Your Parachute: Time for New Colors?
Corrections or additions?
These articles by Kathleen McGinn Spring were prepared for the
April 11, 2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Job Reviews: Make Them Good
Discrimination lawsuits for termination outnumber those
for all other causes six to one. And what is the first piece of
evidence
called for? The performance review. This according to Mary Thomas,
who works with employers on the structure and execution of their
performance
review procedures.
Thomas, a 24-year veteran of the Department of Labor, has been with
the employer human resources support unit for 11 years. She works
with employers large and small, not only on performance reviews, but
also on a wide range of personnel issues, including curbing
absenteeism
and turnover. She speaks on “The art and science of performance
reviews,” on Wednesday, April 18, at 9 a.m. at William Paterson
University. Call 609-393-7100.
A 1964 graduate of Georgian Court College, where she majored in
English
and Spanish, and a resident of Lavallette, she taught at Red Bank
Catholic High School before beginning her current career. Thomas is
one of just a handful of people in the state who work directly with
employers on human resources issues. She says her department decided
seminars like the one at which she is speaking are a good way to reach
many employers at one time. For her, leading the seminars is a good
fit with her background in teaching.
“Because of anti-discrimination laws, the performance appraisal
is more important than ever,” Thomas says. “Employees are
very well informed of their rights, and are willing to exercise
them.”
Beyond heading off lawsuits, a thorough and fair system of performance
appraisals keeps morale high. Here are her suggestions for achieving
these results:
Eliminate guesswork. What does an outstanding lawyer orchef or widget assembler look like? Companies should providesupervisorswho conduct performance reviews with details. First of all, thereshould be forms. And, says Thomas, “the forms should be userfriendly.”The supervisor should have a document in front of her that spellsout exactly what an outstanding, average, and poor performing workerdoes in each job category for which she is conducting performancereviews. The form should include clear examples.Train supervisors in giving reviews. Supervisorsresponsiblefor giving performance reviews may be chemists, or accountants, orengineers. In many cases, they have no training in human resources,psychology, leadership, or even in communication skills. “It’shard for supervisors who are not trained in how to evaluateperformanceand give the review,” Thomas says. “A lot of this is learnedbehavior.” Employers, she says, need to provide that trainingif they are to avoid mistakes that could be very costly. For example,she says, “If a supervisor says `Great job. Keep it up and you’llhave a job for another 20 years’,” courts could construe thatstatement as a binding contract.Aim for consistency. Sometimes, Thomas says, there aresupervisors within a company who give everyone an”outstanding”rating, while others strive for more realistic appraisals. Thehigh-ratersmay be uncomfortable making negative comments to people they haveto work beside, or, says Thomas, they may be after the “sunflowereffect.” This is a phenomenon she describes as a belief somesupervisorshold that if all their employees are outstanding, they must beamazinglyoutstanding themselves.Take the whole review period into account. A common trap,says Thomas, is to be blinded by one spectacular deed — or byone giant faux pas. “It’s the `halo’ or `horns’ effect,” shesays. A natural tendency at performance review time is to call upthat big sale, or that angry outburst. Major incidents, good or bad,stick out, but may not be a fair measure of an employee’s performanceover the year. “Take notes all year long,” Thomas tellssupervisors.That way, at review time there will be a complete record of all ofthe employee’s deeds, and misdeeds, and less chance of basing a reviewon one event.Never use labels. One of the best ways for an employerto flirt with a lawsuit is to allow supervisors to write words like”immature” and “uncooperative” in a performancereview.Letting personality drive performance reviews is common. “It’sone of the big pitfalls,” says Thomas, who urges supervisors toleave attitude, character, and personality out of the review process.While it may be true that an employee is sullen, sneaky, and evensubversive, the employer must find examples of how those traitstranslateto job-related tasks. Says Thomas: “Comments should be specific,and should include examples. If you can’t give a