Taking a deep breath ...

 

Work, work, work. Now, it's really time to take a deep breath. Thank you Lord.

Are you 'bread crumbed' at work?

If we talk about work life and career development and if we carefully asked the question, if the boss commitment-phobic, we should try to find answers.

When I started writing my regular column at this corner in this publication almost six years ago (Businessweek Mindanao, Mindanao Daily and Cagayan de Oro Times), I talked about trust in business, careers doubts, the forgotten attitude to say thank you, what makes a great leader, worries,differing in opinion, aggression's hotbed and war at the work place.

Stop bread-crumbing me, I told my boss! Can you please help me, Sir. That's an email, I got several days ago.

Our modern dating vocabulary is making its way into our work lexicon, and it’s bringing more life and color to the way we describe our experiences. Have you ever been ghosted by a potential employer? Or have you ghosted them? Now, thanks to the latest series of the reality TV show Love Island, we do have a new word for an old practice: bread crumbing. That's what I learned from a BBC-article.

“Bread crumbing is when you leave little bits of bread for someone. It’s a way of saying when you lead someone on,” explains Love Island host Caroline Flack. These small amounts of communication, encouragement or rewards ultimately might leave the recipient empty-handed.

Whether you’re being strung along in a drawn-out hiring process or your existing employer is leading you on, bread crumbing gives you “just enough” to keep you on the line. You can see it when your manager drops hints about new projects, raises or promotions that may – or may not – ever materialize.

“Bread crumbing is really a modern term for what we used to call intermittent reinforcement, which is one of the strongest ways to develop someone's behavior,” says B Lynn Ware, an industrial/organisational psychologist and the CEO of a leadership consultancy in California. She explains that successful managers use behavioral reinforcement to develop their staff through appropriate and proportional recognition and rewards.

But what if they’re not actually using it for employee development? It may be because employers are not aware of the range of opportunities available for top talent. The 2018 Employee Retention Report by the Work Institute, an employee research company, found that in the US, 40% of all turnover in 2017 was of employees who quit within their first year of employment. This was up from 34% in 2016. According to the report, the rise in turnover shows that employees have greater flexibility to find better employment elsewhere.

Alternatively, “it could be that the employee is not considered top talent,” says Ware. “Those people don't get recognition when they deserve it, because the employer is hoping they leave on their own.” The Work Institute report identified that turnover costs employers, on average, 33% of the employee’s base pay. Perhaps this is why it seems better to string along a less-than-perfect employee rather than immediately undergo the costs of replacing them.

In a healthy workplace, feedback comes readily and regularly. Take stock of when you receive rewards or encouragement; is it only during times of peak burnout, or right when you’re ready to call it quits? An employer who only offers encouragement or rewards in response to challenges may be more concerned with avoiding turnover than actually developing you as an employee.

Stay vigilant of how your manager communicates rewards to you, as well. If they communicate messages, pay rises and promotions without discussion, it can show a lack of interest in employee development. Two-way communication and negotiation are essential.

Following and quoting the BBC-report: a classic bread crumbing tactic is giving someone just enough to keep them busy, without taking the risk of doing something totally new. So, consider how your managers reacts to your proposals for new projects or ideas. Are they encouraging you to explore these new avenues? Or are they requiring you to stay on the track they’ve designed for you?

Finally, one of the biggest red flags is when a company routinely dangles promotions or promises title changes without following through. If they communicate messages, pay rises and promotions without discussion, it can show a lack of interest in employee development.

I am a member of Linkedin. Here I learned the following: workers continue to expect more from their employers in terms of engagement and development. And savvy employers know that developing their employees’ careers cultivates loyalty. According to LinkedIn’s 2018 Workplace Learning Report, which surveyed over 4,000 employees, managers, executives and talent developers, 94% of employees would stay at a job longer if it invested in their career.

So if you’re expecting your employer to go beyond empty promises and to facilitate your career development, set expectations. Ask your manager for feedback, discuss areas for improvement, and share your career goals with them. If you’re on track for a promotion, outline a clear track and timeline with your manager.

