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Would You Hide Behind an E-Mail to Let an Employee Go?

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Many of us have been down that road no employee wants to travel; you are laid off or fired.

In my case, it was the former some six years ago while working for a company in San Diego. What made the action even more difficult to take was how it was handled.

To set the stage for you, I worked as an online editor for a publishing company. My responsibilities had grown during my five-plus years with the company from starting out as a staff writer, to temporary editor during some transitioning, to full-time online editor when all was said and done.

As I was nearing my sixth year of service with the company, I had a Friday that would forever change my life and especially how I would look at employers going forward.

Something Smells Here

On that Friday, I began my day working from home since we were allowed to do that from time to time. Just the day before, I was at my desk in the office working and nothing seemed terribly unusual. The owner of the company and I exchanged usual pleasantries and went on about our work days.

I left the office later that afternoon at my normal time, unbeknownst to me that it would be the last time I would ever set foot in that building again.

The next day (Friday), I started my work assignments online from home when I got an e-mail from my manager. She asked if I was coming in the office that day to which I replied no.

She then e-mailed to ask if I had time to do a conference call with her and the company CEO, something that seemed a little out of the ordinary for a Friday. I was never a Dean’s List student by any means, but I like to think that I make up for that lack of book knowledge by being rather street smart. The bottom line is something smelled here.

I e-mailed the manager back to ask her if something was up and she responded a few minutes later to say that I was being let go.

Okay, I don’t know how you would handle such an event, but about a dozen different emotions ran through my head at that time. The first and foremost one was why was this not done face-to-face the day earlier in the office?

Hiding behind a Computer

As it turns out, the owner of the company had his daughter-in-law (my manager at the time) do his dirty work for him. All the respect I had for that man over a five-year period went out the window in about 30 seconds. At least the way I was raised, you handle your business face-to-face with people, not hide behind a computer screen.

I would go on to find out that the CEO, a man that told me one day to my face his door was always open and I could always talk to him, was the one that orchestrated my dismissal. He also chose to hide behind his computer and not get on the phone with me at the least to give me an explanation of the dismissal. Again, he didn’t owe me that, but his previous words rang rather hollow at that point.

In 23 years of employment, I have come across some very good companies to work for and one or two that were not so good.

In a sense, what happened that Friday morning over a computer screen altered my outlook to a degree on employers forever.

One thing that will never change, I will always give 100 percent to any person that is kind enough to take me on and ask me to work for them; to do anything less is not the way I roll or how I was raised.

Secondly, however, I will never get as attached to a company as I did to that one six years ago.

The people at that company that I thought were my friends, the ones I traveled to conferences with, the ones I went to ballgames with, etc. dropped me like the plague when I got laid off. While they certainly were under no obligations to stay in touch with me, it really opened my eyes as to who your true friends are in such a scenario.

Years later I am happily employed with another company and coming up on a year anniversary.

What happened six years was a good learning experience,  one that will always make me look twice at people.

Some would say doing that is unhealthy and unfair to others – I see it as a way to never put myself in that position again of thinking those I worked with were any more than that – co-workers.

So, what are the ways you have been laid off or fired in the past?

Photo credit: ehow.co.uk

Dave Thomas, who writes on subjects such as VoIP phone service and credit card processing writes extensively for SanDiego-based Business.com.

Can You Find Success Following a Firing?

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One of the most challenging situations a person can find themselves in is trying to secure a new job after they’ve been terminated from a previous position.

While there is hope of locating employment following a termination, the odds are definitely lessened for such individuals, who must fight through the stigma of being removed from a company.

The bottom line is resiliency and the ability to best explain away why you were let go.

For those individuals who have to deal with such a situation, keep several things in mind:

