What professionals want

I was getting my coffee at my favourite local coffee shop - The Newsroom Cafe in Toowong - and started speaking with the Barista about the impact of the Global Financial Crisis. Yup, good hearty morning topic with a double shot flat white. Her partner is a computer game designer and recently had a project axed on which she was working for two years. She was devastated that two years of work was down the drain.

Professionals want professional recognition. Regardless of the occupation, professionals want to use their profession and grow and develop over time. Give an architect interesting work and they'll stay. Give an accountant a challenging assignment and they'll thrive.

Make sure that your manager knows the type of work that you enjoy. Convince them to give you such work as you'll give 120% effort in return.

Where do you career

I must admit to a twinge of patriotism over the Australia day long weekend. It must of been all the Australian flags attached to cars. I did see one person who was 3 times more patriotic than the average Australian: he had 3 flags attached to his car.

But this is not a flag post. Its about Australia, about where we choose to live and, therefore, work. Location is the first decision to make in your career. It impacts on our life and the opportunities available to us. 

Richard Florida argues vehemently on the role of location in his book: "Who's Your City". While I don't agree on his belief that globalisation is overstated, I do believe that the role of location is often overlooked in making decisions about career and life.

First step: identify your preferred career directions. Second, identify the life influences on this (family, kids at school etc). Then identify where you could achieve this.

Pre-emptive layoffs

The difference between the current downturn and previous ones is that companies are laying off people in anticipation of bad times ahead. Redundancy has traditionally been a last resort when times are shown to be tough but now 'belt-tightening' is rampant. 

I'd say about half of the Outplacement (Career Transition) projects I'm currently involved with are pre-emptive strikes. 

This is somewhat intriguing as research shows that 2/3's of downsizings do not increase profits. While the immediate strategy can be justified, I wonder what will happen in 12-24 months when the market starts to pick up again? According to IBISWorld Chairman, Phil Ruthven, Australia will experience full employment (4.5% - 5.5% unemployment) for the next 25 years. 

Balancing the short term risk of profitability and the long term risk of organisational sustainability is a difficult one.

Emotional Labour

My mother-in-law recently spent over a month in palliative care at Canossa Private Hospital before passing away. A difficult time for all involved but something we have to face eventually.

I've been amazed, as I am everytime I engage with a hospital, by the dedication and care displayed by the nurses and other staff who work there. These individuals undertake arguably the most demanding work of our century: emotional labour.

First coined by the sociologist Arlie Hochschild Emotional Labour involves managing one's emotions so that they are consistent with what is expected from someone in that occupation or organisation, regardless of the person's internal feelings.

A nurse, for example, is expected to display empathy all the time. Even when they are having a bad day. This is the challenge of emotional labour.

The demand for Emotional labour will continue to increase over the decades ahead. An ageing population, increased life expectancy and the move from the information age to the experience age will drive this demand.

If you are an emotional labourer, I thank you.

If you are not, go and thank someone who is.

Thank god we have them.

Use technology to stay updated

A key career skill is to keep your skills and knowledge up-to-date. Continuous learning is not a buzz word, it is an essential part of a successful career.

Fortunately, there is plenty of information out there.
Unfortunately, there is plenty of information.

Use technology to easily stay updated. Let me share what I do. I'm certainly not advocating that it is the best or only way, but I've been experimenting for a few years and this is my latest approach:

• Understand what a RSS feed is. Basically, uptodate information gets 'pushed' to you rather than you visiting dozens of sites.
• Use a Reader to subscribe to RSS Feeds from the websites that you want to stay up to date with. I use Google Reader.
• Subscribe to great sites. I recently found Business Spectator. A great way to quickly hear about breaking news.
• Check your reader regularly. I use a reader on my phone (HTC Touch, I know, it's not an iphone). So whenever I have a spare 30 seconds (traffic lights, lift, coffee queue...) I do a quick check.

Don't be afraid to use technology. Book in 20 minutes to set this up. You'll get this time back in the first week.

Financial crisis and the 6/6 job

First, let me apologise for not writing for a while. July saw our family expand by another little person and while there was only a 25% increase in numbers, there was a 100% increase in workload! All is well and things have settled down into a nice routine.

So, back to the career landscape....the financial crisis will have many repurcussions over the coming years. It is already having a devastating impact on some companies and individuals who have lost their jobs. The one positive impact, from an organisation's perspective, is that there is likely to be more workers available in the near future.

Not just from those who have been retrenched, but from those who now need to go back to work. Superannuation has been decimated and for many people it may no longer be enough for their retirement. A colleague of mine summed it up: "I may as well have just sat here and ripped up $100 notes".

This group of people won't want full time work. They'll want flexibile work options that still allow them to lead the retirement they want. And not just the traditional 'part-time' work, they'll be creative. The 6/6 job will become popular: 6 months of work followed by 6 months travelling.

I just hope managers and their organisations are flexible enough to take advantage of utilising the impressive expertise and talent that is out there.

Noctors and Opportunities

Heard of a Noctor?

A Noctor is a senior nurse practitioner.  They are almost a doctor. This is not a position that was around 10 years ago or even 5 years ago. It creates a whole new set of opportunities in the health profession.

The nature of work is not static.   Opportunities come and go.

Use the following questions to identify opportunities in your profesesion: 

• How is your profession changing? 
• How are the needs and wants of customers in your profession changing? 
  
• How are organisations changing to respond to these demands?

Once you've reflected on these, think about how can you position yourself to take advantage of these opportunities. Write down one action you will do in the next 90 days. Then do it.