What an amazing year! I can bore you with details on our ridiculous traffic growth or how Jobacle continues to establish itself as a major career advice and employment news destination.  Instead, I rather thank each and every one of our loyal readers and listeners from the bottom of my heart.  

Jobacle was partially created because of a void I felt existed with career Websites.  The advice they dish is generic, many of their writers have no clue what it's like to live in the trenches and they all have an agenda to sell, sell, sell!

At the rapid rate we've grown, you have proven that I am not the only one who thinks this way.  You're tired too. We might not be able to eradicate the world of people still willing to click on "How to Network at the Holiday Party" or "Bullet Points and Your Resume," but we sure can try!

We have huge plans for 2008.  We hope you'll join us for the ride by subscribing to the blog and the podcast.

Now let's take a look back at some Jobacle '07 highlights:

Most Popular Posts

21 Worst Fictional Bosses - If you think your boss sucks, imagine working for one of these fake bad asses.

Employee Goodbye Letters Gone Wild - Don't ruin your reputation during the final seconds of employment.

Bored at Work? Play Office Bingo - Play the game that proves how predictable your job is.

Sick Day Calendar 2007 - Plan your excuses in advance and seize the day.

How to Kill Cubicle Gnats - Glad to see it's not just my office that's infested.

An Open Letter From Your Keyboard - I love when my office supplies start talking to me.

Biggest Surprises

Secret Apartment at FOX News - The last time I'll ever work next to a toilet again!

Worst Resume Template Ever - People sure got hot under the collar about the Resume Hunter.

Best Posts You Didn't Read

12 Steps to a Productive Driving Commute - Maximize your driving commute.

Your Career Is Like a Bonsai Tree - Plant the seeds for a successful career.

How to Plan a Career EXIT Strategy - Sometimes knowing how to escape is the hardest part.

Personal Favorites

How to Be a Buddhist at Work - Borrow these simple principles to make your job better.

How to Beat the Sunday Night Blues - Don't cast a shadow on the remainder of your weekend.

7 Dangers of Joining a Work Clique - Easier said then done, especially when you're already "in."

How to Squash Office Anger - Cause people will get you mad.  Very mad.

Is Your Office Drowning in Bottled Water? - Victor Kipling calls out the trend that's flooding workplaces everywhere.

Biggest Failure

Bloggers: Take the Minimum Wage Challenge - Not thought out and poorly executed.

All in all an absolutely amazing year for Jobacle and the Working Podcast.  We're beyond excited for 2008.  Have a fun, happy and safe new year.  See you then!

This is a guest blog post by job hunter Sally Lawton. 

Company: OneDayOneJob.com
Slogan: One Day, One Job
Pros: Profiles of small, lesser-known companies; thoughtful content
Cons: Limited content

The title of One Day, One Job says it all. Each day, users are treated to a company profile. The companies that One Day, One Job chooses to cover are intentionally not always the most well known. Its creator, Willy Franzen, intends the site to introduce users to companies, and possibly careers, they might not have before considered. Given that their primary audience is college students just thinking about their first real job, this is an excellent choice. Even for those of us only a few years into our careers, One Day, One Job is an excellent opportunity to explore our options.

While the very premise of One Day, One Job prevents a truly extensive list of companies, what they cover, they cover well. There are no dry talking points here; rather, the reviews read somewhat like those found here on Jobacle. They consider the finer points of the company’s website, such as whether it provides any useful information at all, and suggest links for learning more.

In addition to their thoughtful company profiles, One Day, One Job offers a few brief articles, which can also be found on their blog, that give tips on using Google to find a job, managing your online brand, and nine magazine lists that will help you find a job. The site also has recommendations on three books to read: The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich; My Start-up Life: What a (Very) Young CEO Learned on His Journey Through Silicon Valley; and The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Only The 4-Hour Workweek was familiar to me, and the choice of title indicates that One Day, One Job is just as interested in promoting job satisfaction as it is in helping college students explore careers.

While One Day, One Job does not offer a job search engine, they do link to Indeed.com, and business networking site LinkedIn.com. A brief stop at Indeed reveals that it is a lot like Google, and it could be handy because it can search multiple job search sites at once. Users who don’t know handy search terms might have a hard time refining their search, but Indeed certainly remains job seekers best chance to find job postings in their field of interest.

