Inc. Magazine posted an article by the founder of Zappos on why he sold to Amazon. The article bears reading for many reasons, but I was struck especially by its emphasis on ‘happy.’ I think that is an error in focus.

The whole idea of an employer making employees happy is presumptuous, in my view. There are too many variables not in the employer’s control. And an individual’s view of their happiness quotient changes, constantly.

Happy is quite a few notches above satisfied. Satisfied to me is really only acceptable and Zappos really shoots for happy. Tony Hsieh’s “social experiment” is the practice of hiring employees who find happiness in delivering an exceptional customer experience.  When it comes to companies that build their brand on superior customer service –> happy employees are exactly what they need. The business of customer service demands employees who take ownership of the customer experience, delight in helping others and derive not satisfaction but pleasure from it. It’s the only way to have staff who doesn’t burn out quickly and get frustrated listening to complaints all day. My experience as the former manager of a team of 50 customer service reps taking calls for the nation’s largest food manufacturer is, satisfied doesn’t last as long as happy and it doesn’t perform as well either.

Employers looking for people who would be happy doing the job can attract them by advertising for them, source passive candidates who are a delight to work with and may be open to other opportunities, work to have an employer brand that attracts them and walk the talk with internal and external customers and clients. The happy staff they have will be natural ambassadors and recommend the place to others they would like to work with, so a great employee referral program is important.

Employers can assess if candidates would be a happy addition to their staff by using psychometric tools and well designed situational, behavioral and performance based interviews and ensuring they understand each individual’s motivators to assess if they are a potential fit with what the company offers. They can implement job shadowing and observe interest, allow team members to meet with them and get their feedback too. Most importantly, it is essential to be honest about culture, performance and reward when speaking with candidates. Promising Utopia and once on-board delivering a barren waste land will make even a happy person turnover.

Though having a 100% success rate at hiring employees who will indeed be happy at work is an unrealistic expectation, it is something to aim for. Rita is right, “some folks have it, others don’t.”

I say, try diligently to hire those that have it.. You can do it.

In fact, one Amazon distribution center recently began experimenting with its own version of Zappos’s policy of paying new employees $2,000 to quit if they’re unhappy with their jobs. ~Tony Hsieh

Go Tony =)

Since I don’t actually work from home I have wardrobe challenges and a closet full of suits that look swell on the hanger but feel like straight jackets on.  I don’t need to dress like a Trump to feel good about myself or confident.

So, when I saw this LinkedIn poll about ideal workday attire I was intrigued to see how others feel. Unfortunately, the creator of this poll didn’t have the foresight to have pajamas as one of the options, though I don’t disagree with respondents that a soft pair of well worn jeans and a T are the best of the choices offered.

What is your ideal workday attire?

P.S. If you bought that bit about me and garters you’re a sucker…

Fantastic, your offer letter will arrive shortly. When you come in on your first day get settled in your office. You know, look around, go through the drawers in the file cabinet, find where everything is. We’ll set you up for lunch to make sure everything is going well. Welcome aboard!

This must be a script passed around like a scammy email chain to upper level execs — because I have personally heard it no less than 3 times in my career. Maybe I passed the litmus test and got those jobs precisely because I am a self starter, don’t need hand holding and like to work independently. Maybe I was easy because I wear my Special Agent badge on my sleeve like a scarlet letter — less work than other candidates would have been had they been hired.

It’s no way to intro someone to their job though.

Walk into said dark office early the first day after guestimating where to park because you wasn’t assigned a spot yet. People looking at you like you broke in the joint because no one was told you were hired.. No PC log in, no phone extension, no key to your own desk drawer?

No welcoming committee… or card on the desk signed by the team saying they are grateful to have someone to pick up the work they have been burdened with since the last chicken flew the coop…

I’m looking for examples — both good and bad, for a presentation I’m writing this weekend for THE Conference on attracting and retaining top talent.  What’s your story?

Oh… and if you would like to come to THE Conference, a whole day of business learning and fun in Wilkes-Barre, PA, with 6 tracks and 30 sessions for $99. –> Sign up, what are you waiting for? ~ SA Porter

Sunday night..

How do you answer the question, how do you feel on Sunday night? Do you dread Monday, the boredom or monotony of the workweek, dislike things about your workplace or the people there, or are you overwhelmed by the work itself? If the slump is serious maybe it’s time for a new act.… Maybe a multiple career act.

Maybe it’s our culture of stoic old world work ethic that still lingers and makes us think a successful career means one job till retirement, like my uncles who went from school to the automobile industry in Detroit to retirement. I don’t remember hearing about how much they loved their jobs, just how good the benefits and retirement plans were. Why do we feel the need to defer our happiness?