  • Deal with reality – It is never easy when the pink slip arrives and you’ve been fired from a job, especially from a financial stand point. That being said, the bottom line is you have to locate a new position and the sooner the better. Don’t let the anger you more than likely have from your firing carry over to the job interviews you go on. By putting the most recent experience in the rear view mirror, you will stand a better chance of doing well on job interviews and securing a new position;
  • Understand why it happened – Employees get fired from jobs daily, so you’re not the first and you certainly will not be the last. One of the worst things you can do is not grasp why you were let go. You may not know all the details, but it is important to have a general understanding of why it happened so that you don’t repeat it in your next job;
  • Sit back and reflect – In some instances, a firing may be the best thing that can happen to you, permitting you the time to decide on whether or not you seek a career change, etc. While you will likely have to tighten spending while you look for a new job, the time away can be positive for reflection;
  • Keep your head up – Looking for a new employer is a full-time job in many instances. You will have employers who will not respond to your resumes, employers who will interview you and then lose interest when someone better comes along, and employers who would like to offer you job, but that stigma of being fired leaves them a little unsure of you. The bottom line is that you can’t afford to throw yourself a pity party at this time. You need the work, so plow forward until you find what you’re looking for;
  • Don’t hide the truth – Getting fired is never fun, but don’t compound the problem by lying to a potential employer. While you may do your best to hide the fact you got fired and not laid off, you would be amazed how word can quickly travel. If you lie to a potential employer or even someone who ends up hiring you, it could come back to bite you, given the employer will question if they can trust other things you say;
  • Avoid issues with your new job – Once you finally do find that next job, take what you learned from the previous experience so you hopefully do not repeat it this time around. The goal is always to learn from your mistakes, so make sure you understand to the best of your ability why you were fired and don’t put yourself in that position again.

If you were recently fired, how are you dealing with it and have you started back on the job hunt trail?

Photo credit: ehow.com

Dave Thomas, who covers among other subjects’ phone systems, writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.

Company Meetings Cutting in on Productivity?

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Company meetings serve a wide array of purposes. That being said, can too many meetings be a bad thing?

Having worked at several companies now over a 23-year period, I have seen a variety of approaches to this subject.

Some companies have had a normal approach to in-house meetings, some have had too few meetings, while others have gone overboard and seem to be meeting on an almost hourly basis, whether through onsite meetings or teleconferencing.

I’ve always tended to believe that falling somewhere in the middle of the above-mentioned descriptions is best.

On the one hand, it is important for your team to know what one another are doing; without occasional meetings that is hard to achieve. On the other hand, meeting too often always leads me to wonder how any work is getting done. Too many meetings can lead to micromanaging and a feeling among employees that their every move is being scripted and watched.

If you’re not sure how often your company employees should be meeting to talk strategy, keep these things in mind:

  • What are you trying to accomplish with the meetings in the first place? – Are they held to share strategies, ideas, ask questions of where projects are going? If the answer is yes to any of those things, then by all means meet. If the answer is no to one or more of those things, then you need to rethink why you’re getting staff together;
  • Where does real productivity rank in your company? – While meetings can certainly be productive, they also pull employees away from the tasks they were hired to do in the first place. If you’re team is having to get together on a daily basis to meet even for half an hour, think about the loss of actual productivity time that half hour means to you and your business. I once worked for a company that required its writing team to meet on a daily basis. In lots of the meetings, we repeated what we said the previous day as far as updating our status on projects. In the meantime, I and some others sat there and thought about the wasted time going by when we could have been producing another article, conducting interviews, reaching out to new clients on the phone etc.;
  • Are we getting the same message over and over again? – Another risk factor with having too many meetings is that you will turn off some of your brighter employees. Going over the same message over and over again begins to lead to some tuning out both the message and the messenger. Let’s be honest, some company folks like to hear themselves talk. While that may be great for them, those listening are sitting there thinking about all the real work they could be getting done while listening to something they heard just a week ago. Constructive meetings are one thing, sitting there listening to lectures over and over again are another;
  • Are we stifling openness among employees? – If you’re having too many meetings, you may not even know it. In most offices, employees are not going to raise their hands when polled to respond yes if the company is meeting too often. For most employees, such a move in their minds would rock the boat, painting them as an uncaring employee. In reality, a good office culture is one where openness and the ability to speak one’s mind should be promoted. Without the ability to speak one’s mind in a professional and courteous manner, you are fostering a dictatorship at work, where one and only one voice is heard. Be bold and ask your entire team if they feel the company meets too often. If the answer is yes, take the time to think about how less meeting time can translate into more production time.

 

At the end of the day, each company and its management must decide what is in its best interests.

In my 20+ years of employment nationwide, I have yet to see the perfect meeting environment.

In the meantime, I’m going to meet with myself and see if I can come up with some solutions for this issue.

Photo credit: Markdenham.com

 

Dave Thomas, who covers topics such as starting a small business, writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.

Do You Know How to Hire Talent?

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While many small businesses have found themselves having to freeze new-hires or even let people go given the turbulent economy, others have been fortunate enough to bring on new employees.

Stop, however, and look at your hiring processes. Are they really where they need to be?

For too many companies, there are cracks in the armor when it comes to hiring the right employees.

As a small business owner, do you follow a formal process when it comes to bringing on new talent or have you been winging it for some time now?

