Underemployed? Meet the overemployed

So the three part-time jobs you are now holding down still don't give you enough income to stay current on your mortgage and your car payment at the same time. You look at your next door neighbor, leaving the house at 5 every weekday morning and coming home at 8 every night, and think, At least she has a steady job.

It may be only a matter of time before she asks you whether she could swap jobs with you.

An item posted to the Workforce Development blog "Work in Progress" caught my attention recently because it calls attention to one of the underreported downsides of the downturn. Not only has the Great Recession created a great reserve army of the unemployed, it has put growing strain on the backs of those still employed.

Were employers distributing work to be done across the staffs they need to do it, there would be even more jobs in Philadelphia and other cities than are already open. Instead, they are piling more of it on the reduced workforces that remain - and those workers are growing increasingly dissatisfied.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 25 percent of the U.S. labor force now works more than 41 hours a week. Workforce Management and the employee assistance firm Workplace Options surveyed 600 of those workers in July, and they found that their workloads are getting heavier and their work weeks longer. More than half - 55 percent - said their workloads had increased since the recession began, and 27 percent said they had doubled. And while some said the increased load had increased their overall well being, the majority said the burden worsened theirs.

According to the blog post, some of the problems the overemployed are experiencing echo those the unemployed struggle with, including substance abuse, marital discord, depression and even homelessness. And even those not experiencing such troubles are far from happy: a study by the Leadership IQ consulting firm states that 69 percent of American workers are now disengaged or underengaged from their work.

About the only folks smiling over these developments are the owners, whose profits have shot through the roof thanks to not hiring more people to do the work. This false economy could come back to bite them, though, as the current workforce burns out.

Maybe a jittery employer should dust off an idea that was bruited around during the 1990s boom: job sharing. A couple - one working, the other not - could agree to split the hours and duties of a position, instantly lifting a great weight off three people. The working spouse gets some of her life back, the nonworking spouse has his dignity repaired, and the employer can avoid a workforce expansion for now.

It's a less than ideal solution, granted. Those profits could be put to better use putting people back to work full time; judging from this survey, it's not like there wouldn't be anything for them to do once hired. But it might spare employers worse problems later on.

Are you overworked and looking to lighten your burden, or underemployed and looking to increase it? Do you know someone who has become overworked? Share your stories in the comments.

By Sandy Smith



Sandy Smith is a veteran freelance writer, editor and public relations professional who lives in Philadelphia. Besides blogging for PhillyJobs.com, he has written for numerous publications and websites, would be happy to do your resume, and is himself actively seeking career opportunities on Beyond.com. Check out his LinkedIn profile and read his other posts on PhillyJobsBlog.com.

5 Rules For Making a Change Today!

I keep a Buddha piggy bank on my desk to have a place to put loose change in, but also to remind me every time I look at it that “change comes from within”. Silly, I know. But, self change is hard. Really, really hard. We all have things in our lives that we would like to change. For some it could be to become more motivated in their job search or careers, for others it can be as simple as making a stressful part of the day easier. No matter what it is that you are trying to change, it always has to come from inside, and it is always part of a process and not something you can do over night.

In a recent article at Psychology Today, listed rules for making a change, and I thought that they would be a good place to start.-

So, here are 5 Rules For Making A Change In Your Life:

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  Change is frightening- Anytime you decide to make a change in your life, no matter how small it is, there is always that voice in your head that tells you not to do it. That it won't work, why things are better the way they are. Letting go of a habit that has been a part of your life for a long time is scary. Don't let the fear get the better of you. Everyone resists change, so try to set a realistic goal and be prepared to work through the fear.
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  Change has to be positive- Unless you are changing something for yourself, it just wont work. Be sure that the change you are making is going to be a positive thing for you. Changing something to make someone else happy isn't a good enough reason, and you won't be able to stick to it. Don't beat yourself up about your lack of progress or not having reached a goal quickly enough. Enjoy the process and enjoy the results. If your goal is to get all the laundry done by a certain day, when you reach the goal, be sure to spend some time enjoying it. This will help your brain associate meeting the target with good feelings and will make it easier as you keep going.
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  Slower is better- You can't change the world in a day, so don't think that you can make a lasting change to your life over night. Change takes time, and setting small goals will keep you motivated and on the right track. Be sure to reward yourself for little accomplishments so that you won't get overwhelmed and give up.
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  Practice is necessary- Practice, practice, practice. Many experts say that it takes 30 days to turn a new routine into a habit. Keep practicing, even when you backslide or forget, just keep trying. Eventually, you won't even have to think about it anymore, the change will have become part of your new habits.
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  Small successes are big- Reward yourself at all points in the journey. Don't fall into the trap of punishing yourself for not achieving enough, because all improvements are big successes. Try breaking down your big goal into lots of smaller ones, so that as you move along the path, there are plenty of places to stop and pat yourself on the back.
  Making a change can be frightening, difficult and hard to maintain, but if you are persistent and keep at it, you will be able to make the new practice a habit.

