LinkedIn sends Sponsored InMail to Paid Members?

If there is one thing I love about internet/web 2.0, it is the lack of advertising.

I kid of course. Web 2.0 is full of advertisements. I am not the worst offender but I have certainly included advertisements and I will continue to do so until servers and bandwidth are free.

What is usually great about Web 2.0 companies is that once you give them your credit card number, they generally cut down the amount of advertising you receive (sometimes to nothing except to remind you to renew your subscription). Being a paid member of LinkedIn, I figured I was doing my part to support the growing social utopia.

Not so much. I received this InMail over last week’s holiday:

Sponsored InMail from Starbucks

Happy Holidays from Starbucks!

First of all, I don’t like giving gifts. I have a hard enough time finding the right gift for my wife much less other members of my family and co-workers. And yes, I just grouped co-workers in with family. Sorry mom, dad. It is tough to find you good gifts without resorting to the cowardly “what do you want?”

Second of all, I’ve never given a co-worker pens or paperweights. That is simply ridiculous. If I wanted to give my co-workers something they hated, I would certainly go to much more effort and make its disposal much more visible.

Third of all, 15 cards for free shipping? What is that? Two stamps?

I don’t think I can possibly give these gift cards to anyone. Unless it is one of those people that goes out of their way to avoid Starbucks. Then I think a $20 investment is well worth the weeks of observation of seeing them try to sneak in and grab a latte without feeing guilty about feeding a venomous organization like Starbucks.

Every day is different on Woot

Woot.com is one of my favorite sites on the web. I visit it at least once a day and sometimes multiple times per day.

Why do I love it?

Every day is different. But… (here is the clincher) it is predictably different.  After all, I go to the site at 10:00pm my time and there is a new deal for the day. If it is something I want, I can buy it and be assured a consistent buying experience (fixed shipping costs, expected customer service, etc…). If not, a new deal will be up in 24 hours. I never know what that new deal will be but I know enough factors to keep me enchanted at odd hours of the night (yeah, 10pm is getting late for me).

I am relating this back to work because I think everyone likes to have variety at work. I think the key there is to create an environment where there is unpredictability within a controlled environment. So, you may not know what the top priority for the day is until 8am but every day at 8am, the priority is revealed to you. You can count on that and you can trust and even when things do change out of that structure, it goes back to it as soon as possible instead of abandoning it.

I love that feeling.  That uncertainty within the structure makes me feel like I am not fulfilling the same ten requests every day.

And really, I just wanted to plug one of my favorite websites.

Happy Cyber Monday

Your boss probably doesn’t care about “Black Friday” (the day after Thanksgiving where retailers typically put on a barrage of sales). Unless you work in a handful of positions, you probably had it off and it probably gave you a good reason to come in this morning. After all, your credit card won’t pay for itself.

What your boss might care about is online shopping on the Monday after Thanksgiving. But how concerned should they be?

Business Week says you shouldn’t pay it too much attention to it. According to them, Cyber Monday is a “made up marketing term.” I am shocked! Made up you say?

Yes, Shop.org made the term up to generate excitement.

For someone who is so used to seeing honesty from retailers, I simply couldn’t believe this. Since Business Week is fairly reputable though, I probably should consider it pretty factual.

When do most people online shop? Usually either before Thanksgiving (whoops, missed that boat) or in the middle of December. How many of those people will use time at work to get some of that shopping done? The stats aren’t terribly reliable but you can probably guess my answer: too many.

So happy Cyber Monday.  Shopping under your bosses nose is almost as exciting as fighting some greasy haired jerk in a Jeff Gordon T-shirt for the last Tickle Me Elmo ROFLMAO edition.

Happy Thanksgiving…you’re fired

I was thinking about the holidays and how people who have been fired right before a holiday get more sympathy than just a normal firing.

I don’t get that. There is no good time or even better time to be fired. That’s of course is leaving out the possibility that you were fired after winning the lottery.  I think that would be fine by me if I had won the lottery. I can’t think of too many situations where it would be better to be fired.

So why the extra sympathy?

Maybe being fired before a major holiday can put a major damper on that celebration. I can accept that. But that’s pretty much it, isn’t it?

Ah, well…all this hating on holidays makes me tired. Have a great thanksgiving, don’t get fired.

Your HR Guy hates holidays

Okay, maybe “hates” is a strong word.  And really, I don’t personally hate holidays. But something has got to change.

“So how can you hate holidays you sick jerk?”

