What takes you from wannabee to gainfully employed and moving up the ladder? We pulled back the curtain and got headhunters and HR professionals to reveal the best and worst of what they see (and believe us, they’ve seen it all). Your coworkers told us what you’re doing to annoy them, and your company spilled about how people wrangle higher salaries.
From first impressions that get you hired to bad moves that get you fired, the pros get frank about where you stand at the office. It’s not always where you think.
WHAT YOUR HEADHUNTER WON’T TELL YOUHere’s what they’re really saying about your résumé.
1. You’re considered pretty much unemployable once you’ve been unemployed more than six months. We assume that other people have already passed you over, so we don’t want anything to do with you.
2. Who you know really does matter. No matter how nice your résumé is or how great your experience may be, it’s all about connections.
TOP SECRET! Résumés don’t need color to stand out. When I see a little color, I smirk. And when I see a ton of color, I cringe. And walking in and dropping off your résumé is no longer seen as a good thing. It’s actually a little creepy.3. Often the best thing to do is to avoid HR entirely if you’re trying to get a job at a specific company. Find someone at the company you know, or go straight to the hiring manager.
4. People assume someone’s reading their cover letter. I haven’t read one in 11 years.
5. We will judge you based on your e-mail address, especially if it’s something inappropriate like kinkyboots101@hotmail.com or johnnylikestodrink@gmail.com.
6. Don’t put the year you graduated on your résumé if you’re in your fifties or sixties.
7. Children and hobbies do not belong on a résumé. And never, ever say, “Now that my kids are in college, I’m ready to get back in the workforce.”
8. There’s a myth out there that a résumé has to be one page. So people send their résumé in a two-point font. Nobody is going to read that.
9. I always read résumés from the bottom up. And I have no problem with a two-page résumé, but three pages is pushing it.
10. We get résumés on fancy schmantzy papers. We get them with gold-pressed lettering. We get them in binders and in document protectors with ribbons. None of that sways me.
11. I had somebody list their prison time as a job. And once an exotic dancer called herself a “customer service representative.”
12. Most of us use applicant-tracking systems that scan résumés for key words. The secret to getting your résumé through the system is to pull key words directly from the job description and put them on. The more matches you have, the more likely your résumé will get seen by a real person.
13. About 98 percent of the résumés we receive when we post a position on a big jobs site like Monster or Careerbuilder are junk that come from people who are nowhere near qualified. That’s why we like posting jobs on websites that target specific industries.
SOURCES: Chris Ferdinandi, HR professional in the Boston area; HR director at a financial services firm; HR director at a health-care facility; HR manager in St. Cloud, Minnesota; HR professional at a midsize firm in North Carolina; Rich DeMatteo, a recruiting consultant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Sharlyn Lauby, HR consultant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Shauna Moerke, an HR administrator in Alabama who blogs at hrminion.com; Cynthia Shapiro, former human resources executive and author of Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn’t Want You to Know; Michael Slade, HR director at Eric Mower and Associates, an integrated marketing communications agency.
1. Broader Skills Reanalyze your skills and include every area of the business that you’ve been able to impact, says Jill Smart, chief human resources officer at Accenture, a management consulting and technology firm. “People changing careers need to make sure their résumé shows the full breadth of their skills—operations, leadership, management, communication,” explains Smart.
2. Summary Paragraph Experts’ opinions are mixed on the need for a résumé summary or objective if you’re staying in your field, but it’s an important feature for a career changer, says Bonnie Marcus, a New York-based business coach and founder of Women’s Success Coaching. In the summary paragraph, tie “everything in the job description with everything you’ve accomplished in the past,” she says.
3. Relatable Job Title Descriptions Adding a short descriptor after the official job title can help hiring managers easily identify your transferable skills. “For example, if your job title was ‘software engineer,’ but you want to transition to project management, consider writing the job title as ‘Software Engineer (with a heavy emphasis on Project Management),’” résumé writer Robyn Feldberg explains. But, she adds, “You only want to use this approach if you can do it honestly.”
4. A Mixed Format When working with career switchers, Feldberg creates a functional-style résumé on the first page and includes the traditional chronological format on the second page. “In other words, the first page looks like a glorified profile,” says Dallas-based Feldberg, who runs Abundant Success Coach, a career coaching and résumé writing service.
5. A Little Name Dropping Showing that you’ve been able to succeed and work with established industry leaders in your previous career shouldn’t be saved for the interview, says Theresa Szczurek, chief executive of Radish Systems, a Boulder-based software firm.
6. Non-Work Related Experience Include activities that relate to your desired role, like professional association memberships, volunteering, internships, or part-time consulting.