Are you looking for a job in the Philadelphia area? Take a look at PhillyJobs.com!

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.

You Don't Have to Work for a Jerk

Nobody should have to work for a jerk. At least that is the tagline of a website designed to help people find out if their potential new boss is a creep. EbossWatch.com is a website that was inspired by the National Sex Offenders Registry with the goal of making a database of bosses that have been charged with sexual harassment. The database is searchable, and there is even a place to rate your boss.

According to the site's founder, Asher Adelman, it can be difficult during the interview process to determine a workplace's culture and atmosphere. His site, which was launched in 2007, was designed to help job seekers avoid working in a hostile workplace. The site allows users to anonymously complete an objective survey to rate their boss, allowing new job seekers to better evaluate potential employers.

This could be the start of a new trend in employer accountability. With the high degree of media attention Adleman has received, more and more job hunters are flocking to the site to screen employers and to get a better idea of the workplace they are considering. Although I think that the idea behind the site is wonderful, I can't help but wonder if there is any recourse for bosses that have gotten bad reviews from former employees. With the National Sex Offender Registry, at least the people on the list are people who have been convicted of sex crimes. Anonymously submitted ratings can lend themselves to retaliatory reviews. That being said, I check the reviews on almost every item I purchase, each hotel I stay in and even the books that I chose to read. Shouldn't a new employer be at least as important? My regret over having wasted my time reading a boring book or having purchased a less than spectacular product would certainly be less than having accepted employment at a hostile workplace.

As with anything else, making an informed decision is the key, and using tools like eBossWatch can be a useful way to screen potential employers and help you make a better choice about where you want spend the next part of your career. And at the least, it could be fun to look up some old bosses that were really jerks and find out if others have felt that way as well.

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a freelance writer and regular contributor to several websites and other publications, a volunteer, a full time mom and an active job seeker.

The Laid-Off Life: Being The Change You Wish To See

"Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations." – Edward de Bono

I have a friend (yes, I know, insert-joke-here). Let’s call her 'Betty'. Betty is not like us. Betty has a job. A good job. A good job in a fairly interesting industry where she doesn’t have to weld widgets or scoop up horse poop. She gets a paycheck every two weeks, not enough to make her rich, but she’s doing okay, thankyouverymuch. She has nice benefits and nice coworkers and a nice office. Betty’s job is awesome.

Except she hates it.

"I haven't been happy here for some time," Betty told me. "Aside from organizational issues, I feel that I'm not using all of my skills, have become detached from my industry, and can't [do work] that meets my standards. And mentally, it's bringing me down. I don't want to compromise my work ethic b/c I am so unhappy. I know I should be grateful to even have a job, but what good is a job that doesn't get the job done?"

In a nutshell, there’s the issue. In this most-trying of economic and employment times, we are trained to believe – no, we inherently believe – that the simple fact of having a job when others don’t should make us happy. "It could be worse", we tell ourselves. "At least I have a job. Who am I to complain?" I would imagine that every employed person in America knows at least one, and most likely several, people that are unemployed. Family, friends, until-recently-co-workers. They most likely have been avoiding an axe themselves, and may not even know it. And they probably have been privy to a conversation that goes something like this:

Employed person: "I hate my job."
Unemployed person: "At least you have a job, so stop complaining."

But the simple truth, as the truth often is, is that no, you shouldn’t be just happy having a job, even in the times in which we live, if that job is making you miserable. Now, I’m not condoning walking in to your boss’ office, handing in your resignation letter and telling him off (though that may make you feel a-whole-lot better). You’re going to need things like health insurance and retirement contributions and, you know, money for rent-and-groceries. And telling boss-man "You suck" probably won’t get you okayed for unemployment compensation. So, keep your job, but start looking for a new one. Immediately, if not sooner. Don’t be content, don’t be satisfied, don’t be miserable. There is no rule that says you can’t look for a new job if you already have a current one.

I’m not gonna lie, it won’t be easy. Just look at your friends who are unemployed; the job market sucks, jobs openings are still sparse, and the near future isn’t looking rosy quite yet. And you, currently-employed-person, will have your own special limitations:

Time is the big one. Working a full-time 9-5 job (anyone work those hours anymore? What would they call that movie nowadays?) is a hindrance to full-time job hunting. You work an 8-, 9-, 10-hour day at the office, and then expect to spend another 2-to-3 hours a night searching for a new job. And if you do get an interview, a) good for you!, and b) that’s gonna be some long lunch hour to get to an interview, partake, and get back to the office. How many times are you going to get away with that one? Time management better be top of your 'positive job qualities' list.

Secondly, you best also be a very stealthy, private person because the last person you want to find out that you’re job hunting is your current boss. Good luck explaining that one. I don’t have a lot of tips for that except be really freaking careful. Stay away from blind-box job listings that don’t tell you the name of the company. You’d be amazed how often the job turns out to be at your current company, or worse, turns out to be your job. Leave anyone at your office off your recommendations and references lists. Sounds like a no-brainer, but that’s the easiest way to get found out. Don't search for jobs while you're at work; you never know who's looking over your virtual shoulder. Make sure, if asked, you indicate that it is not ok to contact your current employer. And in your social media – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs – do not (NOT!) mention your job hunt and be careful with whom you discuss it: you never know who’s talking to whom.

