It's 2014... already? Where have I been?

Okay, it's obviously been a long time since I've posted any new articles. I am reviving this blog in 2014 to share news, information, opinions (oh no) and images. I welcome your comments and suggestions!

It would be lame of me to post a post announcing I am posting again, so here's an update:

I am going through another job transition.... leaving the position I've held the past two years as the Executive Director of a small professional association for medical group practice managers for a marketing specialist position with a human services agency located within walking distance from my house.

Why would I leave my part time job working from home for a full time position at an hourly wage job in a windowless office at equivalent pay? Well, for one, self employment taxes for 2013 killed me! I was not prepared. My fault. I need paid benefits.

Also, I am not the greatest company to be my only office companion day in and day out. Yes, I will miss working in PJ's and not taking a shower for days if I don't have meetings out of the home office. No, I will not miss feeling alone, or the lack of structure. I have done pretty well under the circumstances, I believe. I pumped up my inner motivational power, and expanded my ability to manage a dozen or so different types of projects using a zillion skill sets every month, and in a compressed work schedule; however, I also think I need some structure. And walking Jasmine to school on my way to the new job and home again at the end of the day will help me get moving again. So, back to an office I go.

Now finishing up projects at association... here are a few examples of what I will work on this week: confirm speakers for upcoming educational luncheons, provide feedback to board of directors on contract under review and board input on an educational series, send out an email announcement for next week's luncheon to get more members to sign up, pick up the mail, market conference and talk to potential sponsors for fall event, update contact information for a board member who has a new email address on all our documents with his email listed as a contact, reconcile last month's finances, prepare any deposits and update membership status for renewals that have come in via check, prepare agenda and packets for next week's board meeting... oh, and finish working on the migration of the membership management software and website to a new host. Need to get that finished by two weeks from yesterday.  By the end of the month, update the transition document for the new director and start training her/him, once they've hired a candidate. Oh, and I started working my new job two days a week for the month of May, then go full time the first of June.

PHEW. Wish me luck.

Art of Progress

"The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order."

- Alfred North Whitehead

A few weeks before my job was eliminated along with about 30 others by my last employer in November 2011, I wrote an article in the inaugural issue of the staff newsletter about personal resilience in adapting to change. The organization had undertaken a 'change initiative' several months earlier, preparing staff for a new way of working, collaborating and defining the organization. And, in hindsight, perhaps preparing some of us for a new way of life NOT working there.

I discovered that my own ability to adapt to change has been sorely challenged, but like a muscle that's been idle, my resilience has grown stronger through this experience of having my safety net pulled out from under me.

My eyes have opened to a new way of looking at life, experiencing life, and defining who I am as a person, a parent, an employee and a member of community. I sensed the need to make some changes for over a year before I was given my walking papers. I did not act on it in my own timing, so the universe gave me a shove out the door; ready or not, here comes change.

An article in the Washington Post recently features one of my former colleagues who was laid off from her position two years ago, before this recent and larger downsizing.  Kathy Westra's experience is an example of what many Americans have discovered over the past 15 years or so--the jobs may not be there as we traditionally define them, but the work still is. Click here to read the article

I keep coming back to a book I mentioned in my last post about the shifting nature of work as we know it in America, about the necessity to see ourselves and our skills as part of a marketplace, and what we are continually marketing is ourselves, You & Co., as William Bridges puts it in JobShift: How to Prosper in a Workplace Without Jobs. Even when when we are employed as a regular employee, we must look to what the needs are, not just the job description for which we were hired.

I can read this, and know it, and yet still find myself trying to fit myself and my job search into the traditional way of looking at WORK and JOB that those of us over the age of, say 20, were raised on. 

How we as a nation make structural and economic changes to fit this new way of working may take many years to figure out and accomplish. One of the first things I see that needs to happen, and is finally underway to some extent, is to stop tying healthcare benefits to employment. Oh, I think it's great if employers still offer it, nothing wrong with that from my point of view--however, we need to find new ways for freelancers, consultants and other people doing the work that employees of companies previously did to get group rates for affordable health insurance, life insurance, etc. But that's probably a topic for another post.

