Tag Archives: jobs

Dear America

Posted on January 3, 2014 by JW Najarian | 1 comment

Please forgive that this story is a bit late for the holidays, but it is still worth reposting.

A very moving story. Although I believe this story is well written fiction, it is still a great reminder of the struggles our servicemen and women go through while serving this country.

Bless and Remember our troops this year and let’s not forget to recognize all our US Veterans also.

US Veteran Group on Linkedin

If you are a United States Veteran of the Army, Navy, Marine, Air Force, National Guard and Coast Guard.

If you are a Reservist, Honorably Discharged, Retired or just looking to help the veteran cause and you are a member of Linkedin, than this Group is for you.

We do except family members of vets, recruiters and veteran resource groups like wounded warriors and other organization.

Come Join us Find Friends, Network with others to share information and resources. There is a job section for veterans looking for work and we also have a special group just for veteran job seekers and any organization, corporation, individual or business looking to hire vets. That group is US Veteran Jobs at www.linkedin.com/groups/US-Veteran-Jobs-3860175

Active Duty Also Welcome -Thank you for your service.

To Visit or Join US Veteran on Linkedin go to www.linkedin.com/groups/US-Veteran-87020

1 Comment

Posted in ReBlog, US Veteran

Tagged active duty, army, Coast Guard, family, hire, holidays, jobs, marines, navy, reserves, troops, us veterans, war

TWO-WEEK NOTICE EXIT STRATEGIES ARE OBSOLETE

Posted on January 1, 2014 by James Carlini | 7 comments

By James Carlini

When it comes to leaving companies, employees should re-think their exit strategy. As I have said in previous articles, two-week notices went out with nickel beers. Unless you have mutually signed an agreement which specifies that either party must give the other one sufficient notice (30-days, 90-days) before terminating their association, giving notice is an option – not a mandatory requirement.

Recently, I had the opportunity to observe this first-hand. Instead of a two-week notice, the executive assembled a Summary of Tasks and turned that in with a letter of resignation.

NO RECOGNITION THEN, NO RECOGNITION NOW

Some people think that if they give a two-week notice, it will reflect greatly on them after they leave. The reality is – it doesn’t. When you give two-weeks notice, your employer could say, “Fine, this is your last day.”

You don’t get any “credit” for the two weeks you offered up as a notice. Some people think that if they offer a two-week notice, this locks in two-weeks pay, regardless if the company gets rid of you that day or not. It doesn’t.

Some Human Resource (HR) professionals will tell you “don’t burn your bridges”. They are only covering the company so that the transition is less abrupt, they are not concerned about your career.

Do you really think that if you were not recognized for the work you did for the organization for the last three, five, ten years (pick a length), that you will be given some platinum recommendation after you leave?

If you were recognized for the work you did, chances are, you would not be leaving. If an employer did not recognize you when you were there working diligently, do you really think you are going to get a glowing reference of recognition when you are gone for a year. Or, ten years? Wake up.

In a very recent departure of an executive from a large organization, the intention was that the executive was going to give some notice, but some issues changed and she gave a one-day notice instead.

Her performance appraisal was very high, yet when it came time for the annual bonus, the amount was severely decimated. This was over a year ago.

She went through proper procedures and talked to her boss about it. He never answered her question and did not really do anything in the next bonus cycle to rectify the shorting of the amount.

Anyone who is expecting a bonus and gets a significantly lesser amount should at least get an explanation of why it was cut back.
In this case, that never happened. So the question of giving notice was tied back to meeting with the boss about the loss of compensation.

Not taking action on this type of employee issue is a clear sign of lack of leadership. I challenge any HR “professional”, before commenting about the “inappropriate action of the employee of not giving two-week notice”, to be as quick and as judgmental about the lack of leadership in the manager who did not follow up with any type of action or even an explanation of the cut in bonus for fourteen months.

In my perspective, the company did not earn any “special” consideration like a two-week notice, when it failed to address a reason for a reduced cialis bonus, let alone rectify a bad bonus situation.

BESIDES A LETTER OF RESIGNATION

Most Human Resource professionals will tell you to write a short Letter of Resignation in order to formalize your departure. That’s old news.

What you should also be turning in, is a Summary of Tasks for Transition or a list of responsibilities that you have which have to be taken over.

In order to have a smooth and orderly departure, you should give your supervisor a list of the job responsibilities that you have in order to make sure someone picks up all the tasks.

In essence, the Summary of Tasks for Transition should be a summary of all the responsibilities that you have on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis for someone to assume responsibility for after you leave.

It could be a list of things ranging from daily review of orders coming in to developing and summarizing the weekly sales report to coordinating the monthly regional report. Anything that you do, review, compile, design or assemble, should be in this Summary of Tasks. This gives your boss, as well as anyone else, a clear road-map to assume your responsibilities. You should meet with your boss to discuss the Summary of Tasks and any supporting information that goes along with each line item. That’s wrapping up your tenure there professionally.

