..., most of the time.

Comfort. Some things in life are more comfortable than others. It can be a bit disconcerting to receive a phone call from a client who expected more from your relationship or be summoned to your superior’s office to hear the dreaded words, “I don’t like anything you have suggested.” Or how about that time when you submitted your resignation and your supervisor looked at you as if to say, “How can you leave me on this sinking ship?”  Been there, regrettably, done that.  We all have to face uncomfortable situations in our work lives.

Human Resource Professionals and Recruiters tend to meet those moments more often than other professionals. The Sign-Off: telling a candidate they aren’t getting invited to the show. The Collection: having to call a client, former or otherwise, to ask for the final installment for a placement you made two, three, or four months ago. The Lost Friend: when a hiring manager comes to you with a confidential recruitment that will replace a friend of yours within the company, and you have to keep it confidential. The HR Function: having to address hirings, firings, lay-offs, complaints, sexual harassment issues, evaluation time, changes in policy, promotions, non-promotions, and demotions.

Understand that Life in HR is not always easy. As a matter of fact, it often is not. And finding your comfort level, as an HR Professional, Corporate Recruiter or Third-Party Recruiter can be a challenge. Some of us are cut out to make cold calls, some of us are not. Some are cut out to stand in an Exhibitor’s Booth all day, some are not. Some of us are cut out to attend conferences and sit in session upon session for two days straight, some are not. Some of us are cut out to tweet about anything and everything, some are not. Some of us are cut out to bring the right placement to the table, in a timely manner – some are not.

The zone to be in is the one that feels right, the one that runs smoothly and efficiently. However, should that zone become too stagnant or too easy, we risk the opportunity for development and growth, for learning new skills, or challenging our own understandings of the job, any job. Finding the right combination of further excelling at what we are already good and getting better at what is necessary but uncomfortable is a formidable task. Formidable, but not impossible.

Cats are good at running away from discomfort. They dart through halls or along fences and under cars, in an effort to dodge everything and anything that isn’t for their own benefit. Dogs will endure an incredible amount of discomfort to simply to please their owners, to get a pat on the head or a treat. Somewhere in between lies another animal, the HR Professional or Recruiter. Knowing that sometimes discomfort comes with the gig, but also a great deal of satisfaction is part of their makeup.

 Gloria Steinem said, “The only thing I can’t stand is discomfort.”

Somehow, I think avoidance and complacency trump discomfort.

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four, happily engaged to Tom, residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a daily contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.  

Shocked, Happy Face

Yesterday, I wrote a post about finding happiness in your work or – or - leaving your work at work and not letting it define the whole of your life.  It was an innocent post about learning to love the tedious parts of your job or the parts you hate and not letting them infect the rest of your life.

A reader was incensed by my post and sent a personal message to me stating, “What if you nearly got trampled by horses when you were a child.  Nothing in the world would have the ability to make you learn to love working with horses.”  It is my hope that if anyone were so injured that they wouldn’t even consider working with horses, let alone be forced to love it.  Kind of an inane response when you think about it.  Sorry, Reader.  You completely missed the point.

I will give you a real-life example of my point.  There has been an aspect to my job that I have not wanted to do.  Mostly because it is tedious and time-consuming and I perceived there to be very little value in it.  I chose to hate this particular duty, because I had preconceived notions about it.  Yesterday, I finished this particular project and it went off – almost without a hitch.  It felt so great to get it done – fantastic even.  And so much so, that I have already prepared my schedule for the remainder of the year to include eleven more such projects.  The project?  Something as seemingly simple as a newsletter.  A newsletter.  But it was a part of my job that I have learned to love – THAT is why I wrote my post yesterday.

So, just like I have said as a director to my actors in the past, I did – I learned to love it and the “how” out-shined the who and the where.  The how was by sheer will, determination, and a superior who said, “Do it.”  Sounds like some pretty good impetus to me.  AND it felt pretty great when I looked at that superior and said, “Done.”

So, Dear Reader, I am sorry you misunderstood my meaning and and I am sorry you were angry, but mostly I am sorry that you obviously hate your job – at McDonald’s or wherever it is you flip burgers.  But I am not sorry that I overcame my own roadblock and did a task I thought I hated. More power to me.  I was simply trying to share the power.  Stupid me.