My takeaways for today are:

• Resilience can be developed. I don't have to like change to accept change.
• The stages of confronting change are much like the stages of grief (denial, blame, anger, depression, acceptance), and it's okay to wallow in the negative for a short period of time.
•  I am not alone, and the feelings of remorse, self blame, and being boxed in about my options and my abilities is a normal part of the process, but not necessarily the TRUTH. (Just cause I think it, doesn't mean it's true.)
• Dream! Allow myself to explore new ideas, new places, new careers. Allow myself to dream, do a little research, talk to people in a different career or industry that interests me. Sometimes I cut off an idea or interest too soon because my mind comes up with all the reasons I CAN'T do it. It's okay to explore options, and live in the grey for awhile. Trust that I have skills, my experience is valuable, and be creative about how and where they might be useful in the future.
• Taking action to take care of my family and myself on a daily/weekly basis is crucial-- emotionally, physically, psychologically and financially. Exercise, play with the daughter, clean the house, get dressed! Look for work, research, network. As for that stack of books from the library about job searching, careers, how to set up a social network campaign, how to write grants, etc., set them aside after 9 or 10 pm--that's the time to get comfortable in bed and escape with a novel. All that information and those To Do Lists will be there in the morning. (Of course, I'm a morning-person--if you are a night person, you might reverse that.)
• Get out of self! Volunteer in my daughter's classroom and at church. There are needs out there, and I need to be useful. Yes, looking for work is a full time job in itself. But I have to take time to help others and not get too caught up in my head and my situation.
• Be able to admit where my shortcomings might be--where do my skills and experience end, my expectations and the needs of the marketplace begin? Be willing and able to face the gap, and brainstorm some ideas to fill in the gaps.(Goes back to DREAM! but with a good self assessment).

Life may or may not look as I think it should a year from now. There are many who have suffered terribly in the economic crisis the past few years, and have had to radically alter their ideas about what a successful life looks like.

But no matter our circumstances, we must find a way to find meaning in our lives, and meaning can never come from our bank accounts or our job titles. Sometimes it takes hard times to sort through our values.

A friend of mine has traveled widely, and told me of visiting some extremely impoverished countries, and finding some incredibly happy and generous people, in spite of their poverty. It does not make poverty acceptable, but it also illustrates that money is not the key to happiness, and that if we tie our well being to our pocketbooks or our expectations of what we need in life to be okay, we can sometimes miss out.

I see a resilience of the human spirit that I admire in people who live through far more traumatic experiences than I am going through, and I pray to show the same courage and adaptability.

It's easy when facing a personal crisis of any kind to forget that the true purpose in life is NOT to serve self, but to contribute to the well being of others. That to me is true progress.

Finding your passion, or just finding a job

I am in the midst of reading several books about the shifting world of work and career transitions right now and came across a few eye openers:

1. The structure of work has been changing for the past 20 years, away from an employer/
   employee model developed in the Industrial Age. Yet, the work is still there, and it's our job to find it--or create the position, either in-house or on our own. We must find where the need is, and even if we are employed in a company, to see ourselves as marketers (of ourselves), always striving to meet the current and future needs, rather than just perform the tasks in our job description.
2. The way we find work has shifted dramatically in the past few years in a giant circle--once upon a time, we found about work from others we knew and the people they knew through direct contact; then we turned to newspapers and then to online listings, and now we use online social technologies to find out about work from others we know and their connections.
3. There is an overwhelming amount of information and advice (some conflicting) on finding your passion, doing what you love, creating your future and your next position if it's not already out there waiting for you, vs. the business reports on the nightly news about the number of persons unemployed, underemployed and who have given up the search. I hear of people with executive skills and experience working part time and/or taking work that pays $10 an hour to earn some income. I don't believe that all of these people aren't smart enough, creative enough or self-actualized enough.
   
   This is confusing when in the heart of the search, and trying to figure out where to focus your energy. Given the major upheaval in the economy the past 2 decades that shows no signs of returning to the working world of old, I fear that the underlying principle around work in this country are not true---that you can do anything you want if you set your mind to it and you work hard. Does that mean we have created a marketplace where only 1 percent can succeed, and the other 99 percent who might not be able to move across the country,  or work 7 days a week for 3 years straight to save enough money to start our own businesses are doomed to the service economy that's replaced middle class work? Do we all have to go back to school to become computer scientists, pharmacists, doctors or engineers, 'cause those are the good paying jobs with lots of openings posted on the online job boards.
   
   Yes, there are exceptional people with incredible drive and a focused goal that they are willing and able to sacrifice everything else in their lives to achieve for a long period of time. But what about the rest of us, who are hard working, and want to better our lives and our families, have a fair idea of what we'd like to do, what we are good at, but aren't as driven, or don't have a spouse to take care of the family or work another job to support us in finding our dream?

