Fire Your Boss Part 6

An avid golfer, Fred joined a second foursome and began spending more time at the clubhouse both before and after his rounds of golf. One of Fred's son was active in a youth hockey league, and after years of being only peripherally active in the youth hockey organization, Fred volunteered to join the board. During college and for a short time after graduation, Fred had been active in amateur theater. He decided to return to that interest and got involved in a small local theater company. To help him get his "acting chops" back, he signed up for an improvisation cla.s.s given by a local community college. Meanwhile, Fred kept an eye on the want ads and tried to stay in touch with his business network.

While he was able to navigate successfully the changes made by the incoming university president, Fred didn't let that temporary respite deter his job fis.h.i.+ng. One afternoon after a round of golf Fred struck up a conversation with a guest of one of the fellows in his regular foursome. It turned out that, like Fred, the guest was a Cincinnati native. They had gone to neighboring high schools, though a few years apart. They also shared painful memories of being Bengals and Reds fans.

About six weeks later they met at the club again. It turned out that the fellow had been in town for a job interview before and had just taken a job as general manager of a large printing firm headquartered nearby. He told Fred he had been brought in by the printing firm's parent company to update and upgrade the operation. Fred spoke to him about his experiences integrating new technology into the university's publications program. They had a follow-up meeting for lunch. A month later Fred was offered the job of a.s.sistant general manager of the firm, in charge of modernizing the prepress arm of the business.

I know it's ironic that while on the one hand I preach separating your work and personal life by looking to one for money and the other for satisfaction, on the other hand I advocate using your social life to generate job leads. It's also ironic that I've found my clients get far more job leads by not not making that the priority in their social life than if it's obvious they're using a social setting to find a job. It has taken me a long time to accept these kinds of inconsistencies in the way the work world appears to function. making that the priority in their social life than if it's obvious they're using a social setting to find a job. It has taken me a long time to accept these kinds of inconsistencies in the way the work world appears to function.

I take comfort in Ralph Waldo Emerson's aphorism that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. I know what I'm suggesting can seem ironic and counterintuitive. But what matters is that it works.

One element of my approach that isn't isn't counterintuitive is that if you're looking at work as a way to generate money, you've got to make money a priority. Putting money first is the subject of the next chapter. counterintuitive is that if you're looking at work as a way to generate money, you've got to make money a priority. Putting money first is the subject of the next chapter.

Chapter 7.

It's the Money

Work though we must, our jobs do not automatically determine our priorities concerning our marriages, our children, our social life, or even our health. It's still life, constrained as it may be by limited disposable income or leisure time, and we're still responsible for making it something we enjoy or endure.- MELINDA M. M M. MARSHALL THE FIRST SURPRISE for Will Sykes was that his job fis.h.i.+ng actually worked. He found himself weighing two job offers simultaneously. A lieutenant in the police force of a small city in the New York suburbs, Will was offered a job as director of security at a television studio as well as a job as a.s.sistant director of security at an aviation industry facility. Will's second surprise was that, after weighing the two jobs, he chose the one at the industrial facility. The studio job offered more amenities, more of a challenge, a better t.i.tle, chances for advancement, and a great deal of status. But the industrial job was closer to his home and paid a bit more. And when weighing job offers today, Will realized he had to focus on financial issues. for Will Sykes was that his job fis.h.i.+ng actually worked. He found himself weighing two job offers simultaneously. A lieutenant in the police force of a small city in the New York suburbs, Will was offered a job as director of security at a television studio as well as a job as a.s.sistant director of security at an aviation industry facility. Will's second surprise was that, after weighing the two jobs, he chose the one at the industrial facility. The studio job offered more amenities, more of a challenge, a better t.i.tle, chances for advancement, and a great deal of status. But the industrial job was closer to his home and paid a bit more. And when weighing job offers today, Will realized he had to focus on financial issues.

Look for emotional, psychological, and spiritual fulfillment in your personal life, and you won't need to choose jobs that offer psychic rewards at the expense of material rewards.

Work to live rather than live to work, and you won't need to choose jobs that make your working hours more comfortable. Instead, you can focus on factors that give you more time at home.

Accept that your route to advancement is through changing jobs rather than climbing a ladder, and you'll see chances for personal development are more valuable than chances to move up in the company.

Follow the fire-your-boss philosophy and your priorities will s.h.i.+ft dramatically.

Fabulous amenities and a supportive culture won't be as important as more paid personal and vacation days.

A great work environment won't carry the same weight as being closer to your home.

And an impressive t.i.tle and lots of status simply won't compare to a better salary.

Today, when it comes to a.n.a.lyzing which job offer to accept and which to reject, you need to remember the sixth element in my work philosophy: it's the money that matters.

