Back in the Trenches

Yes, it’s been a while since there were regular posts regarding any subject on this blog. The absence has been even more protracted on each of my other blogs. You’d think that I’d be much more conscientious about keeping up my writing schedule in light of the fact that I’ve been invited to blog on at least two other sites. But there are only two posts on Talent Management Tech and nothing published as of yet on Toolbox for HR.

Just to let you know, the blog on Talent Management Tech is called “From My View” and allows me to do my forecasting on various topics as they relate to talent management issues from many perspectives. Toolbox wants my words on the “how-to”s and best practices of HR. What I’ll be providing are some past words of advice and observation as reminders for all of us and then some new recommendations.

To that end, it’s time to tell you that one of the reasons for the silence is that I’m back in the trenches. This time I’m looking at the pool of talent that is available, observing practices in various types of companies, taking note of communication systems, and noting what works and what is misleading.

There’s so much grist for comment that it’s overwhelming. Broad brush strokes simply cannot be used at this time. Compounding the observations is the fact that they’re made about systems that exist on Los Angeles’ Skid Row. It isn’t the easiest of places to be in any sense. Nor is it the healthiest place to be. But Skid Row teaches one profound lesson: You have to take everything on a cases-by-case basis. There is no single statement that can be made about the collective whole of the denizen. Likewise, it would be imprudent to take the public relations statement about the organizations here and use that as gospel pertaining to what can be expected. In that regard, diversity is definitely a key word.

In this environment, it is possible to see how parents are using their skills and where skills are needed. From that emanates an appreciation of why so many of our youth are focused on the superficial aspects of tasks and seem to feel a certain entitlement that has not been earned through endeavors to merit privilege, advancement, or acknowledgment.

There are deep pockets of lack when it comes to good leadership skills. Because of the deficiencies, there are people holding responsible positions over people who are in need of many forms of services and support who simply do not have those skills but use their positions in improper ways in order to flaunt their power.

My different blogs touch on different perspectives of the management and hiring processes. The posts that deal with those topics will be placed on the appropriate blog. However, that is another explanation for why there has been such a period of silence. With so many issues wanting their time of discussion, it becomes not only confusing but overwhelming as to where to start first.

Compounding the where and what issues are also the dynamics of being in the environment. As I said, abuse of power is nearly everywhere. It attempts to compensate for the lack of skill in that area. That abuse slides into situations that then become questionable ethics, things such as intentional interference with business opportunity, harassment, and discrimination. Another thing that begins to emerge into the light of day is the fact that in many instances the untrained leaders and ones in positions of responsibility are found to word documents and reports in ways that cast a pall upon the subject of the report. In turn, the person is refused services or opportunities to which they actually have. Some call these statements “misstatements.” I have called them lies; but then, I tend to get excited when it comes to abuse for the sake of abuse and without appreciation of the short- and long-term consequences.

Out of all of these negatives, is it possible to find value-adding human capital? There are training programs here that purport to train and ready people for various types of jobs. Again, it is impossible to make a blanket statement about the population because it is so profoundly diverse. It is nearly mandatory that you take the time to become acquainted with nearly every person who completes an application in order to evaluate them on a case-by-case basis. There are some pearls, there are some who are the underpinnings of any organization, and there are some who will prove to be excellent for seasonal or contract work. The ages for the talent run the spectrum. Many of those over 50 are quite desirable but pushed into the background for various reasons. You have to hunt for what you want.

Nevertheless, there has been a long lapse of time since I last talked with you about anything relating to the employment industry. The silence is being broken.

Grass Is Greener Syndrome

Back in the ’90s, my news producer friend and colleague and I talked about how we admired the status of the other. Kevin said I had a choice situation with being freelance because I could pick and choose what type of content I wanted to work. I admired Kevin because of the stability of his job. He always knew where the work was coming from, it was regular, the pay was established and paid at a regular (survivable) rate, he got to be among others in his profession and be a team member when necessary or a solo as required.

I look back on that conversation now as I reflect on situations that involved The Press in recent times. Now I have more appreciation of his words. It was quite an experience to watch The Press crowd the Board of Supervisors hearing room on the day they discussed the closure of King Hospital and the brouhaha regarding Sheriff Baca’s actions not too many days before. The corps was quite professional and caught all of the content.

But a trigger event changed everything that was happening in the auditorium. The Press was compelled to react because of the advertising dollars that would fund their air time for coverage of the “sexy” news. The more appealing (and on that day, compelling) story was the fact that Paris Hilton’s hearing was about to take place. The Press needed to go to the story and capture the footage so they would have the more timely content.

So when word came down that Paris was ready for her hearing, the corps consumed approximately 10 to 15 minutes while literally all of them filed out of the hearing room to their vehicles in order to make their way two blocks away to the Criminal Courts building.