I find the guidelines and exercises in career transition resources helpful to replace some of the external structure and internal sense of self as defined by my working life used to provide. I need someone to say, "For Pete's sake, pick something you like. What do you mean you don't know what you like or want to do for the next 5-20 years? Come on, you must like to do SOMETHING! Go ahead--write it down! Don't you get it? You are in a position where you have nothing to lose!" (Okay, they say all that in a kinder, gentler way. but that's the basic message.)

The repetition of the message forces me out of my shell of non-commitment. I need something or someone to jar my thinking, to move my home base from the comfortable and familiar to something new, because I've been sleep walking in a safe, comfortable zone the past 10 years or so.

I don't mean to be so black and white in my description of the paths open to us in this new world. There are about 3 million job openings in America, and not all of them for a stock clerk at Walmart or call center rep. But it does require that some who are used to getting our way in the world without much resistance have to stop and rethink our values and what we have to offer, and others of us who have remained in safe harbors to get out there in the open waters and take some chances.

RESOURCES
Bolles, Richard. What Color is Your Parachute? 2012: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers. NY: Ten Speed Press, 2012. 40th Edition. One of my first Kindle Fire book purchases. This issue has been "vastly rewritten" for the survivalist in the job market. Still a helpful guide, asking us to ask ourselves, "what is THIS TIME for?"

Bridges, William. Job Shift: How to Prosper in a Workplace Without Jobs. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. 1994. About the 'de-jobbing' of America, and how the mergers and job losses of the 1990s were the start of a trend still underway today... the 'job' as we know it goes away, but the work is still there--how do we find where the need is and become a marketer of ourselves in this new way of working?

Kay, Andrea. Greener Pastures: How to Find a Job in Another Place. NY: St Martin's Griffin, 1999. Step by step guide for finding work in another part of the country.

Robinson, Ph.D., Ken with Aronica, Lou. The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes

Everything. NY: Penguin Books. 2009. This is not a job search guide per se, but I love his descriptions of creativity and imagination. I am sure I will find more to love the deeper I get into this book.

RSA Animate--Changing Education Paradigms

For a wonderful, graphically illustrator lecture by Sir Ken Robinson on the changing paradigm of education--how the way we educate (or fail to educate) youth is out of date:

 or click here to view it on the RSA Animate's You Tube Channel

Fresh Eyes on America's Health Care

I heard this story my local NPR station this morning Boise State Radio, which is inspiring and also what got me thinking about what sort of sacrifices creating a worthwhile career can demand. To go to on American Public Radio's website, click here.







  

Finding or Fighting Routine

I thought that without a paying job, I'd have a beautifully structured day, with time blocked out for:

• household projects--shampoo carpets, fix picture nail holes on walls (uh oh, that one leads to repainting living room and hallway), paint baseboards, fix laundry area door, patch walls and repaint daughter's room, etc etc etc.
• career and life evaluation--reflection, thoughtful planning
• create the perfect resume, cover letter, portfolio
• volunteer with my daughter's school and other worthy causes
• menus for the week's meals--budgeted and planned
• exercise daily, walk the stir-crazy pooch even!
• spiritual growth
• write and illustrate that children's book
• start painting again!
• help child be self directed, and self motivated in her morning routine--no more anxiety about getting to school before the bell rings!
• clean out the car--spotless interior
• and so much MORE...

 I can say that I am able to do SOME of those things, not perfectly, not prettily or consistently, but I hit a few high notes now and then.

However, for the most part, being unemployed for me means in reality... It really IS me, not the kid, or the work schedule, that is responsible for my unmanagability. However, it's too painful (and a little unfair to myself, frankly) to stop there. So, when I'm done beating myself for being human, I get to another realization:

It is an ILLUSION that life would be better if I was able to check off each of those expectations and plans, that somehow the accomplishment of those bullet points is the key to happiness. That's just what they are, if I hold my contentment to their achievement--BULLETS.

So then what?

A. It is not in my nature to create and stick to a strict timeline. I have the beginning, and I can meet the deadline, but for me to think that I am failing because the points from A to Z don't look the way my mind things they should is self-defeating. I think of this in relation to parenting. Yes, kids need routines, but does that mean the sort of routines that I THINK they need to be okay? What if our routines are centered around types of experiences together, rather than the clock? (Wondering how I got that point out of the above post? Then apparently you weren't in my brain when I was unloading the dishwasher this morning.)

