National Edition - January 20, 2008
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Trend-spotting
Bosses battle bored staff
Because employers are tuned-in to the high cost of retraining new employees, they've made the job descriptions at their companies less interesting. This way they can just slot a new person in when they have to replace their personnel-easy-peasy. Yet, this has caused widespread "rusting out," boredom throughout the ranks of employees. Endless meetings, corporate bureaucracy, and mind-numbing repetition are also partly to blame. Unchallenged employees have bad attitudes and this all adds up to lower job satisfaction and decreased productivity.
(Source: The Courier Mail)
Commuting/Business Travel
Swedish commuters' body heat to warm office
Some commuters in Montreal and Toronto may think that their subway wagons are over-crowded during rush hour. Eeew! Still it doesn't compare to Tokyo or Mexico City where the teeming humanity makes conditions very tight and quite muggy. Now in Sweden, a state-owned corporation will use the collective body heat of Stockholm's commuters to heat an office building adjacent to the train station. The body heat of a quarter million business travelers will be sucked up into ducts to heat water and reduce the building's energy consumption by 15%.
(Source: Reuters)
Newsworthy
Mature workers snag half of new jobs
Conniving Gen-Xer's sitting on the job market's sidelines waiting for the talent war to heat up to just the right temperature before jumping into the action may be in for a rude awakening. Worse than the zombies in Michael Jackson's "Thriller" music video, their desired workplace may be filled with old people. With retirement not adding up to be as much fun as in the television commercials and many governments removing a mandatory age limit, many Boomers are opting out of their promised lives of leisure and remaining in the workforce instead – causing unforeseen competition to the up-and-comers.
(Source: Financial Post)
Personal Advancement
Look backwards to find that dream job
Rather than looking into the future to see which industries are growing and which sectors look the most promising for employment, individuals looking to unearth their "dream jobs" should look into their pasts. This is called the backwards career technique. Yet it's far from being a retrograde way of looking for a job you'll love. Figuring out how to get paid for what you enjoy most in life is a good first step. It may lead to a job that will let you sleep deeply at night and bounce out of bed in the morning.
(Source: Career Zone, Jobboom)
Workplace Challenges
Get engaged in your work
With many individuals spending more time at the office than at home, bandying about a word like "engagement" in workplace-speak may make stay-at-home types somewhat uneasy. "What do you mean you're engaged to your work?" Actually, it's just the latest new-fangled term for an employee's commitment to his or her job, both intellectually and emotionally. However, engaging an apathetic workforce is proving to be a huge challenge for business owners in corporate North America. A recent study revealed that only 21 percent of employees feel this kind of connection.
(Source: Career Zone, Jobboom)
Are you "engaged" to your work?
To answer, click here.
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Are you... fit to dine with the Queen? Probably not, but good manners aren't just for special occasions.
| - | Brighton College, a private school in southern England, has decided to introduce compulsory etiquette classes for its 690 pupils.
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| - | The goal is to bring them up to speed with old-school manners in the modern world.
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| - | From now on, all 13-year-olds joining the school will have a year of weekly classes in how to behave properly in polite society.
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| - | The lessons will range from how to give their shoes a proper shine to the correct form of addressing people at dinner parties.
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(Source: Victoria Times Colonist)
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NOTICE: Jobboom and its sponsors do not necessarily endorse the opinions conveyed in the articles selected for this e-zine and do not assume any legal liability in consequence thereof.
Comments: info@jobboom.com
Research and editing: Austin Macdonald
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