Is the news what is important to the populace or is the news what the media determines is most compelling in order to maintain a well-informed and knowledgeable public? The call goes to which of the stories will get the most viewer eyes and therefore the higher ratings for the station. That then spells viability for the station and its business.

Kevin didn’t spell out the subtle nuances of his statement and admiration of my position as a freelancer. Discretion dictated his being quiet about the implied message and allow me to figure it out as time passed. So maybe it has been a good thing that I’ve never formally worked in broadcasting although I have as an independent.

Choices are replete when we’re trying to determine the career path that’s right for us. Unfortunately, we get stuck on those job titles that are the main headings and forget about the subtitles and related situations that could have a lot more appeal and more openings. It would be wise for us to look at the main heading and then do a free form analysis of related titles.

The longer I do this, the more I hear others offering the same counsel that I have in the past (as well as currently). One of the things I keep hammering at is check the Occupational Outlook Handbook to review not only the main job titles listed but also the related occupations under that title. It isn’t necessary to get stuck in a hopeless job search for something you ultimately discover is not what you want to do. There are quite a number of related things (or ways of doing them) that offer the exhilaration we all seek in our work lives.

Related Content:

• Identity and Selflessness
• Fortuitous Rejections

All It Takes

As if I don’t have enough to do, I have a series of meetings with government agencies the rest of this week. It seems they’ve stopped doing something very vital (paying me) and it’s causing a compromise in my agenda (paying my bills). Today’s meeting was striking because of the couple of questions that were asked asked. It was as though some angel were listening and watching and giving signals on what the job seeker should be doing during their interviews.

The precipitating questions were, “What is the highest grade you’ve completed in school?” and “Do you have any special education or training?”

In response to the first question, I answered two years of law school. In the back of my mind I was screaming and saying, “It wasn’t a grade as in high school. It was actual advanced studies.” But I just mildly responded without commentary. Commentary wasn’t necessary.

Things blossomed when I answered the second question. The litany went something on the order of:

• Mediation. In response to when, I said 1994.

• Tutoring. Literacy tutoring as well as youth tutoring. I wasn’t asked for the years in which these activities occurred and did not volunteer them.
• Disability accommodations for the visually impaired and through the Arthritis Foundation, learning disabilities, and several others that I can’t remember right now.
• Domestic violence. I’m a domestic violence advocate as well as a legal domestic violence advocate.

By that time, it was difficult to remember whether there was any additional “special training or education.” But that list that rolled off the top of my head begged the question,

“So do I get the job?”

The interviewer and I both laughed. With all of those qualifications, it was more than appropriate to ask. Yet how many job seekers do so? Scant to none is the answer I’d venture. Why so few who will ask for the job after more than qualifying theirselves for it? Perhaps modesty is the answer. Then again, perhaps it’s due to fear. But there’s nothing to fear. Fear of failure? No. With that list, there were only successes and those under one’s control who would sneak to be reunited with you in order to stay with the program and keep growing. There were not litanies of failure.

Job seekers need to rethink their interviewing strategies. Maybe all it takes to get the job is to ask for it.

Job Search Effectiveness

There are so many in the media who are more than enthusiastic about jumping on the “tight labor market” bandwagon. It seems like everyone and his neighbor is harping about how hard it is to find a job and the extraordinary lengths to which people need to go in order to find one.

Are you having trouble finding candidates who are qualified to fill your reqs?

On yesterday’s news, a guy was interviewed. He stands on a street corner everyday at 5:30 AM with a sheaf of his resume under his arm. He passes out his resume until 7:30 AM and then goes elsewhere to do other job search activities. He said he highlights a few things here and there in his resume and relies on the person who’s reading it to do some intuitive, active reading to draw lineals from one experience to another.

There’s a flaw in that thinking. Recruiters who review resumes only have about one minute, at best two, to see the matches for the job req they have on their desk. If it doesn’t jump out at them within that time, it goes into the slush pile until the next time they’re looking for that same generic job title.

The other thing this guy who stands on the street corner does is yet another of the sins he’s committing against himself. In the discussions, we’ve shared about the one-minute impressionand how that boils down into the 15- or 30-second elevator pitch. Apparently the resume distributor has those first three elements of the positive impression down pat.

But when it came to talking about what he wants, he dismally failed. The reporter was adept at asking what he’d done before. We got a vague answer about management here and supervision there but nothing we could sink our teeth into. (Maybe I wanted to go see this guy. I may have something to offer him.)

The reporter pressed on. The next question was what type of job the resume distributor wants. This was the moment. He was asking for the world and the world was at his feet. His answer was, “well, I’ll take whatever is out there at this point in time.” After going through all of the efforts, he had no specific job he is angling to get.