7. Natural Alignments “Look for things about your current position that would have meaning to the person considering you for the new position,” says Luke Tanen, who left the music industry to work as the director of the Chicago Innovation Awards. For example, Tanen’s mention of closing sponsorship deals was similarly impressive in both fields.
WHAT YOUR HIRING MANAGER WON’T TELL YOUAvoid these top mistakes on your next job interview, and you’ll be as good as hired!
1. It’s amazing when people come in for an interview and say, “Can you tell me about your business?” Seriously, people. There’s an Internet. Look it up.
2. A lot of managers don’t want to hire people with young kids, and they use all sorts of tricks to find that out, illegally. One woman kept a picture of two really cute children on her desk even though she didn’t have children (hoping job candidates would ask about them).
3. Is it harder to get the job if you’re fat? Absolutely. Hiring managers make quick judgments based on stereotypes. They’re just following George Clooney’s character in Up in the Air, who said “I stereotype. It’s faster.”
4. I once had a hiring manager who refused to hire someone because the manager was worried that the car the applicant drove wasn’t nice enough.
5. I’ve seen managers not hire a woman because the environment is mostly male, and they’re worried that no matter how smart or talented she is, she won’t fit in.
6. If you’ve got a weak handshake, I make a note of it.
7. Someone might tell you to “Be yourself” in the interview. Don’t be yourself. That’s the worst advice ever. We don’t want people who are neurotic and quirky and whatever else. All we care about is your skill and experience.
8. I once had someone send me forget-me-not seeds with their thank-you note. Yes, thank me for taking the time, that’s great. But sending me seeds? That’s weird.
9. One time a candidate sent—I love this—a thank-you card with a professional picture of herself, which quite honestly became the running joke for weeks. The picture was blown up and posted in my office with hearts drawn around it.
10. Don’t ever tell me that you have to have this job because you’re going to lose your house, your kids have nothing to eat, your mother has cancer. Companies aren’t a charity.
TOP SECRET! I know a lot more about you when you walk in the door than you realize. I’ll search for you on the web and often use my own personal network to do a pre-interview reference check.11. In interviews, everyone works well with others, and everyone learns quickly. Please tell me something else.
12. If you’re a candidate and the hiring manager spends 45 minutes talking about himself, the company, or his Harley, let him. He’s going to come out of the interview saying you’re a great candidate.
13. Don’t just silence your phone for the interview. Turn it all the way off.
SOURCES: HR director at a financial services firm; Hr manager at a medical-equipment sales firm; HR professional at a midsize firm in North Carolina; HR manager in St. Cloud, Minnesota; HR professional in New York, New York; Senior HR Executive in New York City; Sharlyn Lauby, HR consultant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Suzanne Lucas, a former HR executive and the Evil HR Lady on bnet.com; Cynthia Shapiro, former human resources executive and author of Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn’t Want You to Know; Laurie Ruettimann, HR consultant and speaker in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Templates are useful as ways to know what should be in a cover letter. But don’t use the template outright. Frank Risalvato, a recruiting officer for Inter-Regional Executive Search Inc., is deluged with cover letters from different candidates that all obviously use the same template from the same career coaches.
“Some of these [cover letters] we see are very obviously not written by the individual,” says Risalvato. “We get fifteen to twenty of these a month, and it sounds disingenuous and insincere, seeing these cover letters from Seattle one week, Chicago another, and it’s all the same style.”
Some career experts also warn against the tired stand-by opening lines in a cover letter. “Opening a letter with a passive and clichéd statement such as ‘Enclosed please find my résumé highlighting my experience and skills that would help your company to grow and succeed,’” is a no-no, says Ann Baehr, certified professional résumé writer and president of New York–based Best Résumés. “It’s best to use something catchy and more specific such as, ‘If your company could benefit from the expertise of a hard-charging sales producer with a flawless record of success…”
If you’re uncomfortable with that approach, make your cover letter unique to you with insights about the company you’re applying to, advises Darrell Gurney, Los Angeles–based founder of career coaching site Careerguy.com and author of Backdoor Job Search: Never Apply for a Job Again! Prove you understand their business.
“Put in a note saying something like, ‘I’ve been following your company’s progress in the last year and in February and I noticed your company was mentioned in the Journal of such and such,’” Gurney says.
WHAT YOUR HR PERSON WON’T TELL YOUThe truth about who really gets hired—and who stays happily employed—may surprise you.
1. I have better things to do than deal with who slept with who, or who’s talking about you behind your back. Sometimes I feel like a high school guidance counselor.
2. Even in jobs where you test applicants and those with the top scores are supposed to get the job, I’ve seen hiring managers fix scores to get the people they like.
