Talk to My Assistant

Good Morning! I hired a new assistant recently.

He seems very intent on #learning his job. Honestly, he had very little #experience , but as a #wrestling mom, I valued the #selfdetermination he learned from the sport.

We had a long discussion about online activities and my erratic hours. I did a background check, and he has a clean social media history; no Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Since we would be working rather closely, I did not want to find I was a victim of a Catfish scheme.

I've known him four years; he is very close with his younger brother, but when I'm not around he tends to keep to himself. I support his attempts to drop a few pounds (WW works for me) and warned him to stay off eBay, Instacart or Amazon on company time. I think he prefers Chewy, PetSmart and Petco honestly.

He has great references, and shows dedication to his family, and a propensity to curl up in a corner when he is done working. Doesn't seem the type to troll the Match, Tinder or other dating sites. He says I'm the only woman for him.

Let's wish Shadow GOOD LUCK on his first day as my official #officemanager. I hope I can find a position as purrfect as his! Happy #Sunday!

Great Expectations?

Is there a time in one’s life where we have to concede that our expectations do not Match reality? Are the rules and morals that were instilled in us by the survivors of the “Great Generation” no longer applicable? Were the stereotypes we grew up with just Fiction and are we wrong for having passed on some of these unachievable expectancies to our children and their peers?

As Business & Tech owners, bosses, and supervisors, do we expect too much of a Workforce Group which has had to adapt or face extinction more than once. Do we still expect men to assume the Power-broker roles in the workforce, while women juggle HOME, Family, and Careers? How much progress has been made since the last of the Baby Boomers entered the work force? Have our expectations of being equal been achieved?

The 1980ies gave us acid-washed jeans, leg warmers and Devo, but we also saw the emergence of McDonald's Chicken Nuggets, Nintendo Gameboys and the Microsoft Windows Personal Computer; and a new POP-culture TV mom. "Family Ties" and "The Cosby Show,” portrayed women who had post-undergraduate degrees and were juggling their careers as they raised their children.

Both TV shows made it clear that a woman needed an identity outside of her family and the ability to bring in an income in order to thrive in the modern world. Evidently, that was an influence, as over two-thirds of all women work outside the home. Less than 30% of today’s women identify as stay-at-home moms.

Back in 1984 "the Atlantic” found that only 37 percent of all women between the ages of 20-64, and 41 percent of all women between the ages of 25-44 held full-time year-round jobs; this included the teaching, where women far out-numbered men. Yet only 29 percent of married women held full-time year-round jobs. That same year married women contributed an average of only 18.6 percent of the total incomes of their families.

Women now hold 50.04 percent of all USAJOBS; experts believe this upward trend will continue and will accelerate, while the number of men in the workforce will continue to decline. However, only 27.1% of women are Managers and LEADERS; over 60 percent of women believe Motherhood disrupts their advancement opportunities and forced them to conform to stereotypical jobs such as NURSING.com, Teaching, and Marketing/Public Relations/Fundraising professionals.

Despite an increased need for IT, Cybersecurity and Infosys Data and Analytics, these fields are still male dominated. Over the past two decades the number of women software engineers has increased just two percent, an unsettling statistic if you consider, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projected demand for software development engineers to rise by 22%, over the next decade.

 

It has been reported that number of job openings in the United States rose to 10.925 million in December 2021 from an upwardly revised 10.775 million in the previous month and above market expectations of 10.3 million. The level of openings remained near record highs, as employers and recruiters were still having a difficult time filling position. Their expectations don't match the Proven Reality of the workforce's needs.

 

Are we failing our young women? If, in 2022, women (and men for that matter) are still struggling to balance family life with careers, becoming exhausted, or making choices to preserve a job, then the answer is yes!

#publicrelations #readyforwork #readyforthefuture #recruitment #hradvice #seekingnewopportunities #seekingemployment #notadinosaur #servantleadership #writer #rutgersuniversity

 

 

Happy Anniversary to Me!

The word "anniversary" conjures up a variety of emotions for me. An anniversary is the date on which an event took place, or an institution was founded in a previous year. The term may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of a milestone event.

In actuality, remembrances can be happy, notably a wedding anniversary, and or sad, like the date of a loved one’s passing. Some are significant, such as tenure at a job, or adoption of a child, and others are difficult to face; dates such as Pearl Harbor Day (December 7, 1941), November 22, 1963, and sadly September 11, 2001.

Then there are the private milestones, shared with a significant other, or few close associates: honoring first dates, sports accomplishments and “gotcha” days. Those in 12-Step programs mark sobriety, either publicly or privately. Facebook even sends an annual reminder of the date you joined or accepted a friend request.