I have to wonder how his resume points anyone to the precise thing they want let alone what he wants. No matter what shape our economy is in, there are certain things that are just basics. They have to be there in order for us to get started on a good job search. The resume distributor has put together a job history on paper and made thousands of copies of it which he diligently gives away to every passerby. But he hasn’t done any type of evaluation of this document nor attempted to tailor it to his search. In fact, he hasn’t even shaped his search!

Resume Distributor had the opportunity of a lifetime dropped into his lap. The reporter for statewide radio news asked him what type of job he wanted. His 10 seconds of fame and opportunity were there. All he could come up with was “I’m open to anything right now.”

Maybe he should have said, “. . . anything related to XYZ industry.”

I’ll bet I could have gone to the Occupational Outlook Handbook and found at least a dozen job titles that are related to this guy’s last job. From there, we could have worked on finding some things that are good matches for his personality and background and started a job search for him.

Since Resume Distributor didn’t give any clues about his background, let’s choose a generic job title and see if we can brainstorm some related job titles.

Accountant
bookkeeper
tax preparer
auditor
financial analyst
financial advisor
IRS agent
inventory taker
stock clerk

It might be fun to try some other job titles and see what alternates come up. At least we’d have some things to think about in case, during these times of change, some categories are simply being phased out.

Options for Good-Paying Jobs

PayScale puts out a monthly newsletter that has some good, relevant articles. The reason I point this out is not for the sake of promoting their newsletter. The reason I point this out is because they’re featuring several articles that provide food for thought and encouragement in this seeming shrinking employment world.

First, you need to know that it isn’t necessary to get an advanced degree in order to earn big bucks. In “Best Jobs with 2-year Degrees,” ten different occupations are highlighted. What I want you to do is take into consideration the different industries that are represented by those ten occupations. They are

• health
• entertainment
• construction
• IT
• medicine – for animals
• electronics

Stop and consider that these industries represent something I spoken of several times in the past as enduring places for employment opportunities. They are in industries that are necessary for daily life. It’s surprising that food and food handling isn’t among these titles but veterinary medicine is pretty close.

Another thing I recommend as you pore over this list is to get a copy of the Occupational Outlook Handbook in sight so that as you look at these occupations, you can get a good idea of some job titles and occupations that are very closely related to them. In that way, you’re not stuck in yet another glutted market and nowhere to turn. With alternatives, the options can be limitless.

The Women Focus

PayScale’s focus is pretty savvy. They are fully aware that women have been striving for decades to achieve income parity in high paying occupations.  So it shouldn’t be surprising that in this month’s newsletter they feature the “Best-Paying Careers for Women.”

Not only do they discuss the options that are family amenable for those who have not yet started raising families, they also talk about things to consider as you make those choices. It’s no longer an “all or nothing” or a “his options or nothing” consideration. It is now possible for women to have a good sounding trumpet in the choices available.

Additional Topics

There are a couple of other related articles in the newsletter that talk about high-paying green jobs and how to choose a career path. Unfortunately, the green jobs they discuss are all C-level titles such as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Information Officer, and so on. And there’s not a lot of detail provided about being a greenie. I’d recommend you pass on that article.

Likewise, the piece that discusses choosing a career path is done in broad (but useful) brushstrokes. There are no recommendations for evaluative tests to identify interests and strengths. Instead, they rely on personal history for failure and success. These do have some merit and for that reason I would say take a glance at “Expert Tips for Choosing a Career Path.”

New Job Search Strategies and Venues

I’m guilty and admit it. I’ve been publishing information you’re seeking but not here. It’s being published inconsistently in the places where it is appearing. All of these scatterings are becoming confusing. Time to regroup, be organized, and become consistent. (You can help me on that last one. Which of these three locations is the one you consider the place for me to provide this information?)

We already know that the economy is abysmal. Although economists won’t admit it, we are in an economic depression. Carefully study and compare our current situation to the 1930s and you’ll see the tick marks starting to add up to nearly equal numbers.

What’s interesting is how much we’ve grown in complexities in just barely a century. During the Depression of the last century, getting a job consisted of seeing a “Help wanted” sign in the store window, having a willing mind and able body and limbs, then handing the sign over to the owner with some positive conversation and the statement, “I’m willing if you’ll have me.” The owner did their on-the-spot screening and decision making and you either started or went along the sidewalk to the next place. These days, there’s personality screening, skills testing, physical and substance evaluation. There’s examination of whether you can get along with the staff as well as whether staff can get along with you. You examine the premises to determine whether it suits your tastes and whether the hours and shift are to your liking. It’s become very complex.