3. I was asked by one CEO to hire the long-legged girl with the long dark hair even though she didn’t have the right skills. Another time, I was instructed not to hire anyone with children because the company had too many people leaving for soccer games. That kind of thing happens all the time.
4. Networking does not mean using Facebook or LinkedIn. It means going to events, getting your face in front of people, and setting up informational interviews.
5. My LinkedIn profile is for myself, a way for me to find another job. It’s not a way to find a job with me.
6. If it’s been a week or two and I tell you “I don’t have an update yet,” that often means there’s a better candidate we’re talking to, but we can’t tell you that in case they decide not to take the job.
7. If you call to check on the status of your résumé and I ask, “What job did you apply for?” and you don’t know, you’re done.
8. If we ask you to travel for your job or attend a conference, it’s not really a question. Say no, and it can be career-ending.
9. When we had someone go out on disability and we knew he was faking it, we didn’t want to go to court to prove it. So we put him on an assembly line in a job where we knew he wouldn’t succeed. Eventually, we were able to fire him.
10. I know many of you met your spouse at the company. But the thing is, for every one of you, there are five people it doesn’t work out as well for. And your office romance can and will be held against you.
TOP SECRET! The number one thing in job security is your relationship with your boss. Even if he says, “I’m sorry I really wanted to keep you, but they made me lay you off,” that’s almost never true. He probably made that decision.11. Many people think, If I work extra hard, I’m going to get noticed. But it doesn’t work that way. If you want to advance, some of the responsibility falls on you to toot your own horn. Make sure your supervisor and your supervisor’s supervisor are well of aware of what you’re contributing.
12. Don’t stalk me. If you have a question, come to my office. Don’t corner me in the bathroom.
13. You’re right to be paranoid. The company is always watching you, and there’s a record of everything you do: every phone call, every text, every tweet and instant message. At most companies, they save that data forever.
SOURCES: Kris Dunn, chief human resources officer at Atlanta-based Kinetix and who blogs at HRcapitalist.com; HR pro at a mid-level staffing firm; HR professional at a midsize firm in North Carolina; a human resources professional in New York, New York; HR representative at a Fortune 500 financial services firm; HR representative in the manufacturing industry; recruiting consultant Rich DeMatteo, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Laurie Ruettimann, HR consultant and speaker in Raleigh, North Carolina; Cynthia Shapiro, former human resource executive and author of Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn’t Want You to Know; Michael Slade, HR director at Eric Mower and Associates, an integrated marketing communications agency.
Sometimes, you’d really rather not keep your job. Please Fire Me, by Jill Morris and Adam Chromy, collects dozens of hilarious vents from anonymous clock punchers forced to put up with various forms of crazy nine-to-five. Some doozies:
Last week a coworker asked me, “What day is Black History Month?”
Our HR girl overheard me describing the plot of The Road to a coworker, you know, the book about survivors of nuclear Armageddon who are being chased across a deserted America by anarchist cannibals. She asked, “Was that based on a true story?”
I just caught my old boss copying down my goals from last year’s review and noting them as his own for this year.
My team leader took a digital picture of everyone’s face and pasted it to an animal cutout. Now each employee is a different animal on the “productivity” board. Whoever does the most work each week gets one step closer to the piece of meat that person’s animal likes to eat, which is glued to the other end of the poster. I’m the bison.
WHAT YOUR IT DEPARTMENT WON’T TELL YOUEver wonder what the computer whizzes really think about solving other people’s problems all day long? Find out what it’s like to be on call all the time and how you can rise to the top of their priority list.
1. Just because we’re “buddies” at work, don’t expect me to come running every time you’ve got a problem. I’ve got a slew of IT problems to fix.
2. We use the word “corruption” when we don’t have a real answer. Occasionally, when trying to fix a problem, something goes wrong and some part of the system breaks or stops working, or more damage happens. I was helping a customer a couple weeks ago move e-mail over from one system to another and accidentally lost all of his calendar items. Of course I didn’t tell him it was my fault.
3. It drives me crazy when you just ignore the work I’ve done to explain something. People will ask me how to do simple tasks that I have spent time documenting for them. Read the document. I’m taking screenshots and writing instructions to make things easier for you.
4. E-mail me. I would love to talk to you on the phone, but it’s not efficient. E-mail me a list of your problems and questions, and it’s a lot easier for me to respond to them all.
5. If you travel with your laptop, get a lock. One survey by the Computer Security Institute found that 50 percent of respondents had a laptop or other mobile device stolen in the past year. A simple cable lock (starting at about $20) lets you physically secure your laptop anywhere you go.
