Value is generally a subjective concept. What may be worth something for one person may mean relatively less to another. In the workplace, it is especially hard to prove value unless you are a salesperson, judged solely by how much money you can bring into the business, or recover money, measured by how much money you save the business. More practically speaking, your boss may, frankly, not have much time to think about you on a day to day basis. In economic down-times, many supervisors end up having too many people reporting to them or carrying out both managerial and operational roles at the same time.

How then do you prove your value in the workplace?

I recently handed my employees a blank piece of paper with two headings on it. At the top of the page, there was heading stating “skills learned” and on the middle of the page a heading stating “projects worked on.” My instructions for my employees was simple. Save the sheet on your computer and update it at your convenience. However, I fully expect at performance review to be completed.

It is not a complicated concept but the point of this exercise from the employee’s perspective is as follows:

1. Employee are tracking their development. Employees tend to stagnate for a wide variety of reasons. One reason is that they are no longer engaged at work, doing the same thing over and over again for a long period of thing will make even the best of employees perform poorly.  A simple log of skills learned and experiences can tell the employee whether they are growing or just going sideways.  It can be used to show your boss that (a) what you have done; (b) assuming you have mastered the skill, you need opportunities to spread your wings which, hopefully, aligns with the business as well.
2. Employee prove value to the employer. Skills and experiences not in your job description, working on projects above your pay grade or above what your contemporaries are doing, showing how you saved money or made money, are important in focusing the employer on your value to them and the business as a whole. As I indicated before, do not assume your boss is keeping track of your career development. They may appreciate you but until you show them (see below), they may not be focusing on your worth to them.
3. It shows you actually care. A friend once described his co-worker as follows: “she actually cares about the business. How many employees can you say that about?” In my experience, more employees are indifferently carrying out their job than those who display a passion for what they are doing. An employee who is actively engaged in improving themselves and logging how they are helping the business will tend to separate themselves from their peers (the key is not to pitch this log as purely a cash grab but as wanting to contribute to the business for fair compensation).
4. It makes it easier to update your resume. I am very realistic that my employees will not be life-time employees so my deal always is my employees should work hard and, in return, I will make sure they learn enough to make themselves employable in case they do leave; it creates goodwill, potential referral opportunities and it is just the right thing to do. But part of the issue for most people who have never written a resume, or not written one for a long time, is that they forget what they did.
5. Quantify the feeling you are providing value. This is most likely the largest disconnect between employers and employees. Employees feel they are under-appreciated or valued poorly. Employers look at statistics (the larger the company, the greater the reliance on “objective” factors). A work log showing that you are carrying out the job of 1.5 employees for the compensation of 1 employee may turn your boss’ mind towards your value.

Obviously, value also depends on “soft-skills” as well. For example, do you get along with your co-workers, do your customers ask for you or does your boss like you as a person? But with so many businesses trying to do a lot with a little, you need any edge to show your value and separate yourself from others. Good luck.

Job seeking is not unlike other aspects of life. It is the small things that count. As someone who hires, a pool of job applicants can be classified into three broad categories: definitely interview, maybe interview and just not a good fit. In the “definitely interview” pool, in most cases, the difference between the job seekers on paper is small if non-existent. Similarly, how one moves from high up on the maybe interview pool to the definitely interview pool is quite small. What moves a job applicant from one pool to another or higher in a pool comes down to the small things.

Here are three to think about if you are looking for a job.

Customize your application. Word macros now make it very easy to insert a wide variety of potential employers’ details in the same cover letter. Generally, avoid doing this since it is easy for an employer to pick these out. For example, I once hired for an administrative position and received a resume that kept highlighting customer service skills.

Effective cover letters are customized, speaking to both the employer’s business and the position being sought. For example, if you apply for a  sales position in an IT company, highlight your technical skills and your success in previous sales positions.  If you do not have a large amount of experience, re-characterize your experience in an honest manner. The above-referenced customer service applicant could have told me about all the paperwork they had to process or they had to deal with their book-keeping and accounting department.

The interview begins before the formal interview. Assistants and receptionist tend to be good judges of character having to greet so many people every day. They also tend to have the ear of the boss (never ever under-estimate the worth of a good administrative assistant- they are not “mere” secretaries). How an interviewee treats the office staff has a critical bearing to an employer especially if an employer is finding any reason to cut a deep pool of qualified applicants.

