Gone Fishin’, Back Soon

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July 21, 2008

fishing_ps.jpgYou may have noticed I’ve been absent lately and the few of you who stop by now and again have my sincere apologies. I won’t bore you with my life except to say that a promotion to a new role at work has left me with far less time than I’d like to devote to ToxicKindness.

In addition to my day job, I’ve undertaken a new venture. Basically, I’ve realized that I don’t really enjoy what I do for a living. I’m good at it. I have a talent for working with people and I sincerely enjoy helping people. But I long ago stopped enjoying the field of work I’m in.

Join the club, right? Who doesn’t get fed up with their jobs. I agree. Only, in my own case, I’d like to at least take a shot at doing something about it and maybe help a few people out of their own career misery in the process. And, no, I don’t mean by finding yet another job doing more of the same elsewhere.

When you bottom line it, the companies we work for pay us less than we are worth. That’s fine. They deserve a profit, after all. They assume the risk of owning and running a company. They assume the expense of leasing office space. I’m ok with them getting their bonus. I’m not ok with the wholly imbalanced level of things in my particular case, though. There’s an imbalance in the world that keeps growing. The Haves keep getting more and the Have Nots keep finding themselves with less. Solution? Become a Have who sincerely wants to benefit the Have Nots.

I was researching consulting companies in the US and learned that a technology or financial consulting company paying an employee $50/hour is likely billing them out to clients for between $250-350/hour. Now, that employee probably doesn’t mind much if they don’t think about it. $50/hour is great money! But when you do the math and realize that she is worth 5 to 7 times what that company is willing to pay her, it deflates that bubble of satisfaction a bit, doesn’t it? And, no, that’s not my salary.

I decided my time is more valuable if applied to working for ME than it is when spent working for somebody else. I’ve also decided there are plenty ways to earn money out there and the internet is a resource that has made these options more attainable to your average person than ever before.

I further decided that it would be fun to try out different methods of earning money (on and offline) and learning from mistakes and experience (I love a good mistake now and again because that’s when you really learn things). Finally, I found myself grinning at the thought of how great it would be if my experiences could translate into learning opportunities for others. Wouldn’t it be incredible if something I tried, wrote about and explained in detail to others gave somebody I’d never met the opportunity to change their lives for the better?

If I earn a few extra dollars from my efforts, it’ll have been a fun experience. If I wind up earning a living from my efforts, it will have been a life changing series of events. If I help others accomplish the same along the way, I’ll feel my life has had a purpose beyond fixing somebody’s network a thousand miles away (yes I know the guy with the network problem is glad to have me around but that’s just not the legacy I want to leave behind).

I love helping people out. It’s just the best feeling in the world when you know you’ve changed somebody’s day for the better and that they are now likely paying the same forward. I enjoy it when I save an office, a business unit or even just a single person from some electronic hell they’ve found themselves in. But what if I could help a financially struggling family put a few extra meals on their table or to buy some extra toys for their kids? What if I could help a retiree who didn’t have enough saved in retirement to find a way to bring in an extra $20, $80, $500 or $5000 a month? What if somebody applies what I learn, strikes it rich and then feels he can finally afford to really make a difference with his favorite charity?

Money does not buy happiness. But to deny it is a vital component of modern living is to live in a dream world. When society has reached the point in which even WATER costs money, you know that the coin of the realm has been irrevocably interwoven into our lives.

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately, folks - building a new blog titled Self Employed or Bust with the objective in mind of finding my own financial independence and helping others do the same along the way. No, I’m not selling anything there. Every bit of advice will be offered free of charge and my earnings will only come from ad revenue and reviews (of things like books on the subject of finance). Maybe it’ll succeed, maybe it’ll flop. Either way, it will have been a worthwhile effort with some valuable lessons gained along the way and the potential to have helped others.

And if I make it… if my dreams come true and the hard work pays off, I hope to leave a trail of equally rewarded people along the way. All of them better off because I got a little too fed up with my job. Now that’s what I call a legacy.

But don’t worry, this isn’t goodbye. If anything it’s, “hi, I haven’t forgotten about ToxicKindness or the friends I’ve made here and I’ll be back more often as the ball gets rolling on this other thing.” So check back soon for more of my opinionated take on what a little love for others can do for the world. I’ll have more of it to spread around soon.

Categories: business.