6. If your company owns the computer, they own what’s on it, too—even your e-mail in some cases. Act accordingly.
TOP SECRET! Sometimes we talk about you—in code. If you hear “HKI error” (for human-keyboard interface) or “PEBCAK” (problem exists between chair and keyboard), we’re insulting you.7. You can’t hide anything from us. Think trashing cookies and clearing your Web history are keeping you invisible? Think again. Everything still goes through my firewall, which sees all traffic when you connect to the Internet. It goes from your computer to a device that directs the traffic out. That’s why we can use things like content filters that block sites like Facebook, YouTube, and pornography.
8. Sometimes we’re asked to get dirt on employees a company wants to fire. I was once asked to sniff out all of an employee’s traffic and show what sites she went to and how much time she spent surfing.
9. You’re right. Sometimes we make five-minute jobs last an hour.
10. If you don’t understand me, I’m not doing my job. Confusing tech jargon is a sign of insecurity, not intelligence.
11. We’re like Santa: We know if you’ve been bad or good. Fessing up to what really happened right before the system crashed is going to save time—and I’m going to figure it out anyway.
12. Urgency is based on priority. Just because you say your problem’s urgent doesn’t really mean it’s urgent to me. Your e-mail not working is not as important as another customer’s server being down.
13. We didn’t create the problem; we’re just trying to help you fix it.
When Lifehacker.com asked readers which e-mail phrases they’d like to see banished—or at least improved—they got a flood of responses. Here’s a choice selection of the best:
1. “We need to…” Translation: “XYZ needs to be done, but…I’m not actually going to come out and directly tell any of you to do it.”
2. “Cheers”—especially when used outside British pubs or the U.K. in general.
3. “Thanks in advance”—as opposed to thanks from the past?
4. “Touch base.”
5. “Circle back.”
6. “To be honest.”
7. The worst: “Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.” I’ll print it if I need to, whether you nag me or not!
WHAT YOUR COWORKERS WON’T TELL YOUAre you hearing office snickers but don’t know why? Here’s how to guarantee they won’t be about you.
1. Using a speakerphone at full volume to go through your voice mailbox is the definition of annoying. Don’t use a speakerphone unless you’re in your office and holding a meeting that’s being attended by someone remotely.
2. Popping up and “prairie dogging” above someone’s cubicle is just weird. Don’t hold a conversation as a disembodied head.
3. Stop microwaving stinky foods in the lunchroom.
4. “Hello” is the word that greases many squeaky wheels. Get into the habit of smiling and greeting your colleagues. It’s really amazing how fast this little courtesy can thaw chilly workplace relations.
5. Many helpful alliances are born at the office bowling league or softball games. These are great ways to get exercise while you get to know your coworkers in an informal setting.
6. Keep your cell phone out of the conversation. When talking to someone in person, don’t glance down at your cell phone to see who’s trying to reach you.
7. People love to be asked their opinion, so go out of your way to ask, “What do you think belongs in this report?” or “How do you think I should handle this situation with client X?”
8. Office gossip can stop with you. When a coworker sidles up to you bearing a juicy tidbit of gossip about Betty’s office romance or Bill’s impending firing, respond with, “Really?” and then change the subject or get back to work. If you don’t respond, the gossiper will move on—and you’ll retain the trust and respect of your colleagues.
9. If you’re dealing with a difficult coworker, pretend your kids are watching. This neat little visualization will help you keep a cool head. After all, you’ve taught your children to be mannerly. With them “watching” you, it will be difficult to stoop to the level of your infuriating colleague.
10. You’re saying “you’re unimportant to me” if you ignore people’s e-mails and phone messages. Return them promptly.
11. Make it clear that you would never ask anyone to do a level of work you wouldn’t be willing to take on yourself. Always work at least as hard as anyone working with or for you.
TOP SECRET! If you want to annoy people, make them read three paragraphs into your e-mail before you get to the point. If you want to rise in the company, state your purpose in the first sentence or two and then get to the why and how of the matter.12. When you don’t end e-mails with a suggestion or a request for action, nothing is likely to happen. You might end with something like, “I will call you on Monday at 10 a.m. to discuss this” or “When can we get this done?”
13. Some companies are well managed; some are managed by idiots. On the outside chance executive management is not a bunch of idiots, did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, they know more than you do? Try a little experiment: If you experience an issue or two and it changes when you jump companies or groups, then you were probably in a dysfunctional workplace. But if it doesn’t change, if it’s always the same, then it’s probably you. You might want to see somebody about that.
“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be meetings.” So said humorist Dave Barry, and many of us would agree. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Some tips for having a good one:
Start and end strongly. Running a productive meeting isn’t rocket science. As Denver-based consultant Teri Schwartz notes, much of it boils down to opening and conducting every meeting with a purpose and closing it with a plan for “going forward.” Problems arise when people forget this. “It’s like flying a plane,” says Schwartz. “Most crashes happen at takeoff and landing.”