In the event it is the latter, here are some tips to help smooth out the process:

  • What is the proposed duration of this employee? – Businesses need to decide if they will be seeking a long-term employee or just need a temporary fix. If hiring for the long-term, factor in things like higher salaries and benefits. If you just need workers for a few weeks or months, working through a temp agency is oftentimes the best solution. Temp agencies allow you to avoid the interview and hiring process, but keep in mind that that can sometimes be a bad thing;
  • How many interviews should I do with the same individual? – For many companies, the interview process is one and done, while others who like a candidate will bring them in for two or more interviews. Determine how important the position being advertised for is and go from there. That is not to say that you should not care about the quality work of an administrative assistant as opposed to a CEO, but obviously the CEO is going to be coming in with more credentials and expectations;
  • How much emphasis should I put towards gaps on a resume? – For some businesses looking to hire, seeing non-working gaps on someone’s resume signal red flags. While some of these breaks between jobs can be easily explained away, do not hesitate to ask candidates why they have a year or more between jobs. Whether it was a layoff, a break to go back to school, taking care of a loved one or raising a family, most employers will understand. Still, don’t leave this to fate if you’re wondering why someone has not worked for several years;
  • Can you spot a red flag? – Oftentimes an interview will come and go so quickly that you or your HR person or whoever was conducting the process misses something. Be sure to check out if the candidate appears confident, has good communication skills and seems energetic about the position. Body language can go a long way in determining if you may be hiring the right or wrong individual;
  • Quiz the individual about your company – While a candidate is not likely to know every intricate detail about your small business, they should know some of the basics by having done some research. Do you really want someone potentially working for your company that doesn’t know anything about you other than your company name and address? Job candidates should take the time prior to the interview to research the company’s Web site and see how they can best assist you in the proposed position;
  • Be prepared just like the candidate hopefully is – There is nothing more embarrassing for the company and the employee conducting the job interview than not being prepared. Just as you want the candidate to bring their ‘A’ game; you too need to be ready. Have a list of questions compiled regarding the candidate, how they see themselves helping the company, where they see themselves in a few years etc. Just as an ill-prepared candidate can lose out on a job possibility, you being unprepared for the interview can lead to a well-qualified prospective candidate taking a pass on your job offer.

Hiring the right people for your small business is in a way like finding the right seats on the bus for all the students.

In this case, you are looking to hire the best fit for the open position, something that too many companies are not very talented at.

Dave Thomas, who covers among other items starting a small business and business proposals, writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.

Small Business Owners, Employees Sick of Rising Health Care Rates

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With just about everything going up in price these days, it should not come as a surprise that health care rates for both employers and workers have been on a steep upward trend in recent years.

According to a Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust 2011 Employer Health Benefits Survey released this fall, employers are putting more money toward their employees’ healthcare premiums than at any other time.

The survey, which interviewed close to 3.200 public and private firms with a minimum of two employees, notes that prices grew 9 percent over the past year. The premiums for family health care coverage have increased to an average of $15,073, with business owners covering more than $10,000 of the cost.

Some highlights from the survey:

  • Six-in-10 companies made health benefits available to their employees in 2011, a sharp contrast from the nearly seven-in-10 who did so just a year earlier;
    • Employees pay $4,129 toward the premium, while employers cover the remaining $10,944;
    • Single policy health coverage costs also grew some 8 percent, coming in at $5.429 yearly. As a result of this coverage, employees pay $921 toward the plan;
    • Overall, PPOs are much more common plan types, enrolling 55 percent of those covered;
    • Seventeen percent of those covered workers are enrolled in an HMO, while 10 percent have a POS plan, and 1 percent utilize a conventional plan;
    • The majority of covered workers have to deal with added expenses when using health care services. A large number of workers with PPOs (81 percent) and POS set ups (69 percent) deal with a general annual deductible for single coverage that must be taken care of prior to all or the majority of services being reimbursed through the plan;
    • In all, 31% of covered workers have a policy with a deductible of at least $1,000 for single coverage, a major increase from the 22 percent such reported in 2009;
    • Most employees also are required to pay some of the expense of doctor office visits. Approximately 75 percent of covered workers’ pay a co-payment toward office visits for a primary care doctor or a specialist physician, along with any general annual deductible a plan may have.

According to a spokesperson for Kaiser, “This year’s nine percent increase in premiums is especially painful for workers and employers struggling through a weak recovery.”

Meantime, according to a report from Aon Hewitt, employees nationwide who have healthcare coverage can figure on seeing a cost hike of seven percent in the coming year.

