The company you’re working for
has a gym.
It is subsidized.
It is convenient.
It is tempting.

Resist that temptation.

Why?

There are a number of reasons.

You don’t want co-workers to know
that, instead of working on that project,
you’re working out.

Gyms are a great place to network.
Why would you network
with the same faces you see every day?

Gym complaints
(and if you work out often enough,
there WILL be gym complaints)
will be put on your employee file.
Do you really want prospective managers
to know you let one go
during yoga class?

Pay the $30 a month
and use an external gym.

After surveying recruiters,
Cosmopolitan drafted the top ten interview mistakes.

They are
1. You Say, “This Is My Dream Job”
2. You Trash Your Old Boss
3. You Ask About Vacation Days
4. You Drink Water or Coffee
5. You Look Hot
6. You Talk Salary
7. You Play It Too Cool
8. You Wear Jeans
9. You Don’t Turn Off Your Cell
10. You’re Late

Many of these are no-brainers
but wait a minute,
what about #4
(You Drink Water or Coffee)?
Isn’t that a common offer
by interviewers?

Yes, it is
but it is one of those insincere questions like
‘how are you?’

When your prospective boss asks you
if she can get you a coffee or water,
she doesn’t want you to say ‘yes.’

Her time is valuable.
Expecting her to source beverage for you
is ridiculous.
It also communicates that
she should wait while you refresh yourself.

Drink coffee or water on your own time.
Take the interview time
to sell yourself.

When a new employee is hired,
management makes a big splash
about it.
Notices are sent out.
Introductions are made.
Some managers even host a welcome lunch.

When employees leave or are let go,
it is a quieter affair.
Often there’s no official notification.
Going-away lunches are more and more rare.
Real reasons are hushed up
and plastered over with official phrases
like ’she’s exploring new opportunities.’

Everyone notices the new hires.
Very few employees
notice who leaves a company.
Even fewer care enough
to figure out WHY people leave
and what this might mean
to their own careers.

BTW…
if you see high turnover in
the finance department,
you may want to dig into
the financial status of the company
you depend upon for your paycheck.

I also get very nervous
when long-term senior executives leave.

In a workshop I attended yesterday,
we all worked on a problem
and then presented it.

The presentations weren’t to practice presenting
or to get feedback on our solutions
or so other groups could use our solutions.

The presentation was
to ensure we did the assignment.

WTH?
A professional workshop is not grade school.
The only one hurt
by not doing an assignment is the attendee.

Don’t waste time
(your time and, in this case, the entire class’s)
by checking something that doesn’t need to be checked.

And if you want to get the most
out of a workshop,
do your homework.

Yesterday a new author
posted an email to a publisher’s loop
asking how she should best grow her career.

The best answer…
publish often with many different publishers
wasn’t offered.

Why?

Because that advice goes against
what the publisher wishes.
The publisher wishes to grow her publishing house,
not necessarily grow an author’s career.

Almost every corporate human resources department
offers career counseling.

When I was a freshly minted grad,
I thought that meant I’d get…
well… career counseling.

Except that the best career counseling
one can give an entry level employee
is to job jump at least
until she earning a livable wage.
You’ll never hear that
from a corporate human resources employee.

(Another reason not to get advice
from your company’s human resources department
is because the employees in HR
traditionally are the biggest gossips
in every company.
That’s a place to spread rumors,
not keep secrets.)

I was assigned a new writer to mentor.
She asked me a question.
I spent about an hour of my time
replying and then discussing that reply.

A day later,
she posted the same question
on the general writing loop.
That is the last bit of mentoring I’ll be doing
for this writer.

Getting a second opinion
on important decisions
is a great, great thing to do.

However…
if you value the first opinion,
you may want to keep
the fact that you’re getting a second opinion
to yourself.

Successful people are busy.
If they don’t think their opinion is valued,
they won’t offer it.

I’m getting asked for a big favor today.
I know
because the relative called me
on Saturday
and said she wanted
to discuss something with me today.
She wouldn’t discuss this on the phone.
I’m 99% sure it is a favor.

I don’t know what kind of favor.
I don’t know how big this big favor is.
So since Saturday
it has been simmering
in the back of my mind,
irritating the hell out of me.
Although I usually grant all favors I can grant,
I am predisposed to say no to this one
(just because it ruined my freakin’ weekend).

If you’re going to warn someone
that you’re going to ask them a favor,
at least have the decency
to let her know what that favor consists of
(financial, time, expertise, etc).

It also helps, if you can,
to build up to the favor.
Hint that you’re having financial difficulty
or that you may be kicked out of your house
or…

Otherwise, simply ask
and DON’T forewarn.

I love the video for
Drake’s Find Your Love.

The old ‘mentor’,
a man with the hero’s best interest at heart,
a knowledge of the community,
and vast experience,
tells the hero to leave
the drug dealer’s girl alone.

The mentor lays out
argument after argument.
The hero clearly isn’t listening.
As Drake states
‘you hear
but you don’t listen.’
Eventually the mentor stops talking
and the hero gets himself killed.

The best advice
is wasted if you don’t listen to it.
Heed or don’t heed advice
but, at the very least,
listen to it.
(So you can kick your own ass
for having ignored it later)

Many romance writers
glow over how great attending conferences are.
They talk about attending
a dozen workshops
and learning so much from each one.

I know, however,
that this would do nothing for me.
I learn by doing.
When I sit in a workshop,
I schedule time after that workshop
to implement the lessons.
If I don’t implement the lessons,
I don’t learn.

So attending a dozen workshops,
one after another,
would be useless.

To be successful,
the first lesson you need to learn
is HOW you learn.
Do you have to do?
Do you learn by listening?
Do you have to see the lessons?

Once you’ve figured that out,
THEN find sources of information
presented in your preferred method.
It will save aggravation
and time.

Today I have a two hour meeting
three hours away
at noon.
That is the only thing
I have to do at this location.

Yep, very poor planning.
It completely breaks up my day,
ensuring
that I do nothing before the meeting.
So basically this is an eight hour meeting.

It turns out
I can’t do this meeting another way
(the client refuses alternative methods)
and I have to factor it into my cost
of taking on this project.

But that isn’t always the case.

If travel time is a beyotch for a meeting,
try to meet half way
or accumulate things to do in the same location
or figure out a way
to share the information
without meeting face-to-face.