And allow me to quote the BBC-article again: If the discussion is stalling, share specific examples of your contributions to the team. Explain how your personal skills development will benefit the company as a whole, so your manager can clearly see how it relates to the big picture.

Ultimately, your employer should keep their word and remain engaged in developing you as an asset. Frequent, transparent communication and commensurate rewards are a must – breadcrumbs, but the right kind.

“I don't think bread crumbing is necessarily a bad thing. As long as the manager follows through on it,” says Ware. “Managers are trained to recognize talented employees and help them grow, and it should always come with follow through.”

If you find yourself picking up rewards and promises from your employer, just make sure the trail of breadcrumbs actually leads somewhere. If not, maybe it’s time to find a new path to follow.

Are you are a workaholic?

By column in MINDANAO DAILY:

What's really behind the global rise in working longer and longer hours? We are all workers whether we work in a plush carpetted office as executives and managers, in a hot and noisy assembly-plant as factory-hands or as house-wives at home.

Why do we work? Why do we slug five or six days a week (or even more?) for eight or more hours at a stretch? The church has had quite a lot to say about work and especially, the rights of the workers. And when you get through the church jargon, you'll find statements on minimum wages for workers, needs for leisure and social benefits.

It is the Book of Genesis which tell us that work is God's gift to human beings. God gave us the will, power and intelligence to "fill the earth and subdue it" and not just talk about seeing the wild beasts, the fruits and grains... .

We are given the enormous task of shaping the earth, whether as machinist in a textile factory, or as clerk in court. The important message is: Work is for man (and woman) and not man (and woman) for work! Through work, man develops himself, his personality and his sense of self-worth. It is also through work that man produces goods and services contributing and participating in the development and society.

Asking writer José Luis Peñarredonda about being a workaholic, he says: It makes accidents more likely, boosts stress levels, and even causes physical pain. But the real problem is that many people just can’t afford not to do it.

According to latest International Labour Organization statistics, more than 400 million employed people worldwide work 49 or more hours per week, a sizeable proportion of the near 1.8 billion total employed people worldwide.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, even entrepreneur Elon Musk felt moved to describe his 47th birthday spent locked in his factory, pulling an all-nighter. “No friends, nothing,” he said. It might have been just another day in another 120-hour work week. “This has really come at the expense of seeing my kids. And seeing friends,” he added.

For some of his fans, this is just the price of being Silicon Valley’s current demi-god, the pioneer simultaneously pursuing the colonisation of Mars and creating an affordable and mass-produced electric car.

A 2016 study found that the cortisol levels of people ‘on call’ rise faster in the mornings than those of people who are not required to be available. But wearing exhaustion like a badge of honor sets a dangerous precedent. Hustling over long hours and weekends has become a staple of start-up culture in Silicon Valley - hence, it has also filtered out to many parts of the world. 

The problem is that this 'long hours' culture likely defeats the purpose of getting more things done, or at least puts a very hefty price on doing them. There is plenty of evidence that working overtime reduces your productivity, and makes you feel and actually be less healthy. It also make you more likely to develop a whole range of diseases.

Still, millions of workers seem unable to take a stand against it, from medics to ‘gig economy’ workers and freelancers. What happens then? And, what can we – those who can’t help working on Saturday nights – do about it? Yes, in my opinion: this is going to hurt very much.

It seems self-evident: an overworked person is tired; hence more likely to have an accident at work. But proving this is surprisingly difficult. It might be that riskier jobs also have more demanding hours, or simply that people who work more hours spend more time at risk, even if they don’t do overtime. But a study that analysed 13 years of job records in the US found that “working in jobs with overtime schedules was associated with a 61% higher injury hazard rate compared to jobs without overtime”.

Have you ever heard about the algorithmic ‘whip’? Still, a lot of people feel trapped in the cycle – they rely on overworking to make ends meet and pay their bills. They are stuck in a system that incentivises them for clocking up lots of hours, or for working through the night if their clients live in another time zone.