The truth is, I have worked plenty of menial jobs in my life.  I started working when I was twelve – I took in ironing.  When I was fourteen, I cleaned houses for $3 an hour.  At sixteen, I cleaned patterns for a lady who did lettering on bowling shirts and sold cheap teeny-bopper clothes  at the local mall.  I am no stranger to loathsome work.  But guess what?  I didn’t stay in those jobs, I found work I loved.  And I made a good life for myself.  Something we are lucky enough to have the freedom to do.

But, and this is a sad however, if you happen to have a job that you must keep, either to support yourself or your family?  A job you despise?  I hope and send very strong wishes that you are able to find some way to endure the pain of such a thing.  That you are able to learn to love it.

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four, happily engaged to Tom, residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a daily contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.  

learn to love it...

Are you happy? Do you have the time or impetus to find happiness in your life? Sometimes we get so caught up in just getting by from day to day that we lose the big picture. The big picture of being content, of feeling settled, of finding our place – the place that feeds into the rest of your life, outside your work, your career. We get so caught up in our careers defining who we are that when faced with a downturn or stumbling block, irritation or worse, depression can easily set in.

When someone asks if you like your job, how do you reply? Are you eager to speak of what fills your days or do you dread responding?  Work life easily spills over into rest of life. We take hits to our work very personally. Being with family members or friends in the evening or on the weekend can be tainted if a deal goes sour or money at the office is tight or work is slow. We tend to take it home with us. Even my dogs suffer from my bad days.

I sometimes work in independent or community theater as a director and/or actor, and I even used to manage publicity/marketing for small or non-profit theaters. When I have the opportunity to direct a show, I love sharing all kinds of knowledge and tips with the cast that I am leading. Invariably, one or two actors during the course of pre-production will have to utter a line they hate.  They simply despise the words they are saying and it shows – it bleeds out of their performance.  They cannot seem to get the right emphasis or understand the driving motivation behind the words they are struggling to memorize. I have a standard answer for each of my actors who face this difficulty. “You hate it? Learn to love it.”

The same can be said for certain tasks that are less than enjoyable to you or the different duties that are part of your job description. You don’t like doing business development? Is it a necessary function of your job? Will your company/firm be successful without it? Learn to love it. You don’t like making follow-up calls? Are they necessary to fill a position or complete a task? Learn to love it. You don’t like conducting professional reference interviews? Does the hiring manager require it? Learn to love it. 

We are faced daily with difficulties and difficult people.
The when and what are inevitable.
The how is what matters.

I am usually received with a quizzical look if they have not worked with me before. “You have to love the line, if your delivery is to work.”  You see, the problem is…, if you don’t learn to love it, it will never be right, it will never be comfortable, and it will never make sense.  Learn to love it.

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a daily contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.  

a little insight into why I won't stop blogging

Social Media has pretty much been dissected, why it matters, why Twitter will change the face of business, why all of it is important.  Or, at least, why someone thinks it’s important.  There are many who write on a regular basis – who produce original content consistently, who create thoughtful and meaningful responses to emotionally – or politically – charged blogs or discussions. There are also those who prefer to simply peruse the pages of their favorite social network, searching for answers or shared experiences. Lurkers represent the listeners, the audience, the foot soldiers in the trenches. The readers.

The opportunity to step out of the trenches every now and again is here, right in front of you. You can “write a post” or “start a discussion” or simply post a status update on the network of your choice and there you have it.  An instant platform, an opportunity to put thoughts to page, to raise awareness, to share know-how, to stir the pot or spoil the stew – whatever the case may be. Some write “because it’s there.” Others write because they have to - to increase their vocabulary and develop their brains or simply to spew some venom. To liberate their thoughts. I write because I can’t help it, I have to…
“Blogging is free, it doesn’t matter if anyone reads it. What matters is the humility that comes from writing it. What matters is the meta-cognition that comes from thinking about what you’re gonna say… If you’re good at it, some people are gonna read it. If you’re not good at it and you stick with it, you’ll get good at it. This has become such a micropublishing platform that, basically, you’re doing it for yourself, to force yourself to become part of the conversation, even if it’s just that big. And that posture change changes an enormous amount.” So says Seth Godin at a recentAmex Open Session.

Blogging is free but does that lower the perceived value?
Because anyone and everyone can do it, express themselves in numerous forums through the written word, should they?
Should we?