My readers are polite so maybe they wouldn’t ask something like that. In reality, holidays kill momentum in regular businesses* with the assuredness of a Dick Cheney hunting trip. And while regular holidays are usually strategically placed at the beginning or end of a week, the holidays in November, December and January give us no such luck. Thanksgiving is on a Thursday and Friday is often included. Even if you do require workers to come in on Friday, what are they going to get done? How many are going to bail on you?

This year, Christmas and New Years Day are on Tuesdays. Tuesdays! How inconvenient. So basically you get the Monday off (or you take it off) and you come back the day after and have three days. Then the next week, it is the same deal. The only days that could possibly be worse are a Wednesday or Thursday.

And during that time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, sales and productivity goes down in most sectors except retail and grocery. Speaking from experience, working retail during the holidays is like getting bludgeoned to death by a wiffle bat. Not deadly at first but the constant barrage of hits leaves you bruised every single day.

Meanwhile, we are making fun of the French for taking an entire month off. Which would be fine if they didn’t pick a better time to take off than we do. And hey, at least they aren’t pretending to get work done.

I am not suggesting we turn into bagel eating business robots like Penelope Trunk (man, I really hope google picks up on that) but it seems like if I want to take a couple weeks off, I want to do it during a nicer time of the year. Really the only advantage to holidays is that everyone else has them off too. If I could just get that time and use it throughout the year, I think I would pick better days and assuming the wife could have the same advantage, we would coordinate that too. Assuming our entire family had that advantage, we could schedule a family get together at a much less stressful time. And we could assure more uniform productivity throughout the year.

Not that I am going to refuse the holiday though. My wife and I are going to one of the most beautiful places in the states to go hiking, see a museum, see a replica of a wonder of the world and probably drink our share of wine. But it isn’t because of the holiday, it is because of the common time off. And believe me, I would pick a better time of year to go if it were up to me.

On being paid less than your subordinate

From the mailbag:

Dear HR Guy -

I started work at a fortune 50 company just over 2 years ago, with a fresh MBA in hand, and 5 plus years work experience. My starting grade level was a 13, with a salary of $64k. After 18 months I was promoted within position to the next grade level (15), and my salary increased to $77k.

I’ve just taken a lateral move to my first managerial role, and my new pay is $84k. The position has the flexibility to be promoted to the next level (17), which would get me close to, or over, the $100k range.

I felt very happy with this until I learned that one of my direct reports who is a level 13 earns $85k per year. She was hired just 3 months ago, is my same age, has a similar background to when I was first hired, and is also a fresh MBA (from a lesser known school).

My manager has told me that her hands were tied when she offered the $84k salary due to pressure from HR (they felt an 8% raise was enough).

My manager is planning to retire or move within the next 9 to 12 months, and I have been told that I am the successor. My manager’s manager is thrilled to have me in our department, and has pretty much told me that I’m on the fast track. So, the question is….how much do I let this inequity bother me?

I have some great long term potential at this company, but isn’t this just a matter of principle?

Benjamins in Need

I have to admit, whenever I started reading I was firmly in the “the principle” camp but I sort of floundered when you talked about the future potential. Under most circumstances, the boss should make more. It didn’t sound like it was one of those exceptions where I could see it.

Still, there are certain situations where it is perfectly fine to have a subordinate make more than a manager. That includes:

1. More education or experience in a field that pushes their pay at the top end of the range while a manager with little management experience is stuck at a lower level of an upper pay range.
2. The employee is in a field where the pay rate is much higher. For example, a middle manager who also has responsibility over a programmer might be paid less depending on their skill level.
3. It is a particularly tight labor market. Either for that position, the region or just an overarching problem.

I don’t think your situation is addressed there so I will give you a couple different options.

One: You can approach a compensation specialist and figure it out. At a company your size, these things are pretty standardized. Going at your manager again probably isn’t the best approach and if you do decide to go that way again, you will be armed with more information.

Two: Suck it up and put in your time and it won’t matter in a year.

I think the route you take depends really on your level of comfort with your current salary (independent of comparisons, how happy are you at that level). If you are happy at that level and you can put away your principles, then you should be happy to be on such a great path. If not, then pursue it but don’t bang your head against the wall and try to figure out what basis your salary was computed as.

Is Google (2008) turning into Microsoft (1998)?

No says Scott Berkun. But…

There are problems with any company growing large. A culture shift from going from small to big. Many people talk about how great rapid growth is and obviously rapid growth usually follows other good things (like growing sales and revenues). There is a dynamic culture shift happens when companies get bigger. But what is little studied is what happens to a large company that explodes.

