Satisfaction Guaranteed....Not!

 Many people are unhappy with their jobs, but in today's rough economy now is not the time to be unemployed and looking for a new career. While most have opted to grin and bear it, their may be a few simple steps you can take to help you find happiness in your current position. 

The old saying misery loves company rings true. If you feel as if you're being overworked, or that the workplace environment is becoming more and more toxic, chances are you are not alone. Talk to your co-workers or others in similar positions and you may find solace in knowing that others feel the same way as you. It is of psychological benefit to have somebody who can relate to your problems and it is crucial that you have allies who can help you to try and change your working conditions. It also possible that you will find that your expectations are a bit unreasonable and you will then be further encouraged to find the positives in your current position.

It is important that you recognize that you are most likely your own toughest critic. If you begin to take note of what is most upsetting you at work you may find that it is your inability to reach your own goals. If upon doing a little self-analysis you find this to be the case, you may want to split up your goals into smaller more attainable sub-goals. In doing so you may find a bit more satisfaction in your work. You may also find yourself to be more organized and focused throughout the day which can insure your success.

Alternatively, if you discover that it is your manager who is issuing too many expectations, you may want to set up a meeting with them. Most people find themselves achieving more career success if they are given a bit of freedom in which they can utilize their creativity as opposed to being micromanaged. In exchange for this freedom you may have to offer improved results, so only meet with your boss if you think you can deliver otherwise you may be putting your job in jeopardy and may only find less happiness.

If you are finding that with the downturn of the economy you are being asked to do more and more, you may need to develop a few coping mechanisms. If you are a manager suddenly faced with an increasing number of tasks you may want to sharpen your delegations skills. Delegating to competent employees can help spread the workload and gives your employees an opportunity to shine. You may also need to make more of an effort to reduce stress in your life. Whether you relieve stress by meditating, exercising or meeting up with friends you may need to up the ante if your work begins to demand too much of you. Ultimately however you need to know when you've been given too much. It is important that you cap your hours, ideally keeping them in the single digits, and that you let your boss know if you're drowning in work.

For some unfortunately these tips may not be enough to ward off unhappiness within their careers. If faced with that situation and little other alternatives, people may want to consider if they can turn one of their hobbies into a career. Obviously self-employment is a risky endeavour so you may want to start it as a side-project. While this may cause you to have less downtime, ideally you'll enjoy the work necessary for pursuing a hobby as a career pleasurable. Eventually you will hopefully find that you're able to leave the job you are currently so unhappy with and solely pursue this new business.

In summary, if you are unhappy with your current job don't just settle. You should identify what is causing your negative feelings and ask yourself if there is anything you can do to try and change it. Often you'll find that the answer is yes.

Successful Telecommuting: Avoiding the Pitfalls

Telecommuting is a regular employee’s dream, for many obvious reasons. It’s also a great way to combine a day job with a freelancing career, if you can manage to juggle two jobs at once. However, telecommuting often turns out to be less of a dream job for many people who are not prepared for the hazards of working at home, and many people will see a drop in productivity if they don’t take steps to ensure that they firewall home from work.

It’s not impossible to be a success as a telecommuter, but it takes a bit of
commitment. But think of it this way: it’s worth the effort to make telecommuting
work, because your worst day working from home is pretty much better than any
day at the office. What follows are some of the best tips I’ve found that work for
me, and have worked for many others. Your mileage may vary, so choose
those that will work best for you.

Create a ritual. One of the main problems with working from home is that home and work become so blurred that there’s no distinction. That’s dangerous, and a surefire way to fail. So start your work day with a pre-work ritual. This will be different for each person — you might take a shower, dress for work, eat breakfast, and plan your day, for example. But the main thing is to give yourself a signal that you’re beginning work, and leaving home behind.

