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Work/Life Balance

3072384397_bc6e77512bby Mike O’Mary

I was talking with a friend recently who is trying to find “balance” in his life. “Balance” meaning the appropriate mixture of work, family life and other interests while fulfilling his various duties as employee (or in this case employer), spouse, parent, neighbor and citizen.

Finding the right mixture is not an easy task. In older automobiles, they used a thing called a “choke” to adjust the mixture of fuel and oxygen to just the right level. Today, we have fuel injection. But neither makes for a very attractive metaphor. Would you rather choke off a part of yourself trying to find the proper balance, or do you just mainline everything and hope you don’t overdose?

I think when people talk about balance, they are really talking about happiness. And so I referred my friend to the following poem. This is “Happiness” written by Carl Sandburg in 1916.

I asked professors who teach the meaning of life to tell me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though I was trying to fool with them.
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along the Desplaines river.
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with their women and children and a keg of beer and an accordion.

I think you could substitute the word “balance” for “happiness” in that poem and it would still work. Either way, Sandburg’s words still hit home some four-score and fourteen years after he wrote them.

When is the last time you danced by the river with your “women and children and a keg of beer and an accordion”? If you haven’t done it — or something similar — lately, your life might be teetering slightly out of balance.

Mike O’Mary is founding dreamer of Dream of Things, a book publisher currently accepting creative nonfiction stories for anthologies on 15 topics, including an anthology titled Making Waves – Stories About Role Models Who Inspire and Motivate Us.

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How to Get Ahead at the Office: Part Three

iStock_000008791456XSmallby Mike O’Mary

Note: This is Part Three in a series of sporadic commentaries on how to get ahead at the office. These tips may not directly apply to your career as a freelancer, but if you have corporate clients, it’s important to understand life on the inside.

In previous posts, I talked about climbing the corporate ladder by attending lots of meetings and by expressing lots of opinions at those meetings. Don’t forget, it doesn’t matter if you express a series of opinions or just the same opinion over and over again. The important thing is to be noticed.

Today, I’d like to talk about a special kind of meeting: the employees’ meeting with management.

The first thing you need to know is that management doesn’t want this meeting any more than you do. They’re only doing it because somebody in HR told them you want more meetings. (If you don’t remember being asked, it was probably one of the questions in that survey you didn’t answer.)

The second thing to remember is that as long as you have to go to an employee meeting, you may as well turn it to your advantage. How do you do that? By asking a question. Sure, your friends will accuse you of sucking up, but you’ll have the last laugh when you get that 2-1/2 percent raise while your friends’ wages are ravaged by inflation.

But you can’t just ask any question. You have to ask an innocuous question–the equivalent of a fastball down the middle. Here are some time-tested questions from past employee meetings:
“What is our biggest challenge?”
And, “What is our biggest opportunity?”
And, my personal favorite, “Should we focus on increasing revenue, cutting costs, or both?”

If you ask a follow-up question, be careful. This is not the time to get testy or trivial. Follow ups like, “Are you calling me a liar?” or “Can I have another donut?” will not further your career. Instead, just ask, “What can employees do to help?” and then take your seat. The most difficult part will be resisting the urge to scream. But you can do it. You’re a professional, and you’re on your way to the top.

Mike O’Mary is founding dreamer of Dream of Things, a book publisher currently accepting creative nonfiction stories for anthologies on 15 topics, including an anthology titled “Cubicle Stories: Life in the Modern Workplace.”

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How to Get Ahead at the Office: Part One

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Business Peopleby Mike O’Mary

This is Part One in a series of sporadic commentaries on how to get ahead at the office. These tips may not directly apply to your career as a freelancer, but if you have corporate clients, it’s important to understand life on the inside.

The most important thing to keep in mind as you attempt to work your way up the corporate ladder is that it is very important to attend as many meetings as possible. Attending meetings serves the dual-purpose of allowing you to network while also preventing you from having to do any actual work. What better excuse for being unable to assist with the latest corporate crisis than to say, “I’d love to help, but I’m tied up in meetings all day.”

So let’s say you want to attend more meetings, but maybe you’re a new employee. How do you work your way in to the inner circle?

One of my favorite strategies has been to be conveniently passing by a conference room with cup of coffee and notepad in hand just as people are beginning to congregate for a meeting. If you happen to know a meeting participant, stop and chat. If you don’t know any of the participants, just walk up to a stranger, introduce yourself and ask, “What’s up?” Nod with interest and prolong the chitchat until the meeting organizer says, “Let’s get started.” The key here is not to leave unless somebody specifically tells you to. If you prefer a more direct approach, look the meeting organizer in the eye and say, loud enough for all to hear, “Do you want me to leave?”

Occasionally, you’ll encounter a seasoned veteran who will stare right back at you and say, “Yes. Get out. Now.” But more often than not, the person will avert your intent, preferably slightly maniacal, gaze and mumble, “No. Why don’t you stay?” They might even apologize for not inviting you in the first place. Next thing you know, you’re drinking free coffee, eating donuts and doodling on your notepad. You’ve taken your first step into the inner circle.

Tune in next week for Part Two of this series and learn how to get noticed once you’re inside the meeting room.

Mike O’Mary is founding dreamer of Dream of Things, an independent book publisher currently accepting creative nonfiction stories for anthologies on 15 topics, including an anthology titled “Cubicle Stories: Life in the Modern Workplace.”