LinkedIn is equally interesting, living up to a lot of the hype. I managed to find a few former classmates and make some genuinely good networking connections. They are both definitely worth checking out.

The main drawback of One Day, One Job is its limited content. However, the focused nature of the content might just compensate. If the site’s creators continue to carefully choose the companies they profile and the advice they dole out, then One Day, One Job could become a daily stop for those just starting out. I know that I intend to return.

 

He got his start laying pipe for the Atlas Water and Sewer company.  Eventually, he climbed the ranks, becoming responsible for a staff of 800 and annual revenue exceeding $120 million. His name is Victor Kipling. This is his weekly column. 

The end of the year is usually marked by much pseudo soul searching,  attempts  at tallying  accomplishments and failures, and a sort of assessment of benefits and deficits.  We are indeed plagued by a level of societal-induced self doubt that causes us to try and tabulate exactly who we really are, based upon a calendars' annual arbitrariness. In this respect, the Cubicle Continuum, and your humble writer, as part of the great Jobacle team, is no different, and suffers from the same malady.

For the past few months, it's been my privilege to provide you with a weekly column that speaks to the relevant world of work issues that we're all subjected to, and must confront, each and every day. Whether we're discussing the advent of the bullpen, the rise of office prudishness, how to detect  psychopaths,  the merit myth, office dress codes, freedom of expression or simply a salute to secretaries, you can always count on a straight-forward, no nonsense article. Yes, we also expose hypocrisy and politically correct phoniness whenever we can (that's one of the perks of the job).

Because my commitment to you, dear readers, is to strive to achieve in each column the highest standards of honesty and integrity.  These aren't old-fashioned words spoken in a vacuum. Rather, they are the values that you likely live by every day, but just don't get any credit for. And that's why you deserve, and are entitled to, the very best that I can offer in terms of insights,  comments, and accounts designed to stimulate, provoke and even every so often - amuse.

If nothing else, you can be guaranteed that I will do my level best,  to perceive and write about the world of work with all the critical thinking skills that I can muster with spirit, passion and humor. After all, and since we're all office workers and  are literally in the same boat, I hope that we can travel together this coming year.

So please join me on this journey as we explore new ideas and develop fresh insights. As always, your comments, critiques and suggestions are more welcome than you can imagine.

Viacom has made headlines recently with regards to their “permalance” system. For those of you not familiar with the term permalance, it's used to describe an employee that falls somewhere between a permanent/staff employee and a freelancer.  

There was a time not too long ago when I worked for MTV and was placed - as an estimated 75% of their employees are - in the permalance category. What this meant was that you held a full-time position (you know, a 50-60 hour work week) but received no benefits.  Try explaining that one to mom!

Freelancers can often charge more for their services since they are not a "drain" on an organization's payroll.  While a certain level of stability comes along with freelancing, many find it more rewarding to be their own boss and not get stuck in the grind of a daily routine.  

Permalancers have no such freedom. They are paid the same as regular staff employees, leaving them with the burden of buying their own health coverage or foregoing coverage altogether. Plus, they are expected to keep normal hours and do consistent work, just like any ol' full-time job.  

With no shot at overtime, and healthcare costing what it does, people are left in a predicament: Avoid getting sick or die trying.  My understanding is that many MTV departments do not even get vacation or sick time.  During my stint, I was told that my bosses “fought” to have that perk instated and that “we were lucky” for it.

It is unfortunate that a company as politically active as MTVN could lend heavy support to politicians that believe in free healthcare for all U.S. citizens, yet don't offer it to the very employees that make their business tick.

One would only have to gather a small percentage of their internal e-mails and memos supporting such causes to shine a light on the amount of hypocrisy and greed that keeps the corporation as wealthy as it is.

So why would anyone in their right mind sign up for something so ridiculous? Well, I can only speak for myself, and in my case it was a pay increase from where I was.  And the healthcare issue was moot since I was covered under my wife’s plan.  The reality is, there will always be someone who wants to work for MTV, regardless of the pay, regardless of the benefits.