Some things we used to just suck up in order to stay focused and centered on getting the job done so the business could be a success (and we could keep working) become the focus to the exclusion of what the business is about. Maybe that’s one of the reasons our layoff and outplacement rates are as high as they are.

Whatever the issues, we’ve got jobs that are being cut from payrolls so that businesses can stay afloat. And we’ve got industries that are struggling to stay alive. Which means the time has come for us to rethink how we go about doing our work, where the work is located, and how to get the work. We need to consider what’s involved in staying on the payroll or getting called back. And those are the things I’ve been talking about in all three venues as well as some new ways of thinking about networking.

Entertainment

People in the entertainment industry have said it each time an awards ceremony is approaching. We need to think short term and contract. There’s too much work in the short run in all the areas that need to be covered. Those of you who are good in production and have Mac skills (not to mention graphics abilities) should be looking for and finding some tantatlizing opportunities that are contract in nature. That means they have price tags that can probably be negotiated. A two-hour project can easily turn into that plus a one or two day engagement if your work is good enough.

The key is to think short term and contract when looking for work. It’s no longer necessary to pledge your last dying breath to the company. Businesses are looking for ways to cut costs, not increase them. So to the extent you’re amenable to a hit and run relationship, where hit is each time the company needs the remote help throughout the year, you’re in business.

Other Industries

This contract and short-term work situation isn’t limited to the entertainment industry. Something that’s related to entertainment is makeup. And there’s word in the news that affordable makeup is quite a lucrative move — even for $60 per hour psychologists.

Speaking of psychologists, the other point that’s being made is that there is a growing need for people in all phases of health care in the public health care domain. This is because more people are losing their jobs along with their company-supplied health care insurance. The fallback is public health care and state-provided care.

A word to the wise is that you be sharp and stay sharp if you go into public health care at any level. Here in California we have facilities that are being closed rather than risk having inept personnel delivering poor to negligent care to the unsuspecting, consuming and in-need public. Lackadaisical attitudes and work habits are not the lasting qualities for these sites. Communication skills are imperative, that is, being able to talk with people in order to make them feel not only comfortable in distressful situations but also that they are being respected and receiving all the type and quality of care being given to mainstream denizens.

As the construction, banking, and real estate industries are floundering and people are wondering whether this is the prime time to dive in and start from the floor and move up or not, there is word that new jobs are coming out of this flattening. Green and energy is the way. Jobs in sustainable energy and renewable resources are becoming the alternatives. Look into what is transferable and what it takes to become a specialist in this area. You’re standing in the threshold of becoming tomorrow’s specialist and expert.

Tangential Services

The pressures from these new employment opportunities and ways of searching are creating new ways of doing things. This blog post is not for just job seekers. Nor is this blog. It is for all participants of the employment game.

For example, around 2004 we talked a lot about whether it was ethical to poach employees from a current client’s workforce in order to fill a requisition for another client with similar types of workers. Now the poaching issue has ramped up several degrees. The poaching is happening on an interstate basis and the cry of “no foul” is still that “we’ll do anything we want to do.” In order for that one to fly, we’ll just overlook the fact that there’s some form of interference with doing business happening in these situations so that we can still look ourselves in the mirror tomorrow.

Never fear. Some report that layoffs in the HR department are increasing. However, the HR network of experts says there’s a growing trend toward outsourcing HR needs with a network of experts. Some are available through state governed networks where the State certifies and maintains a list of experts in certain specialties.

Look for new ways to network, even at the office. We’ve had Fegen suites since the early 1970s that turned shared office space and virtual offices in the ’80s and ’90s. What’s now happening is space is becoming more a members office environment, at least here in the Los Anageles area. You can use an individual work station, with Internet access, for a few hours or all day. Other options available are weekly or monthly access for either a work station or actual office space. There’s mail and other support services in addition to conference room availability for meetings, presentations, and so on.

This may be an option for up and coming entrepreneurs who need to keep a cap on expenses while allowing their business endeavors to thrive. One of the questions you need to ask of yourself is whether the mix of tenants (as well as in the neighborhood) is right for your business and services. If they complement, it should be optimal. If it’s just a hodge podge without rhyme or reason, it may take too much work to make it work and all the services to be as cost effective as they could be.

Finally, there’s still another new service that should be useful to all three sides of the hiring desk. Indeed.com has a new service that I think I remember will be on a monthly basis. It provides a summary of the number of job postings that have been made in 12 industries and the amount of increase or decline in each. Very helpful information to have for all three sides of the hiring desk. Whether job seeker, recruiter, or hiring manager, it helps to know what the trends are in your industry and therefore get a better view of the dynamics that are driving answers to your advertising and not. If they’re not answering, you need to look at what elements are impacting you and take measures to do something about it.