That’s what happened to Microsoft in the 90’s and you saw their culture shift. You can see it starting at Google as their growth goes from aggressive to explosive.

What can HR do to help a company deal with this. Berkun has a good start of what not to do.

1. Believing no one has been at the center of the tech-universe before.
2. Inability to take a non self-centric view of the world.
3. Depending on power and intimidation, more than intelligence and wisdom.
4. Failing to find ways to stay humble & hungry while being dominant.
5. Focusing more on beating rivals than satisfying customers.
6. Underestimating how decisions will be received by the rest of the world.

And I like that list. I don’t think Google will go down that path but I think they were also lucky to see what has happened to other tech companies that forget what got them to the point where they became super explosive.

More video resumes aren’t the answer

MSNBC writes about how video resumes aren’t the answer to your job hunting woes. Surprisingly, they talked to me. I wonder why?

They talked quite a bit to Aleskey Vayner who did the Impossible is Nothing video resume. Vayner is still looking for a job. I know you’re probably as surprised about that as I am.

Even if Vayner’s video resume was the most spectacular failure of them all, there are apparently many small flops every single day being made that are a waste of time.

Every manager and HR person I’ve talked to hates the idea of video resumes in any context. The only people with interest are three types of people:

1. HR and managers who are curious about it but don’t want it to become popular
2. Companies that have video resume products to sell
3. People who are desperate to get a step up in competitive areas or markets

Many people have seemed to use tired arguments about phone/in-person interviews, resume and other deficiencies in the interview process. I am well aware of the deficiencies of these methods. Video resumes don’t help. They hurt job seekers when they don’t need it. Good candidates stand out because they give me a resume and cover letter that speaks to the position I am hiring for, they are competent in their field and they show a great interest in their job and our company. Video resumes can rarely communicate that better than a resume or interview.

Let’s put video resumes to bed and I’ll look forward to technology that actually helps me make better hiring decisions.

If you want to be good at something, do it

Do it over and over again.

Do it until it hurts. And then get up and do it again.

The first thing I ever wanted to get good at was playing basketball. My Dad had put up a hoop on our garage and he would play out there with his friends. And I knew I wanted to be a good basketball player. So I went out there and played and played and played. I played before I could throw the ball high enough. There was no little hoop or little ball. So I just kept trying until I could get the ball that high. Then I got in the hoop. Then I could shoot from 5, 10, 15 feet away. And I got confident. I could make baskets from wherever. I wanted to play my dad.

And he whooped me. 11-0.

And so I played against him more. Every day after work. Every weekend. 11-0, 11-0, 11-1!

And we played for three years before I beat him. This wasn’t a “he let you win” or “he was tired.” This was a Sunday afternoon game he initiated. And I remember it being the greatest day.

I continued getting better until I could beat him consistently. And I went on to play on teams and in leagues. No, I didn’t end up being the greatest, I just ended up being good at basketball. I didn’t make the NBA, or college, or even high school.  It was about being good for the sake of being good.

People who succeed in life do so because they find what they love and they do it to be good at it. And if they can’t get there today, they keep trying over and over. They will not be denied. I can’t count the number of times I missed a shot in basketball. But I picked it up and shot again. And it hurt. I broke bones for playing the game. I was so sore, I never wanted to move. But I played again.

I played again. I picked up the ball and took a shot hoping that this would be one that I made. And if I made it, I knew I would have to make it again to be satisfied.

People hate sports analogies because of their simplicity (and their ease). From the age of four to fourteen, all I ever really cared about was playing basketball and being good.

Now life is more difficult and complicated you might argue. Maybe. We make it more difficult and complicated though. How do I know this? My dad’s motivation during my basketball loving days was making sure he was there for a game of one on one. During that time, he went through a job change, divorce and remarriage. Life was more complicated but he made it simple: he wanted to be a good dad, so he did it. And he missed shots, lost games and not just on the basketball court to me. He woke up, like I did, and whatever reality faced us that morning, we were going to continue trying.

I post this because I heard someone give an excuse as to why they couldn’t try to do what they wanted to be good at. Talking is easy. Making excuses is easier. Doing is difficult. Failing is more difficult. And getting up and trying after failure is the most difficult.

No more excuses. No more talking. If you want to do something, do it.

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  Your HR Guy is a Human Resources Generalist practicing in the field. But don't let that fool you, this isn't a boring blog. I seek relevance and humor in a place we will spend much of our lives. Everything from workplace issues, job seeking and terrible bosses. Read more...
  
  
  
  
  
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