Bloggers have been blamed for putting reporters and columnists out of work, for twisting the truth, for gaining knowledge using unethical or easy means, for not checking their facts, for not having a formal education or experience… Oh, because the news media, in its previous form, was never charged with those accusations, right? Seth Godin was a columnist for printed media, yet he doesn’t appear to be out of work. Why is that? Is it because he changed as technology did? Because he embraced the new and saw the direction media was going? He put down his pen and now fervently moves a cursor.

Tom Peters, co-author of In Search of Excellence , finished Seth Godin’s preceding statement with, “My first post (blog)was in August of 2004. I will simply say, no single thing, in the last fifteen years professionally, has been more important in my life than blogging. It has changed my life. It has changed my perspective. It has changed my intellectual outlook. It has changed my emotional outlook and it’s the best damn marketing tool by an order of magnitude that I’ve ever had.”

Godin responds, “And it’s free.”

I have to agree.  As I cruise through my seventh year as a blogger (I used to blog regularly on MySpace), I feel the same way – no other practice has been more important to my career, to my life.  And yes, it is a practice.  And I practice daily.

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a daily contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.  

Have you heard about your dash?  As in, How’s your dash going?  In this instance, your dash represents the mark on your tombstone that separates your date of birth from your date of death. In other words, it represents your life, the part during your existence in which you lived on earth.

And while it’s weird to consider, I have always found the “dash” reference to be a bit monotone and sedentary. It just doesn’t suggest life to me or all the events: crazy, sullen, happy, or sad, that occur during one’s lifetime. And as humans, we sometimes, tend to concentrate on someone else’s dash more than our own.  The whole splinter in your neighbor’s eye, mote in your own eye thing.

For me, when I hear “how’s your dash?” I think of a different dash…, I think of the white dashes or lane lines in the road that speed past me as I am driving or racing from one destination to another – usually just trying to get home. They can be counted; they can be measured.  They delineate me from others. They keep me in my lane and guide me down the road.  Sometimes, that road gets twisted, curved, narrow or steep but those dashes hopefully keep me in place, and yet they are always moving – not like the dash on a tombstone.

Your dash should not be inactive. Or even desk-bound, with your face buried in a computer and your hand fervently moving a mouse – like mine is right now, as I write and edit this post. Anyone remember the opening scene of Joe Vs. the Volcano? It depicts gray people in a gray world walking to their offices with no windows and horrible lighting trapped in a work life from hell.  Until Joe finds out he is dying and then?  THEN he decides to live.  He takes control of his dash.

So put your virtual handshake away every once in a while, leave your desk, office, or house, meet a client or friend at a Starbucks, take your shoes off and walk in the grass, listen to something other than your tweetdeck pinging, take in a breath of fresh air and exhale slowly. The dashes don’t have to pass so quickly – only if you let them.

Don’t be just another white dash…

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.  

Just Do It!

“To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.” ~Henry David Thoreau

When you wake in the morning, do you look forward to your day? Do you stretch your arms above your head with the desire to wake and start your day or do you slunk back down under the covers, trying to catch more zzz’s or practice avoidance a bit longer? Morning has the ability to smack you in the head with reality.

Reality awaits those ready to face it and will wait even more patiently for those wishing to evade it a bit longer. Each day represents another chance to do it right, to get it done, to figure it out, to fix it, to share it, to learn it, or simply be. Be who you are. Reasons to avoid are many but avoidance usually occurs when a situation is uncomfortable or a situation is unknown. It can also be a coping mechanism.

A very close cousin to avoidance is procrastination. The reasons to practice either one are similar. Putting off today what you can avoid further tomorrow – more procrastination.  A sound device if you don’t want to get things done or ever feel a “sense of accomplishment”.  What is the best trick to conquer these kissing cousins? Determination and an extreme desire to succeed.

A drive to accomplish. Sometimes, you just have to put on your stompin’ boots and face that widow-maker hill with a strength that comes from within; digging deep to a place you didn’t even know existed. You cannot expect to get more done or change even a bit, by simply doing what you have always done.

“Things do not change; we change.” ~Henry David Thoreau

The new light of day shines on where we lack. On where we need to change or improve. No slunking allowed. Throw the covers back, face it. Yes, whatever you choose to avoid can be faced tomorrow but what else will be there, as well? Determination. Resolution. Tenacity. Don’t those sound better than then avoidance, procrastination, or aversion?

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.”  ~Henry David Thoreau

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.