concrete example,it shouldn’t be touched.”Avoid surprises. Supervisors need to give their underlingsongoing feedback throughout the year. A performance review shouldnot be the first time an employee learns he is an irredeemable failureas a pastry chef or an auto mechanic. “There should be nosurprises,”Thomas says.Allow appeals. Appeals, Thomas says, are a good thing.Building an appeals option into the review process gives employeesa way to vent. It also “gives companies notice there is aproblem,”she says. “The company can get its records together, get all itsducks in a row.”Beyond warning that a lawsuit may be looming, an appeal may alertthe company to a larger problem. “If a review says a worker’sreports are always late and full of inaccuracies, it may be becausethe data was late and was not correct,” Thomas gives as anexample.Don’t be late in giving performance reviews, Thomas says.Workerslook forward to them, and employers shouldn’t risk demoralizing thetroops. “In this economy,” she says, “most employers arein a hiring mode, and have had a real problem finding qualifiedhelp.”Top Of PageNew for Job HuntersAt any time, when you are looking for a job, peoplearound you will blurt out unsolicited advice — what you shouldbe doing, how you should be doing it, when you should be doing it,where you should be doing it, and why you should be doing it, warnsauthor Karen Okulicz. “This barrage of advice can seem endless.It takes a lot of patience not to scream `I’m working on looking forwork. Leave me alone. Mind your own business’.”Most people are trying to be helpful, she says. “But it can beoverwhelming in the beginning when you are so new and you reallyhaven’ta clue of what you’re going to do, what you want to do, when you wantto do it, where, or why. And it’s hard to listen to advice when you’vebeen out for a `while’ and are at your wit’s end with rejections andopportunities falling apart.” Take people’s questions and advicewith a grain of salt, she advises.A graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson, Okulicz worked for 15 years inthe medical field and then lost her job twice in three years. “Isent out 978 resumes, had 70 face-to-face interviews, and 80 telephoneinterviews,” she says. “I knew the way of looking for workhad to be viewed and handled differently from `just send theresume’.”Okulicz mined her experience to write one of the newest books on thejobhunter’s shelf, “Try — a Survival Guide toUnemployment.”It is available for $13.10, including shipping and sales tax, witha check to K-Slaw Inc., Box 375, Belmar 07719. Or call 888-529-6090(www.okulicz.com).She recommends that when jobseekers encounter helpful friends, thatthey perform the actions of a colander, that handy perforated panfor draining liquids. Her definition of a colander: “An objectwith holes in it to drain out what is not necessary and to save whatis.””Listen,” she writes, “because someone’s observation ofyou may give you an insight of your hidden talents. Listen to whatyou’ve been telling yourself for years. I hate to drive or commuteover an hour. I hate wearing a suit, etc. You know what is best foryou. Other people’s comments will offer insights. Just carry thecolander!”Once you know which kind of work you are looking for right now —a job, a career, or your life’s work — it is easier to start theprocess of going after it. Okulicz defines the three kinds of work:A job: Something to pay the bills. “A job you takeuntil you finish school, or apprenticeship, or whatever. It helpsto cover expenses. It may be mentally or physically demanding, butits rewards are financial only. It gets us by. It’s doin’ what yougotta do to get you through.”A career: “Something you go to school for, trainingor apprenticeship. A specialty, a trade. You may be in a careerbecauseyou felt you may like it or it was suggested to you. It may bechallengingfor you, but you think there could always be something better. Youmay like your career and are comfortable with the choice but willbe glad to retire someday.”A life’s work. “Ah! The pinnacle of all employment!To do something you love. To have a passion for the thing you do.To lose yourself in this work totally. The rewards may not befinancialbut, may be pure joy.”Top Of PageYour Parachute: Time for New Colors?One of the oldest books on the jobhunter’s shelf,”WhatColor is My Parachute,” by Richard Nelson Bolles, is stillselling well. But Princeton-based employment expert Niels H.Nielsenthinks it is “musty” and gives advice that is “poor andcontradictory.”In a book review for the Dow Jones jobhunting website(www.careerjournal.com),Nielsen says he finds it “hard to believe that 20,000 people buythis $16.95 