That's what I had to explain to Debbie O'Leary when she came into my office for the first time. If you recall from chapter 1, Debbie was a program director at a midwestern rock radio station. She moved to New York City in order to be with her new husband, Bruce, a well-known deejay at one of the city's premier rock stations. Debbie had never had any problem with paying her dues and working her way up the ladder during her twenty years in radio. But she had always worked at rock stations and had always had her own show. It was love of rock music that had drawn her to radio in the first place, and it was the thrill of being on the air that kept her in the business through the many lean times. And moving back to New York, where she had been raised, led to another of those lean times. It took more than eighteen months for Debbie to find any potential jobs; then, as fate would have it, she received two offers: one as a part-time weekend replacement deejay at one of the city's rock stations, and the other as a jazz programmer at a satellite radio network. Her reflexive reaction was to take the job at the rock station, but Bruce urged her to come see me before making her decision.

Isolating the Twenty Factors Whenever most people are faced with having to choose between two alternate courses or paths, they make a list of the characteristics of each option. Let's say you're trying to decide where to go for dinner. One choice is the local diner, the other is a French restaurant. If you're like most of us, you mentally go through a checklist of the factors that enter into your decision making. The French restaurant has a more pleasant environment and the food is more substantial, albeit specialized. The diner is less expensive, closer to your home, and offers more choices.

The same holds true for choosing between job offers. The first step in the process is to make a list of the characteristics of each job, based on a set of factors. Over years of consulting and helping people weigh job offers, I've found there are twenty main factors people consider. Here they are in alphabetical order:

Amenities: services provided by the organization for your use at no or very low cost.

Auto: a car and its a.s.sociated expenses provided for you at no charge by the organization.

Challenging: the degree to which the job provides you with intellectual stimulation.

Culture: the beliefs, customs, practices, and values of the organization as a whole and the specific department of which you'd be a part.

Disability insurance: a policy that pays a benefit if you become disabled, paid for by the organization.

Environment: the comfort and aesthetics of both the general and your specific work s.p.a.ces.

Expense allowance: a regularly provided stipend given to you for business-related expenses.

Health insurance: a policy covering all or part of the cost of medical, dental, pharmaceutical, psychological, and lifestyle counseling services, paid for entirely, or in part, by the organization.

Income: how much money you're paid in wages, salary, or bonuses.

Life insurance: a policy that pays a benefit on your death, to beneficiaries you select, paid for by the organization.

Opportunity for advancement: the potential for your moving up the organization's hierarchy.

Opportunity for learning: the potential for you to acquire new skills and knowledge.

Paid time off: how many days you can take off work for vacation or personal reasons and still be paid.

Proximity: the distance or time required to get from your home to the job and back.

Retirement plan: an investment or pension plan that the organization sets up and to which it may contribute.

Stability: the relative security of the company or organization because of its established nature and its long-standing role in an industry.

Status: the relative standing of the job in your industry, community, or some other group.

t.i.tle: the value of the descriptive name for the job you'd hold.

Tuition reimburs.e.m.e.nt: a stipend to pay the cost of further education that may or may not be specifically related to your job.

Unpaid time off: the opportunity for you to take time off work for professional or personal reasons and not hurt your job status.

Charting the Factors for Job Offers I've always found that writing things down helps focus decision making. Nowhere is that more true than in weighing competing job offers. Take out that pad you used for all your early exercises and during your job fis.h.i.+ng. Turn to a fresh page and divide it into columns that represent one more than the number of job offers you're weighing. In other words, if you have two offers to choose between, divide the page into three columns; if you have three offers, divide the page into four columns.

Label the first column Factors. Label the remaining columns with a word or phrase that describes each job offer. For example, if you've received two offers and one is an offer from a telecommunications company and the other is from a medical-research firm you might label the second column Telecom and the third Medical.

COMPARING JOB OFFERS.

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Go back to the first column, and move down the page writing a word or phrase that corresponds to each of the twenty factors, each on its own line. Skip one or two s.p.a.ces between each item. If you need to jump to a second page, just replicate the columns and their headings on the new page.

(While I'd prefer you invest a bit in the process and create your own chart, in the interests of convenience I've also provided a blank form on page 152 that you could also use for this purpose. But I'd suggest that, rather than filling in this form in the book, you photocopy it and work on the photocopy instead. After all, you're going to have so many offers coming in now that you've started job fis.h.i.+ng that you won't want to use up the chart on your first pair of offers.) Now, fill in details about each factor for each offer. For instance, if the Telecom job offer includes a company gym, write "gym" on the amenities line in the Telecom column. If the Medical job offer includes free use of a company cafeteria, write "meals" on the amenities line in the Medical column. Go down the list, providing as much information as you can about each offer.

