Teryl @ Work

Working at home – Lifestyle AND Career Choice It’s becoming easier.   Technology enables working from anywhere.   Go into any coffee shop and see the number of people working at laptops, holding meetings and sharing cell phone business conversations with the world at large… But if you work for a corporate and are planning a big career, do the advantages of missing the daily commute and the noise and buzz of open plan space outweigh the disadvantages? I do not believe that absence makes the heart grow fonder in the work environment.  In fact, just the opposite. Teams work because they are close together.  You don’t build ability in a sports team by everybody practicing in separate venues and coming together five minutes before a match.  The same goes for a choir. Or is that changing with social media?   Are people able to build up great team spirit and work effectively without proximity? I think it’s possible unless the model...

3 things to do BEFORE you sign your new employment contract 1.        Consider additional costs you might incur so that you know what take home pay is the basis for negotiation ·          Benefits you might be losing eg Canteen ·          Distance from home o     Higher transport costs o     Additional child care costs for earlier drop off/later collection 2.        Ask to see a copy of a payslip ·          Most companies will be happy to do this to ensure there is a clear understanding of take home pay ·          The time to negotiate your new salary is before the contract is drawn up.   Backwards and forwards paperwork and mail is time wasting and annoying.   It starts the relationship off on the wr...

or sign a new contract… 1.         Confirm your notice period ·          A lot of companies allow 30 days from date of resignation, but many ask for a calendar month 2.        Check your restraints ·          If you are joining a competitor ·          If you are joining a client 3.        Find out when your last payment will be transferred ·          Companies have been burned by paying over on the 25 th , and people not returning, so they may delay payment transfer until the last official working day, or even the first day of the following month.  You may need to make special arrangements regarding debit orders …. Both your current company and your new one deserve to be fairly treated.   Knowledge of ...

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy – Unknown source We all want different things from work: The list is diverse and, if you do some research, there are significant differences in the combinations of goals that people have. And this impacts on the workplace they want. The most significant feedback I have received over the years is: I need to feel safe, but I need to be stretched . While I know lots of people, mainly entrepreneurs, who love to live on the edge, already considering the next high risk project while the current ones are starting to roll out, it seems to me that there is a general resistance to change and risk.   Of course, with high risk comes high reward, although simply staying in the same position can leave you in the right place at the right time, too. So #WhereIWork was a thought process that I had considered for many...

How we love to elaborate…     Both in our personal and business lives.   It is rare to find somebody who simply answers the question. In sales, it is becoming more and more critical to just say yes or no.   If you want to embroider afterwards, by all means, but tell the client you can or you can’t do it, first. That’s what they remember, the yes or the no. Being married to an engineer, I have learnt that if I don’t answer the question, he simply repeats it, until he gets a definitive answer.. As the above is extremely bad for marital relationships, I try to say yes or no first and then give the details. I thought it was just me, but I have been observing my friends and the people I work with, and it is fascinating how few one word answers are immediately available. When you are selling and a client asks you: If the widget turns blue in the dark, say yes if it does,  then  ask if that is a key part ...

If I were 22   May is my birthday month, so a time for celebrations and introspection. In interviews, I often ask our applicants to pretend they are 60, and look back on their careers.   Their dreams range from leaving a legacy to being able to retire by the age of 45. At 22, I had taken my first steps on the career ladder.   I had been promoted from being a PA and Installation Secretary (setting up PoS installations for NCR’s large retailers) to becoming a full time programmer. I had made some extremely poor academic decisions, and realised I had to make some very good career choices.   Software development was a relatively new field when I was in my early 20s, and it became an exciting and fulfilling career. Based on my history what advice would I give myself or a new graduate? It doesn’t matter what you have studied, or what your first job is. Keep looking for your passion, find what makes you happy. If it’s money, and you don’t m...