For example, this is often the case for ‘gig economy’ workers in Southeast Asia and Africa, hired by companies or entrepreneurs in the US, UK or Europe through freelancer platforms to do things like coding, blog post working, website building or social media management. Some recent research led by Alex J Wood, from the Oxford Internet Institute, reveals that the algorithms that assign jobs to these workers are a powerful driver to sustained overworking.

As one interviewee on Wood’s research said, “I’m so broke, this is someone who’s ready to give me the money, so why don’t you want 18 hours in one day?”

Basically, the higher your ranking on these platforms, the more likely you are to be hired. But to get these good reviews, workers have to accommodate everything their client wants, with little room for negotiating better conditions: “They have to be available to communicate whenever they are wanted. If the client has a very short deadline, they have to accept. Otherwise, they will be given a bad rating”, says Wood in an interview.

If the worker is not in the top rankings, this pressure only increases. Some try to attract more gigs by charging extremely low prices, forcing them to work very long hours for little money. Furthermore, most invest a significant amount of unpaid labour too, on admin like setting up profiles, bidding for gigs on the platform, and acquiring skills to create a more attractive profile. All this adds up to a very long and exhausting routine.

As one interviewee on Wood’s research said, “I’m so broke, this is someone who’s ready to give me the money, so why don’t you want 18 hours in one day?”

Are you, my dear readers always on-call? Indeed, the era when work ended as people left the office is long gone. Checking and answering messages from work seems unavoidable – and even desirable for some people, as they feel it allows them to outperform competitors, or to spend more time with family without losing track of their jobs. Yes,  increases expectations are normal; nowadays: managers and colleagues alike expect staff to be almost always available to do work.

But being ‘on call’ is not the same as being off work, and the way our body reacts to both situations is very different. A 2016 study found that the cortisol levels (the hormone that regulates the ‘fight or flight’ reaction and plays a role in raising stress levels) of people ‘on call’ rise faster in the mornings than those of people who are not required to be available, even if they don’t end up working that day.

This hormone usually has its peak concentration when we wake up, and it decreases on the rest of the day. But scientists believe everyday stress factors tamper with its cycle in several ways: it rises faster when you expect a stressful day (researchers believe this may be the case here), its levels remain high if you are chronically stressed, and it does not rise if you are going through a ‘burnout syndrome’ – something usually preceded by a chronic stress period.

As a result, people also find it more difficult “mentally detaching work from non-work” when they are ‘on call’, as well as choosing to do the activities that they really want – a trait researchers call ‘control’. In other words: workers don’t feel like the time they are ‘on call’ is really their own, and their stress levels rise accordingly. Hence, researchers conclude that days where availability is demanded “cannot be considered leisure time, because recovery – a crucial function of leisure time – is restricted under such circumstances”.

Keep in mind that working for days at a time is not smart, even if you are Elon Musk. The news of his unhealthy work routine has not been well received by investors, and Tesla’s stock fell 8.8% shortly after the NYT interview, amid suspicions of Musk’s poor mental health. Take it as a sobering tale: if you can avoid working for days at a time, just do it, as it has no positive effects on your health, your well-being, or your productivity. Even if you think you are an exception, most likely you are not. I am happy to be  an exception!

Work-life balance?

My column in BusinessWeek Mindanao and MINDANAO DAILY

How many hours do you work usually daily? We are all workers whether we work in a plush carpetted office as executives and managers, in a hot and noisy assembly-plant as factory-hands or as house-wives at home.

Why do we work? Why do we slug five or six days a week (or even more?) for eight or more hours at a stretch? The church has had quite a lot to say about work and especially, the rights of the workers. And when you get through the church jargon, you'll find statements on minimum wages for workers, needs for leisure and social benefits.

It is the Book of Genesis which tell us that work is God's gift to human beings. God gave us the will, power and intelligence to "fill the earth and subdue it" and not just talk about seeing the wild beasts, the fruits and grains... .

