November 27, 2007

Learning a new whey
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 12:16 PM

Just what would it take to get you away from your desk and into some old jeans and a pair of boots, tending to a herd of sheep or cows on your own farm? Does that pastoral, back-to-the-land dream from your rebellious post-adolescent years still hold any appeal to you, an aging executive who has spent the last 20-30 years riding the commuter rail and the elevator in a downtown high-rise?

For more and more retirement-age workers in New England, the answer to this question is a resounding "Yes":

BURLINGTON, Vt. - At the age of 48, Bob Works came to an enviable life junction. The real estate investment firm where he was partner went public, and his payout was sizable. He could have stayed with the firm, managing properties such as One Winthrop Square and State Street Bank building in Boston, or not worked another day of his life.
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Instead, he and his wife apprenticed at a cheese-making farm.

Nine years later, they have their own farm and turn out 6,000 pounds annually of a Pyrenees-style cheese that is sold at niche markets such as the Concord Cheese Shop and South End Formaggio.
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The Works are part of a growing group of established careerists who are stepping off their professional ladders to learn such skills as tending goats and decanting whey. Some had never so much as milked an animal, and many were solidly urban creatures with only romantic notions of one day working the land.

Who said you can't keep 'em down on the farm?

Read the full piece from today's Globe.

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November 21, 2007

Thanksgiving thought - we all need to dream
Posted by Diane Danielson at 8:51 PM

If you do one thing this holiday, you should watch this "last lecture" from Professor Randy Pausch at Carnegie Mellon.  You see, Professor Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given 6 months to live.  And, what does he do?  He delivers one of the best lectures about how to live your life that I've ever heard.  Visit the New York Times website to watch the video, but here's a still of the talk outline.

 

Click here to watch the whole thing.

Don't worry, you'll laugh more than you cry; so grab a cup of coffee, chardonnay or a beer and instead of watching another dumb reality show, watch a smart reality show and learn something from someone else's all too short life.  It's hard to imagine that this guy has only a few months, but he's making the most of it.  I could only hope that I would find the strength to do the same.

For updates on how he's doing and more about this amazing professor, visit his webpage at:  http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/

What I found most amusing was when he pulled on his letterman's jacket near the end of the lecture and it was from my rival high school, Oakland Mills High School in Columbia, MD.  So from this Wilde Lake Wildcat to an Oakland Mills Scorpian, I'd like to say, "this time I'm rooting for you, Randy." 

 

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November 19, 2007

Ding Dong the Queen Bee's dead
Posted by Diane Danielson at 10:47 PM

At least that's what today's Wall Street Journal proclaims in one of the first "uplifting" columns I've read about women networking their way to the top.

Successful female executives used to be seen as loners who shunned helping other women and dutifully stuck to entrenched rules to succeed.

No one would make that charge today. A women's network has emerged in the corporate world that is working to counter the old boy's club. Its members, who include a fresh crop of female executives as well as corporate veterans, are helping one another advance and succeed -- and on their own terms.

The "queen bee syndrome" -- the belief that ambitious women strive for the most powerful position in the workplace while excluding all rivals -- is outdated, executives say. Equally outdated is the notion that women can't have both powerful jobs and fulfilling personal lives.

Click here to read the whole article.

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For some, Thanksgiving means work
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 4:18 PM

Many things come to mind when we think of Thanksgiving - food, family, and football, to name the Three Fs. Probably the big W - work - does not come to mind.

But if you think about it, many people will be working over this holiday break. Those in the travel industry for a start. And, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics points out, those in another industry work on Thanksgiving Day:

For many, Thanksgiving is about watching sports on television. Considering the millions of people who watch spectator sports, it’s interesting to note how few employees —athletes, coaches, referees, food preparers, cashiers, and others — work in the spectator sports industry. Nationwide, there were about 131,000 jobs in the spectator sports industry in 2006; this is about one-tenth of one percent of total private industry employment. The nation’s largest metropolitan areas generally have the most employees in spectator sports.