Busy Times

Yes, these are busy times. These are compelling times. And it’s all exciting because we’re yet again on the verge of watching new ways of doing business and job search being taken in a new direction. Whether they’re better and less complicated is still something to be evaluated. But it’s definitely exciting.

Testing cf. Knowledge

One of the good things about laundry day is that I’m given the opportunity to get out and be social for at least three hours that day. It gives me the chance to meet other people, share in conversation with them, learn something from them, gain new knowledge. And this past Monday was no different.

This time, my laundry buddy (I’ll call her Shelly) and I struck up a conversation because she was wearing a dress that looked like one I recently bought but haven’t had the courage to wear yet. She confirmed that we’d bought from the same store and that it was probably the same style. And then we started getting acquainted.

She has a young child and is concerned about the quality of education that she’ll receive when she needs to go from the nursery school she’s presently attending and into First Grade. The child is already writing in cursive as well as reading and writing sentences. We talked about the private school options available in the neighborhood and in the community. One thing we both observed is that the Los Angeles Unified School District in our community is not serving its constituents well. Sending the child to a public school is causing Shelly great concern.

She shared her experience with East Coast universities compared with what she experienced here in California. She admitted that the East gave her much more of a challenge. I didn’t ask if the challenge could have been attributed to her freshness to Life and inexperience but took her words at face value. She also shared that CSUN offered very little challenge. Her academic exposure has been in one of the more difficult sciences, pharmacology, and urban planning. She’s also worked at City Hall and gained insight into how things operate there. Now she works part time as a tutor.

I told her it’s as though the teachers either don’t care about their charges or else are so overwhelmed that they cannot do what they were hired to accomplish. The other explanation is that the teachers aren’t qualified to handle the work. Shelly felt the observations were entirely correct but was slightly reticent to admit as much. She just kept praising the excellence of the preschool she’s found and looks forward to finding the next school that will present as much challenge and learning as it does.

At the risk of sounding pompous in that previous paragraph, I’ll supply a little background to my words. I was a candidate for the School Board in South Pasadena in 1989. During the campaign, I interviewed several of the teachers in the district to get a feel for their needs. Likewise, I paid close attention at the School Board meeting when the exchange students from Germany provided their feedback on their experience with American schools (especially upper middle class schools such as South Pasadena, a close rival of San Marino and La Canada). Additionally, I listened carefully as I talked to students about their impression of their learning experience. I was interested in the types of young people I was meeting and what the schools were producing.

The teachers complained that they’re given so much administrative work that they can’t do what they were hired to do — teach. There’s not enough time to do it. The next complaint was insufficient supplies and equipment in order to deliver state of the art instruction on equipment that is currently part of the work world. Even with a classroom aide, the teachers were being stretched to the point of snapping. Still, the South Pasadena schools were measuring up on the Stanford 9 exams and going toe to toe with San Marino year after year.

Parents in the community complained about the fact that they were reaching into their own pockets to keep the schools on par. They spoke of the dollars spent on public education for their children and wondered whether it would be more cost effective to simply give up on South Pasadena schools and send the youth to private schools instead. Financially speaking, it was becoming the same as doing so without the assurance that the charges would succeed as well as in the other environment. But then by choosing a private school, the youth no longer had that distinction of saying they were South Pas grads.

The exchange students were quite direct in their assessment and very unreserved in expressing it. They were bewildered at the amount of homework required every night. Several said it was as though the amount of learning was measured by the volume of homework assigned. But the homework was poor in quality and taught very little. At home, they would have about 20 minutes of homework that was rich in challenge compared with one hour or more of American homework that was very easy and quite repetitious.

How interesting it was to finally have power in the house again this morning and the ability to hear the news. The story that caught my attention most was the one regarding schools and how much training the students actually receive compared with the volume of homework that is meaningless in content. Students withstood volumes of testing that didn’t seem to justify the basis for the testing. It was merely to test in order to say that the students were tested. Did Shelly share our conversation with someone in the media? That wasn’t possible. Why would a reporter want that story? What newsworthiness could there be in a laundromat conversation about education? But there was the story, complete with an expert who has conducted a study of the topic and who had come to the same conclusion.

What does this say about the education we’re providing our youth? What does this say about the workforce readiness of those who seek careers and high positions? It says we’re not properly training them. It says we’re not providing the types of meaningful challenges that will benefit them in the real world. Thus, when it comes time for them to perform at peak levels, they will crumple as they reach. They will crumple for many reason.

