For a few years when I worked in social services, we caseworkers had to call our clients "customers." I'm sure some well-meaning higher-up felt that the term would lead us to be more efficient or, perhaps, to treat welfare recipients with more respect. I am not at all sure if those who received the meager welfare cheques would have been much cheered up knowing they were customers, not clients. All I know is that the term obscured what we were really about, and I refused to use it.

Ever since I read George Orwell's The Politics of Language, I have been wary of jargon and business speak, and it appears that I'm not alone. The BBC has collected 50 Office-Speak Phrases You Love to Hate from readers across the world.

Here's one euphemism from the pile: "We are still optimistic things will feed through the sales and delivery pipeline." Translation from Alexander from Southampton: We actually haven't sold anything to anyone yet, but maybe we will one day.

My favourite: an employer who informed staff they could no longer use "brain storm" because it might have negative connotations associated with fits. They now have to take "idea showers."

Next team meeting I'm bringing my umbrella.

kathyo

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Interviewing job applicants is a lot like shopping for clothes. The cut, style and colour of a dress might be really flattering, but if it comes in size 18 (I'm barely a 12) it's going back on the rack.

From the perspective of interviewing, I wouldn’t "buy" a candidate with superb technical skills if I thought her personality would collide with the work culture -- in other words, if she seemed to be the wrong fit.

(True Confession: I'm really not a hiring manager but having recently taken part on an interviewing committee the subject has been top of mind lately.)

Of the people we interviewed for one position, the person at the bottom of the interviewing pile had the most experience. But about 20 minutes into the interview I could see how her Type A personality would irk and irritate some of the members on our team -- and friction on a team is generally something you want to avoid.

So what exactly is "fit." According to the Interviewing for Fit article, "fit" reflects an organization's culture and core values, something that is different for every company.

The article contends that in order to find the right fit hiring managers are getting creative in the interview process, asking such questions as: "When was the last time you laughed at yourself?" (I wish we had thought of that one.) The article also says that some companies put multiple applicants together for group interviews or take candidates out for a meal to see how they react in a more relaxed situation. Yikes!

kathyo

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An acquaintance recently asked me to look at her resumé. "Sure," I said, thinking that it just required a bit of rewording here or there. Wrong -- her resumé required a major overhaul. It was such a smorgasbord of everything she had done in her entire career that I couldn't figure out what she was even applying for.

Years ago as a welfare worker I would ask what type of jobs my clients were focusing on. "Oh, I’m looking for anything," they would invariably say (and show up the next month still without a job.) Perhaps they wanted to impress upon me that they were so eager to work that they would take any old job. Well, this type of strategy failed to impress me.

"You need to focus your job search," I wanted to scream. (Of course, good girl that I am, the only screaming was inside my head.)

Focus was basically the advice I gave my friend. If your resumés (notice I use the plural here) are tailored to specific jobs or fields you stand a much greater chance of getting an interview than if they are all over the place.

If you need some help with tailoring your resumé take a look at the Workopolis article Resumes: One Size Doesn't Fit All. It suggests setting up a resumé information bank with specific files listing your qualifications, skills, education, work history and so on. "Once collected and saved, information of this kind can be used time and again to customize and target your resumes and cover letters."

The Tailoring Your Resume ... Cover Letter ... Interview! article also gives a great example of how to customize your resumé based on a sample job ad.

And I would probably be remiss if I didn't mention our own resumé toolkit.

kathyo

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This morning I finally saw one of the City's temporary dumping sites. The all too publicly displayed mounds of garbage bags had more visual impact than the countless City of Toronto garbage receptacles I have seen around town, all overflowing with Coke cans, water bottles, squashed coffee cups and the like. Amusingly, the wide swathes of saran wrap-like substance taped around the receptacles (to prevent people from using them?) are stuffed full of appetizing debris as well.

At my housing co-op we can dump our trash into a temporary dumpster on Thursdays -- otherwise garbage stays in the apartments. By Monday I felt nearly overcome by the scent of decomposing kitty litter wafting through the air.

So, it was somewhat heartwarming to read that Mark the Litter Guy has been hired by three Business Improvement Areas to clean up Queen Street from Roncesvalles to University Avenue during this strike.

You may have seen Mark around. He's the guy with the billboard strapped to his back, who, for the last three years, has been sweeping debris into a garbage bag along Queen West, "de-filthifying" it, as he says in his blog. (For more about the Litter Guy, read the Toronto Star profile where Mark mentions that he sometimes gets "litter elbow.")

Until now Mark has been working for donations, but if his luck holds up he may get his contract extended after the strike is over. Repetitive strain injuries aside, Mark is proof that taking initiative can pay off.

kathyo

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If gay men and lesbians can have pride, why not crazy people too? Although a smaller and less, shall I say, flamboyant event, "mad people" have their special week in the sun too and it's happening right now -- the City of Toronto has officially proclaimed July 13 to 19 as Mad Pride Week.

Mad pride is no little community event. In fact, according to Wikipedia, mad pride is an international mass movement of consumer/survivors and their allies who "seek to reclaim terms such as 'mad,' 'nutter' and 'psycho' from misuse" and draw attention to the experiences of those using the mental health system.

This year in Toronto one of the wild and crazy events is a Bed Push Pride Parade on Saturday. Advocates, protesters and consumer/survivors will gather together at CAMH and march across the neighbourhood dressed in hospital gowns and pushing a bed. Preceding this will be a Mad Tea Party. (I wonder if Alice will be there?)