From time to time someone would raise the issue of wanting to become full-fledged staff members to which there would be no real response. The most one could expect in response was something along the lines of, ‘well, that’s just not gonna happen.’  

I wish I could sit here and write how I was one of many that led a crusade to the folks in charge and insisted on a better system, but I cannot. I put in my time and moved on knowing the system was flawed.  

Fortunately there is now a group of young upstarts that are not going to take it anymore. First there was an organized t-shirt protest that took place at the holiday bash.  Then there was a walk out.

It isn’t too surprising that since this pressure has become public MTVN has shortened the time it takes for a permalancer to receive health coverage and they have also reinstated a 401k package.  Time will tell, however, if the changes are enough to placate the masses or if the walkouts land people on unemployment lines. Oh wait, that benefit is only for staff employees.

Episode #76 of the Working Podcast brings you the following career advice and employment news:

- Path 101 hopes to help you figure out your next career step. We talk with the Website's CEO and co-founder Charlie O'Donnell on getting the site off the ground and the Resume Genome Project.

- The rules of gift giving at the office. Should you buy your boss a holiday gift? Do you have to reciprocate? Get the 411.

- The Career Filter explores CareerTV, CareerCruising and Rescue Time.

There are three ways to listen:
- Stream on our homepage (shows plays instantly)
- Stream from the player below (about a 60 second load time)
- Download direct

Recently, Victor Kipling wrote a Cubicle Continuum column on "The Death of the Office"

"Under the guise of wanting to increase ‘transparency,’ the new organizational trend-setters are touting the benefits of the horizontal work space...that is, the cubicle and (worse yet) the bullpen. From the lowest clerk to the highest CEO, everyone is now expected to march in lockstep and function in an open, non-private environment."

When I first entered the workforce in the late 90s, I foolishly had the notion that success was gauged by the pay you earned, the title you floated and the size of your office.

As a kid going to work with dad always left me impressed.  The helpful secretary, the "reserved" parking space, and yes, the office.  A BIG office.  The kind I will likely never have in my entire life (unless I build it myself).  And don't all kids strive to be more "successful" than their parents?

A recent article, Collaboration Cancels the Cubicle Culture, spoke about how corporate bigwigs like Cisco, Intel and Sun Microsystems are spending boku bucks to blow out the cubicle.

First they ditched the office.  Now they ditch the cube.

You're probably asking yourself, 'where the heck do they expect me to work?"  

The answer is everywhere.  And that just sucks.

If the rest of corporate America takes its cue from Silicon Valley bigs, the notion of personal space at work will be completely eradicated.  The reasons (according to 'workspace experts') are as follows:

- Greater worker efficiency
- Encourages collaboration
- Corporations can fit more workers

"Cubes have had their day," says Michael Joroff, senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's School of Architecture and Planning. "They were established at a time when work was done head down, by yourself. More and more, work is collaborative."

I'm not dumb enough to think I can win a debate with these massively educated blowhards.  As is often the case with these analytical types, most of whom have never spent any substantial period of time in a bullpen setting, they are missing a key ingredient from their research: A human perspective.

Simple psychology tells me that these "open" and "collaborative" work spaces will do little more then get co-workers to dislike one another at an even faster pace.  Here's why I believe collaborative work environments will NOT work.

* We want an approachable boss, not one sitting next to us. Even if it's not their intention to eavesdrop, they will be in earshot of things that make work - work!  The stupid e-mail forwards, the holiday party gossip, and rants against The Man.  We're not saying these are all healthy things, but in moderation, they are essential.

* We hate cubes but need something to call our own.  If there's no cubicle or desk, that means there's not office supplies, etc.  Now we can't even feel good that we have a better stapler than Joe down the hall.  Ownership is built into the American way, unless everyone becomes a Buddhist, good luck finding the cure.

* Even stand in line and feel the person behind you standing too close?  Imagine that happening at work while you try to work.  Or what about the day you come in with a raging headache or sour stomach?  Do you really need to be on display for the office to see?  Whether it's a desk, an office or a vacation, everyone needs a getaway.  Personal space is precious and the collaborative environment is one big violation.