• They were not prepared
• They didn’t understand the fundamentals of the task, therefore, they overlooked many small details
• They weren’t sure of when to ask questions
• They weren’t sure of what questions to ask
• They relied on the advice of friends and comrades
• They overlooked the advice and counsel of veterans
• They took the easiest way
• They did not plan
• They waited for someone else to do for them
• They had the impression that “professional” meant stylish
• They had the impression that “leadership” mean bullying and forcefulness

Even if they do not gain these skills and knowledge sets in school, the reinforcement (or procurement) needs to happen in the workplace. To the extent there are supervisors who also do not know (or remember) the whys of the practices nor take the time to explain the bases for doing things in a particular order, we will continue with the losses and setbacks that are part of the talent loss and corporate guerrilla warfare for qualified workers.

Whether in school or in the workplace, the lack of proper training, homework anemic in content, challenges bereft of meaningful achievement and comprehension will take a toll on the social fabric. No miracle savior of any magnitude will be able to turn the tides nor save us from our destruction.

It all starts with proper training, sound education, testing that searches for meaningful measures of learning — not testing for the sake of testing.

Still Standing for the Cause

There are times when we go through situations that are most disagreeable. Unsavory as they are, unacceptable to the typical, forward-looking person, there are those who see no flaw in the circumstances because that is obviously where the person is supposed to be. They are among their kind. These individuals are progressing as they are supposed to be (which is actually stagnating and not being challenged in any meaningful way). These people are free to live wherever they want as long as it’s in the same or lesser environment of where they’re expected to be. Goods and services are acquired appropriate to the person’s standing. There is freedom of self expression in whatever manner chosen, so long as it’s among a particular class of people. Boundaries should be respected.

That description sounds like life from some foreign planet. It sounds like a brochure for a communist country tour or a visit to some place still existing under dictator rule. Actually, it’s a description of life for a typical 21st Century resident in a United States ghetto.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has established unequivocal standards that relate to fair employment practices. One would expect that after more than 50 years, those rules and regulations would be part of every person’s subconscious and guide them to make proper decisions as well as act in a reasonable way when sourcing, recruiting, screening, and hiring. But they don’t. More examples are reported each week.

Even in the recruiting industry, there are those who proudly beat their chests and boast about how ethical they are. Yet these are the very same people who will attempt to have the applicant exclude themselves from being considered by asking them questions that tend to disqualify rather than demonstrate higher qualifications. What the applicants who survive this screening-out process gain is an opportunity at a lower salary because of the lack of skills they have to offer. It tends to be Jim Crow in treatment.

Again, prime examples of race-based pay inequities abound. Statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and education centers abound with the evidence. According to a 1998 study by the National Center for Education Statistics, the difference between compensation received for work (and education that qualifies the individual for it) among black women compared with Asians was .857% and between black to white workers was .9724% for the same position. In other words, blacks could expect to earn at least 3 cents less than their white counterparts and 15 cents less than their Asian ones.

This reduced starting (and therefore long-term) salary keeps certain races and individuals locked into an ever downward spiraling path of lack of opportunity. It may look like they are getting work. But many times the work that is offered actually constitutes permanent under-employment. The only hope the person has of advancing their career is to change jobs because, unlike their initial hiring process, they will be passed over for all promotions unless they are quite aggressive in their pursuit of something more advanced.

These lesser positions and opportunities are partially hinged on the not-so imaginary inferior quality of education that is delivered in black neighborhoods, especially the ghettos, compared with what is supposed to be a level playing field of equal education and exposure to challenging concepts that will develop the critical thinking minds and talent we so desperately need in 2018. Teachers are saddled with not only inferior quality supplies and resources. They are also burdened with inordinate amounts of administrative paperwork. Couple those obstacles with students who come to school ill prepared because they may have been deterred by any number of factors, and you have a powder keg of disenfranchisement that can be blamed on any and every part of “The System.”

As with the times before the EEOC, before the 1950s, people no longer rock the boat with protests of unfair opportunity or unequal opportunity. Instead, they quietly take whatever they can get in order to support their own selves and their families. Stakes, as always, are high. There are bills to be paid, rent that always comes due or resort to living on the streets. But the salaries the minorities can command are so much less than that of others that the quality of goods and services that can be consumed is also lacking. The ripples of unfair employment practices spread across the pond and touch on every aspect of business and life as we know it.

It no longer does any good to protest the wrong. To do so is to be one who makes waves and is uncontrolled and uncontrollable, prone to violence at the least provocation. The solution is to shut up the noise and get rid of it by whatever means is expedient.

We stand today looking forward to a new horizon of opportunity and a promise of change from the status quo. We have a new president who has been elected on the merit of who he is and how he conducts himself, not on what he is. What he actually represents is another statement about being an American. He is a blend of races that came to these United States. He is an example of one family’s struggle to make ends meet and strive to be a little better than the previous generation. He is one who knows the history of this country and appreciates the foundations upon which all of the lessons are based. From that type of knowledge and awareness, there can be growth and improvement.