We are given the enormous task of shaping the earth, whether as machinist in a textile factory, or as clerk in court. The important message is: Work is for man (and woman) and not man (and woman) for work! Through work, man develops himself, his personality and his sense of self-worth. It is also through work that man produces goods and services contributing and participating in the development and society.

In the encyclical Laborem Exercens (on human work), Pope John Paul II made it clear that there should be just remuneration for the work of an adult who is responsible for a family and this means enough money for the breadwinner to feed, clothe and maintain his partner and children, with provisions "for security for his future".

I came across an Asian nation's legislators overwhelmingly approved a bill that reduces the maximum weekly work hours.

South Korea is reducing its maximum working week from 68 hours to 52 hours in a bid to boost the country’s productivity and the number of children being born. But the average working week varies depending where you live in the world. So, which countries are “burning the midnight oil”?

In March, South Korea's National Assembly passed a law that will give a substantial amount of its workforce a well-deserved break. It is the developed nation with the longest working hours, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The South Korean government also believes it could even increase the country's birth rate, which has decreased substantially in the last few decades.

This new law will come into force in July 2018, although initially it will only apply to large companies before reaching smaller businesses.

Despite opposition from the business community, the South Korean government believes the law is necessary to improve living standards, create more jobs and boost productivity Exceptions to the rule? The South Korean government also believes it could even increase the country's birth rate, which has decreased substantially in the last few decades.

South Korea has currently longer working hours than any other developed country: an average 2,069 hours per year, per worker, according to 2016 data compiled by the OECD. The analysis covered 38 countries and showed that only Mexicans (2,225 hours/year) and Costa Ricans (2,212 hours/year) worked longer hours.

South Koreans bucked a global trend: studies carried out by the International Labor Organization (ILO) show that lower and middle-income countries tend to work longer hours than their richer counterparts, thanks to a series of factors that range from the proportion of self-employed workers in the labour force to lower wages, job insecurity and cultural issues.

Death by overwork is so prevalent in Japan that they have a word for it: Karoshi. But South Korea is not the only rich country to defy the odds. Japan has a problem with "death by overwork".

In more specific terms, the word means employees dying either from stress-related ailments (heart attacks, strokes) or the ones who take their own lives because of the pressures of the job.

The average of 1,713 hours worked per year in Japan is not among the highest in the OECD list, but beyond the number, there is the grim reality that the country has no legislation at all stipulating a maximum weekly hours limit and neither overtime limit.

In the 2015-16 financial year, the government registered a record 1,456 karoshi cases. Workers’ rights groups claim that the actual figures could be many times higher due to under-reporting. Japan has a problem with "death by overwork", expressed not only by statistics but also the fact that the Japanese language has a word for this: karoshi.

According to ILO's most recent figures, Asia is a continent where more people work the longest hours: most of the countries (32%) have no universal national limit for maximum weekly working hours and another 29% have high thresholds (60 weekly hours or more). And only 4% of the countries abide by the ILO recommendations and set the international labour standards of a maximum of 48 hours or fewer for the working week.

In the Americas and the Caribbean, 34% of the nations have no universal weekly hours limit, the highest rate amongst regions. One of the countries without a limit is the United States.

But it is in the Middle East where the legal limits are more open for long hours: eight out of 10 countries permit weekly working hours in excess of 60 hours per week.

In Europe, on the other hand, all countries have maximum weekly hours, and only Belgium and Turkey have legal working hours of more than 48 hours. 

But it is Africa that shows the greatest number of countries in which more than one of third of the labour force works over 48 hours per week. The rate in Tanzania, for instance, is 60%.

Surveys have also identified cities in terms of average hours. In 2016, Swiss Bank UBS released an analysis of 71 cities that showed Hong Kong with an average of 50.1 weekly working hours, ahead of Mumbai (43.7), Mexico City (43.5), New Delhi (42.6) and Bangkok (42.1).

Mexicans, apart from the longest hours, are also subjected to one of the meanest holiday regimes in the world: their legal minimum paid annual leave is less than 10 days, like in Nigeria, Japan and China, for example, while regional neighbours Brazil offer a minimum of between 20 to 23 days.