For example, when I worked for a larger company that regularly hired summer students, an applicant showed some attitude to the person giving them a tour of the office. They were cut the second the employer was told about this incident. The morale of the story is be nice to everyone.

Follow up. In the last ten interviews I have conducted, two applicants actually followed up thanking me for my time, indicating they were interested in the position and they were a good fit. Think about that for a second. 80% of the “definitely interview” pile failed to take that one extra step to move one step closer to getting a job (or they were all not interested which I can confirm is not true). As an interesting observation, the two who did follow-up were both younger applicants which seems to dis-spell the myth that younger workers are apathetic job seekers.

Job seeking is like working your way up to the top of a pyramid. You begin at the bottom with lots of other people and other job seekers keep getting cut as one moves up to the next level. Where there are equal candidates on paper, it is often the small things that get you ahead.

Good luck.

One of my goals this year is to be a better employer. I have had a lot of conversations with people who recruit or hire more employees than I do about this issue. I can boil their advice down to the following: find employees who are good fits first and foremost rather than looking for a particular skill set, set expectations early- as early as the job interview and follow through on those expectations especially in the first 60-90 days. If you do not, you have lost the employee and neither side is very happy for what is typically a short stay.

How does this relate to you if you are not an employer and actually looking for a job?  What I have noticed more often than not is that employees tend NOT to ask questions about fit, corporate culture, support and expectations at the job interview. If you are looking for a job only for the monetary consideration and not necessarily for career development then I would stop reading now.

If you are looking for a career then it is important to discuss these issues during the job interview. Otherwise, although you will be gainfully employed, I suspect the employment will be unfulfilling and merely another employer on your resume.

After getting some sage advice from others about this issue, I looked back on people I interviewed for non-entry level positions who had multiple employers on their resume in a short-period of time and recalled their interviews. Most of their questions were about compensation and not expectations or fit. It is perfectly acceptable to negotiate the best deal possible but, if a potential employee does this at the expense of attempting to determine whether they will be happy and gain more skills, that job will become another short stay.

As the Financial Blogger points out, the “do you have any questions?” portion of the job interview is supposed to be an opportunity to show your prospective employer that you know something about the employer (and the linked post is a perfect example of asking questions about fit and expectations correctly). It is also in my experience the part of the interview where most potential employees need to improve. Either they ask no questions or they are not attempting to see if there is a future with the employer/overly focused on compensation.

Based on my experience, if you truly want a place to work where you will be fulfilled professionally and personally, these are some questions to ask (this works better if your interviewer is not from the HR department).

1. “What skills will I learn in this position? Will these skills be learned early on or are they part of a life-long learning experience? If it is part of a life-long learning experience, can you tell me specifically how I will learn this- do you have in-house training or an external training budget?” In other words, after the first 6 months of the job, am I just doing the same thing over and over again?
2. “Walk me through the first 60-90 days of the position. Tell me how you typically incorporate a new employee into your organizations?” In other words, do you have a plan in place to make me part of the team or am I a disposable asset in your mind who you will not devote any time or attention to unless I am doing something wrong?
3. “Without naming names, can you tell me about employees who have succeeded at your organization and why they have succeed? Can you tell me about employees who have not and why they did not fit?” Essentially, you are asking your future employer to tell you about their corporate culture and who thrives and who fails. Remember that employers hire for skill but fire for fit.

These are certain probing questions. Some of you may be reading this and saying “Are you crazy? You want me to ask these questions in this job market?” The practicality of the situation is that some job seekers need the money right now worst than career development. It is entirely understandable to ask questions to get you the position and avoid the hard questions.

However, if you are interviewing from a position of strength or want more than just a mere job, then ask the above diplomatically. It is also worth noting that in positions which require a high degree of skill there continues to be a demand-supply imbalance in favor of the employee (my colleagues continue to grumble they cannot find good lawyers, accountants or mid-level trading management). In my last round of interviewing, the leading candidate asked question #1. It set her apart from all the other candidates since it showed me she was wanted to contribute.