Pick a leader. Four years ago, Cleveland’s KeyCorp bank adopted a new principle: Always assign someone to lead. “The worst thing you can do is go into a meeting with no one in charge,” says the bank’s senior EVP and chief risk officer, Charles Hyle. “It turns into a shouting match.”
Think small. Be realistic about what you can accomplish. “You can’t solve world hunger in an hour,” Schwartz says. By the same token, keep the number of attendees manageable to stimulate discussion. “When you have too many people in the room,” says Hyle, “everyone clams up.”
Direct, don’t dominate. “People hate it when they can’t get their work done because they have to go to somebody else’s meeting,” says Michael Feiner of Irving Place Capital. So encourage others to speak up and get involved, especially junior staffers. “They need to believe it’s not his meeting or her meeting, but ‘our’ meeting,” Feiner says.
WHAT YOUR PAYROLL MANAGER WON’T TELL YOUDon’t negotiate for a salary or raise without these insider tips.
1. There’s one website that will drive you and the company crazy: salary.com. It supposedly lists average salaries but if you look up any job, the salary it gives you always seems to be $10,000 to $20,000 higher than it actually is.
2. On salary, some companies try to lock you in early. At the first interview, they’ll tell the HR person to say, “The budget for this position is 40K to 45K. Is that acceptable to you?” If the candidate accepts, they’ll know they’ve got him or her stuck.
3. You think you’re all wonderful and deserve a higher salary, but here in HR, we know the truth. And the truth is, a lot of you aren’t very good at your jobs, and you’re definitely not as good as you think you are.
4. Be careful if a headhunter is negotiating for you. You may want extra time off and be willing to sacrifice salary, but he is negotiating hardest for what hits his commission.
5. I once hired someone, and her mother didn’t think the salary we were offering was high enough, so she called me to negotiate. There are two problems with that: 1) I can’t negotiate with someone who’s not you. 2) It’s your mother. Seriously, I was like, “Did that woman’s mother just call me, or was that my imagination?” I immediately withdrew the offer.
6. Never accept the job immediately. Think about it overnight. Once you sign on the dotted line there’s no room for negotiation.
7. Some companies do everybody’s raises on their anniversary dates. I’m not a fan of that because if the budget comes out in January, those poor people hired in December get, “Oh sorry, we’d like to give you more, but we gave a huge increase to Bob so you’re just going to get 2 percent.”
8. Yes, the HR person has access to everyone’s salary, but, says one, “I don’t look unless I have to. There’s nothing worse than having to reprimand someone, and then seeing they make $60,000 more than me.”
9. Unlimited sick days usually benefit the company. When people are told they have a set number of sick days, they end up taking them all because they don’t want to lose a day off. If given unlimited sick days, they may take none at all.
10. Protocol is still important. When introducing people, name the person of greater status first: “Mrs. CEO, I’d like you to meet the mail guy, Ron.”
TOP SECRET! If we ask “What salary are you looking for?” say you’re flexible or it depends on the responsibilities of the job. Try not to name a salary unless it’s required, because that gives us a leg up in the negotiating.11. Your group gets no respect. IT is always getting dumped on. Sales and marketing has it easy. Guess what? The other group probably feels the same way.
12. Being on time shows you respect other people’s time. Being late over and over again will definitely get noticed.
13. If you’re accused of sexual harassment, even if you’re found to be not guilty, people will always look at you funny afterward. It can kill your career.
SOURCES: Ben Eubanks, HR professional in Alabama; HR director at a public relations agency; HR professional in New York, New York; HR professional at a midsize firm in North Carolina; Suzanne Lucas, a former HR executive and the Evil HR Lady on bnet.com.
1. Do your homework. Do some market research to determine what others in your industry currently earn at your position and poll your friends and colleagues in similar positions—as long as you work for different companies.
2. Know your employer. Many companies have official policies for discussing salary increases. If your employer offers salary reviews once a year, that’s probably the best time for you to negotiate a raise. If the company’s practices are more flexible, take the pulse of the financial situation of your department and the corporation as a whole when considering the timing of your discussion.
3. Show them what you’re worth. Keep a journal, list, or spreadsheet of your daily tasks and accomplishments. Use this documentation as evidence to support your assertion that you’re worthy of a salary increase.
4. Have a number in mind. Based on your industry research, your responsibilities, and your accomplishments, determine the salary you feel you deserve in advance of a meeting with your boss.