It that all there is? Working for the future? Spending 40 years — the prime of our life — trying to get ahead not loving what we do? I started thinking of celebrities and athletes with multiple income streams. OK, maybe they aren’t in the chemistry lab concocting the fragrance themselves or proficient in auto cad, designing the next indoor grill between movie gigs and concerts… But, how many of us are well known enough to be asked to endorse products and be paid for it or have enough money to invest in a new venture? Well, not many for sure, but the book puts down every excuse known to mankind for not doing what you love and making a career out of it. The book walks you through how to do it.

Paula Caligiuri, Ph. D., writes about investing in yourself and analyzing your options for simultaneous career acts and taking steps toward career freedom. She deftly points out that turning a passion into a career cannot be only a dream, it can be a reality.

I think it was the example of Monica and her multiple career acts that most resonated with me, though there are plenty of real life examples for inspiration. Monica was unfulfilled by her career as an organization development specialist when after 6 years she was laid off and turned her passion for gardening into being a gardening coach and now combines that with a few days a week of management coaching and some website development on the side.

Does that type of variety intrigue you?

Having multiple career acts based on what fulfills you, your motivations and how you like to work is what Get A Life Not A Job is all about. Is it really achievable? I think that if you can live with the fact that Paula points out -

The best career acts require you to take some risks or make some investments in yourself

The answer is yes…

Friday evening I sat in a conference room among students at Misericordia University attending the 8th Annual Entrepreneurship Institute. Prof. Jeff Babin, Wharton School, Univ. of Pennsylvania said, “If you ask yourself if you should start a business the answer is no, you are not ready yet”. Entrepreneurs have a compelling burning desire to do what they do and their business happens as a result of the innovation, relationships, energy and vision they have and can’t help.

The fact is the most recent published research from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2008 National Entrepreneurial Assessment for the United States of America reported 8.7% of adults 18–99 years of age were entrepreneurs. Certainly since the study was published, the economic downturn is said to have spurred increased entrepreneurship. But, if less than 1 in 10 owns a business, where does that leave the rest of us?

It leaves us to find what I call our inner entrepreneur.

Does everyone have an inner entrepreneur? How do we know?  Though I personally know many people without one iota of entrepreneurial spirit, many people have one or more of the 7 characteristics Joe Hadzima, Senior Lecturer, MIT Entrepreneurship Center outlined in Seven Characteristics of Highly Effective Entrepreneurial Employees

• Ability to deal with risk
• Results oriented
• Energy
• Growth potential
• Team player
• Multi-tasking ability
• Improvement oriented

Employees with these characteristics enable companies to forge ahead, be innovative and grow. They act as business owners, have immense pride in and potent passion for what they do. They own their talent, continually seek to develop it and continually look to stretch themselves to see over the horizon to the next challenge and success.

I recently had a conversation with G.L. Hoffman about his new book, Start Up 100 Tips to Get Your Business Going, and speaking to young entrepreneurs in northeastern PA this coming fall. G.L. said that when he speaks he is often asked for the top 3 or top 5 lessons he has learned doing start ups. He decided to put his tips and thoughts for entrepreneurs in book form (another product offering from the GLH line of solutions).

As I read the book, I identified with much of it and the rest of it made me think. What jumped out at me was that many of the tips in this book, written for entrepreneurs in the dictionary sense of the term, are also highly applicable to the employee entrepreneur.

Start Up answers why story tellers are needed and why trusting your instinct is so important. It talks about blaming others, having fun and getting comfortable asking for advice and help.

If you put the right spin on these they easily turn into 100 tips for career management for your inner entrepreneur.

And by the droves people do.

While it may be too late for them to love their jobs, a visit to a employee rant site could provide useful information to help others not repeat their unfortunate experience by reviewing what they have posted.

We have all seen job tweets and Facebook posts, some good, most bad. They can be hit or miss in regard to effectiveness, depending if the company is monitoring its on line reputation. If you’re serious about checking out an employer there are two sites dedicated to monitoring workplaces and bosses that are as serious as you are.

You can check out company culture rated at JobVent. Current and ex-employees evaluate 9 specific areas of their employment and have 6,000 characters for gory or delightful details, depending on their experience. The reviews are anonymous and the guidelines stipulate no personal attacks by name, title or initials, and no obscene, violent or hateful comments.

Reading through several random vents  I found many to be emotional, whiny and even “ah ha gottcha”. It’s understandable that hurt and poor experiences can have a huge influence so don’t expect impartiality.

The reviews that are positive often have the air of an infomercial. It’s entirely possible they are just very satisfied loyal associates… or that they are written by the marketing department in a lame attempt at damage control. In any event, a bowl of popcorn is all you need for low cost entertainment at the expense of others.