Interviewing is a two-way street, if your potential employer cannot answer these questions then at least you know what you are getting yourself into rather than going in with false expectations. To continue the two-way street analogy, interviewing is dating on a professional basis. You would not want to enter into a long term relationship with someone unless you understanmd the expectations and your meaning to your potential significant other’s life beforehand.

Best of luck.

With the job market being competitive, potential employers are finding ways to differentiate between the numerous good candidates seeking a job. Although some employers have traditionally not called references in good times, reference checks are often used in bad times to help make critical job hiring decisions. Employers in down times have less resources to recover if they hire poorly so they nit-pick more over job seekers.

If you are looking for a job, there are a few things to note about your references.

Ask first. This seems really simplistic but if you do not ask and receive permission to provide a POSITIVE reference, they may be caught off-guard which tips off an employer that: (i) you do not respect people’s time; (ii) you are not prepared; and (iii) you are potentially self-centered.

There are laws about what previous employers can and cannot say about you on reference checks in certain jurisdictions. On a very general basis, ex-employers cannot lie and, fearing litigation, basically indicate when you worked and that’s it. Thus, it is important you confirm someone will give you a positive reference by asking first.

Keep it current: I tend not to call any references where the job applicant has not worked at the employer for more than a year. The memory is too stall and a lot of things have changed in the past year. If you have been unemployed for a long time, this is another reason to volunteer. The volunteer organization can provide a more current reference for you and volunteering tells the potential employer you have a strong work ethic and a sense of community- both key factors in landing a job.

You are going to have a hard time finding a job if you have no references from your previous employer. It is a troubling sign to a potential employer if you have no confidence that a previous employer will say something positive about you. If you are listing a previous employer, make sure whatever story you tell in the interview about why you left is consistent with what the employer will be telling your potential employer.

The “gotcha” trend in reference checking is to call co-workers or supervisors who are not on your reference list and to ask questions (welcome to a world run by TMZ). This may not be particularly fair but it reinforces the old saying that you should never burn any bridges in life. If the employer comes back and asks you why an off-reference list person gave you an indifferent reference, avoiding bad-mouthing the person and indicate you never saw eye to eye on matters.

If you truly left on terrible terms with your ex-employer, be pro-active and bring it up in the interview. On a factual basis, tell your interviewer what happened without being bitter and what lessons you have learned. Then list a former co-worker as a reference who can attest to the context of why your last employment experience did not go well (“Charlotte had a difficult boss but she fought through it to be a productive part of the team”).  It is better than the potential employer being surprised during a reference check.

Brief your references. If you are past the initial screening interview, you may want to speak to your references on the type of job you are looking for and what the employer is asking. If they keep probing about your technical skill or lack of experience, your reference should be able to address those questions constructively (“she’s carries herself far beyond her years” or “he picks up things quickly and learns a lot by observing”).

You may want to have a friend call your references to see how they perform and what they say. Most people do not give references for a living so sometimes the wrong things are said out of nervousness (“Jim’s a great guy. We use to close up every Friday night drinks in the company lounge just drinking and talking until they kicked us out.” Oops.)

Avoid bunching your references to one employer or organization. This may be harder for young workers looking for a job but the cold hard truth is that employers look for any reason to reject a candidate. References from one employer, especially in  a job where you did not work long, could raise suspicion that you were a one hit wonder or you have no life outside work.

Try to spread your references among employers, suppliers, customers and community organizations. It shows you are generally well respected by many different groups. In the legal profession, the best references are often from opposing counsel who respected how you conducted yourself.

Best of luck.

I have had to hire a lot recently. This is not because I have a ton of jobs that need to be filled. Instead, I am replacing employees who do not make it past probation (a future post altogether once I have some time to digest what each side did wrong) or departing employees. It is pretty much a given that finding a job is difficult and will continue to be difficult for some time.

