Does the ongoing talk about the sluggish economy make you wonder if your job is recession-proof? Since job security is passé, you'd be wise to prepare for a range of employment outcomes.

Regardless of your position within your company or organization, you should be thinking about your options in the event of changes at work. Why not take the following positive steps instead of dwelling in fear about negative possibilities?

Focus on what you can control: your attitude, your behavior and your response to whatever happens.

1. Update and refine your résumé and professional documents: e.g. references, writing samples, portfolio (when appropriate), and examples of your work.
2. Identify the skills you've developed that you enjoy using. Be prepared with examples of times you've used each one.
3. Give some thought to other jobs or employers to which your skills would be valuable and transferable.
4. Create a list of contacts with whom you could network for job leads or informational interviewing.
5. Avoid the rumor mill and conversations with colleagues at work that are fear-based and hypothetical. They will only raise your anxiety and contribute to feelings of powerlessness. Check in with your supervisor for answers to questions and concerns.
6. Keep your spirits up and stress levels down through regular exercise, a balanced lifestyle and positive thinking.

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Barbara is currently accepting applications for her ninth annual Women's Retreat in Provence. Click on the link for photos and more details!
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Barbara and Heart At Work associate, Amy Jaffe, will co-present a workshop:
"Averting Quarterlife and Midlife Crises in Your Workplace: 5 Key Retention Strategies" at the 2008 Annual Human Resources Convention in Rockport, Maine on May 8.

You don't have to be a candidate for President to know that putting your best foot forward is key to success in the current marketplace. Whether you're a business owner, an employee, or in the midst of a job search, it's good business sense to look for opportunities to promote your service, your product or yourself.

While you may easily imagine plugging a great idea or snazzy gizmo, you might break into a cold sweat to think of overruling those cultural messages that favor humility over tooting your own horn. Keep in mind that confident communication supported by concise examples of success is different from boasting or being cocky.

In the end, it will be your ability to recognize and communicate all of the ways you add value to a work situation that will justify a raise, secure your next promotion or land a new job.

So, in preparation for the inevitable challenge of your next performance appraisal or job interview, consider the following ways you can be ready to accurately portray your best self:

1. Complete a quarterly review and record of what you have completed, led, coordinated or accomplished.
2. Be prepared with specific examples of ways you have contributed to goals and successes.
3. Make note of anything you've done that is new, innovative, and not in your job description.
4. Practice (even role play with a friend or colleague) how you will convey this information in a way that feels authentic and true for you. (Notice that I did not say that "feels comfortable" because that's not likely, nor is it an essential criterion.)
5. Be aware of key opportunities to share this information and follow through on it.
6. Be ready to celebrate the outcome!

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Barbara is currently accepting applications for her ninth annual Women's Retreat in Provence. Click on the link for photos and more details!
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Barbara Babkirk and Heart At Work associate, Amy Jaffe, will co-present a workshop:
"Averting Quarterlife and Midlife Crises in Your Workplace: 5 Key Retention Strategies" at the 2008 Annual Human Resources Convention in Rockport, Maine on May 8.

Recently I was touched by the story of a friend who, after 26 years of dedicated and exemplary service to an organization, was not recognized by senior management upon her retirement. While her peers and constituents celebrated her with gifts and praise, her boss said virtually nothing to recognize her work and commitment. In fact, she may not have even said goodbye if my friend had not taken the initiative of going to her office to leave a key.

That same week I spoke with an outplacement client who had been laid off after 12 years due to downsizing. While I am helping him set a new direction complete with resume and a networking strategy, that task is more difficult because his self confidence has taken a hit. It seems that there was no official "thank you for your years of service" send off for this person either. The good wishes that were expressed by his peers during a final staff luncheon did not make up for the lack of acknowledgement from management for his work of many years.

In both of these cases, it would have taken only a few minutes and no expense for the organization's leadership to make a positive lasting impression, rather than a negative one that resulted in ill will and a sense of failure.

Giving a verbal and written thank you and an acknowledgement of a person's specific contributions to an organization as they leave, may seem obvious to many of us. But, I can assure you that this simple yet profound gesture is too often overlooked to the detriment of both the employee and the organization.

"Gratitude is the memory of the heart." ~Jean Baptiste Massieu

When someone I know, whom I'll call Sam, recounted the details of his first week at a new job, he was in the frame of mind to quit. Initially, everything at the company checked out with what Sam was looking for, including a supervisor who said the favorite part of her job was "mentoring" new staff.

So, what happened that so drastically shifted Sam's attitude about his new employer after just one week?

This description of Sam's first three days at his new job should give you a hint:

When Sam arrived on his first day at work, he received an email from his boss stating that she was tied up at meetings all day and would see him at day's end.

No one greeted him most of the day and Sam noticed that everyone looked stressed and intently focused on work. He made a call to the human resources director to ask a few questions relative to a new hire and was told that she was busy and would get back to him in an hour; but she never did.

He reviewed files and tried to make sense as best he could of a new account management system. At the end of the day, he had a brief encounter with his boss who outlined a few expectations and left. Sam hardly knew what to ask her with so little information.

The second and third days were more of the same, at which point I happened to speak to him. The complete lack of a welcome and no orientation left Sam in doubt about how well he could accomplish his new responsibilities.

