Employee takes bath, 2

If you are new to the whole, is it MySpace or everybody's space when it comes to looking up people online, this video from Career TV, from MySpace TV, will give you a bit of a primer.

Myspace Profile Career TV


In regards to the bathing beauty, he may have had his profile closed, but a friend could swipe his video, post it online, or just make it go viral in some way. The posting on this blog increases the viral spread of the video. An example of what might look like a harmless prank, giving and giving and giving.

This is why, since the advent of cell phones, you should not flash for trinkets at Mardi Gras. Double for you wild girls. Your image is gone, far beyond your control.

Trouble at the office

Business Week does a special edition, with reader comments and suggestions accumulated online, on Trouble at the Office.

The areas they identified as "troublesome": generational conflict (X, Y and Boomers at it again), "toxic" bosses, work/life balance--especially shutting off the crackberry--and time management.

Employee takes bath in sink

This goes on for about four minutes, so you don't have to watch all of it. I saw it on the news and it will, of course, continue to be a sensation for the next four minutes, and part of the Burger King mythos for a while. But imagine if your birthday stunt was online, or just seen by an employer, you walk into an interview and wham! are you that guy...? He has a nice tattoo for identification purposes, should he ever grow into his face.

Anyway, would it make a difference if this guy showed up for a job as a shelver, technician or a professional librarian? We all do grow up, but some people are literally growing up under a lens, and do you think this should (or will) hurt his chances for further employment?

And, as for the manager, she is clearly shown in the video not going back to the kitchen to kick his ass for bathing in the sink (reasons are explained in video link below). The workers also don't seem very afraid of her coming back and freaking out on them. Unfortunately, she probably had no power to do so--this is fast food management, after all. If you do have any concerns about the manager and what happened to her, check out the television interview where Timothy Tackett, the bather, explains what happened, how he managed to make sure she was occupied, and the fallout.

It probably won't help if the video stays up forever, so I won't keep it up here for too long.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1418565565/bctid1726708550

Mean librarians make more

I know, I know, this has nothing to do with how much naughty vs nice librarians make, but when I got Mean Librarian Salaries up to 2% in 2008, in my mailbox I had to laugh. Don't be nice: you'll get better pay for nasty. Something I have long suspected.

Anyway, the 2008 APA-ALA Salary Survey is now available for purchase.

You can also get the ACRL salary survey data for free, and remember to check with SLA for their (not free) data. I think this data should be free to independent members so they can negotiate their salaries with better, more trustworthy data, but the last time I suggested this at a presentation, a member of the audience piped, but we can get it at the library. It is, at least, reliable data, and you might want to consult the tables prior to an interview.

Are their more bodies behind the desk?

This video from CBS has been passed around on a few listserves that I am a member of, but the question from the human resource perspective is: are their more librarians or are they working longer hours to accommodate increased user numbers?

The good news is that with more media attention to library usage and more people actually needing the library more, is that there should be some stability in library funding, especially for staff, programming and collections. We hope.

I just want to work with you, I don't want to eat with you

Spotted on ERE.net 

This interview is supposed to describe a "non-traditional" method of interviewing--going for a walk and coming back for dinner--but it sounds like most academic interview marathons. I like her idea of taking the time to know someone, but here is my problem:

Do I have to accept your food if I am a strict vegetarian? Listen to how she describes it: the meal is all about presentation and fit, still part of the interview. Sounds like I can't abstain.

Now, since I don't eat many shared meals with my co-workers--we have lunch together all the time, but not the same food--this is not really an issue. The last time I looked for work was before I joined the Green Side, so this hadn't been a problem. Now it is: how will I decline the pig on a stick?

Most people will think this is easy. It is not, as most vegetarians will tell you. The reasons that people become vegetarian are usually quite diverse and may be very murky, filled with dark secrets about arteries, could have to do with their religion, or beliefs about peace and nitrates, and, well, I really don't want to explain. Do you really want to hear about my arteries? No more than I want to hear about your Metamucil intake. I just want to say, No thanks, you go ahead. And drink my green tea (though, that's a lie, it would be hi-test black coffee). And not have to answer any more questions about it. I just want to say no.

Vegetarians are not the only people with this problem. Many religions have dietary rules that cross Appleby's off the list of places to go for a chat. You may also be taking out a candidate for lunch during her religion's fast day or period.

You might be able to see where I'm going with this but I'll be clear:

1. The interviewer just doesn't know about other cultures, religions and their rules.
   
2. The interviewer does know and knows she can't ask at the interview, so she is going to see if the candidate passes on the food and the reason for the pass.
   