What I have found interesting though is how many people do not find jobs because of some self-defeating job searching strategies. If you are looking for a job, I hope you can learn from the experiences of others:

1. Follow the instructions. I advertised a job on a job board asking for salary expectations. Of the first 11 resumes I got, only one actually answered the question. The potential employer thinks: “If you cannot follow instructions before you get the job, how will you follow instruction as an employee?” I understand you can low-ball yourself speaking about salary before you get the job but a simple “I would like to discuss salary expectations with you after I understand the position better and understand what value I can bring to your organization” would have been a perfectly satisfactory response and showed you can follow instructions.  Follow the process or you are merely giving an excuse to a potential employer not to even look at your resume.
2. A resume is not a list of job duties. It is a marketing document about your accomplishments. It is not particularly impressive if you were the assistant manager at the Gap and you greeted customers and supervised staff. What is more impressive to a potential employer is if you helped contribute to that Gap store being the top selling store in the region and you lead a sales staff that stayed together a long time attesting to your leadership qualities. Job searching is personalized marketing. Use action words in your resume to show your value.
3. Put something interesting about your work history or yourself in your resume. It is a conversation piece in interviews. You read enough resumes and they all seem the same. You attend enough interviews and the answers seemed canned too (so are some of the questions, he writes guiltily). Everything and everyone just blurs into one. But you end up with something slightly unorthodox- emphasis on slight- and it stands out. I ended up interviewing someone simply because they had such an interesting work history. On a separate occasion, I had a long conversation with a person on their hobby of long-distance swimming (think large bodies of water).
4. The more you can make your interview into a conversation the better. A first interview is a like a first date. It can either be punctuated by a series of awkward silences  or it can be a free flowing conversation. Everyone gets canned interview questions from the top 50 most common interview questions. Be prepared for them. The number of younger job seekers who flub even the simplest of questions was astounding; I asked someone what they liked doing outside of work and they could not answer the question other than “I like to go out.” The more you can move the question from a strict Q & A format, the better off you will be especially if you can begin to guide the conversation to highlight your strengths rather than reactive to questions given to you.
5. Be careful on the use of email on follow up. Emails lack tone, subtly and nuance. Someone who was hiring at the same time as I was asked me if a job applicant’s follow up email seemed pushy (…and, yes, please do follow up. Another deadly sin of unsuccessful job searches). As it read, it could have been interpreted that way; the applicant was trying to convey how good of a fit they were for the position but it read at times as if they were trying to brow beat the employer into hiring them. You want to stand out from other applicants for the right reason. A hand written note or a well scripted voice mail may help you better than a plain old email (which could go into spam anyways).

This is a particularly tough job market for younger workers. Nurseb911 has some great tips on how younger workers should look for a job. I would whole heatedly agree with his first tip: market yourself. Network to expand who you come in contact with and you never know what opportunities may arise. For those who have bad connotations of the concept of networking, I do not mean glad handing everyone, kissing babies and saying “let’s do lunch” to everyone you meet. I mean just expand your circle.

Finally, one last thought. If you have given up looking for a job for a while,  please volunteer at a local charity. Having volunteer for one myself, charities need money but they also need talented and energetic people who can lend a variety of skill sets.  From an employer’s viewpoint, it also shows you have a heart, have energy and you are embracing new opportunities rather than have them come to you (not to mention the networking opportunities). Best of luck.

The effective unemployment rate (those out of work and those who have stopped looking for work) is, in some regions, in double digits. No doubt, some of this unemployment is due to businesses being petitioned or assigned into bankruptcy or receivership (typically, a receiver is a person placed in custodianship of a business to, often, liquidate the assets under either court order or by a lender under the powers granted in a lending agreement).

If you are in this situation or your company may soon be facing the prospect of bankruptcy or receivership, do you have any rights?

Under the Canadian Wage Earners Protection Program, any employee who is NOT: (i) director or officer; (ii) in a managerial position; (iii) have a controlling interest in the business; or (iv) did not have an arm’s length relationship with the foregoing, can be eligible to receive payments for unpaid wages. However,  employment must be terminated due to bankruptcy or receivership of the employer.

Assuming one falls within this class, an employee is eligible for unpaid wages (including vacation, severance, disbursements, bonuses and, as decided by a B.C. case, union dues and health care premiums usually paid by the employer) for the six months period preceding the date of the employer’s bankruptcy or receivership if it occurred before July 8, 2008.

The maximum amount an employee can be paid is effectively the greater of $3,164.00 or 4 weeks of the maximum EI earnings (currently $3,254). It is actually a bit more complicated than that but this is the effective maximum rate.

Here is where things get a little more difficult. Suppose the business has little to no assets  and the trustee in bankruptcy or receiver receives little for liquidating the assets of the business to satisfy creditor claims. In this case, is the employee still eligible for the maximum eligible amount?