5. Come prepared. When you meet with your boss, be ready to back up your request with specifics about your performance and accomplishments, as well as goals for the future and additional responsibilities you’re willing to take on. Keep the meeting professional and avoid discussing any personal reasons you feel you need a higher salary. Beware of using tactics such as a competitive job offer to get a raise—they may backfire on you.
WHAT PRODUCTIVITY EXPERTS WANT YOU TO KNOWYour company’s food service would love you to come in for a cookie or three when the afternoon slump hits, but there are better ways to perk back up.
1. Ten minutes outdoors is practically prescription-strength. When the slump hits, head outside and sit in the daylight for 10 minutes. Better still, have your lunch outside and divide your break between eating and a walk. It will help reset your biological clock, keep down the amount of melatonin (the sleep hormone) your body produces during this circadian dip, and give you a valuable boost of beneficial vitamin D, reducing your risk of osteoporosis, as well as various cancers.
2. A green salad sprinkled with low-fat cheese, a hardboiled egg, and some sliced turkey wins over a pasta salad. Basically, protein will give you energy, while carbs may sap it. So a tuna salad without the bread is a better choice than a tuna sandwich. The change can really make a difference.
3. Teatime can soothe and energize. A mid-afternoon cup of tea is a good step toward beating the afternoon doldrums thanks to that little bit of a caffeine burst and the few quiet minutes it entails. Keep a selection of exotic flavored teas (preferably caffeinated) in your office and an aesthetically pleasing cup just for tea.
4. Your desk and e-mail inbox can pick you up—if you clean them out. Cleaning them out is a relatively mindless task that doesn’t require great amounts of concentration or clear thinking, and both will leave you feeling more energized because you’ll have accomplished something visible, as well as having reduced energy-sapping clutter.
5. Put a drop of peppermint oil in your hand and briskly rub your hands together, then rub them over your face (avoid your eyes). Peppermint is a known energy-enhancing scent.
TOP SECRET! An “I was thinking of you” phone call works wonders. A five-minute keep-in-touch call to your wife, child, siblings, parents, a friend, or a retired colleague will lift your spirits for hours and reinvigorate you to get your work done.6. You don’t even have to leave your desk to gain energy. Simply roll your shoulders forward, then backward, timing each roll with a deep breath in and out. Repeat for 2 minutes.
7. Consider a morsel of dark chocolate. Unlike milk chocolate, dark chocolate is truly a healthy food, closer to the category of nuts than sweets given the high levels of healthy fat and antioxidants it contains. Plus, it has abundant fiber and magnesium. Additionally, it provides a little caffeine, as well as a satisfyingly decadent feeling. Just stop at one square.
8. Chewing gums with strong minty flavors are stimulating, and the mere act of chewing is something of a tonic to a brain succumbing to lethargy. Plus, chewing stimulates saliva, which helps to clear out bacteria responsible for cavities and gum disease from lunch. Just be sure to choose sugar-free gum.
9. If you often work on your own, try to organize work involving others at the time of day when your concentration might otherwise be waning. We are social animals, and interactions always rev us up. But make sure it’s an interesting, interactive activity. Sitting in a room listening to someone else drone on and on will just send you snoozing.
10. You can get your blood moving and feel more energized even in a meeting. Isometric exercises involve nothing more than tensing a muscle and holding it. For instance, with your arm held out, tense your biceps and triceps at the same time and hold for 5 to 10 seconds. You can do this with your calf muscles, thigh muscles (front and back), chest, abdomen, buttocks, shoulders, and back.
11. Not only will sharing your space with a plant—a live, growing thing—provide its own mood boost, but also studies find the scent of rosemary to be energizing. Whenever you need a boost, just rub a sprig between your fingers to release the fragrance. Or, if you’re really wiped out, rub a sprig on your hands, face, and neck.
12. Have an afternoon snack designed to get the blood flowing. That’s one that combines protein, fiber, and complex carbohydrates (such as whole-grain crackers or raw vegetables) to raise your blood sugar levels steadily and keep them up.
13. Keeping manageable items on your to-do list will keep you motivated. Checking off tasks you’ve completed makes you feel productive and ready for the next job. Be sure to keep routine items that you are always accomplishing on your list so you can have the satisfaction of checking them off.
1. Take breaks throughout the day. It will help clear your mind and relieve pressure. Something as simple as going to the water cooler for a drink may do the trick.
2. Enroll in a noontime or an after-work exercise class. This will give you a chance to unwind, which helps relieve stress.
3. To help your workday go smoothly, try pacing your activities: Do more demanding work in the morning, when your energy level is higher, and leave the easier work for later in the day.