And your primary stumbling block may actually be a potential employer. No matter why you’re looking for new work, no matter how horrible your current job is, no matter how dire your straits, a potential new boss may have a preconceived idea about you: you aren’t loyal. If he can leave that company in a lerch, he can do the same thing here. There’s a lot of time and money to be made and spent in hiring a new employee, and they want to know you’re around for the long haul. That’s a first impression you’re just going to have to accept. But this is the real world, and a potential employer will hopefully know that. People get tired, people get unhappy, people get disillusioned, people want more money and better opportunities, and a good boss will understand. Just be wary of the question you will most certainly get asked: “Why do you want to leave your current position?” Be joyous, don't be a jackass. No potential employer wants to hear you bash your current one. Speak well of your company, and your job. Say you just need a change, say you are looking for a better opportunity to move up, say you couldn’t pass up a chance to work at Wayne Enterprises or Mom’s Friendly Robot Company. Tell them you’re a better fit with them, but do not indicate you dislike, much less hate, your current job.

So, back to our friend Betty. Betty has a friend, let’s call her 'Veronica'. Veronica worked with Betty and had the same problems with the company that Betty did. And Veronica got out, got a better job elsewhere and is much happier. Betty and Veronica aren’t whiny and ungrateful. When employees aren’t happy, it’s usually something that permeates an entire office, at least on the rank-and-file level. There is rarely just one miserable employee. When it pervades a significant segment of the proletariat, the blame often falls upon the company, the supervisors, and the big boss. And it is a plague in this country: employers completely out-of-touch with the collective mood of the employees. And if they don’t know, nothing will change.

If I asked Betty and Veronica’s bosses, I would bet drachmas-to-doughnuts that they wouldn’t have a clue that their people were disgruntled. So why the disconnect? Happy workers produce more and this reflects well on their manager; unhappy workers make for low productivity and this reflects badly on the manager. This would lead you to believe managers want happy employees, right? You’d think it would be easy to tell if an employee was happy. So managers, tell me this... Do your charges look happy? Are they smiling? Are they happily absorbed in their work, sitting up straight, or are they hanging all over their desks? When they speak in meetings, are they animated or indolent? Do they welcome a challenge or shy away? Are workers unwilling to undertake new or difficult tasks? When telling them about things that are going on in the company, are they interested? Does everyone stop talking when you enter the room? Perhaps you are the problem.

Raises, bonuses, vacation days, 401(k)’s, and other incentive programs have been slashed, and employees with additional workloads for no increase in pay are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with their current position, or just plain burnt out. And a manager may be so engulfed in crunching numbers or writing TPS reports or trying to keep their own job, they may not have a clue about the overwhelming gloom. Bad management can make a good employee dysfunctional. So why then don’t they see it? I would venture to say that it’s a combination of a boss whose eyes are closed to the problem and employees afraid to speak up about it in fear of losing their job.

So, maybe you are like Betty and Veronica. You’re underpaid and/or overworked. You’re no longer using your skills to the best of your ability. Your boss is an unreasonable taskmaster, or worse, absent. Your company discourages change and is happy with 'how we've always done it'. Co-workers are promoted over you. Office politics are making you not want to get out of bed in the morning. Your job is ill-defined. Your industry is passing you by. You just don’t fit anymore. You’ve outgrown your position. Promises are not being kept. You live in fear of your boss. You go home every night and cry into your pillow, complain to your cat how much you hate your job, and consider every day just not showing up for work.

My advice to Betty, and to you: If your job is making you miserable, don’t stay. Don’t worry about parochial guilt about being happy with what you have because others have it worse. Don’t be satisfied with the less-green grass. Nearly 20 percent of the U.S. workforce is underemployed; stop being a statistic. Start looking for that new, better position rightnow. Because if you don’t search, you will not find. And you will have made your bed, slept in it, and made it again. Every day. Workplace suicides are up nearly 30 percent since the downturn began. Workplace depression is an epidemic in this country today, and it’s a disease you can cure yourself. The cure? Get out. Get down off the horse and join us here in the poop. We’re here to help. Start slow, start smart, but for chrissakes start.

And the last thing you ever want to tell yourself is, "Wow, why didn’t I do this sooner?"

Michael Hochman
LaidOffLife@yahoo.com ◙ Laid-Off Life on Twitter ◙ Laid-Off Life on Facebook

Michael is a Copywriter, Creative Marketer, and Broadcasting Professional still in search of full-time employment after 12 months of full-time job hunting, thanks to an "involuntary career sabbatical". A Philly native and Syracuse graduate, Michael will gladly accept any job offer you may have for him. Any. Really. Please give me a job??

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"Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called everybody, and they meet at the bar." - Drew Carey