My closest experience of madness took place around 10 years ago when a friend and former co-worker I'll call Linda, who has bipolar "disorder", went manic for a spell. I remember that during that period she had a lot of trouble sleeping and would stay up all night cleaning bathroom tiles or compulsively making floor mats. I was one of a group of friends who would hang out with her round the clock so that she wouldn't do anything rash. (We weren't always successful, I'm afraid.)

Linda isn't exactly a mad pride activist but she is pretty open about what she refers to as her craziness. I think she'd like the following statement from the MindFreedom International website: "Mad Pride celebrates everyone's 'creative maladjustment' as Martin Luther King, Jr. so often proudly described his own psychological state."

I at least like that statement. Be it depression, anxiety, addiction, schizophrenia, I think a lot of us have creatively maladjusted to society. Some might say that it is our society itself that is disordered or insane.

kathyo

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Being a writer and all, I have written some pretty good cover letters and resumés in my time -- only to wipe out during the interview. As the cliché says; a resumé only gets you in the door. If you flub your answers or don't connect with your interviewers, there's a good chance that your finely crafted resumé and cover letter will be tossed into the "sorry" pile. At least that's the way I see it after a week of helping interview people for a vacant position.

Another cliché job hunters should pay attention to: be enthusiastic. During the interviews, the top choice candidate was so positive and enthusiastic that it affected my serotonin levels. I couldn't wait to work with her. Conversely, another candidate seemed so bored, I felt deflated afterwards. She wanted a job, any job, not particularly one with our organization, and it showed.

This last choice candidate (with scads more experience than the front-runner) also implied that one of our competitors was more sophisticated and had higher standards than us. It's perfectly fine to mention a few ways you think a company could improve but you're not going to win points by comparing an organization unfavourably to a competitor or emphatically stating how a company should change.

If you ever get the chance to sit on a hiring committee, take it. It gives you the chance to be on the "other side" and see what works and what does not when it comes to interviews, resumés and cover letters.

kathyo

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I am not exactly a poster child for the early riser movement. Like my cats, I spring to life at precisely 10 minutes to 11 each night. At university I did my best writing sometime between 3 and 4 a.m. -- pulling all nighters seemed like a natural state of affairs to me.

For years I have been trying to pack it in by 10 o'clock so I can arise at 6 a.m. to do yoga and meditate, all to set the stage for my "highly productive" day. So far, my night owl tendencies have won the war; in fact, the only time I see the sun rise is when I am on the way to the Toronto airport.

Somewhere deep inside I resonate with the Monster.ca article, Staying Motivated on Your Job Search, which advocates getting up early so you have the time to do things that inspire you. The article contends that the first 30 minutes of your day can affect your performance for the rest of the day. "When you start your day well, you will be at your best while you search for the job you deserve."

(Gulp, I'm not sure if running down the street knocking people out of the way so I can catch the Parliament bus could be called starting the day well.)

If you struggle with mornings please don't heed my example, instead take a look at How to Become an Early Riser, which offers tips on how to get up in the wee hours of the day. I like tip # 9 best: getting a Clocky alarm clock with wheels that runs around the room when the alarm goes off, not stopping until you find it and shut it off.

kathyo

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I was recently on vacation and decided to work on some home renovation projects including putting in a patio in the backyard. An ambitious project I admit, but I had taken the brief course offered by Unilock and was good to go. I needed to dig down a foot or so, put in fabric and screenings and build the base for paving stone. After about the second day of hauling stuff with my wheelbarrow I thought maybe I could get a student to help me and I would pay them well for this "grunt" work. In the old days you could call the Youth Summer Employment Centre operated by what is now Service Canada and get a student helper, babysitter, sales clerk, general labourer or whatever, which was a great thing.

So I called 1-800-O-Canada to get the number of the local youth employment centre. The employee who answered had no telephone number for the youth employment centre. I knew there was such a centre on Neilson Road. I then called a friend who gave me the number. I called and explained my situation. I was asked to visit the office the next day to complete a request for staff to help with my patio project.

In the end I didn't go to the office. I feared that I would be denied because I wasn't planning to pay into Employment Insurance or workers' compensation and I would lose a day of ditch digging. To quote Samantha from Sex in the City, I can't help but think that if I were a real employer wanting to give a young person some gainful summer employment would I be tenacious enough to dig through the bureaucracy.

Susan Stone

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I went back to school in my mid-20s. At that time I had an undergrad degree, an okay job, even some plans to actually buy a place with my partner at the time, instead of renting. Three years and a grad degree later I was struggling with a huge student debt, I couldn't find a job, I was single and I was renting a room (not even an apartment) because I couldn't afford anything else. Yet, I did not regret my decision to turn my life upside down for school.

In the article Going Back to School: Is It Right For You? the author, James Houston, debates the pros and cons of making this crucial decision. The article is from 2007 but it's timely now in these dire economic times as lots of people decide to go back to school after being laid off. Is it a wise decision to do so? Not always, and it almost always involves some sacrifices (financial and otherwise). But with proper research, your decision may be just the best thing for you.

In May we featured an article about Labour Market Information (LMI); so, that's one place where you could start getting an idea about the fields that interest you. Through LMI you can discover current economic trends, salaries and what kind of demand there is for your future career.

ttyl

Jowita

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