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Sometimes Winners Do Quit (Their Jobs)

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July 15, 2008

2385389_ps.jpgQuitting is hard. I’ve even found myself struggling with conflicting emotions when departing a job I truly hated. True, freedom may be right around the corner, but there’s often something that kept us at our hellish job for as long as we were there.

Perhaps a single coworker you’ve befriended has made the job worth enduring. Sometimes a nice steady paycheck keeps you around despite your frustration with a psychopathic boss. Maybe the commute is great or the convenience to your spouse provides the perfect car pooling opportunity.

Whatever your reasons for sticking around at a job you truly despise, it’s almost always in your best interest to move on if you hate working there. A post at Self Employed or Bust entitled 10 Good Reasons to Quit Your Day Job does a good job of explaining what is and isn’t reasonable to endure.

The theme also touches on something I’ve argued here before - be kind to yourself. As noble as loyalty may be, it is as pearls before swine when applied to many modern businesses. Companies devoted to the bottom line and stockholder satisfaction care little about the workers who keep them in business. You are more deserving of your loyalty than they are.

If terminating those employees will add to a company’s revenue, expect it to happen. With that in mind, be kind to yourself and only extend deserved loyalty. Adhere to the rules, do the best you can while you work there but never pass up a better opportunity out of misplaced loyalty. Your company likely wouldn’t do you the courtesy if the roles were reversed.

Categories: business.

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Does Kindness Pay?

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April 11, 2008

I’ve been working at least part time since the age of sixteen. I’ve had a lot of time to observe different management styles and formulate opinions on what does and doesn’t work. In evaluating my bosses I’d say it’s a fair split down the middle between the cruel psychopathic slave-drivers and the decent, fair-minded partner-in-process (I’ll define that phrase to mean a boss who wants to work with her employees to drive a successful team spirit and isn’t afraid to roll up her sleeves when the need arises.)

I’d be lying if I didn’t confess that, on the surface, both styles seem to work. They tend to get the immediate job done. Worse, the former probably results in greater expediency than the latter. But that’s only if you look at short-term results. I don’t think it takes a great deal of thought to conclude which process probably results in sustainable, long-term results (hint, nobody wants to stick around a psychopath for long).

I feel there are many ways that kindness pays and we’ll cover them in detail as time goes on but, specifically as applies to managing, consider the alternatives. A mean boss is far less likely to retain employees over the long term. That means turnover and turnover costs dearly. In my own workplace, turnover means a 3-5 month search for a replacement. That’s 3-5 months during which an already lean staff has to absorb additional workload. Once secured, it takes about 3 months just for the replacement employee to come up to speed (not to excel, mind you, just until they are proficient enough not to require constant training and mentoring). That’s 3 months in which other, already trained employees are distracted from their work while they mentor the new guy. The bottom line is that an unpleasant boss can result in as much as 6 months or more during which productivity and efficiency are hampered and, worse, existing resources are being pushed in the direction of departure due to the frustrating workload increase. The wrong captain at the helm can result in a self-perpetuating cycle of sub-par performance and results.

In addition, employees will act out against a cruel boss. They will find ways to sabotage the success of their organization by dragging their heels, missing deadlines and calling in sick. While I may not have the statistics in front of me, I think you’d agree that an unhappy employee is going to be absent from the workplace far more than a happy employee and far less engaged when they do bother to come in. Yes, a grumpy boss is probably going to manage to get a few hours, days or weeks of solid productivity out of their employees by mistreating them into submission, but the results are simply NOT sustainable.

On the other hand, a kind (I’m not talking about being a pushover), reasonable boss who shows an interest in their employee’s success garners loyalty and confidence. You feel your boss is a team member with authority. You understand your boss may be forced to require things of you they may not wish to ask but that understanding inclines you away from resentment rather than towards it. Employees last because they form a loyalty to that manager even though they may feel the company itself thinks of them as just a cog in the machine. An employee who feels their boss is actually interested in that employee’s growth and success is far less likely to leave unless there is simply too good of opportunity waiting for them elsewhere. An unhappy employee, on the other hand, will sooner or later take the gamble on ANYTHING that will get them away from the torture.

Does kindness pay? Well, when applied to the workforce, I think it does. You can decide for yourself by simply asking what hidden costs are associated with mistreatment of your employees and answering the question honestly.

Categories: business.

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