2. I have no idea what's really in store for me from day to day, and while I can make my plans, I also need to be flexible enough to let go of about 75 percent of what I think I NEED to accomplish, and make sure that some element of helping others gets bumped to the top of list (or I'll go crazy obsessing about what I think I need to be okay). I am scheduling in time each week to help out in my daughter's classroom. I can't believe how much she loves having me show up, even if I'm just sorting papers and filing in the back corner of the room. That is an eye-opener to me.

3. Preparing resumes, cover letters, networking, job searching, company researching, soul searching take WAY more time than I anticipated. Some days I feel I am wasting precious hours on these tasks which might or might not lead to one or two good leads, and then applying for positions that my weary mind tells me I don't have a chance at--up until the moment I get a call back saying I'm in the running, of course. And for the ones I don't get a call back on--well, that's someone else's opportunity to have hope when THEY get that call.

4. I need to give myself permission to turn OFF the What's Next obsession for a day, preferrably a weekday, while my child is in school--to actually take a day (or two hours, if that's all I can handle), taking on ONE of those household projects, or walking that restless dog. I might even actually turn on the TV one of these days (I have yet to do that in 2 months of unemployment). Yes, I know the career transition consultants say I should put about 35 hours per week into the search. Yes, yes, I get that. The problem is that the MENTAL focus on the uncertainty and obsessing about an unseen future need to TURN OFF sometimes; I'm not efficient or emotionally in tune when I'm over stressing myself mentally. And.... I don't need to keep punishing myself for being downsized. Maybe it's okay to take 2 hours once a week and go see the $1 matinee--you mean a movie without a talking animal in it? Wow. Unemployment shouldn't be mental punishment, and think that by not letting myself take advantage of free time when I previously would have been in an office is just that.

And on that note ,I am reminded that it's Saturday... time to unplug, clean the house, and get the kid and dog outside for fresh air and exercise. Maybe watch the kids on the climbing wall at the Y, read a book, take a nap...

And on THAT note

The power of social media. I refer to the news about Susan B. Komen foundation responding to the uproar over its decision to pull funding for breast cancer screening from Planned Parenthood. Seems that within 24 hours of that decision, the foundation reversed itself.

I heard about it via Facebook, saw Twitter posts, and received email alerts about it before I ever saw it on television media. I realize that more and more I get my news from social media, and the opportunity to take immediate action is powerful. So many make use of it, and it's an incredible way to spread a message, good and bad.

For a time line of how quickly this story and controversy unfolded, check out  this story in The Guardian.


To add fuel to the fire about the political nature of the grant withdrawals, MoveOn.org posted a retweet by one the Susan B. Komen's VP's, who has a conservative political background:
http://front.moveon.org/susan-g-komens-vp-indicates-her-real-motives-in-awful-twitter-retweet/?rc=daily.share&id=35381-15090999-ezp2uSx 

What is the take away?

Social Media is powerful, fast and has a life of its own.
Control of the spin is difficult.
Sometimes when the public speaks, you have to listen.

Inaugural post. Under the pressure of time. Must get the child up for school. Get breakfast made. Get dressed. Get her dressed. Go, go, go! Sometimes I fantasize about a time when there is not a rush to daily life, is it possible? I keep thinking I'm not doing it right, if only I was more organized, faster, faster, faster.

A year ago to the day I was moving faster, rushing out of the car with the kid, returning book order forms I'd collated over the weekend to teacher. Next thing I knew, I was looking up at the grey sky, and saw my right foot at a really unnatural angle, and felt a big CRACK... I knew I'd broken something before my back hit the ground on the big evil patch of ice that took me down. I spent a lot of time on the couch recovering from that rushed Monday morning--surgery to fix the breaks on both side of my ankles, elevating it, nonweight bearing for nearly 2 months, $13,000 plus to fix it, dealing with the complication of a blood clot from being such a good elevator of the ankle, months of painful rehabilitation and PT.

So, yes, I need to get my child up and out the door, off to school this morning. But I will remember that this is January, and ice is not my friend, and that a note home from school warning me of the number of tardies my child has is a small price to pay when I remember the alternative.

Of course, there is organization, getting ready earlier, so many tricks to getting the child to be self motivated. We'll keep working on those, but in the meantime, keep our perspective on the size of the problem, and know that there are worse things than a crazy morning on a school day.