There's another category of holiday workers whose ranks bulge at this time of year:

The day after Thanksgiving is the traditional start of the holiday shopping season and has been hailed as one of the busiest shopping days of the year. While many Americans shop, others work in temporary jobs during the holiday season. In a pattern that is seen year after year, many retail trade industries hire additional seasonal employees beginning in November.

Check it all out, courtesy of the US Department of Labor, with plenty of nifty graphics, too.

For the vast majority of us who will not be working on this holiday weekend, count yourself lucky. And although you may not feel very thankful for your current job, you might want to say a word of thanks for that, too. After all, where would you be without it? It puts the turkey on the table and the heat in the oven. Many, many around the world would be envious of these simple comforts, comforts that we might take for granted.

So travel safely, wherever you may be going, near or far. Enjoy your food, family, and (if you watch), football. From all of us at Boston.com/Monster, have a Happy Thanksgiving.

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November 13, 2007

Gisele disses the dollar
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:36 AM

Proving that she's not just a pretty face, supermodel Gisele Bundchen displayed a good head for figures this week as well, as reported in today's Globe:

NEW YORK - Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen is proving to be as savvy as professional investors hedging risks in the foreign-exchange market.

Bundchen, who Forbes magazine says earned an industry-best $33 million in the year through June, is making sure she is paid where she works, according to Patricia Bundchen, her twin sister and manager.
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The 27-year-old model's currency prowess surfaced in the Sept. 12 issue of the 1 million-circulation Brazilian weekly Veja, which quoted Bundchen's preference to be paid in euros for representing Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co.'s Pantene hair products.

Read more about this working girl's dis of the dropping dollar.

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November 12, 2007

Equal opportunity may lead to increased creativity
Posted by Diane Danielson at 11:37 PM

From CNN:  some good news for women in the workplace -- their presence may boost creativity and innovation, something that is going to be sorely needed in corporate America and other places.

The study by the London Business School concluded that teams of employees where the gender balance is equal tend to come up with more creative and innovative ideas than groups dominated by either men or women.

The mixed gender groups were on average more likely to experiment, to pool knowledge and to complete their tasks as needed, the report by the school's Lehman Brothers Center for Women in Business says.

This is the case regardless of whether the team leader happens to be male or female, it adds.

The study looked at more than 100 groups of so-called "knowledge workers" at 21 companies across 17 countries.

Click here to read the full report.

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November 7, 2007

Redefining a successful life - Gen Y style
Posted by Diane Danielson at 10:42 AM

Got the heads up from The Huffington Post about a new Wellesley College survey on recent graduate expectations, which seems to be summed up by the following quote from the blog post:  To "have it all" these women are willing to sacrifice a little bit of everything.

As with all surveys of new grads, those of us who have "been there, done that" will chide them for being naive (about the economy, divorce, the ability to even find a significant other with whom to raise a child, elder-care needs, lack of daycare, etc.).  However, we didn't resolve those problems, did we?  So, who knows maybe they will.  Especially if they can convince the young men to agree with them.

Here are some tidbits from the survey:

1. To "have it all" these women are willing to sacrifice a little bit of everything. They envision a life plan in which they combine work and family while letting go of hardcore notions of success. They no longer feel forced to choose between becoming the top honcho and PTA mom of the year.
2. Interestingly, if money were not an issue 42 percent of the women surveyed thought they might be a stay-at-home mom at some point in their life. Money weighs heavily on this generation and staying at home is seen as a luxury, not a prescription.
3. Even though there has been article after study after salacious news program broadcasting the difficulties women face re-entering the workforce, these young women have strong expectations about how they will be able to become mothers and careerists.
4. These women would also be happy working part time and splitting childcare more evenly with spouses. This younger generation expects both men and women to be involved in parenting. Even without the guarantee of a top salary, most of the women expect to share childrearing and return to the labor force.
5. This home formula may be the key to the gender revolution that stalled at the threshold of the family door. While countries such as Spain have social policies requiring men to become active dads, young U.S. women are at least discussing the possibility of househusbands or partners sharing the family responsibilities.
6. Considering these work plans, it is not surprising that most of the young women think that parental leaves should be for six months to a year. If that were the case, then stay-at-home parenting might become a normal part of a work path rather than a terminating factor. It would also make the work/family juggle less stressful if all parents left paid work to care for their children.
7. While these young women may be accepting of present career ladders and expect to find individual ways to move ahead, they surprisingly imagine their children cared for in public settings. The nanny solution is not theirs. While working full-time they would like to place their youngest child in an after school program. These young women do not want to patch together care giving solutions; they want a seamless approach to raising children. Young women want their communities to play a significant role in meeting the demands of raising kids and continued employment.