* We're not all equal.  Some are leaders and some are followers.  Some people are trained to make decisions; others are trained to execute them.  Let's stop pretending that we all should be twins.  Plus, even within the same department (which is how workers are often divided at the office), people are expected to perform different tasks requiring different levels of concentration.  As an editor sitting next to a receptionist, I speak from experience.

* The true gain is for the company - not the worker.  Yes, initially it will cost companies a lot of money to convert existing work areas.  However, when more bodies are fit into the same amount of square footage, organizations rarely provide more amenities.  Will they add more bathrooms?  Pump up the cooling system? Probably not.  This means more wear and tear on things you need to make work comfortable, resulting in a poorer experience for the average worker.

How can our individual needs be met if everyone is treated the same?  From the amount of work space we each need to the material our chairs are made out of, we all have different preferences.  The lowest-common-denominator solution benefits by management by keeping things simple and allowing them to minimize their bottom line.

* Time in the office is now perceived as "weak" when you could be out networking, collaboration and/or <insert other buzz verb here>.  I'm willing to bet that some of the most amazing business accomplishments have been achieved in an office. Yes, there are stories of genius ideas born in the shower and handshake deals at the airport, but the vast majority still occur behind a closed office door.

Fast food restaurants allegedly spend millions on research to make sure you are perfectly uncomfortable when dining in.  The goal is to get you to chow down and move along.  Do we really want our workplace - where we spend a ridiculous amount of out lives - to follow suit?

* People are rude and strange.  That's not including the chronic foot tappers, the temperaturely-challenged who are always cold and the folks nuking fish sandwiches and eating them at their desks.  

Actually, now they'd be eating them at YOUR desk.  EVERYONE's desk.

* Every successful team needs an "enemy."  Some kind of motivating force to fuel the fire of desire.  Ideally this would be an outside firm - but often these rifts occur internally.  While responsible for plenty of junk, tension also forces people to rise to the occasion.  If everything was harmonious, this naturally occurring phenomenon would never come to fruition - and the organization loses out.

There's a time and place for collaboration.  But there's also a time and place to just put your head down and get the job done - alone.  We have some thoughts on a potential middle ground which we'll share in an upcoming blog entry (please subscribe).  In the meantime let's collaborate independently!  What are your thoughts?

In a perfect world a collaborative work space where no one has ownership of anything would be the solution.  The problem is that we are not monastic monks.  We're living in a push-push world where the daily grind takes its toll on even the most positive people.

Remember: It's not the size of the office...it's how you use it.

Just eight months after being fired for using racist and offensive remarks on his program, radio host Don Imus is back on the air. He’s on a new station (WABC 770 AM), with two new cohorts, but promises that the show won’t change.
 
For the most part things are going well for Imus. His audience nearly doubled on his first show back with its heaviest numbers coming in the first hour. Clearly there was a curiosity that will (and has already) tapered off, but he’ll still have great numbers. He seems to be remorseful and has already settled back in to doing his job.
 
I, for one, have never listened to Imus. I have had two Imus experiences though. The first came when I was working at a private airport in New Jersey. It was Labor Day and he was returning home with his wife and child from his Ranch for Kids with Cancer. I unloaded his luggage and he gave me a $20 tip - a great tip. The second came only a few months later when I was working at CBS and my first task was to remove the commercials from recordings of his shows.
 
My personal take on the controversy is that I think the punishment fit the crime. He certainly deserves to earn a living and we can decide to listen or not. It is amusing to me that some of the people that were calling for his firing feel exactly as I do; this includes the Rev. Al Sharpton. Maybe they should have just called for a suspension and an apology.
 
I was never too interested in the controversy. I certainly felt his comments were inappropriate, but after that I tuned out. I can’t help but wonder though, if you or I were fired from our jobs for racist slander, do you think we would have rebounded so quickly?
 
My first thought is no. For starters there is a good chance that you would have to go find a job immediately. That might not be so bad except for when you have to explain in an interview why you are able to start immediately and can offer no references from your previous employer. We would also have to search without the benefit of millions of dollars in our bank accounts (I’m assuming).
 
On the other hand we are not public figures. In our case the matter would not be handled publicly. If you are fortunate enough to land an interview quickly while hanging on to a reference or two there is always the chance of bouncing back with no one ever really hearing of the incident. One things for sure, you wouldn’t wind up in negotiations with contract promises just as soon as things cooled down.