Simplify. Work can become complicated if we let it, leaving our days filled with a million tasks and stretching on forever. Don’t let this happen. Simplify your work day by focusing only on those tasks that really matter, that must be done, that you want to accomplish for the day. Try to eliminate as much of the rest, the distractions, the little things that can fill up your day, or at least batch them together and do them all at once. Simplify your day, and you will be much more productive from home.

Set limits for work. Set a starting time and ending time for work, or for several blocks of work if that’s better for you. However you structure it, always have a finish time. Otherwise, you’ll work way longer than you would at the office, because there’s no home to go to. When it’s quitting time, wrap everything up, shut down, and go spend some time with the family or some “me” time.

Make a plan. When you start your work day, don’t just start working. Plan out what you want to do, picking out a few important tasks or projects, and structure your day efficiently, broken down into hour-long blocks. This will allow you to make the most of your work day, and ensure that everything necessary is taken care of.

Schedule chores, family, breaks, meals. In your schedule, don’t just put work tasks — get the other stuff in there too, or you will forget about it. Have time for your family, for eating, for taking breaks, for doing chores, for all the other things you want to accomplish by working from home.

Find quiet. If you work with family in the house, or roommates, you’ll want to find a quiet place to work. You can’t get stuff done with the television blazing or babies screaming. If possible, put your computer and desk in a separate room, away from the living room or family room.

Have a good work space. Your working area should not only be quiet, but also spacious enough for you to have room to work, with a place to put your files, your supplies, etc. Make it a place you enjoy working in, and that puts you in a productive mood.

Find your zone. Most people have a time of day when they’re most productive, when they can really crank out the work. Find your zone, and make the most of it. Don’t schedule trivial tasks during this time, but the most important tasks of your day.

Communicate. Whether you’re a regular employee working from home, or a freelancer working on a contract basis, you need to communicate with those you’re working with. That includes communicating what you’re working on, the progress you’re making, what you’ve achieved, any issues that need to be resolved, and anything that needs to be followed up on. Keep that communication regular, so you can’t be accused of not doing your work.

Groom yourself. Many people make the mistake of working in their pajamas, unwashed and loving it. However, as comfortable as that may seem, I know from experience that you will feel more productive, more energetic, and more on top of your game if you take a shower, get fully (but comfortably) dressed, and otherwise groom yourself as if you were going to work.

Log your time and work. As you have no time clock and no one to watch over you, you need to account for your time, if not for your employer or your client, then for yourself. It’s important that you not have a day go by without knowing what you’ve really accomplished, so log what you do, and how long it takes. It may seem like extra work, but really it just takes a few seconds after every task.

Use a timer to stay focused. Working from home can make it difficult to stay focused. To combat that problem, use a timer to help keep you on task and productive.

Limit calls, keep them short. If possible, schedule short blocks of time (30 minutes, perhaps twice a day) for phone calls, otherwise you may be doing them throughout the day, and never get actual work done. When making calls, keep them short and stay on topic. Calls can be one of the worst time drains if you aren’t careful.

Do only work emails, infrequently. The problem with doing email from home is that people tend to mix work with pleasure, and can spend all day in their email client. Instead, schedule time for email, and while you’re working, only do work emails. And, as with phone calls, keep them short and on topic. Do the personal emails later, when you’re off.

Set limits for a task. If you’re going to work on a task, set a time limit for it. Say, 30 minutes or an hour. And then stick to it, or you’ll end up taking forever on a certain task. If you don’t finish within that time limit, try scheduling more time for it later.

Disconnect. If you have problems staying focused, and tend to surf the web or check email or whatever, try disconnecting when you really need to concentrate on a task. Close your browser, and even disconnect the Internet if necessary. You’ll see a huge productivity boost.

Pace yourself. People tend to work hard and fast, and not realize how much they’re working. But if you telecommute for any length of time, you can burn out. Instead, keep an even pace, take breaks, stretch, walk around.

Minimize interruptions. If you can, turn off the phone and your email notification and IM, and ask anyone else in the home not to interrupt you when you’re doing an important task. Interruptions can kill your productivity.

