Yea, it’s been a week.  A trying week.  I’m struggling with work-life-life-work balance.  Actually, “struggling” isn’t the right word.  Balance isn’t the right word.  Blend isn’t the right word either.  I sometimes just want to quit a job I never applied for, and on most days, don’t think I am qualified for.  But who else will take the responsibilities?

And there-in lies the rub…

Driving You to Drink

According to a new Careerbuilder.com survey, lawyers, accountants, or others in financial services are the most likely to go out after work to drink with their co-workers.  Interestingly, this matches the results of my company’s 2008-9 Workforce Engagement Benchmark, our third national study in the last five years.  According to the results from nearly 2,350 employees, workers in Financial Services are the least engaged of any industry group, with the same number of employees pushing against their company as pulling for it (37% Fully Engaged, 35% Unengaged).

And you thought lawyers and accountants drove you to drink…

Finding People Where They Can

We’re in desperate need of skilled workers, particularly engineers and tradesmen. Companies in the metal and chemical  industries are all competing for the top engineers. A National Confederation of Industry study indicates seven in ten of firms said the shortage of qualified workers has caused significant inefficiency. Companies are ramping up their education programs and offering basic literacy courses, as well as more advanced math, science, and composition courses. Some also are expanding their on-the-job training for engineers and professionals.

By the way… “we” live in Brazil.  If you have skills and talent, Go to Rio, de Janeiro…

Retention - Not For Baby Boomers Anymore

Us “late bloomers” or “early boomers”, born between 1957 and 1964, have worked for lots ‘o employers. By the time we reach 40, we have held nearly 11 jobs.  According to the government, men without high school degrees held the most jobs from ages 18 to 42, at 12.5. College-educated women came in second with 11.0 jobs.

I love being average.

And What is on Marc’s Agenda?

• We just sent in our final edits for our upcoming book, Employee Engagement Fundamentals, a Guide for Managers and Supervisors.  It will be out in a month, prior to my speech at the Indiana State SHRM Conference in late August.
• My article “Honor the Stars” hit the newsstand this week in Human Resource Executive
• I just booked four more seminars, two for the Utah State SHRM conference in mid-September, one 3 hour seminar for the Western Colorado HRA two days later, and a 3 hour “client gig” in October
• Another book concentrating on Rewards & Recognition will be finished in the next two weeks, for publication later this year
• We’ve just accepted an invitation to conduct a webinar in late September

Whew.  I’m tired just writing that.  Time to take a nap…