book every month to find out this `secret’ of how to finda job.” Nielsen is president of Princeton Management ConsultantsInc., a human-resources and general management consulting firm onMoore Street (www.pmcnielsen.com), where he consults in HR on acorporatelevel. On an individual level, as a volunteer, he is co-founder ofJobseekers, the group that meets Tuesday evenings at Trinity Churchand attracts unemployed and underemployed people from three states.His book review is available at www.careerjournal.com by searchingon his name.Nielsen takes the parachute book’s editors to task for “musty”tips, such as telling how to “white-out” a mistake on a resumewhen virtually all resumes are generated by computer printers.”Worse,it gives advice that’s often poor and contradictory. The centralprincipleis that the best jobs aren’t advertised but are created when someoneshows up at an employer’s door looking for a job. Therefore, the onlyway to find a job is to network. It dismisses all other ways of jobhunting as Neanderthal.”Nielsen cites the book’s “blame the victim” mentality, meaningthat “if you can’t get a job, it’s your fault for not followingits advice to the letter.”He objects to treating every job hunt as though it is to be acareer-change.”The system is illustrated by a flower diagram that’s supposedto help define the job of your dreams. The flower consists of sevenparts:Transferable skills.Geography — where you want to live.Subjects or interests.People environments.Values and goals.Working conditions.Level and salary.Having finished this intensive exercise, the reader is supposedto pick from a list of “job families.” Nielsen says the book’slist “looks like it came from a government statistical report.It’s old-fashioned and doesn’t include anything about computers orthe Internet. It lumps some oddball occupations into families, e.g.,Social Scientists, Social Workers, Religious Workers, Lawyers. Italso concentrates on nonexempt and blue-collar jobs. This sectionis worse than useless. Mr. Bolles admits this and sends the readerback to friends, family, and professionals for advice.”Nielsen concedes that Bolles has good advice on job interviewing,but that it is “diluted by all the poor material that surroundsit.””Numerous contradictions make the book’s counsel seem downrightunbelievable,” writes Nielsen. “For example, it states: `Thetheme at the receptionist’s desk or in the human-resources officeof a company, is: Elimination . . . That is why millions remainunemployed,in the U.S. alone.’ But, later, it says that only 15 percent ofemployershave human-resources departments, so how can they single-handedlybe responsible for all the unemployment in the country?”Nielsen also takes umbrage from Bolles’ advice on pay negotiation.”The book doesn’t mention the numerous excellent sources of salarydata, on or off the Web. This is consistent with his Marxian approach,but in a market economy, it’s a major omission. He says that youshouldget paid the salary you need to live on and provides a two-pagepersonal-expensebudget worksheet to calculate what pay to ask for. Yeah, right.”Top Of PageCorporate AngelsSt. Francis Hospital has donated thousands of dollarsin medical supplies to Focus on Animals, a West Windsor-basedvolunteeranimal rescue organization that supports the Ewing Animal Shelter.The shelter plans to establish a clinic for spaying, neutering, andtesting for leukemia and AIDS.Gloria Aceti, a resident of West Windsor and the president of Focuson Animals, says her group is housing the supplies with the aim ofdonating them to the spay/neuter clinic planned by the Ewing shelteror a similar clinic. Diane Cubberly, of St. Francis Hospital,initiatedthe concept of helping area shelters with supplies —veterinary-approvedfor use with animals — that the hospital could no longer use butdid not want to throw away.Princeton Wireless is helping to donate cellular phonesto WomanSpace, the shelter for victims of domestic violence. Phonesare being collected at the company’s three offices — VillageSquareShopping Center, Route 130 in East Windsor, and Route 33 in HamiltonSquare. Princeton Wireless technicians will reprogram the phones toallow outgoing calls only to the emergency 911 number, as a lifelineto safety for at-risk victims. The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Officeis assisting this effort. For information, call 609-799-9393.The Lenox Drive-based law firm of Archer & Greiner wasa corporate supporter of the Dining In and Stepping Out evening atthe Trenton War Memorial, a benefit for Jewish Family & Children’sService of Greater Mercer County.Previous StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