Much to the dismal of secured creditors, employees have a “super priority” of $2,000 maximum over and above secured creditors, other than registered equipment financiers, and the government. In plain English, IF (see below why this is in capital letters) the assets of the business are not enough to satisfy the creditors, all the employees have to be paid up to $2,000 each before the creditors receive anything (lender side bankruptcy lawyers are up in arms over this). The employees may not be paid their maximum but they could be eligible for up to $2,000 each before the creditors.

This works well in theory but many businesses that go under were basically using government remittances (EI and CPP) to fund the business in its last days. These “source deductions” are held in trust for the government (they were never the business’ monies to begin with) and the trustee or receiver is basically liquidating assets to satisfy the govenment’s priority. Thus, in some cases, this $2,000 super priority may be a hallow victory which looks great on paper but does not match business reality.

The other catch is that trustees and receivers administer the program and have a duty to not only account for any unpaid wages to an employee but to also deduct source deductions if and when the unpaid wages are paid. In other words, trustees and receivers are co-opted tax collectors.

More information on the Wage Earner Protection Program can be found here. Just remember that employment matters falls under provincial jurisdiction except when the business is bankrupt which is when the Federal government asserts jurisdiction. Thus, questions as to employee rights outside of bankruptcy should be directed to the province or to a qualified lawyer.

For American readers, the following is a quick and dirty article on employee rights during bankruptcy in the U.S. (bankruptcy and employment benefits are also a federal matters in the U.S.) and a fact sheet from the U.S. Department of Labor on employee benefits during bankruptcy (especially important for those with 401K).

Best of luck.

Special thanks to my regular columnist, Mom2KG, for research support (the errors are my own).

In the last 4 years, I have hired 4 employees either straight out of university or within one year of graduating university.  The common theme among all 4 of them were they were bright and energetic employees. However, it soon became apparent in 3 of the 4 employees that they were computer literate but without any practical computer skills. Let me explain.

While they could surf, tweet, facebook and instant chat circles around me (and, remember, I am still young enough that I used computers as a teenager so I am by no means foreign to computers), 3 of the 4 could not program in formulas into a spreadsheet program, maintain macro’s in MS Word (since they were working off templates), organize their outlook into sub-folders or navigate their way around a book-keeping program (although this does require some training).

A sample size of 4 is far too little to make sweeping generalizations so I asked some other people if they knew how to do the above in other age groups to avoid selection bias.  The general consensus seemed to be no (especially working formulas in Excel or other spreadsheets).

The issue for young workers is that older workers can rely upon subordinates, life experience and informal networks built through years in a workplace to over-come these technical deficiencies. For younger workers, in a last hired, first fired environment, the ability to utilize a  computer practically to make one’s job, and their superior’s job, more efficient can be a real competitive edge in being hired or in being retained; an employer is not really impressed per se by your ability to express yourself in 140 characters as they are your ability to use spreadsheets and power point presentations to support your/their position.

For those of us, young and old, who neither want to pursue a career or do not particularly want to learn some practical computer skills to help your employer, remember that a key foundation of personal finance is balancing your budget and one of the better ways to do this is to master a spreadsheet program. Thus, if not for work, it may be helpful to learn some computer skills for yourself.

For those looking for some templates, Cannon Fodder recently offered his financial calculators on Canadian Money Forum.

Best of luck on the first day back to school.

The interesting thing about hiring new employees, such as my situation,  is that you have to re-emphasis what you are looking for in your new hires. As an employer, you tend to take for granted certain things about long-standing employees.  For younger workers, there is a dual challenge of figuring out how to make yourself valuable to your employer and acclimatizing yourself to an environment less structured than an educational institution.

In good times, being an average employee just made you a clog in the machine. In bad times, the difference between being a good employee and an average employee could be the difference between engaging in exciting work and a number in the unemployment rate.