I encouraged him to find a couple of people in similar positions who would explain the work culture as well as their relationship to the "boss who liked to mentor". Sam learned that his colleagues were all confused by the new account management system and struggled to keep their heads above water.

They added that they had little contact with the supervisor and approached her only in emergencies. While this was not what he wanted to hear, he now knew what to expect from his new boss.

By the end of the week, Sam was feeling less frantic about his job. His connections with several colleagues were key to his decision to stay for at least six months. But this story could have ended in a much different way.

If Sam had quit after a week, his employer would have lost out on a capable new hire in whom it had already invested resources through the hiring process. This negative outcome could have easily been avoided with a shared organizational goal to connect with new hires, provide them with a basic orientation to help them be as successful as possible.

As for Sam, rather than quitting, he decided on a proactive approach to his new job, and found inspiration in a quote by Gandhi: "Be the change you want to see."

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UPCOMING EVENTS WHERE I'LL BE PRESENTING WORKSHOPS OR KEYNOTES:

•Maine Health Women's Wellness Day: "Simple Steps to Love Your Work"
Saturday, May 13, Sheraton, So. Portland, ME

•Goodall Hospital Women's Health Expo: "Beyond the Midlife Crisis: Understanding Life and Work in the Second Half of Life
Saturday, May 20, Sanford, ME

•A Women's Retreat in Provence, September 23-30, 2006

That's the title of a training workshop I'll be giving in Bar Harbor today for the Maine Community Action Agencies. I typically plan too much to present in the time allowed, mostly because my style is to engage with the participants and facilitate discussion around the topic.

This particular workshop will have a blend of information and statistics on the factors that contribute to working with passion, those conditions that tend to block work satisfaction and exercises and focused writing to help participants recognize where their own work scenarios need attention.

The "simple steps to love your work" come down to something many of us are in need of today: increasing balance in our lives. Unless an individual slows down at times, they become oblivious to what is going on around them and within them. Theologian and philosopher Thomas Moore, in his popular book, "Care of the Soul", writes about our inexhaustible search for health and balance with lives that are essentially void of connection. "Naturally, we feel empty if everything we do slides past us without sticking."

I propose that being connected in our lives requires attention to four areas: Self, Others, Nature and Purpose.

Connected to Self, means we are aware of and address our physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual needs.

Connection to Others allows for a flow of energy in our lives where we give as well as receive from others.

Because nature is all around us, we seem guaranteed to be connected to the natural world. However, in our hectic, over-committed lives, we forget to notice the beauty and wondrous changes in our immediate surroundings. Connection to Nature grounds us in our corner of the planet and reminds us that we are part of a larger eco-system.

Increasingly, people are seeking a greater sense of meaning and purpose in their lives and they look to work to fill this need. This is in sharp contrast to the fact that: "Twenty million Americans are staying in jobs they hate in order to keep their health insurance, when ironically it's the way they are working that is likely to make them sick!"
(Barbara Rinehold,
Toxic Work). Connection to Purpose is an alignment between what you most value and what you uniquely offer the world and can be a result of your paid or volunteer experience.

If you resonate with what I've written, take note of which area of connection needs attention in your own life. Identify an action step you can take within the next two weeks to increase a sense of connection with it.

Sometimes I’m shocked when I hear clients talk about their abusive bosses. I wonder how people can get away with such outlandish behavior—isn’t anyone besides the victim noticing? It seems that there’s even a name for this common problem in the workplace: "the bully boss phenomenon".

Whether the abuse is physical like throwing objects at a person, as in the case of the boss cited in a recent Washington Post article, or psychological, such as continually berating an employee in front of colleagues and clients, the harm done is considerable. To the bullying boss, the immediate result may justify the behavior—after all, the employee seems more compliant and may even seem quicker to respond after the abuse. However the long term impact on the victim can be devastating.

It is not uncommon for employees harassed by bully bosses to require medical and psychological help to deal with the affects of the abuse. Research has shown that this abuse reduces employee productivity and can eventually impact organization’s effectiveness as a whole.

Workplace bullying is an experience that four out of five employees -- 23 million people -- will deal with at some point during their careers, according to a Wayne State University study. Since it is estimated that 4 out of 5 employees will experience some type of bullying in the workplace during their work histories, we would all benefit from information on what to do about it.

Why is it that when many of us are in transition or in a place of uncertainty, we begin to experience fear and think about what we don’t want to have happen? Although I’ve observed it in myself and others, I don’t have an answer. But, I do have ideas about how to stop unproductive and sometimes obsessive worry about those things that we do not want to occur.

• First, notice when it’s happening. Often the body gives us the initial clue about what we are thinking with neck tension, a knot in the stomach, or increase in heart rate. If you begin to have fear-related sensations, and you are not in harm’s way, bring your thoughts to the specifics of it—what do you fear and what thoughts brought it on.
• Next, breathe. Shortness of breath or rapid breathing is a symptom of anxiety.
• Third, remind yourself what it is you want—the truth for you, rather than your fear.
• Breathe again. Dr. Andrew Weil who wrote 8 Weeks to Optimum Health describes a useful breathing exercise to help center and calm when you’re fearful, in a worried state, or caught up in our fast-paced world.

At this point, your fear may have subsided enough for you to identify a step you could take to bring you closer to what you want.