The problem is that you don’t know if what you are reading is fact or fiction, although when several comments read like deja vú it only makes sense to think there is bound to be some truth amongst the lore.

If you read my post on how to survive bully bosses you know I couldn’t agree more with the philosophy “Nobody should have to work with a jerk”. A click through the website eBossWatch is a sobering experience. Although posters remain anonymous, bosses don’t.

The anonymous survey lets employees rate their boss so they can “warn other people about a bad boss or recommend a great boss”. It appears large sectors of, if not entire teams, post about their bosses, for better or worse.

The Founder, Asher Adelman, runs the daily operations of eBossWatch. He says that he decided there had to be a better way for people to evaluate prospective employers after experiencing first-hand the nightmare of working for a toxic boss.

He is serious about the site’s mission, just read the eBossWatch blog with categories for the worst and best bosses. Tucked between an amazing boss in Whitehall, PA, who donated his kidney to an employee and the owner and CEO of a bank who gave his employees 60 million dollars is the eBossWatch doozie list of the 25 Worst Bosses of 2009. Adleman provides the substantiated proof on why they made the list. They take tips too for anyone wanting to expose a toxic boss. Submit the information and they’ll check out your claim.

You can follow eBossWatch on Twitter and be a fan on Facebook.

Both sites have been recognized by national media and any employer should take it seriously if they end up mentioned for good or bad (of course the celebration will depend on the category in which they appear).

As a job seeker you would be remiss if you didn’t take advantage of these tools to screen potential employers. Don’t ever forget, employment is a 2 way street.

Have you ever vented about your job on a website or using social media? have you ever been the subject of employee venting?

I want to hear all the juicy details.

Aretha Franklin — RESPECT

They call me the Energizer Bunny at the office and I get excited over things like being a census community partner, writing the new policy for new communication tools for the employee handbook, matching the unemployed or an intern with an opportunity or helping my team land a prospect. So much to do so little time.

How do you place limits and choose when everything is so interesting, when it’s a smorgasbord of tantalizing, tempting, delicious experiences waiting to happen — when you want it all?

High tolerance for stress, fire alarms, change, high octane stuff and all on minimal amounts of sleep. It seems to be the only way to fit it all in. But today, for the first time I can remember, I felt like I over did it. Like I overdosed on a day filled with way too much activity, mental and physical, to the point of exhaustion. Is it still a full moon? Have you ever had a day like this? How do you re-energize?

The topic was spurred by the recent Letterman sex scandal but as we all know he wasn’t the first and won’t be the last to have his dirty laundry washed in public.

Karen says just don’t do it. Josh says be a man about it, I say stop trying to mess with mother nature and adopt policies to deal with it and Steve is the voice of reason. Well come on now, he is an attorney.

My big takeaway was to never wear a ski mask to a job interview.

Listen to the podcast here and don’t forget to come back and tell me what your opinion is on how sex in the workplace should be dealt with.

Cindy gets an entry level job as a rep and she’s a natural. She works well independently, doesn’t need hand holding, has great attendance and plenty of compliment calls. She meets the goals then exceeds them and becomes a top agent. A supervisor position opens up and she applies. Management is so enamored with Cindy she’s a shoo-in and gets the position. It’s party time.

It should be fright fest. The same qualities that made her a stellar agent may in fact not make her a fit at all for a leadership role. Her high need to please people, focus on one call at a time, work independently and never deviate from a script are not desired leadership qualities. Cindy is being set up for failure not success unless before she jumps into her new role the company has an established training program for new leaders. Not only is she at risk, so is the staff that will report to her.

Leadership training in the call center world where billing is per hour (or call or minute) per body is rare. It’s so fast paced most promotions occur due to a painful sudden vacancy or gap due to growth. The philosophy of hiring from within an organization that has few leadership positions is viewed as a huge benefit and keeps agents dangling and dreaming. Most new leaders spend a few days job shadowing another overworked underpaid colleague singing deja vu under their breath wishing the underling would go away so they could get some work done.

Call centers are just an example that stands out in my mind from personal experience of hand holding new supervisors and managers who don’t know the first thing about managing people that are not on the other end of a phone line. Sadly, just like many of the agents they are dumped into managing, they often don’t last very long and often they take people down with them. Sales organizations and retail are similarly prone to promoting top producers who lack administrative discipline (cool impressive qualification, huh?).

What if you find yourself in that position? I would suggest asking about professional development opportunity and training in the interview. However, if you know none exists you’ll shoot yourself in the foot asking that. But do have a discussion with yourself and someone outside of work that you trust to weigh the pros and cons of jumping into a fire face first. Because you’re going to accept the offer if extended to you, that was just an exercise in weighing pros and cons, mostly for posterity’s sake.