Six years ago yesterday, I walked into Weight Watchers, now WW, with achy knees, 14 pounds over “lifetime goal” of 130. Three months late, I made lifetime and kept going. Eventually I settled in at 117 pounds. From that date in May 2016, I have never exceeded my original goal weight. Surgery saw me go down to 114, and unemployment has seen my weight increase past my comfort level, but well below goal, because I refuse to let that happen!

Despite the ups and downs, I continue working out, tracking, and scanning.  I make my tried-and-true recipes, try new foods and I go to meetings.

I am using the tools I've learned from leaders (now called coaches) and peers, to get back where I need to be. At 61, I feel proud that I weigh less than at 31. I made lifetime initially in the Spring of 1993. Since then there have been fluctuations, where I gained and lost, due to children, illnesses, and surgery.

Over the last three decades, I dealt with death, job loss, COVID-19 quarantine, and life’s other stresses. On February 20, 2016, I stepped into my local studio, and started my weight-loss journey for the last time. I re-achieved lifetime May 28, 2016, coming in one pound under my goal weight, and haven’t looked back!

Use this link to join now and get a free month of membership.

 

I Killed a Keurig Today

I destroyed my coffee maker today. Not intentionally. It had been on the blink for a while. Spitting coffee, adding grounds to the brew, and overall acting weird. It was well-maintained and used constantly for coffee, tea and cocoa. The poor tea kettle sits, unused, inches away.

It was four years old, and my last attempt to get a quality cup of coffee consisted of doing a de-scale, and then trying to clean the pod holder by rinsing it with spray bottle. When that was not enough, I tried a  gentle steam of water. . Sadly that was not smart move, as excess water escaped the area and seeped into the LED panel. Shot, gone, bye-bye.

I had the Cuisinart SS-10P1 Premium Single-Serve Coffeemaker Coffeemaker, with a 72 ounce capacity, in silver. Purchased originally in 2018 at Bed, Bath an Beyond. It was my second K-cup maker. The first died on it's own and the store gladly exchanged it. The return policy is no longer as kind, so I grabbed my old drip pot, and headed out to get ground coffee.

Then, I went online. hoping to pick it up this afternoon, and found, like everything else, the supply is limited for this machine. So off to Amazon.com where I ordered it, with hopes to be using my new machine by mid-week; down the road when this one starts spitting, I'll call customer service for cleaning tips. 

 

Click here to order today: https://amzn.to/3sQvWud

The Conflict Between Work and Family

It used to be that weekends were for family activities, self-care and recharging one's batteries. After talking to several employed friends of mine, this is no longer the case.

When you work from home, is the office ever closed? How many of us have checked our work emails late into the night, or over a weekend? Better yet, how many non-profit executives had board members who expected responses, on a Saturday night? Or project managers who needed to catch up on tasks before a presentation. How many medical care workers, socialworkers or accountants have returned calls, updated charts or finished a return after hours?

 Come on, raise your hands. Before the pandemic, this was a semi-regular occurrence in my career. Nine times out of ten, I dropped what I was doing to respond. Even if the response was "I will get back to you on Monday." Time away, spent feeding babies, watching television, attending my son's wrestling matches, dinner dates and even sick leaves were interrupted. The scars from my earliest days as a #workingmother have never fully healed.

After speaking with one friend, who often works late into the evening, the expectations have risen but the salary increases have not kept pace with the increasing workload. He confessed, as he politely declined my invitation to grab a cup of coffee, "I am swamped, and I need to keep my job."

 Admittedly, the lines have been blurred for me for decades; I've made choices of work over family, and cancelled vacations, thinking it would have influence. It did not and now, as my search for employment intensifies, there are still no boundaries.

On a daily basis, I scan the Indeed.com, LinkedIn, and Monster Hiring job boards, respond to All-Star Recruiters and #humanresources personnel. To avoid overload, I maintain email addresses with Yahoo, #prodigy (now AT&T, don't judge) and Google #gmail. I post on my Blogger page daily and cross post to Meta, Twitter, and WW, when content is relevant.

There are a few moments that I will stray, to window-shop on Amazon, or eBay, return personal emails, and solve the WORDLE LIMITED and NERDLE LTD puzzles each day. While I do, I listen to SiriusXM, or ask one of my #alexa devices to play a special song, catch up on sports news with WFAN Radio. I do know that since I'm home, I drink more coffee, have gained five pounds and my gym attendance is a bit spotty, but after I hit post for this piece, I will grab my Fitbit (now part of Google) and my Beats and head to the #gym, because it is Saturday.