If you are the boss of the person leaving, you should be asking for this Summary of Tasks for Transition document because the job description that you have for that person is probably out-of-date and does not reflect the full scope of responsibilities that they have. Chances are, you don’t know all the tasks that the person is performing and you’re better off getting a list of responsibilities from them, than trying to think you know what they are doing on an everyday basis.

The document should be complete and reviewed by the supervisor and the person leaving before they depart. Then, the supervisor needs to assign those tasks to those who are remaining.

Sounds simple, yet most companies are more worried about two-week notices. One-day notices are becoming more common as people do not feel they should be giving two-week notices to companies that are not giving two-week (or more) notices to people when they have a force reduction, layoff or any other “euphemism” for cutting back on the organization’s headcount.

Those HR professionals who warn not to leave without “proper” notice because you are leaving your co-workers in a lurch have no insight on real world office culture. Chances are, if you are leaving because the organization is bad, your co-workers probably have one foot out the door as well. They might be mad that you beat them to the punch as to getting out of the bad situation.

Usually, they are more concerned if you can find them a new job in the company that you are going to.

CARLINI-ISM: When it comes to leaving a company, you’re mind is made up and you should leave quickly in good graces by writing a short and concise Letter of Resignation and attaching a Summary of Tasks for Transition so that your job responsibilities can be easily picked up and re-assigned.

7 Comments

Posted in Business, Employment

Tagged James Carlini, jobs, leaving a job, letter of resignation, quitting, two week notice

TWO WEEK NOTICES WENT OUT WITH NICKEL BEERS

Posted on May 27, 2013 by James Carlini | 1 comment

By James Carlini

Do you still use a rotary telephone (do you even know what that is?)? Can you buy gas at 20 cents a gallon where you live? Times have changed, companies have changed, and giving a two-week notice went out with nickel beers. Continue reading →

1 Comment

Posted in Business, Commercial, Education, Employment, Government

Tagged AFL-CIO, benefits, boss, bridge, career, ceo, company policy, courtesy, customary, director, downsizing, employee, employer, ERISA, executive, force reduction, giving notice, government, hiring, HR, human resources, I quit, James Carlini, job, job loss, jobs, layoff, layoffs, leave, leaving a job, loyalty, manager, money, notice, organization, pay, pension fund, pensions, personnel, personnel administration, professionalism, quit your job, quitting, quitting a job, reform, rightsizing, severance, severance pay, stigma, termination of services, two week notice, worker, workforce, workplace

COLLEGE DEGREE and COLLEGE DEBT? NO GUARANTEE FOR A GOOD JOB

Posted on April 12, 2013 by James Carlini | 4 comments

By James Carlini

Did you know that the amount owed on college student loans is over $1 Trillion and two thirds of the graduating seniors (in 2011) owe a little over $26,000 when they walk out trying to find a job? (Source: http://projectonstudentdebt.org/ )

The amount owed for student loans is more than what is owed on the total amount of credit card debt. The big difference is that you cannot Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in Business, Education, Employment, Marketing, Personal Development, Self Development, Social Media, Temporary

Tagged BLS, Capital Grille, Coast Guard, college, degree, economy, employment, franchise, GI Bill, James Carlini, jobs, military, Milllenials, navy, recession, tuition, underemployment, unemployment, unemployment statisitcs, veteran, young workers

I ♥ Vets Tee Shirts Helps Vets

Posted on July 31, 2012 by JW Najarian | Leave a comment

Blake Leitch Wounded Combat Vet Makes I ♥ Vets Tee Shirts to Help Put Unemployed Vets Back to Work.

Blake Leitch is a combat veteran. In 2005, Blake was deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. During my deployment he was wounded in action when an IED hit his Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

Since coming home and recuperating from the wounds he sustained he has realized that there is no greater need than to invest in our Veteran families’ education. Blake linked up with Mark Slaby, the Founder of Illinois Patriot Education at The Medinah Patriot Day. That day he realized that there is not only a huge gap in our nations heroes VA benefits, but there is also many great Americans that want to help the vets succeed.

Blake Leitch of I ♥ Vets Interview

I met Blake through a wonderful friend and I was so inspired by his story and what he is doing to help other vets that I had to meet him.

Blake is one of the nicest guys you ever want to meet and he is working hard to build a business that helps his family, his community and other combat wounded vets.

Blake started the I Heart Vets Tee Shirt Company to help combat wounded vets in his town, find jobs and get help and he has been fairly successful at it.

I love his Tee Shirt so much I have asked Blake to make a special one for my US Veterans Group on LinkedIn. That group now has over 23,000 members. Not all of them need help, but many need resources and jobs and we are always looking at ways to help.

Blake has made us his I ♥ Vets Shirt with our US Veterans Logo on the back, but you can have Blake make your organization a shirt or just buy a plain I Heart Vets Tee Shirt by going to his site and choosing from what he has in stock.