So, how can both small businesses and employees lessen the chances of needing some of this healthcare in the first place? Among the things to consider are:

  • Stay healthy and active– More and more companies are instituting comprehensive wellness programs that involve disease management, offering cancer screenings, flu shots and smoking-cessation sessions. Some businesses also offer discounts or even free admission to local fitness centers in order for employees to stay in a good shape;
  • Give them what they want – While some plans have requirements as to what coverage and at what cost it is available, sit down with your human resources individual or team and see what your employees are most interested in. By doing so, you can potentially eliminate some of the more costly options if they are not being used;
  • Look into health savings accounts – More businesses are giving a second look to HAS’s. The accounts are tax-exempt, used to cover a number of medical costs;
  • Get a number of quotes – Small business employers are advised to shop around and obtain a variety of quotes. Also, don’t settle on the first quote even if it sounds really good. By shopping around, you have the opportunity to get a good health care insurance product at a reasonable price.

As 2012 comes to light in a little over a month, make sure both you and your employees have a health care plan in place that is both affordable and provides solid coverage.

Photo credit: businessnewsdaily.com

Dave Thomas, who covers among other subjects’ workers compensation, writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.

 

 

 

Is Not Giving Two Weeks’ Notice Cool When Quitting a Job?

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The days of individuals staying at one employer their entire lifetime are few and far between any longer.

Given factors like a struggling economy, people going back to school to further or change their careers, and employers downsizing many businesses, it is not uncommon for a professional to end up with four or five jobs by the time they slip into retirement.

For those individuals who decided that it is time for a career or job change within their present line of work, what is the proper protocol for leaving their current employer?

Some individuals believe it is of utmost importance to give two weeks’ notice so that no bridges are burned should they want a relationship with their present employer down the road.

Others, meantime, feel like two weeks is not necessary, given the fact that most employers will let go via layoff or fire someone on the spot, hence, not providing the employee with advanced notice.

When looking at this matter from the employee point of view, keep these factors in mind:

  • Would your employer do the same? – The answer to that question nine times out of 10 is no. Unless it is a matter of not renewing a contract and the employee is told so when it comes up for renewal, employers are not going to walk over to your cubicle or call you into their office and tell you they are firing you in two weeks. In many cases, you will have literally minutes to clean out your desk, gather your belongings and most likely not say goodbye to fellow workers;
  • Will you need this employer as a reference? – Even though many employees switching jobs already have their new job lined up before exiting their present one, they may want their soon to be ex-employer’s reference down the road. They may want to even do some part-time freelance work for the one they are leaving. By not giving two weeks’ notice, those chances pretty much go out the window;
  • Do you want to maintain office friendships – In some instances; you have gotten to be good friends with one or more co-workers in your present office. If you just up and leave for greener pastures, your co-worker or co-workers may view it as bailing on them and specifically that friendship you built if you don’t tell them ahead of time. Determine ahead of time how important your soon-to-be ex co-workers are to you when considering appropriate notice;
  • It really is a small world – Many employees would be surprised to learn how truly a small world it really is. The last thing you want is word getting around that you just up and left a job without proper notice. It may not hurt you now that you landed a new job, but it could down the road when you may be let go by this new company and find yourself job hunting again.

Speaking from experience, I’ve been on both sides of the coin here as far as how much notice I gave.

In my first full-time job out of college, one I was at for just under six years, I gave my employer a good six weeks’ notice because I wanted to have a smooth transition and I knew I was relocating on the other side of the country months ahead of time.

So, how did my employer repay me for doing a nice thing like that? After the first week or so, they had my replacement training under me, telling me several times if I didn’t like my new workload, work conditions etc. I was more than welcome to leave my job early since they had someone in place to replace me.

Needless to say, I never have nor ever would give an employer that much notice going forward.

In one part-time job, I had been told by my employer that certain things would happen following my training process. Needless to say, they never followed through on any of those promises.

Knowing things were not going to change, and knowing I would continue getting the run-around, I worked two weeks ahead of time so that my assignments both present and over the next two weeks were done, walked in one morning and cleaned out my desk, and left before anyone showed up.

I’m not saying it was the wrong or right way to do things, but at the time it felt like the decision I needed to make.

The bottom line is each employee has to weigh the matter at hand, determine how giving or not giving two weeks’ notice will impact them down the road, and go from there.

Yes, it seems like the right thing to always do, but in some cases, right doesn’t always win out.

Photo credit: jezebel.com

Dave Thomas, who has authored a number of articles regarding small business credit cards and commercial vehicle insurance writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.