Share your thoughts below.

This is a guest blog post by job hunter Sally Lawton.

Company: CareerTV.com
Slogan: Careers brought to life!
Pros: Advice for new grads and young professionals, video resumes, information on corporations and universities, interviews with professionals
Cons: Cheesy production value, categories limited, many features not yet available

Do you ever wish you didn’t actually have to read all of the career advice floating around on the Internet? CareerTV gives you everything you could read elsewhere, but in video form. The videos offered include profiles of companies and universities, resumes, career advice, and interviews with professionals.

The company profiles, presented in full evening-news style, cover mainly big corporations such as IBM and Google. While it is fun to visualize a prospective company, the information is not any great insight into the company’s culture. More interesting are the vlogs that give career advice. None of the advice is particularly groundbreaking, but all of it is useful and highly salient to the site’s target audience of new grads and young professionals. I watched vlogs on buying an interview suit, writing thank-you notes, and some others. While the production value can be a bit cheesy, the advice is genuine. The more interesting videos were interviews with successful professionals. Getting genuine advice from engaging individuals is a major perk for young job seekers.

The biggest marketing tool that CareerTV gives to its users is a place to post a video resume. The featured video resumes make it abundantly clear that this style of resume can either help you, or hinder you. For those who know what they are doing, the video resume might do what CareerTV promises, which is to highlight a candidate’s natural charisma. If a user simply doesn’t have experience creating videos, then the resume is hit or miss. In some cases, the videos were downright cringe-worthy.  

CareerTV is still in its infancy. There are several features still to be released, including social networking. Aside from the tantalizing hints of things to come, CareerTV has a truly maddening organization. While there are broad categories, there are no sub-topics below these. The main topics covered include video resumes, employer videos, university videos, career help, interviewing, and salary. Should a user simply want to browse through to a topic of interest, they must use the search feature or hope that the appropriate video is displayed.

While most of the advice doled out on CareerTV is spot on, some of it is dubious. One video recommended pausing before saying something significant. If the presenter is any indication, a candidate…should pause...every 10…seconds.

If CareerTV were more selective in the videos that it chooses, then it might just be something that young job seekers could turn to for sound advice. They might also consider helping users to create better video resumes, or doing away with them all together. Due to my wariness of video resumes, I don’t see myself utilizing CareerTV at all during my job search.  However, we will continue to monitor the site's growth and progress.  To stay in the loop on Career 2.0, please subscribe to the Jobacle blog.

 

He got his start laying pipe for the Atlas Water and Sewer company.  Eventually, he climbed the ranks, becoming responsible for a staff of 800 and annual revenue exceeding $120 million. His name is Victor Kipling. This is his weekly column.

As part of an annual ritual, I usually amble into Staples at this time of the year to buy next years' appointment book. If you read my last column, you know that I do everything possible to avoid, avert and evade the holiday hustlers who patrol the entrances of drug stores, mega-stores and everything in between.

Once in the store, I’m surprised to find that these appointment books are in very short supply, since almost the entire store is dedicated - no, devoted to -  all sorts of techno stuff. It's almost like paper is going out of style. Call me old school, but for me there's nothing like a clean, fresh, high-quality genuine leather appointment book. It's almost mystical, scanning the blank calendar pages, and knowing that they'll soon enough be filled with all sorts of meetings, conferences, and the like. Some challenges will be new and some old.  Every page awaits its future. These great little books used to be called, well before the blackberry revolution, 'pocket secretaries'. Sadly, and sooner rather than later, this little leather book will soon be consigned to the dustbin of history, a relic only to perhaps be found in a lesser museum.

Hopefully, and for all our sakes, the office secretary will not suffer the same undeserved fate.  Modern thinking to the contrary, the secretary cannot be replaced. Not by any type of nameless, faceless, technological advance or humanoid software package. Because in addition to every other task that still needs to be performed at the office, there is no one, no one who will consistently and faithfully watch your back better and more zealously than your secretary.  Assuming that you treat him or her right.