With grit, tenacity, hard work, and adapting to the many cultures surrounding him, Barack Obama has succeeded in being the the President of Change. Change is desperately needed. Nay, it is required. He prepares to step into his office on Tuesday with the state of the Nation in shambles scattered about the floor. The leadership of the previous administration was in word only, not in execution. The world is breathing a sigh of relief and pensively waiting for the first strokes of the man who will bring order back to the Nation of leaders.

We now have the daunting task of getting shell-shocked troops out of countries where they should not have been sent in the first place only to bring them back to home soils where there are no jobs. There are few job opportunities for those who never left the States while they face high rates of layoffs. Wages are not desirable. Rents are high. Housing is next to impossible to find because lenders are foreclosing on more properties than gaining revenue from the risk. Perhaps we should become a nation of Peace Corps enlistees who live from the basics of the land and build up. Is it realistic for us to look back to an agrarian economy? As long as agri-business isn’t involved, that could be one of the solutions.

It was about 50 years ago that we marched on Washington singing and chanting and joining hands to demand Freedom Now. We listened as the charismatic King told us of how we were on our way to the Promised Land of Opportunity. But we now stand looking at that prospect and dare not breathe lest the dream vanish before our eyes.

Do we have anyone in our numbers, of whatever race or mixture, who is willing to call the injustices when they’re encountered and strive to create the corrections, turn the thinking, to the directions where there truly is an open door for those who have worked to enter it? We look forward to this inauguration and are hopeful. But we look toward this inauguration with two generations of people who no longer remember why all of these inroads are landmark.

Instead, those two generations ask “What’s Going On?” while those who were not even in their teens attempt once more to explain who the leaders were, what causes existed, why they were important and mattered. They hope by sharing the stories the younger generations will be infused with a desire to learn those lessons and names. There is a hope that they will strive to pick up the gauntlet and continue where others fell short.

We need to once again reflect on our American freedoms before we begin to formulate the response to these new generations. But we, all of us, no matter what color or ethnicity, need to be certain of the many promises this land held for us in the 1600s when the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth. And then we need to find ourselves still standing for the causes they represent. Finally, we need to firmly grasp the reins of change in order to effectuate that change, not run away from the deterioration that has become part of our apathetic reverie. Rather we need to move forward to the progressive realization of The Dream so that it will not have been in vain.

Demise of File Sharing Sites

This past Monday, it seemed a universal recruiting scream went up. Although it’s not been discussed in the public domain since it’s launch about two years ago (as I recall the date), apparently it’s become one of the golden grails of file sharing and collaboration around the Net and especially in the recruiting community. Whoddathunk!

Pownce is closing down. Well, technically it isn’t really closing down. It’s becoming part of the Six Apart family of services along with MovableType, TypePad, and Vox. The last day for Pownce to live in its own stead is December 15.

I finally carved out some time to go to the site to find out first-hand what’s going on. On December 1, Leah Culver blogged the announcement of the changes. The Pownce team will still be blogging but on Vox. Leah also includes instructions about how to export and import files to whatever service a member chooses to use. “Visit pownce.com/settings/export/ to generate your export file. You can then import your posts to other blogging services such as Vox, TypePad, or WordPress.” Her message is quite upbeat and reassuring. You get the impression that they’re not really going away; it’s just a sham announcement. Please don’t rest on that delusion. Otherwise, you won’t move your files and then you won’t be able to access them after December 15.

You say these folks are like family to you and you don’t want to lose touch with them? Well, there’s a solution that’s also part of the December 1 announcement. Leah continues by saying, “As for the Pownce team, we’ll continue posting on Vox. You can find me at leahculver.vox.com, Mike at mjmalone.vox.com, and Ariel at arielwaldman.vox.com. The Six Apart announcement can be found on their company blog.”

Maybe someone can explain to me why Pownce seemed to enjoy so much popularity that there was a major outcry out its close four days after the official announcement. In sharp contrast, I’ve heard no exclamation whatsoever about the closing of Xdrive, one of the oldest of the file storage and sharing sites that still survives on the Net. Xdrive, taken over by AOL about three years ago, will be closing on January 12, 2009. The site’s home page has instructions about how to access your files in order to download them. It also has suggestions as to other sites that can be used as an alternative. They are:

• Box
• Carbonite
• Dropbox
• Elephant Drive

Just out of curiosity, I checked on another file sharing site that’s of the same approximate vintage as Xdrive. Freedrive still exists and offers 1 GB of storage space. The iteration of it that I know was absorbed by Xdrive several years ago. I would venture to guess that since the name was available, someone chose to use it in order to start a service that essentially offers the same services at the former one.

