of their new hires within the first year.
• 11% lose up to 50% of their new hires within a year.

– Novations Group Inc.

• 41% of U.S. workers say they think a workplace romance would jeopardize their job security or advancement opportunities.
• 35% of U.S. workers who report they have had a relationship with a co-worker.

– Spherion

Source: "Figuratively Speaking", Office Solutions Magazine, July 2007