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How a change in your work environment can mean good things for what’s next
As these words are being written, our nation and world is in the middle of a lockdown. It’s an unprecedented time, as commerce has been halted and financial markets have been on a tumultuous up and down. The oil industry has crashed and companies with 5 employees and companies with 5,000 are questioning how to navigate the next three days (let alone the next three months).
For some people, this shutdown has meant a hiatus from their jobs. For others, it has meant unemployment. Some businesses are getting help from the government to keep their employees — and their bills — paid. Other businesses were forced to close their doors and are probably not going too reopen. This unfortunate turn of events and entirely new scenario is a stark contrast to the booming economy of just a few months ago.
Regardless of where this economic season has taken you, it doesn’t have to be one that is without opportunity. Some of the biggest innovations in history have come out of times of necessity. Some of the most explosive and successful companies were birthed in times and atmospheres of resistance.
Your Job Looks Different When You Work from Home.
As life has changed, many people have been forced into a work-from-home scenario that they weren’t previously equipped for. If you are working from home, consider incorporating some basic guidelines for your new work environment.
Turning these suggestions into action can help you stay productive and can keep you energetic and less distracted by the life around you.
How to Know It’s Time for a New Job
The worst time to look for a job is when you need one. You’re at the mercy of the economy, the bills you have to pay, and the clock. Time that passes and opportunities that you don’t get only seem to reinforce the urgency surrounding you. You have to find something, and you’re getting close to taking anything.
But when you don’t need a new job, but simply are ready for a new, better opportunity, that's an entirely different scenario. Deciding that it's time to move into a new job gives you a chance to take risks, to move into new industries or new positions, and push yourself beyond where you currently are.
3 Leadership Traits You Want to See in Your Boss
You may be interviewing for a new job or deciding whether you should stay at the job you have. You might be looking at the greener pastures of a different company or questioning your future in the one you’re at. Whatever the case may be for your employment, there are certain traits to look for in a manager that will help you determine whether the work environment is a healthy one. There are certain components of leadership that, if present, should indicate to you that the company is a place worth staying (or starting) at.
Is Your Company Committed to You?
Employment can be a funny thing. On one hand, a job is a job. You’re being paid to perform a certain task. It’s expected that you perform it to a level of quality that is acceptable and in exchange for your work and for the quality of your work, you receive some level of compensation. Sometimes the compensation is strictly financial. Sometimes there are additional benefits, stock options, and fringe benefits based on performance. But the scenario is pretty straightforward. Performance provides payment.
How can you tell if the company you work for is committed to you?
The story goes something like this:
Members of a leadership team are talking to each other about the issue of training within the company. The senior member of the team asks a poignant question. “What if we spend all of this time and money on our employees to train them, and then they leave?” It’s a good question. It’s one that’s often asked and takes into consideration the challenges of a workforce. But the response the senior leader receives is hard-hitting and impactful. “What if we don’t spend time and money to train them, and they stay?”
The challenge is clear. An untrained workforce is a liability.
At Viking Client Services, we’re building out a team of Account Representatives who will partner with our customers and clients to produce results and work collaboratively as a team to solve problems. Our Account Representatives do the front line work of Viking Client Services.
Giving You Experience That Takes You Places
Those who start their careers at Viking build strong resumés for careers in finance, customer service, management and leadership, sales, and other fields.
Every job rewards performance in one way or another. For some, it’s the “Employee of the Month” banner or a picture on the wall. For some, it’s commissions or bonuses. Some rewards are more anecdotal…like getting more opportunities for your voice to be heard by management or being considered a more likely candidate for promotion.
However your company measures success, there are some things we’ve learned in our 50 years in business about how to measure success, what matters the most, and what really makes the difference in building a workplace that keeps good people doing good work for a long time.
The Work Gap: Between Where You Are and Where You'll End Up
Standing in between where you are now in your career and where you envision yourself being in the future is something called the work gap. The work gap is basically the distance between the person you are at the beginning of your career and the person you are at the end of it. It’s the space between your first job out of high school and the job you retire from some day. The work gap is made up of experience, wisdom, opportunities, risks, failures, successes, questions, and answers. You don’t have the luxury of being on the other side of it right now. You just have the path in front of you.
The Work Gap
Standing in between where you are now in your career and where you envision yourself being in the future is something called the work gap. The work gap is basically the distance between the person you are at the beginning of your career and the person you are at the end of it. It’s the space between your first job out of high school and the job you retire from some day. The work gap is made up of experience, wisdom, opportunities, risks, failures, successes, questions, and answers. You don’t have the luxury of being on the other side of it right now. You just have the path in front of you.
Measuring Success at Work
Every job rewards performance in one way or another. For some, it’s the “Employee of the Month” banner or a picture on the wall. For some, it’s commissions or bonuses. Some rewards are more anecdotal…like getting more opportunities for your voice to be heard by management or being considered a more likely candidate for promotion.
However your company measures success, there are some things we’ve learned in our 50 years in business about how to measure success, what matters the most, and what really makes the difference in building a workplace that keeps good people doing good work for a long time.
Finding the Right Job When You've Finished Your Degree
So you’re starting your career? How do you know where to look? What expectations should you have for your first “real” job after graduation? Before the ink on your diploma has even had time to dry, there’s already pressure to answer the question, “So...What’s next?”
Making Your Boss - And Your Workday - More Successful
Sometimes we need something drastic to wake us up from a mundane routine. Sometimes we just need something subtle. Consider these exercises to make your work day more enjoyable and your job more challenging.
What We Mean by Committed to Good
Whether it’s the interactive and professionally enriching culture that we’re building alongside our employees or the thoughtful, strategic approach we take with every customer interaction, Viking Client Services is committed to good.
Here's how Viking Client Services is committed to good:
3 Questions to Figure Out What's Next for Your Career
When people are in job-search mode, it can be a very frustrating time. Whether they’re looking for a job out of necessity (because they’re currently without one) or for a change of scenery (because they’re not satisfied where they’re at), the process can be frustrating, and even grueling.
Learn to Wait
So when the interview is over and you’ve done the hard work—you’ve answered their questions the best you knew how; you’ve asked the kinds of questions that show you’re a self-starter and engaged; you’ve done your research and tried to impress—that’s when the next step of interview tactics comes into play. It’s called, “The Wait.”
Do Your Homework
As interviewers, we often ask a potential employee a very standard interview question. It's probably a question you've been asked in an interview and you've undoubtedly given a response similar to what we've heard. We, like every other human resources department, have gotten a variety of responses.
Think Beyond the Interview
When going in for an interview, it’s easy to think in the short-term: I need a job. I need a second interview. I need to not talk too much. I need to impress.
Just about everyone, at some point in their professional career, has taken a job out of necessity. The obligation to “make ends meet” superseded the need for job satisfaction (at least in part). For some, that job lasted for a few days or weeks. For others, it lasted for years…even for an entire career. What we’ve discovered at Viking Client Services is that the reason a person starts a job is different from the reasons they stay at it.
Developing Healthy Expectations for Your Boss, Your Job, and Your Colleagues
Expectations.
They can really mess up your perspective on just about anything in life…especially work. Over the 50 years that we have been in business, we’ve employed a lot of people. Some of them have stuck around for quite a while. They’ve helped us build what we are today, a thriving, growing company with a strong presence in our community. Some of our employees have simply been “passing through” on their way to other opportunities.
Through the course of these 50 years, we’ve learned a few things about work, about employees, about what motivates them and about what makes a work environment healthy.