After you've filled in all the blanks, consider each line individually. Which of the two job offers seems to provide the better deal in each factor? Does the Telecom job offer two weeks' paid vacation, while the Medical job offer provides three? Advantage Medical. Is the Telecom job located thirty minutes from your home while the Medical job is located sixty minutes away? Advantage Telecom. Place a large check mark on each line in the column of the job that provides the better deal.

Debbie O'Leary Charts the Factors for Her Two Job Offers After sitting with me for a about an hour, Debbie agreed not to react reflexively and instead compare the two job offers she'd received. If you recall, one was for a part-time deejay position at a rock station, and the other was for a jazz programming position at a satellite radio network. Using a legal pad, she drew up the chart I recommended in order to break each offer down into the twenty factors I'd outlined. (See the box on page 155: Debbie O'Leary's Offer Comparison Chart.) Amenities. The deejay position at the radio station offered no amenities. The satellite radio station gave employees a discounted rate at a health club located near its offices. Advantage: Satellite.

Auto. Neither job offered a company car, but the radio station would pay car expenses if Debbie had to travel to a remote location for a broadcast. Advantage: Radio.

Challenging. Because Debbie had been a rock deejay for her entire working life, the radio job offered no challenges for her. The satellite radio job presented a challenge because it meant Debbie would need to come up with playlists in a new genre and format. Advantage: Satellite.

Culture. The bohemian, free-spirited culture of the radio station was one that Debbie adored, having been part of similar cultures in the past. The satellite radio job, on the other hand, had a much more corporate culture. Advantage: Radio.

Disability insurance. Neither job offered disability insurance. No advantage.

Environment. The radio station's studio was located in a somewhat run-down old office building in midtown Manhattan. The satellite radio company was located in a brand-new facility in a corporate park in suburban New Jersey. Advantage: Satellite.

DEBBIE O'L O'LEARY'S O OFFER C COMPARISON C CHART [image]

Expense allowance. Neither job offered an expense allowance. No advantage.

Health insurance. The radio station did not provide health coverage for part-time employees until they worked for the company for more than two years. The satellite radio company offered a complete health insurance package. Advantage: Satellite.

Income. Because Debbie was a member of the union she would earn approximately $30,000 a year as a part-time deejay at the radio station. The full-time satellite radio job offered a salary of $75,000. Advantage: Satellite.

Life insurance. Neither job offered life insurance. No advantage.

Opportunity for advancement. The radio job gave Debbie the chance to move eventually into a full-time deejay job with a regular air s.h.i.+ft. The structure of the satellite radio company seemed to provide little chance for upward movement for programmers. Instead, there would be lateral movement to other genres. Advantage: Radio.

Opportunity for learning. Debbie could do the radio job in her sleep. The satellite job would require her to learn the dynamics of a new segment of the radio business, and a new musical genre. Advantage: Satellite.

Paid time off. The radio job gave no paid vacation or personal days to part-timers. As a fill-in, Debbie would probably be working many if not all holidays. The satellite job offered two weeks' paid vacation and four paid personal days each year. Advantage: Satellite. The radio job gave no paid vacation or personal days to part-timers. As a fill-in, Debbie would probably be working many if not all holidays. The satellite job offered two weeks' paid vacation and four paid personal days each year. Advantage: Satellite.

Proximity. The radio job was a thirty-minute subway ride each way from Debbie's apartment. The satellite job was a forty-five minute combined subway and commuter train trip each way. Advantage: Radio.

Retirement plan. The radio station had no retirement plan for part-timers. The satellite job offered a 401(k) plan and matched annual contributions up to a certain amount. Advantage: Satellite.

Stability. While radio wasn't a secure industry, the station where Debbie would be working had been one of the two top FM rock radio stations in the New York market for more than a decade. The satellite radio company was a start-up in a new industry. Advantage: Radio.

Status. Being a programmer for a satellite radio network didn't have anywhere near the status of being an on-air personality in America's largest media market. Advantage: Radio.

t.i.tle. The t.i.tle of deejay carried no particular weight - what mattered were the size of the market and the ratings. Program director was a more advanced t.i.tle in the business, implying a step up the management hierarchy. Advantage: Satellite.

Tuition reimburs.e.m.e.nt. Neither job offered tuition reimburs.e.m.e.nt. No advantage.

Unpaid time off. Because it was a part-time job, the deejay position didn't provide lots of unpaid time off. The satellite job offered ten days' unpaid parental leave. Advantage: Radio. Because it was a part-time job, the deejay position didn't provide lots of unpaid time off. The satellite job offered ten days' unpaid parental leave. Advantage: Radio.

a.n.a.lyzing the offers in this manner convinced Debbie her husband and I were probably right in discouraging her from reflexively grabbing the deejay job. However, it also showed neither job offer was perfect.