You can help your chances of keeping your job and avoiding that pink slip!

Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Wed, Jul 01 2009 | 0 Comments

There are a few steps that employees can do to make themselves known to employers to hopefully be promoted one day. Those same tactics are now being implemented by the workforce to not be fired when the next line of lay offs comes their way.

So what’s the secret?

According to BusinessWeek here are a few of the tips from the magazine:

1) Focus on the company’s success rather than your own. Most employers don’t have the time (or money) to deal with any potential problems you may have. When you’re at work, you are there to work and not create drag for you or your team.

2) You have to be more than willing to change. I don’t just mean use blue pens instead of black pens, you have to be ready and willing to change direction at the drop of a dime and be ready for it. If the company is looking to mix up the product lines or create a new mission statement for the company, its time to be the “yes man” and learn how to cooperate with the change.

3) Be great at your job and be useful in every aspect of the company. While this is a lot of work, it shows your employer that you have a commitment to the company by going above and beyond your own responsibilities.

4) Social hour should be after work, not during. The last thing a company needs is for its employees to be negative and do a lot of gossiping while on the clock. “No complaining, no blaming!”

5) You have to follow the rules, even the ones that may not have been written down. An example is to be at work early and be at least willing to stay late. When looking at this tip, now would be a good time to quit smoking and start bringing your lunch to work with you to avoid smoke breaks and long lunches.

6) You need to solve problems before they happen. If there’s a way to make the company more efficient (or make it more money), tell your supervisor. Of course, this means there will be some time away from the workplace and in your home where you may have to do some research about competitors and what they’re doing. Doing this ensures that you are seen as an asset to the company

7) Get to know people outside your department, especially those in human resources.

8 ) Social networking is important, if not crucial in today’s workplace. On the BusinessWeek article this tip is titled “Start Tweeting or Start Packing.” I think that this tip is more important to those in the marketing field than those in, say, the accounting department. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are easy to set up and use. Here’s a warning: Don’t “Facebook” too much at work.

Related posts:
Is Facebook a social “superpower”?
Social Networking is turning out to be quite popular for companies

Tags: marketing, company, mission statement

My opinion of BusinessWeek’s list of business schools

Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Sun, Mar 01 2009 | 0 Comments

I read BusinessWeek’s website every few days and it seems like the headline that appears most often is about the top “b-schools” or business schools for those (like me) who aren’t hip to the lingo.

I think that not enough notoriety is given to schools that do well but aren’t exactly the “name” they’re looking for.

Also, the rankings are put out according to how students rank their school based on surveys. I will say that if BusinessWeek came up to me and asked about my school, I would have nothing but good things to say about it, even though I feel differently at times.

Academic quality only represents 30% of the survey also. So perhaps this list should just be left alone while other lists are compiled that actually count things like academics to count for a little bit more than 30%

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Has the recession created a lost generation?
Are you ready for your Master’s in Business?

Tags: businessweek, academic quality, notoriety