Accept the offer and celebrate!

When you come down from cloud nine it’s important to recognize your strengths in product knowledge, persuasiveness, patience and ability to learn new things and apply them quickly. It’s even more important to recognize you have a lot to learn and have been given a significant opportunity to prove just how Houdini you are and surprise the masses.

• Assemble a personal advisory board of professionals you trust that are willing to mentor you and be a sounding board
• Bookmark and devote time daily to The Free Nonprofit Micro-eMBA℠
• Make a visit to your HR Manager and ask for a recurring weekly appointment to learn how to deal with employee relations issues and review company policy in detail until you’re up to speed
• Join the American Management Association’s site for free and take advantage of as many free webinars as you possibly can
• Take advantage of any tuition reimbursement available through your employer to take management and business classes at your local community college where the funds will go much further than at a 4 yr school
• If not provided to you, ask for a development plan with specific SMART goals
• Ensure you understand guidelines concerning employee / manager relationships and act accordingly

The road can be pretty bumpy and can affect your personal and home relationships if you allow it so use your personal advisory board and trusted friends you don’t work with to guide and listen to you. Taking your job home with you will create a train wreck and so will confiding in your ex-peers. Ask for frequent feedback from your manager and request coaching sessions if they are not scheduled for you for at least the first year.

Becoming a successful leader can be like climbing the mountain in The Little Engine that Could. It’s not for everyone and you just may find it’s not your thing after all. You’ll find out by giving it all you have and an honest chance. You just might find it’s exhilarating, fulfilling and rewarding.

Good luck, here’s to your success!

Someone called me today to ask how to do it. How to move on, not take it personally, make wiser decisions about engagement in conflict, how to avoid it, how to choose which battles are worth it. I don’t think she expected what I told her.

Transitioning back to the U.S. after 11 years of work in Mexico and Spain I took an entry level customer service rep position at the 15th largest on shore call center with full confidence I wouldn’t be in the seat for long. They wouldn’t hire anyone in a management role that didn’t have call center experience.  The fact that a company of that size and importance didn’t have an onboarding or new manager training program is fodder for another post in the future — promise.

After having managed a vacation club (OK sure, it’s really timeshare) sales room of 50 sales people and closers on the  Mayan Riviera and a mega buku bucks budget, I was taking customer service calls about $4.00  products for the world’s largest food manufacturer tethered to my cubicle by the umbilical cord of a headset. I spoke with people who purchased frozen entrees and claimed chicken uteruses in their food, not enough peas, misleading photos on the packaging and every foreign object imaginable and unimaginable on their fork or in their mouth.

To say that it was not the job for me at that point in my career would be an understatement. But I made the choice to get my foot in the door. I was keenly aware of what I was doing, it was a strategy.  The place was only 5 minutes from my house! I gave myself 6 months to learn everything I possibly could about the biz and move up or out. It worked out exactly that way I intended and in 8 years I climbed up the rungs of the ladder 4 times. But that’s not really the point of the story.

What IS the point?

Learning the business was fun and challenging. I went way above and beyond product information and procedures. I was interested in growth, remember? Yet the majority of stint in the seat was taking those calls and after a very short time they started to get on my nerves. Tons of nice people called too but soon I was answering calls in my dreams and on remote control during the day. I quickly had had enough of that front line stuff…

One day I took my doodling to new heights while on the job. I cut black construction paper into small tombstone shapes and stacked them like a memo pad next to my PC. While listening to nasty, stupid, entitled, A-driver types I would grab a colorful gel pen and write the caller’s initials and an equally colorful epitaph.

“Loser logic got him nowhere”

“She proved that the customer is not always right”

“He accomplished his goal to irritate others”

“Incapable of a real life“

“She made chicken uteruses in food desirable”

“He financed college with free coupons“

A little additional glitter pen action and each offender of common sense was quickly and firmly tacked to my cubie wall graveyard. And then I was done with them. I put them out of my misery to their final resting place. It was cathartic and I could move on with a smile on my lips for the next mystery caller.

I shared other innovative methods of moving on too like reward from the voices in my head. This technique works awesomely. The voices ask me questions like,

“Do you really need to argue about this or would you rather a latte?”

“Is this relationship worth the effort or would your time be better spent checking Facebook?”

“Will this be important tomorrow?”

If the battle is that important to engage me it is revealed by being more important than having a latte and checking my friends status updates. That’s rarely the case.

What techniques do you use to deal with unwanted situations, make wiser decisions about engagement in conflict, or choose your battles carefully, or do you just dive in with eyes wide open?

P.S. Those little voodoo dolls work too