True enough, the secretary’s role has changed, and changed dramatically, over the past several years. Stenography, touch typing, opening mail, filing, taking phone messages and copying copious amounts of documents are now pretty much antiquated functions. Typed letters? Paper documents and files? Human contact? Who really needs them anyway, the modernists argue. Why, they continue, it's all in the ether. And so the office environment is now amorphous, intangible and floating not so gently in cyberspace. Busy execs sit hunched over their monitors, clicking quietly away at their keyboards.

Yet, for the almost three and a half million secretaries in America, there are still important and significant needs that they fulfill, every day. According to the Princeton Review, secretaries still do what they do best, and to manage information. When you consider the many new and complex skill sets that they've had to acquire over the past 10 or so years, just trying to keep pace with a rapidly changing techno environment, it's very much to the secretary’s credit that they have been able to so successfully and smartly adapt to the 'new world.' While typewriters have been replaced by word processing programs and rulers by spreadsheets, the bottom line is that it's the secretary that really pulls it all together for you.

Too often, younger execs are so busy and self-absorbed that they fail to appreciate or even respect the real and important tasks that the secretary performs for them, in a quiet and unassuming way. In the end, it really is all about people.  Despite rumors to the contrary, all business is, in reality, personal. And that's why you really need to take the time to appreciate the professionalism and loyalty of your secretary. It's something that you'll eventually find out is a value that even money can't buy.

About once a year I find myself daydreaming about how nice it would be to leave my office life for one a little more rugged. One that would allow me to spend a little more time in a natural environment actually using the body I have. I’ve noticed that this desire usually pops up around the spring season. As I get in my car and head to the grind I’ll drive past a construction site. There will be a group of people already well into their day, enjoying the sunshine, burning calories, all while building homes, offices, schools and other tangible things. I imagine the pride that must be felt after a hard day’s work; not to mention the satisfaction one must feel when they drive through a town and know that they’ve help build it.

I’m sure a lot of that stems from that whole grass being greener thing. I’m well aware of the days - especially here in the south - when I am so grateful for my air-conditioned office. Still, I was raised in a blue-collar family, in a blue-collar town, and have paid my bills doing blue-collar work.

These days I wear whatever collar I choose if I wear one at all. I work in a very 'come as you are' industry so I make a living not really identifying with either group anymore. My work environment leans white, but my pay, and the fact that I earn a wage based on a skill, makes the trenches feel blue.

Whenever I find myself wavering I find it helpful to look at the pros and cons to find balance.

Blue Collar Pros

1) Physically active: Rarely do laborers need to read articles about exercises that can be done in a chair.

2) Camaraderie: The office break room has got nothing on the bed of a pick up when it comes to clowning around.

3) Play clothes: So this one is personal preference, but for me, forever in blue jeans is the only way to live.

4) Tools: Clicking a mouse or swinging hammer? For fun and stress relief I gotta go with the hammer.

5) Knowing other blue-collar workers: This is probably the biggest perk of all. Growing up blue-collar I knew auto mechanics, body shop mechanics, plumbers, construction workers, electricians, and landscapers. It is always assuring to know you aren’t getting screwed. Hell, you’ll probably get a discount too.

Blue Collar Cons

1) Seasonal: The outdoors could have gone either way, but not all blue-collar work is outside, and laying brick in August with no shade is not a treat. It's also no fun paying your bills when snow has kept you out of work for a month.

2) The Boys Club: I don’t say it to discriminate, but let’s be honest, men dominate these jobs. Sure it’s fun for a while, but there's a reason these guys wind up gawking as though they’ve never seen a women before whenever one goes by.

3) The pay: Unless you’re the contractor, the foremen, a specialist, or have been in a union forever, the pay and the benefits suck. Keeping this world running and growing is hard work, and if you’re at the low end of the scale, you’re gonna struggle. Especially when it costs $100 to fill up your truck.

4) Physical pain: One minute you’re burning calories and the next minute you’re burning you hand. A lot of the work is hard and I can’t remember the last time I heard of someone breaking their back walking to a meeting, but I do know someone that broke his back falling through a ceiling. You can even lose a finger.

5) The hours: Another one that could go either way depending on your point of view. Construction starts before the sun gets too hot, and highways are repaired at night. For some that works out, but for most it does not.

So there it is, my personal view on blue-collar work. Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts and leave a comment!