4. Try listening to white noise recordings, such as a pounding surf or songbirds, to help you relax.
5. Get to work early or stay late once a week. You may be able to accomplish more when you vary your routine.
6. If your stress comes from job insecurity, take stock of yourself. Update your résumé, and remind yourself of your skills and strengths. Also, make sure you keep up with new developments in your field. This will make you valuable to employers.
7. Don’t let work rumors, which are usually false, cause you worry. A coworker may just be thinking out loud about worst-case scenarios.
WHAT THE COMPANY NURSE WANTS YOU TO KNOWHere are some great—and easy—ways to stay healthy and happy while on the job so you don’t find yourself becoming a regular in the nurse’s office.
1. Breathe easily. “Breathing from your diaphragm oxygenates your blood, which helps you relax almost instantly,” says Robert Cooper, PhD, the San Francisco coauthor of The Power of 5, a book of five-second and five-minute health tips. Shallow chest breathing, by contrast, can cause your heart to beat faster and your muscles to tense up, exacerbating feelings of stress.
2. How do you know if you’re truly breathing deeply? Place your hand on your abdomen just below the navel. Inhale slowly through your nose and watch your hand move out as your belly expands. Hold the breath for a few seconds, then exhale slowly. Repeat several times.
3. Say cheese. Smiling is a two-way mechanism. We do it when we’re relaxed and happy, but doing it can also make us feel relaxed and happy. “Smiling transmits nerve impulses from the facial muscles to the limbic system, a key emotional center in the brain, tilting the neurochemical balance toward calm,” Dr. Cooper explains. Go ahead and grin. Don’t you feel better already?
4. Stop gritting your teeth. Stress tends to settle in certain parts of our bodies, the jaw being one of them. When things get hectic, try this tip from Dr. Cooper: Place your index fingertips on your jaw joints, just in front of your ears; clench your teeth and inhale deeply. Hold the breath for a moment, and as you exhale say, “Ah-h-h-h,” then unclench your teeth. Repeat a few times.
5. Soothe your eyes. Rub your hands together vigorously until they feel warm, recommends David Sobel, MD, of San Jose, California, author of The Healthy Mind, Healthy Body Handbook. Then cup them over your closed eyes for five seconds while you breathe deeply. The warmth and darkness are comforting.
6. Switch to decaf. Wean yourself slowly, or you might get a caffeine-withdrawal headache that could last for several days, cautions James Duke, PhD, the Fulton, Maryland, author of The Green Pharmacy. Subtract a little regular coffee and add some decaf to your morning cup. Over the next couple of weeks, gradually increase the proportion of decaf to regular until you’re drinking all decaf. You should also consider switching from regular soft drinks to caffeine-free ones or sparkling mineral water.
7. Shake it up. Loosen the muscles in your neck and upper back with this exercise from Dr. Sobel: Stand or sit and stretch your arms out from your sides. Shake your hands vigorously for about 10 seconds. Combine this with a little deep breathing, Dr. Sobel says, and you’ll do yourself twice as much good.
8. Munch some snacks. Foods that are high in carbohydrates stimulate the release of serotonin, feel-good brain chemicals that help induce calm, says Dr. Cooper. Crackers, pretzels, or a bagel should do the trick—but the whole bag can create an energy-sapping cycle of remorse. So try this trick when you know you will be satisfied with just a little bit.
9. Get your vitamins. Make sure you’re getting the vitamins you need. That may require you to take a multivitamin. But skip the stress formulas, which often contain large amounts of randomly formulated nutrients, such as the B vitamins, but little or nothing else, says Elizabeth Somer, RD, author of Food and Mood.
10. Fall for puppy love. In a study of 100 women conducted last year at the State University of New York at Buffalo, researchers found that those who owned a dog had lower blood pressure than those who didn’t. If you don’t have a pooch, visit a friend’s. Petting an animal for just a couple of minutes helps relieve stress, researchers have found.
TOP SECRET! Wash your hands really well, and keep hand sanitizer at your desk. Offices swarm with germs, and the best way to keep them out your system is to keep them off your hands.11. Stretch. Muscles tighten during the day, and when we feel stressed out, the process accelerates. Stretching loosens muscles and encourages deep breathing.
12. Don’t slouch. When people are under stress, they slump over as if they have the weight of the world on their shoulders. “Slumping restricts breathing and reduces blood and oxygen flow to the brain, adding to muscle tension and magnifying feelings of panic and helplessness,” Dr. Cooper explains.
13. Sit up straight. Straightening your spine has just the opposite effect. It promotes circulation, increases oxygen levels in your blood, and helps lessen muscle tension, all of which promote relaxation.
Become an Instant Expert
Say Yes to Acupressure
Breathe deeply and apply firm, steady pressure on each of these three points for two to three minutes.