By no means a complete list, here are 5 things that most employers look for in a good employee:

1. You think like an owner. A friend who owns his own business once remarked that his right-hand man was very valuable because he spent money like he owned the business. Thinking like an owner is difficult since what you are asking an employee to do is to contextualize their duties in the larger scheme of the business and most employees only want to concentrate on the task at hand. But a good employee is always asking the following questions: is what I am doing making money or saving money? If you are doing neither, it is hard to prove value to your employer.
2. You learn the art of prioritization. A workplace is a like a big game of dodge ball. Lots of bodies falling around in seemingly chaotic patterns. The ball of blame hitting the worthy and unworthy alike. Lots of screaming, lots of complaining and the boss/gym teacher who half the participants hate and half are indifferent. Out of this mess, the ones who get ahead are the ones who learn to prioritize. Again, it comes down to the essential question among the many tasks given to you which one makes/saves money quickest or the most. The smaller stuff you don’t sweat as top priorities.
3. Learn to accept that you get paid for the grief, not the work. Some young workers think the work place is like a television show. At your first day of work, you are thrown into a room and asked to participate in some exciting project. More often than not, this does not happen. The best testing ground to see whether you are ready for the exciting stuff is to see if you can handle the mundane assignments well with initiative and a positive attitude (as a side rant,  the worst thing you can do is pout and throw a fit when the work is not challenging. Your boss is not your parent or a teacher and they will not indulge a trouble-maker in the same way. Bad attitudes when faced with a challenge is more a comment on the employee than the workplace not conforming to expectations. Experience is an alternate word for failure. We learn more by failing than succeeding, something our “no one can fail” parenting has missed). Unconsciously and consciously, responsibility is given in small doses to an incoming employee as they prove their worth by doing the small stuff right first.
4. You don’t give up easily. My real pet peeve is that you ask an employee to do something they have never done before and, within a short period of time, they come back and said they could not do it. It shows the boss that you do not know how to think through problems and you are not good with responsibility. More to the point, if the boss has to do the work for you, why does she need you?
5. You are a problem solver. My partner complained to me one day about an employee. They approached him and said we ran out of ink on the “paid” stamp. Period. In other words, the employee was taking their issue (no ink) and transferring it to their boss (what are you going to do about the fact we have no ink boss?). The better approach would have been: “we have no ink. Can I order some? We have a $20 off couple at Staples.”  In other words, you came with a solution which an owner would like. The boss reads this statement as: “employee solved issue by themselves, asked me for permission and is saving me money” rather than “grumble, grumble…”

I’ll end with an observation by a friend of mine who wonders if young employees, growing up in an era of text-messaging and instant messaging, even know how to carry on a normal conversation anymore? He observed that younger employees had a more difficult time piecing together consecutive thoughts coherently or having an attention span of more than 5 minutes; my friend is in his 30’s-by no means old-  and I tend to agree with him. One wonders, in a world of 140 character knee-jerk pseudo thoughts/expressions, whether people are losing the ability to think deeply through issues and articulate answers intelligently in a face-to-face setting?  Please prove my pessimism wrong.

Best of luck.

One of my staff quit to go back to school and I had to hire a replacement recently.  I ended up interviewing several qualified candidates but I always learn something new about interviewing and myself each time I interview (as I have candidly admitted in the past, I am not a good interviewer).

In no particular order, here are some 5 observers about my recent round of job interviewing:

1.  Frankie says “relax”

I thought one person at the interview was going to pass out. She was nervous with a capital N. She obviously learned to write an effective resume but was literally gripping the side of the chair so hard that she could not refer to it or engage in a general conversation (see below).

If you are interviewing for your first job or interviewing again for the first time in years, remember it is very much like a first date. Both sides are nervous. But you don’t want to be so nervous that the other person can’t determine whether you are the right fit or not. I am not sure what the practical suggestion to over-come nervousness is (readers?) but do remember it is a job interviewing not a cross-examination by Department of Justice lawyers.

2. Show that you are human

The HR mantra is “hired for hard skills, fired for soft skills” but I believe this is inaccurate in some ways. You get an interview on hard skills shown on a resume but, to some extent, you get a job on soft skills. To continue the dating analogy, people want to know whether you will actually be someone they can work with (or put up with) 8-10 hours a day, regardless of how good your hard skills are.  After all, what good are your hard skills if you can’t even get in a conversation with your co-workers or they hate you because you are a social misfit?

The interviews which I found most engaging had a lot of conversation about things other than the actual position (funny stories about past jobs, summer plans, different cities etc.). On a more fundamental basis, sharing stories with your interviewer shows that you can articulate yourself well and interact with people which are just as important in the work-place than your mastery of some esoteric computer language. Remember people do hire from the heart as well as the head.