Click here to read the full story.

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November 6, 2007

You can still work here
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 1:29 PM

One thing Boston is long on is history. We all know that.

But what you may not have considered before is that this holds true for the local workplace, as well, where you can still work for a number of employers that have been around for centuries, some almost 400 years - and they're still going strong today.

Take Harvard, for instance, pictured above. It's the nation's oldest university, dating to 1636. They're coming up on their 375th anniversary, just a few years away. And they're not the oldest workplace on our list, either.

Want to know who they are? And what jobs they have? You've heard of the "Best Places to Work" lists. Well, now take a look at our latest photo gallery, the "Oldest Places to Work in Boston."

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Diane Danielson on NECN
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:19 AM

Here's a rare treat for Job Blog readers: one of our very own, Job Blog-ger and networking guru Diane Danielson, speaks about networking in this NECN interview yesterday. Interestingly (and perhaps not surprisingly), Danielson stresses the importance of blogging, among other aspects of one's online persona, in todays wired, web-savvy world.

To view the clip, click here. Running time: approx. 4 minutes.

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November 4, 2007

The problem with women is that they are women
Posted by Diane Danielson at 12:37 PM

Lisa Belkin over at the NYTimes conveys the frustration many of us feel with all the conflicting studies about women in the workplace. 

Catalyst's research is often an exploration of why, 30 years after women entered the work force in large numbers, the default mental image of a leader is still male. Most recent is the report titled "Damned if You Do, Doomed if You Don't," which surveyed 1,231 senior executives from the United States and Europe. It found that women who act in ways that are consistent with gender stereotypes -- defined as focusing "on work relationships" and expressing "concern for other people’s perspectives" -- are considered less competent. But if they act in ways that are seen as more "male" -- like "act assertively, focus on work task, display ambition" -- they are seen as "too tough" and "unfeminine."

Women can't win.

Click here to read the whole article.

One of Belkin's experts sums it up by pointing a finger at corporations:

But Professor Glick also concedes that much of this data -- like his 2000 study showing that women were penalized more than men when not perceived as being nice or having social skills — gives women absolutely no way to "fight back." "Most of what we learn shows that the problem is with the perception, not with the woman," he said, "and that it is not the problem of an individual, it's a problem of a corporation."

Although Professor Glick lets me down in the final paragraph where his upcoming studies are mentioned:

And Professor Glick has some upcoming projects, too. One looks at whether women do better in sales if they show more cleavage. A second will look at the flip side of gender stereotypes at work: hostility toward men.

Yep, I can see it now, The Today Show will take its fembots story to a new low to show that working women really hate men and use their feminine wiles to get ahead ...

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November 1, 2007

It all ads up for Hill, Holliday
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 4:21 PM

Forty years after its founding, Boston-based advertising agency Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos Inc. is on a roll:

After the retirement of cofounder Jack Connors last year, which came after two years of sluggish growth, some had feared that one of Boston’s best-known advertising agencies was on its way to a middle-age slump. Instead, the firm approaches its 40th anniversary in May with renewed vigor.

"We're in a high-growth mode," said Karen Kaplan, the agency's president.

Roughly two-thirds of the company's 660 US employees last year worked in Boston. This year, it hired an additional 150, making its Boston presence 525 strong.

Read the full article from today's Globe.

And if you've got a yen for the marketing and advertising side of business, you may want to check out the openings at HHCC.

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