The only thing I can see that accounts for the survival of the new form of Freedrive from Xdrive is that the site enjoys sponsorship from a company for a period of time. What Freedrive does if it cannot find a sponsor is a question that cannot be answered at this moment. But they exist. And they offer file back-up service — something that seemed to spell the end of Xdrive.

This sponsorship theory doesn’t hold water very well. Another of the vintage names in file storage is Driveway. This was one of the first file storage sites I learned of circa 1998. It was fast, efficient, reliable. They must have had too much demand. They were absorbed and eventually became what was Xdrive. It was disappointing to see them go away. Everything about Driveway was more than just good. The new version offers 2 GB of storage. They are now part of IDrive, another of those file storage and backup sites of the late ’90s that went underground for a while.

The end of Xdrive was blowing in the wind about two years ago. They stopped collecting for the service. In addition, it became increasingly difficult to upload files. Adding to its woes, contacting Support meant reaching someone who barely spoke English and had about as much technical knowledge as the caller.

So while we’re talking about apples and apples, compared to oranges and oranges, let’s go a little crazy and just compare an apple to an orange.

As all of these sites seem to be turning into phoenixes and coming back to life, it was more than interesting to investigate what has happened to some of the other names in online storage. I looked for @Backup and Mozy. They still exist. Backup.com has maintained the same pricing but the amount of storage they provide has grown with the size of files that are needed to be stored. As I recall, their service was more than easy to establish and use. I was disappointed with Mozy as it was available but didn’t work. After publishing a review of their service in my forum, I received a very prompt reassurance about the stability and efficiency of the service from the home office and an offer to help with any future difficulties. Mozy’s pricing and storage capabilities are comparable to Backup.

While file sharing services seem to be winking and blinking for some reason, file backup services are holding their own. It isn’t clear why the sharing services aren’t taking hold. They’ve been around since ‘98 and should have gotten themselves established by now. But some things take a little longer than others.

When’s the Right Time?

When’s the right time to make a profound disclosure?

We all have self-created images of another person based on their writing(s), their phone voice, the content of their resume. These are all innocuous media that are EEOC approved because they tend to not disclose the race, gender, age, physical disabilities that the other person has (or does not have).

Sometimes things will be given away in small ways. They are not that consequential and we accept that the matter will be disclosed. Essentially, it’s a time saver for people to realize “Wallace” is a man, not a woman; that Chin means the person with whom we’re corresponding is Chinese.

Most things become very obvious when we finally meet in person. But some things are still obscure, even in person. So when’s the right time to reveal that you have a disability and will need an accommodation? Some employers (and HR folk) get very nervous when they learn that their candidate or applicant has a disability and will require an accommodation. Or you tell a recruiter that the applicant will need a special keyboard and their voice begins to quaver as it becomes distant. They’re visualizing front office appearance and the negative of that. Then they either say they’ll get back to you about the applicant or tell you the position has been pulled. They’re loss. But did they really need to know about the disability at that early juncture?

Perhaps the disability doesn’t need to be revealed at all. No accommodations are required. To bring up the disability is to gild the lily and call unnecessary attention to something that’s a non-issue. But when there are unnecessarily burdensome requests and demands made that go beyond the necessities of the job being performed, it’s more than appropriate to put the other person on notice that they are being obtuse and a more reasonable and efficient way of doing the job (in addition to more cost effective) is available. Did I say anything about revealing the disability that’s being tolled? Why would it be necessary? Maybe to get sympathy; but that isn’t the goal here.

Normally, I give advice through these blog posts or merely express my opinion or vocalize my stance. There are times when I actually leave the final call up to the reader and wait for the conversation to start. This is one of those instances.

You are smart people. You have valuable thoughts that deserve being communicated so that others can know you and consider your perspective as they formulate their own opinions.

Back to our subject — when to talk about a disability. What about when the subject of favorite activities comes up? Do you say, “Boy, I just love reading my braille notes during a dark and stormy night.” Or when the topic turns to outdoors activities, do you talk about things you used to do but only partake as a spectator now? Maybe an explanation (more or less an apology) isn’t necessary; just saying that it’s a fav spectator sport. Another option is explaining that you were merely curious about the other’s activities and interests and whether there are any matches.

Actually, I don’t think it’s necessary to walk around with a placard saying “Feel sorry for me, I’m disabled.” It might if you have a tin cup, but that isn’t what you want in the workplace nor in the social world. Pity and handouts always come up short. You have an identity. It may not be as attractive to you as you would like it to be. But then, we’re always our own worst critic. Be proud of who and what you are (if there’s integrity) and don’t apologize for your own perceived shortcomings. You just may be a lot more attractive and desirable than you give yourself credit for being.

As to when is the right time to disclose the disability. How about when it’s absolutely necessary — “I never learned to swim” — and everyone is required to dive into the water on “Survivor.”