If you want the US Veteran Special Edition Tee Shirt, which costs the same as his regular shirts, you can go to www.bit.ly/usvet. 20% of the proceeds will go to the Wounded Warrior Program.

Blake is a great guy and his company is doing wonderful work so please support his efforts. Thank you Blake for all you do. – JW

I Heart / Love Vets

Blake Leitch, wounded combat vet first started making I Heart Vets Tee Shirts to support the efforts of The Illinois Patriot Education Fund (IPEF) and he still heavily supports that cause.

Blake’s Tee Shirts have now taken off and he offers his Tee Shirts that support his causes and his family and also can offer your organization his services to easily use I Heart Vets merchandise for your student group, Student Veteran of America Chapter, VFW, American Legion, or any other group. Start fundraising.

This book has one primary purpose: To Get Veterans Jobs! With the help of veterans from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines this book was written by a current Professional Fortune 50 Lead Recruiter with nearly 15 years of experience.

Because the author recruits as his profession in this challenging job market every day, he knows what works and what doesn’t.

This is a no-nonsense guide to help vets get hired, even in this difficult job market –even if nothing else has worked.

A substantial portion of the proceeds from book sales are donated back to charity to help veterans at HonorVet.org and to help the stray and abandoned animals at Logan’s Run Rescue.

Blake Leitch

Reposted From Off The Shelf & Online
Eastern Illinois University Journalism Dept.

Among so many things, Blake Leitch is a father, student, and husband. But like many other veterans and their families, Blake suffers from the aftermath of war.

Blake graduated from Mattoon High School in 2000. He was an active participate in the National Guard his junior and senior year. Right after high school, Blake entered basic training for the military. He said

“During that time I came to the realization that I liked doing the Army full-time,” Blake said.

Blake signed up for active duty not knowing the future ahead of him. “The day I reported for active duty was actually September 11th, 2001,” he said.

A few months later, Blake found himself in the midst of the war: Iraq. During that time Blake’s vehicle was hit by an IED bomb over 20 times. From that incident alone, Blake now suffers from severe back and traumatic brain injuries.

“I lost count after about 24 roadside bombs that my convoy vehicle was hit with and the last one is when I took strap mill to my face,” Blake said.

Blake said it wasn’t just one of the bombs that caused his injuries, but a combination of all the explosions he was in.

Years later and a safe return home, Blake is still fighting a battle with the skeletons of his past. Along with back injuries and traumatic brain injuries, Blake was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and suffers from ringing in the ears.

Many soldiers face similar struggles like Blake after returning from war. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a severe anxiety disorder that that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. Kim Dowland, a nurse practitioner at Eastern Illinois University Health Services, said PTSD is not an uncommon mental disbility for military veterans. Click here to watch Kim’s interview about PTSD.

Blake still visits the doctor on a regular basis because of his back injuries. Due to the PTSD and traumatic brain injuries he also has difficulties sleeping.

“Every night I’m taking a sleeping pill to help me go through that,” Blake said. “I’ve had a hard time finding a medicine that wouldn’t put me in such a deep sleep that I’d have nightmares.”

Blake said it’s also really hard for him to stay focused for long periods of time due to the PTSD and traumatic brain injuries.

“My brain is just so messed up from what happened over there that it’s just taking a long time to really re-program that,” Blake said.

Blake’s wife of over 7 years, Jackie Leitch, and their son 22-month-old son, Spencer, have helped Blake get through difficult times.

Jackie said though Blake being deployed wasn’t easy, it has actually made their relationship stronger knowing that they have overcome such difficult hurdles.

“We look back at that year that Blake was deployed and we know that we wouldn’t want to do it over again, but we also know there were great things that came out of that for us,” she said.

Jackie said seeing the struggles he still is dealing with a couple years later is still tough. Though she will never truly know what Blake is going through, she said she offers him a listening ear, encouragement, and support. To hear more of what Jackie has to say about her husband, Click right here.

“Honestly, I think its made us stronger,” Blake said. “It makes us communicate better.”

Blake said knowing that he has his family there for him helps him get through everyday. “It gives me more to live for,” he said. Click here to view a slideshow of Blake and his family.

Other than his family, Blake’s spiritual beliefs have also gotten him through post-war difficulties. Blake and his wife Jackie are strong believers in their faith.

“I really believe if it wasn’t for my devotion and my relationship with Jesus I really wouldn’t be alive,” Blake said.

Click here to see a photo essay of how Blake deals with his everyday struggles.

I Heart Vets:

The I Heart Vets Website
The I Heart Vest Special Edition US Veteran on Linkedin Tee
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

US Veteran on LinkedIn

The US Veteran Group on Linkedin was started to assist US Veterans of all services and of any age to connect. As it has expanded to over 23,000 members and growing, it now also looks to help find resources for the veterans who need them.

We also allow family members and resources such as job recruiters and vet help programs for drug abuse and suicide etc.. also join.

If you are a vet looking for work you can also join our US Veteran – Jobs Group