1. The Third Eye, located between the eyebrows, in the indentation where the bridge of the nose meets the forehead.
2. The Heavenly Pillar, on the back of the neck slightly below the base of the skull, about half an inch to the left or right of the spine.
3. The Heavenly Rejuvenation, half an inch below the top of each shoulder, midway between the base of the neck and the outside of the shoulder blade.
Big AdviceSometimes work can be tough and we react by getting stressed out. We don’t always have control over what happens to us, says Allen Elkin, PhD, director of the Stress Management Counseling Center in New York City. Yet that doesn’t mean we have to react to a difficult, challenging situation by becoming frazzled or feeling overwhelmed or distraught. Instead, use these easy, natural methods to overcoming anxiety when it hits.
Mental Relaxation Techniques
Visualize calm. It sounds New Age-y, but at least one study, done at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, has found that it’s highly effective in reducing stress. Dr. Cooper recommends imagining you’re in a hot shower and a wave of relaxation is washing your stress down the drain. Or try this routine, recommended by Gerald Epstein, MD, the author of Healing Visualizations: Close your eyes, take three long, slow breaths, and spend a few seconds picturing a relaxing scene, such as walking in a meadow, kneeling by a brook, or lying on the beach. Focus on the details—the sights, the sounds, the smells.
Do some math. Using a scale of one to ten, with one being the equivalent of a minor hassle and ten being a true catastrophe, assign a number to whatever it is that’s making you feel anxious. “You’ll find that most problems we encounter rate somewhere in the two to five range—in other words, they’re really not such a big deal,” says Dr. Elkin.
Be a fighter. “At the first sign of stress, you often hear people complain, ‘What did I do to deserve this?’” says Dr. Cooper. The trouble is, feeling like a victim only increases feelings of stress and helplessness. Instead, focus on being proactive. If your flight gets canceled, don’t wallow in self-pity. Find another one. If your office is too hot or too cold, don’t suffer in silence. Call the building manager and ask what can be done to make things more comfortable.
Put it on paper. Writing provides perspective, says Paul J. Rosch, MD, president of the American Institute of Stress in Yonkers, New York. Divide a piece of paper into two parts. On the left side, list the stressors you may be able to change, and on the right, list the ones you can’t. “Change what you can,” Dr. Rosch suggests, “and stop fretting over what you can’t.”
Count to ten. Before you say or do something you’ll regret, step away from the stressor and collect yourself, advises Dr. Cooper. You can also look away for a moment or put the caller on hold. Use your time-out to take a few deep breaths, stretch, or recite an affirmation.
Just say no. Trying to do everything is a one-way ticket to serious stress. Be clear about your limits, and stop trying to please everyone all the time.
Admit it. Each of us has uniquely individual stress signals—neck or shoulder pain, shallow breathing, stammering, teeth gritting, queasiness, loss of temper. Learn to identify yours, then say out loud, “I’m feeling stressed,” when they crop up, recommends Dr. Rosch. Recognizing your personal stress signals helps slow the buildup of negativity and anxiety.
Schedule worry time. Some stressors demand immediate attention—a smoke alarm siren or a police car’s whirling blue light. But many low-grade stressors can be dealt with at a later time, when it’s more convenient. “File them away in a little mental compartment, or make a note,” Dr. Elkin says, “then deal with them when the time is right. Don’t let them control you.”
Time-Outs That Help You Focus Later
Space out. Look out the window and find something natural that captures your imagination, advises Dr. Sobel. Notice the clouds rolling by or the wind in the trees.
Take a walk. It forces you to breathe more deeply and improves circulation, says Dr. Cooper. Step outside if you can; if that’s not possible, you can gain many of the same benefits simply by walking to the bathroom or water cooler, or by pacing back and forth. “The key is to get up and move,” Dr. Cooper says.
Soak it up. “When I have the time, nothing is more stress relieving for me than a hot bath,” Dr. Weston says. “But when I don’t have time, I do the next-best thing: I wash my face or even just my hands and arms with hot water. The key is to imagine that I’m taking a hot bath. It’s basically a visualization exercise, but the hot water makes it feel real.”
Dial a friend. Sharing your troubles can give you perspective, help you feel cared for, and relieve your burden.
Make plans. “Looking forward to something provides calming perspective,” Dr. Elkin says. Buy concert tickets, schedule a weekend getaway, or make an appointment for a massage.
Goof off. It temporarily removes you from a potentially stressful situations. Esther Orioli, president of Essi Systems—a San Francisco–based consulting company that organizes stress-management programs—keeps a harmonica in the drawer for when she’s feeling stressed out. Bonus: Playing it promotes deep breathing.