Now the nice lady in the video is just trying to find "fit" and is possibly just the jolly Seinfeld cake pusher she appears to be, so I don't think she is Type 2. Type 2 is more insidious, especially if you have to work with a diverse client culture. I should be able to decline politely and move on. What I eat, when, and how, has nothing to do with my job performance.

Do I say skip the meal? Not at all. But I am sure it has come up for others in the past: how do you decline food without insult?

Digital portfolio with delicious

If you haven't used delicious, the social bookmarking site that is now dot-lite, there are quite a few good reasons to try it. You can access your bookmarks anywhere, you can create your own name tag and let people follow your work and research--I use this for conferences, very handy--and now, you can use it to make your own online portfolio. The idea, for educators, comes from Michelle Martin, based on a suggestion from Web Upon but I spotted it on a post from weblogg-ed (follow the footpath). Here's how it works:

You look for your online articles, add them to your delicious bookmarks and tag them with your name and portfolio (mynameportfolio). This means that you can keep your articles in order, people can subscribe to your feed of published works--or you can put it on your resume--and employers, or people who are interested in you, can subscribe to your feed. It should also help you to keep track of your work--for as long as it stays online. You should still keep your backfile, but this is one method that you can use to make your work accessible to others. (Explore workology if you are looking for a place to put your work artifacts online.)

I'll see your necktie and raise you a pair of control tops

No more pantyhose, no more neckties. I actually like Ben Stein--as a comedian, not as a conservative. (I'm like most liberals: we claimed Funny Hill.) Anyway, if you can give up neckties--which get caught in file drawers, shredders, anything with a vice, clamp, flap, shut, bam, boom-- and have more to do with sumptuary laws than egalitarianism can we cease fire on the panty hose?

Money talk taboo

This is why we can't get salary information: money talk is taboo. If people won't provide information about salary--and getting ranges makes people touchy enough--it is almost impossible to get accurate salary data for surveys.

Many salary survey sites are getting around the talking with people problem by using the salary information posted in job ads. However, this is merely a range, and they don't know what number the person was offered and what she accepted for the position.

Compound this with most people don't know how much money they make, just that they have some, and you can understand why salary data is unreliable.

Sway podcast

I have put Sway on my list because of the chapter about interviewing, and because I am also reading Predictably Irrational, and I think people who are prepping for interviews should listen to this part on the podcast about interviews.

Done?

The type of interview questions they are talking about are simulations. The idea is that you give the candidate a defined task or a problem to accomplish, correctly, in a set amount of time. Make the column in this spreadsheet add up. Catalog this webpage. Roleplay a reference encounter. Deliver a presentation. These are all examples of simulation questions in a librarian interview, and you should be prepared for them.

You should also be prepared for the ways that interviewers mess them up. The interviewers may not have prepared a scoring guide so they can compare the skills of all of the candidates equally. You may not be perfect, but you should appear trainable--a 2 out of 5 on a difficult simulation with great references is better than a 4 out of 5 with an I would never hire them again reference (some people just give good interview). They may not have tested the question, just taken it from a book, and they are not prepared for the broad range of responses--ones the book didn't tell them to expect. The interviewers also don't realize that if a simulation doesn't have a scale, it needs to have a solution or a goal. Or a mix of both.

If you have claimed to be able to do something--use a program, write or speak another language--you should be prepared for a simulation question to appear on the interview script.

Ways to make money working online

OK, I'm skeptical (aren't I always?) but some people must be able to make web work pay because they don't shut up about it on their blogs...hey, did I just have an accidental sarcastic comment? Does that make it ironic?

Anyway, if you are determined to try making money working online, you might want to consider numbers 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7 and put a library spin on it. Many of these suggestions also require that you a) fork out some of your own cash for fees to set up and b) do some initial preparation, including class notes, to get started. In addition, customers won't be automatic: you will have to set up some ads on Craigslist and Kijiji to get people to your seminars, but those are free.

Moving up dates for job offers

Though librarians are not specifically mentioned in this article, there are some librarians who will be interviewing for tenure track positions and this may be a trend that will affect the whole: moving up the dates for offers (as early as the end of January).

Other trends that will affect interviews:

• More telephone and VOIP interviews to deal with the rising cost of paying to fly in candidates.
• Need a teaching demonstration? You may be asked to create one and submit it to YouTube. Another way to keep travel costs down.
• More interviews at conferences, to do double-duty of networking and recruiting, or a decrease in conference attendance, since money may have to be allocated for increased travel costs. In the latter case, expect more online conferences and less in-person conferences.
  

Can you think of something else that will, or already has, affected interviews and job offers?