3. Be prepared to show you are a problem solver

The one question that was flubbed more than any other was “tell me about a problem in your past position and how you over-came it?” Some people had no answer. Others really mangled the answer.

Employers hire employees so that they can help them make their lives easier so they want problem-solvers. One’s ability to articulate that you are a low-maintenance problem solver will go further in some circules than all the blue-chip employers on your resume. After all, regardless the letterhead, if, at the first sign of a problem, you crumbled like cheaply baked pie, who will want to hire you?

The best way to approach this type of question is to name the CHALLENGE, what ACTION you took and the RESULT.

4. Ask about the process

Everyone got this one right. They asked about how many interviews I had to do and approximately when I would make a decision. It will help frame your expectations of timing and not get false hopes.

5. Show that you are interested

On some level, accepting an interview shows that you are interested in the job. But, I would be literal about your interests. Tell the interviewer why you want the job: you want to be in the industry, you want to gain more experience and skill-set, you like a particular aspect of the job. Just don’t say you need the money.

Anyone else care to share some interviewing tips?

With the summer right around the corner,  some employers are thinking of shutting down their businesses and going dark since it is a slower season. A reader in a such a situation was given the choice of either taking leave without pay or being forced to take a vacation (I understand that this is a non-unionized work-place) and the question was what would happen if the shut down was for so long that you had a negative vacation balance.

The question raises a much larger issue of what an employee’s rights are in these types of situations. I ended up calling the Ontario Ministry of Labour help line to get some answers; because there are exemptions to certain industries (for example, the hospitality industry and construction industry have particular rules), I asked as a plain old white-collar office worker. Just remember that every jurisdiction has a different set of laws about employee rights which are sometimes superseded by an employment contract or collective bargaining agreements. As usual, obtain independent legal advice about your situation.

Here are some tidbits from the Ministry:

1. A temporary lay-off is a layoff of not more than 13 weeks in any consecutive 20 week period or a layoff of more than 13 weeks in any consecutive 20 week period if the layoff is less than 35 weeks in any consecutive 52 week period. In plain English, the employer cannot lay you off for more than 13 weeks without be considered under the law to have terminated your employment, triggering the appropriate notice/payment in lieu of notice/severance provisions. If you are never recalled, the temporary lay-off period is calculated within your notice/payment in lieu of notice/severance payment. The employer cannot give your position to someone else during this time and it must pay for your benefits.
2. If your job has changed significantly and negatively without your consent, you are deemed to be constructively dismissed (which includes “quit or be fired” demands). In this case, the employer has to pay you the appropriate notice/payment in lieu of notice/severance based on your previous salary before you are paid at your new lower salary (the theory being you have been terminated in one job and need to be paid severance before you commence the new job). Constructive dismissal is a very tricky area of the law; as such, please consult a lawyer if you think you may have been constructively dismissed.
3. In Ontario, the employer shall determine when an employee shall take his/her vacation (unless you have a contract that states otherwise). In other words, the employer can force you to take vacation. If you have worked full-time for more than 1 year for an employer, you have an entitlement to 2 weeks vacation per year. Thus, to answer the original question, you cannot be legally penalized for taking more vacation than you are entitled to by having the employer deduct it from next year’s vacation entitlement if you only have 2 weeks vacation.  If you have more, the more practical consideration is that the employer is probably triggering a employee revolt if this try this stunt.

What I have heard a lot this year is some employers are resorting to the temporary lay-off route to free up cash. What also makes this move attractive for the employer is that if you find another job during the temporary lay-off period, you are deemed to have quit and the employer most likely does not have to pay you severance.

Depending on the situation, one may be better off negotiating a severance package if you are informed of a temporary lay-off rather than sticking it out and waiting to be recalled. Factors to consider include: likelihood of the business surviving long-term, your job prospects, the benefits your employer gives you during the lay-off period, how much you like your job etc.

As usual, the above is informational without reference to context, specific to Ontario and there are always exceptions to the general rule. Of particular note, the situation may be different if you have an employment contract (look there first then look at the statute).

Most jurisdictions have employee informational hot-lines. I would encourage everyone to call and ask questions about your rights.  They are typically very helpful. Good luck.