Don’t watch kids and work. Many people make the mistake of substituting telecommuting for child care. You can’t actually do both at the same time. Telecommuting is great for the flexibility you’ll need if you have kids, but when you need to work, you need to have other people watching your kids.

Don’t go to the couch. It’s tempting to move from your desk to your couch, and take a nap or watch TV. After all, why are you working from home, right? Wrong. The couch is a trap from which many a telecommuter has never returned. It’s hard to go back to work after relaxing on the couch (or the bed), so try to avoid the temptation.

  

Plan the Time to Time the Plan

There are many people and businesses out there mistaking time tracking for time management. They keep track to a fault of everything they do, for weeks or even months. And then they stop doing it because they haven’t realized any positive changes. But keeping track of how you spend your time isn’t time management.

Time management is about making changes to the way you spend your time. For effective time management, you have to apply a time management system that will help you see where changes can and should be made.

The first step of time management is to analyze how you actually spend your time so you can determine what changes you want to make.

This is where many people’s attempts at time management fail. They look at a specific day in their Day-Timer or Outlook calendar or on their Palm which is packed with activities from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and don’t know what to do with it. So they fall back on the tried and true techniques and eliminate a few events and prioritize others. But they haven’t really managed anything; they’ve just rearranged it. All the perceived problems and frustrations of the day’s activities are still there – and at the end of their day they’re still frazzled and frustrated.

Manage Your Time with Time Management Categories

How do you actually manage time? The secret is in the categories. Look at your calendar for tomorrow. It’s probably already full of events and activities that you’re hoping to accomplish. As you work or afterward, you’ll be filling in the blank spaces.

Now look at the list and categorize it. How much time during your working day did you actually spend?

1) Putting out fires. An unexpected phone call.  A report that’s necessary for a meeting that should have been printed yesterday. A missing file that should be on your desk. How much of your day was actually spent in crisis mode? For most people, this is a negative category that drains their energy and interferes with their productivity.

2) Dealing with interruptions. Phone calls and people dropping by your office will probably top the list when you’re assigning events to this category. Once again, for most people, this is a negative category because it interferes with (and sometimes kills) productivity.

3) Doing planned tasks. This is the most positive use of time during your work day. You are in control and accomplishing what you intended to accomplish. Planned tasks can include phone calls, meetings with staff, even answering email – if these are tasks that you have put on your agenda.

4) Working uninterrupted. You may not be working on a task you had planned to do, but you are getting to accomplish something, and for most people, this is a very productive, positive work mode.

5) Uninterrupted downtime. Those times during the work day that is used to re-energize and regroup. Lunch or a mid-morning break may count IF they’re uninterrupted. If you’re lucky enough to work with a company that offers on-site work-out facilities or nap rooms that would count, too. Everyone needs a certain amount of uninterrupted downtime built into their day to be productive during their work time.

A Week of Your Past Is the Key to The Future

Now that you understand the time management categories, it’s time to use them to analyze your “typical” work week. Using whatever calendar system you use for listing appointments and activities in your daily life, go back and select a recent typical week. Go through the entries of each working day and categorize them according to the time management categories above. Keeping a running total at the bottom of each day will make it easy to see just how you’ve spent your working time each day.

Now you have the data you need to make changes to the way you spend your time at work. Are you spending too much time putting out fires? Then you need to make the organizational or physical changes to prevent or defer these constant crises. Clean up and reorganize your desk, for example, so you can find the files you need easily, and establish a routine of putting the files you need for the next day out on your desk before you leave for the day. Not getting enough uninterrupted downtime during your working day? Then you need to build it in. For instance, stop eating lunch at your desk and physically leave the building for your stipulated lunch time.

By applying my work categories of time management, and making the changes you need to make to spend more of your time during your working day in the positive categories and less time in the negative categories, you’ll truly be able to effectively manage your time at work – and accomplish the true goal of time management, to feel better.