It could be worse, though. In India, where there is no universal national limit for maximum working hours, workers do not have a guaranteed minimum amount of annual leave.  

Lastly, let's find out where your work-life-balance is. 

Workaday life

MON, AUGUST 28, 2017 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

BY KLAUS DÖRING

We are all workers. Whether we work in a plush carpeted office as executives or managers, in a hot and noisy assembly plant as factory hands or as housewives at home.

Why do we work? Why do we slug five or six days a week (or even more?) for eight or more hours at a stretch? The church has had quite a lot to say about work and especially, the rights of the workers. And when you get through the church jargon, you’ll find statements on minimum wages for workers, needs for leisure and social benefits.

It is the Book of Genesis which tell us that work is God’s gift to human beings. God gave us the will, power and intelligence to “fill the earth and subdue it” and not just talk about seeing the wild beasts, the fruits and grains… .

We are given the enormous task of shaping the earth, whether as machinist in a textile factory, or as clerk in court. The important message is: Work is for man (and woman) and not man (and woman) for work! Through work, man develops himself, his personality and his sense of self-worth. It is also through work that man produces goods and services contributing and participating in the development and society.

In the encyclical Laborem Exercens (on human work), Pope Emeritus John Paul II made it clear that there should be just remuneration for the work of an adult who is responsible for a family and this means enough money for the breadwinner to feed, clothe and maintain his partner and children, with provisions “for security for his future.”

We know the church cares. But the church is not our employer. In daily life, there are our bosses and companies which dictate our wages, our increments and our social benefits. What happens, if we have bosses who feel they own us; bosses who demand over-time from us and who are more worried abut cutting company costs than about our  wages?

Pope John Paul II saw these problems long time ago as conflicts between labour and capital and the strongly opposed exploitation of the workers by entrepreneurs who want to maximize profits by giving low wages. The late Pope called the Trade Union an indispensable element of social life especially in modern industrialized societies “with the task of being a mouthpiece for the struggles for social justice for the just rights of working people.”

If you think this is the beginning to sound radical, hang on, there’s more. Workers, he said, should be allowed to strike without being subjected to personal penal sanctions for taking part in a strike. Strikes, of course, are the extreme means, to be taken only after other means if reconciliation fails!

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NAIA and Bus Terminals Jam-Packed as Pinoys Go Back to Work and School

Published January 4, 2016 8:28am

With the holiday season over, it's back to school and back to work for many Filipinos on Monday, a report on Unang Balita said.

Those who spent their vacation in provinces have flocked to bus terminals, while those who went to Manila for the holidays trooped to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for flights back home.

In Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, bus trips were already fully booked on Monday, but this did not prevent people from hoping to be chance passengers.

Police were on the alert to provide security to passengers, the report said.

At terminals in Balanga City, Bataan, buses were full within five minutes due to the volume of people wanting to get a ride in time for the first day of work or school on Monday.

Meanwhile, at the Odiongan Port in Romblon, the queue was already long for tickets. Some passengers even camped out on Sunday night to be able to get in line first.

In Legazpi City, Albay, passengers who had their vacation in the city had difficulty getting tickets to Manila since the bus company does not accept reservations.

Passengers had no choice but wait in line.

The dispatchers however said there were enough buses going to Manila on Monday.

In Baguio, the situation was almost the same, with passengers coming in droves to get on buses going to Manila.

Bus companies had to field out more buses to accommodate all the passengers.

They also gave the assurance there were enough buses for those going back to Manila.

NAIA

Meanwhile, at NAIA, passengers themselves have already expected there will be more people at the airport on Monday.

Many of them were going back home to the provinces after spending the holidays in Manila.

Several passengers went to NAIA early enough for their domestic flights to avoid any inconvenience.

One balikbayan family was seen with their luggage wrapped in cling wrap, since they said they heard the news about the laglag-bala scam.

Authorities reminded passengers to be at NAIA at least two hours before their domestic flight, and three hours before their international flight to avoid any inconvenience. —KG, GMA News