Archive for the 'Work Environment' Category

12th Nov 2009

Not all Pay Raises Come In The Form Of A Bigger Paycheck

People who ask for a pay raise are usually too focused on getting a bigger paycheck.  There are a lot of ways that you can earn a raise.  It doesn’t necessarily have to come in the form of cash.  Open your mind a little and come up with some creative ways that you could drastically improve your career without having to necessarily increase your base salary.

I was talking with an acquaintance a couple months back.  The guy works as a purchasing agent for a fortune 500 company.  He has been a loyal employee of this company for about eight years.  His line of work isn’t something that companies would have a hard time finding applicants for.  These types of jobs are common and don’t necessarily require an advanced education.

This man was telling me how he had just made some changes in his work environment.  The whole time he was telling this story, he had a giant grin on his face.  He normally spends just over an hour commuting to work every day.  He lives a long ways from the office and traffic is pretty heavy.

Recently, he was speaking with his superiors about the environment he works in and how it could be improved.  His management team agreed to set him up with an office at home.  They sent their IT guys out to his house and installed a company computer and company telephone with remote access into the company’s main computer system.

Now for two days every week, instead of spending more than two hours on the road driving back and forth to the office, he is working from home in his home office.  He can perform 99% of his job right from home.  There is no need for him to make that trip every day.

You can bet that if this scenario works out, he will probably be able to increase the number of days he works from home to three or four.  That is what I call a major benefits upgrade.  Wouldn’t you?

Not all pay raises have to come in the form of more cash.  Remember this guy’s story when you think about how to ask for a salary raise at work.  Maybe there is an alternative idea or two that would be the equivalent of getting an increase in pay without making the company write you a larger check every week.  This guy is now saving money on gas as well as wear and tear on his vehicles.  That is the same as if the company paid him that much extra every week.

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02nd Oct 2009

Are You Attending Company Employee Functions

Bosses are always looking for ways to build morale among employees.  One way that they do this is to try to get people into a social environment outside of the regular workplace.   That is part of the reason behind the company functions that you may have been invited to at various points in your life.

You can tell the dedicated employees from the not so dedicated employees by paying attention to which ones attend these functions.  The people who just come to work for the paycheck usually scoff at the idea of attending one of these afterhours’ parties or retirement dinners.  They sure as heck don’t want to go to some vendor sponsored event where they feel like they have to schmooze the whole time they are there.

You know exactly what I am talking about, don’t you?  I guarantee it.

The dedicated employee is the person with the attitude that it might be fun to get together with people after work.  He is the type of person who wants to get to know the other people he works with.  The better he understands them, the easier it will be to communicate with them on the job.  The better they communicate with each other, the better quality of work they will both produce.

People are so close minded when it comes to these types of functions.  They think of them as if they were putting in extra unpaid overtime.  That is not the attitude to have.  If you want to earn more money from this company, then you had better commit yourself to it more than you currently are.  Your true nature will always come through over a period of time.

The next time your company has one of these functions, maybe you should really make an effort to attend it.  Keep a positive attitude about the event.  Think of this as a way to separate yourself from the other slugs around the office who could care less about any of these things.  The more outgoing you are, the more chances you have to get ahead with this company.  It is that simple.

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11th Sep 2009

Interruptions affect your ability to be productive at work

One thing that really bothers me in this modern world is how easy it has become to lose your focus.  With all this modern technology, specifically cell phones, people have an unprecedented ability to interrupt you when you are in the middle of doing something important.

In my case for example, I have to carry a cell phone with me throughout the workday.  I get calls from my employees if there is an issue as well as from my best clients whenever they have something that requires immediate attention.  This really handicaps my ability to get projects done that require substantial concentration.

I find that I get the most work done very early in the morning or very late at night.  If I get to work at 5 or 6AM I can manage to get a significant amount of real work done before the interruptions begin.  Once the clock gets to around 8:30AM forget it.  The phone calls and emails start coming in from everywhere.  It becomes impossible for me to complete anything of quality that requires serious thought.  I am stuck in that mode until about 5PM.  After five, most of my clients are done for the day as are my employees.  Once again I have the ability to work on a project uninterrupted for a couple of hours.

Fortunately, I have staff that can screen the majority of calls I get in the office.  This helps immensely.  Yet, I still search for a better system to somehow delegate or better organize the way I do things so that I can be more efficient with customers and employees alike.  This system still eludes me.

It bothers me to no end how much these unexpected interruptions reduce my productivity.  I have taken a look around the office to see how many things are around to interrupt my employees when they are focused on a task.  I advise you to look around your work environment to find ways of reducing interruptions.  You probably don’t realize how much it really affects your productivity.

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