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Playing the Numbers Game at Work

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by Mike O’Mary

iStock_000009209243XSmallI used to work at a company where people were very conscious of job levels. After a big meeting of top company managers, one of my coworkers approached me: “Hey, Mike,” he said. “I didn’t know you were a nine.” Before I could inform him that I was not a nine, he continued in a hushed tone: “A bunch of us nines are getting together after work for pizza and beer tomorrow. Don’t tell any sevens or eights.” Then he hurried off.

I suppose most companies have some internal method of ranking various job classifications. At that particular company, you climbed the ladder from level one to level two to three, on up. It was sort of like Donkey Kong. How high can you get?

I don’t know how far the numbering system went, but reaching level nine held special significance. They didn’t give you a key to the executive washroom or anything like that. (That would have been silly–especially since there was already an armed guard at the washroom entrance and you had to show two picture I.D.s to get in. I showed my library card and prom picture.) But being a level nine did have its advantages. For one thing, it meant you got to go to big meetings of top company managers. You also got an assigned parking space, a slightly larger cubicle and a free annual physical. I think being a nine also meant that you are allowed to use the two-ply toilet paper. And, of course, nines were allowed to punch sevens at will.

I didn’t get a chance to tell my coworker that I was not a nine. I was at the big meeting of top company managers because it was part of my job to report to other employees what happened at such meetings. I was on hand to listen and learn–and to change the light bulb in the slide projector if necessary.

Obviously, my coworker had taken my presence at the big meeting to mean that I, too, had a reserved parking place and an unchafed bum. Apparently, I could have passed myself off as a nine if I had really wanted to. At least nobody tried to hit me at the meeting. But I decided not to push my luck, so I skipped the pizza and beer that night. Besides, I had some fives to beat up.

Mike O’Mary is founding dreamer of Dream of Things, an independent book publisher currently accepting creative nonfiction stories for anthologies on 15 topics, including an anthology titled “Cubicle Stories: Life in the Modern Workplace.”

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Social Media ist das Opium des Volkes

iStock_000009250299XSmallby Mike O’Mary

Okay, so maybe Karl Marx was talking about religion instead of social media when he tagged an institution as “the opiate of the people.” But if Karl were alive today, I don’t think he’d argue with calling social media an opiate. Speaking for myself, I swore off television years ago only to end up spending those newfound hours in front of the computer every day. Sucked in again!

How much time do you spend on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Classmates, YouTube, Flickr, Google Buzz, Bebo, Flixster, MyLife, etc., etc.? And I’m not even talking about the time you spend checking your e-mail accounts, blogs, bank/brokerage accounts, shopping, travel, and all that other “essential” stuff. Talk about a huge time suck.

To be clear, social media is pretty amazing. You have hundreds — sometimes thousands — of personal and business connections at your fingertips. This simply was not possible ten years ago. Old college friends were just that…old college friends. Maybe you saw them at your 10th or 20th or 50th reunion. Now you can see them every day. Perhaps all you learn is that they spend oodles of time fertilizing eggplant in FarmVille. But hey, you’ll have something to talk about at the next reunion, right? (“Hey, Greg…how’d that degree in library science turn out? Oh. Sorry. Nice eggplant farm though.”)

I started to say that social media is pretty amazing. And that it has its place. It’s helped me spread the word about my new book publishing business faster and cheaper and to a broader audience than I could have done with traditional PR or marketing. And I’ve made some new friends along the way. It’s been great. But I really did get sucked in. Here’s what happened: I was spending LOTS of time each day trying to keep up with all of my social media accounts, and then staying up very late at night doing all the other things that are traditionally associated with book publishing. That had to stop. My job is editing and publishing. My job is not social media gadfly — no matter how entertaining, compelling or (dare I say it) ADDICTING social media might be.

Here is a longer version of the famous Karl Marx quote. Again, I have substituted “social media” for “religion”:
[Social media] is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

It’s your life. Don’t live it all virtually.

Mike O’Mary is founding dreamer of Dream of Things, an independent book publisher currently accepting creative nonfiction stories for anthologies on 15 topics.

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How Does Your Customer Service Stack Up?

Workshop Customer Service Contest alternate photo low resby Mike O’Mary

When they talk about a service economy, they don’t necessarily mean good service.

I recently came across some examples of customer service that indicate to me that if we are becoming more and more a service economy, we may be in serious trouble.

For example, I went to a fast food establishment and approached the counter. There were several cash registers spaced out across the length of the counter, and I stopped at the first one I came to. It wasn’t a busy time. As a matter of fact, I was the only customer in the place. There was one cashier behind the counter. After a few moments, the cashier approached me and asked if I had been waited on. I said no, at which point the cashier walked all the way to the register at the far end of the counter and pronounced, to no one in particular, “Can I help someone?” No wonder there was no one else in the place.

I wasn’t too surprised to receive that kind of service from adolescent counter help at a fast food place, but I was surprised to hear about the owner of a local restaurant who treats his customers well when they’re patronizing his establishment, but doesn’t extend the same courtesy to them elsewhere. In this case, the restaurant owner apparently had a problem with his bank statement. He took the statement to the bank, threw it on the desk of a bank employee, and started berating the employee. The mistake wasn’t the employee’s fault, and she did everything she could to help, but that didn’t seem to matter. What the restaurant owner neglected to consider was the fact that the bank employee, her parents and some of her friends–including me–were all patrons of his restaurant. Now, none of us are.

When it comes to customer service, the old adage applies: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Endeavor to treat EVERYBODY as your customer or prospective customer. That adolescent kid at the fast food place might need a freelancer some day.

Mike O’Mary is founding dreamer of Dream of Things, an independent book publisher currently accepting creative nonfiction stories for anthologies on 15 topics.