Leadership: It's all about style

Running a business has its challenges, one of which is learning how to pick a good leadership style. Everyone has their own leadership style that works for their business and works well with their employees. To help you find a leadership style, here are a few of the most popular:

Charismatic Leader
This is the type of leader everyone wants to have. A person with natural charisma is full of life. They enjoy what they do and people love working for them. They have knowledge that helps to bring out the best skills in the people they lead. A charismatic person also sees the joy in life and helps to create a positive atmosphere.

People like to be around a person that has charisma because they can find a way to get through difficult situations. Being around a group of people is easy for them because they have natural charm that others gravitate towards. The other important quality a person with charisma has is the ability to establish trust with their employees.

A charismatic leader always has a plan for the future. They have a vision that is easy for others to follow and they have smaller goals that can help their employees understand how they can reach the end goal. Because of the leadership qualities this person has, employees don't even think twice about following this person wherever they go.

The Micro Manager
Many small business owners are micro-managers. Since they started their own business, they have more money and interest vested into the company. This causes them to have a hard time relinquishing control to their employees. When you deal with employees that are blue or white personalities, a micro manager will be successful because they can help to push those individuals. Micro managers are red personalities because they like to be in control all the time. They may not always bring a positive attitude to the office, which can cause employees to become stressed and overwhelmed. Micro managers have a difficult time taking criticism from others and they often are not afraid to hurt other's feelings.

If you know that you are a micro manager, you may need to work on yourself to start offering more control to your employees. Start by assigning some of your smaller projects to your employees and work on establishing trust with your staff. Your people skills will need a serious overhaul so make sure you look for different ways to connect with your staff.

You can still be a micro manager, but you just need to loosen up a little bit and learn to accept that your employees will not work the same way you do.

The Passionate Leader
Similar to the charismatic leader, the passionate leader is a person that absolutely loves what they do. A passionate person has a vision for the future and they can easily convince others to follow them. Their passion for their job can easily rub off on their employees as they see how enthusiastic they are.

A person that is passionate has a vision, but they usually need help to find a way to make this vision a reality. Involve your employees in the brainstorming process and ask them to help you discover goals. This helps to energize the office as everyone is working toward the same goal. A passionate person can get a large following and they are often the best leaders for non-profit organizations.

There are several other types of leaders, but these are the top 3 that are often seen in the business world. Don't be afraid to come up with your own leadership style just make sure you are a trustworthy person and you are willing to listen to your employees. Bring a positive attitude to the office to harbor a positive workplace.

Managing Information Overload: Is it Possible?

We are observing increasing hype about the wonders delivered by newest information technologies in an era characterized by knowledge as the critical resource for business activity. With the advent of new technologies, such as datamining, intranets, videoconferencing, and webcasting, several technologists are offering such solutions as a panacea for meeting the business challenges of the knowledge era. Trade press coverage of the 'productivity paradox' has further added to the speed of the information technology (IT) treadmill by suggesting that increasing investments in new information technologies should somehow result in improved business performance. For instance, some recent stories published in the trade press have asserted that certain technologies, such as intranets, have some inherent capability for facilitating organizational transformation initiatives, such as knowledge management.

Interestingly, some technology experts and academic scholars have observed that there is no direct correlation between IT investments and business performance or knowledge management. For instance, Erik Brynjolfsson, a professor at MIT Sloan School, notes that: "The same dollar spent on the same system may give a competitive advantage to one company but only expensive paperweights to another." Hence a key factor for the higher return on the IT dollar is the effective utilization of technology. How industry executives should go about deciphering the mantra of 'effective utilization,' however, remains an illusive issue. This conclusion is supported by the industrywide analyses of IT investments by the technology economist Paul Strassmann. There is no relationship between computer expenditures and company performance whatsoever. On a similar note, John Seely Brown, director of the Xerox Parc research center in Palo Alto, California, underscores that in the last 20 years, US industry has invested more than $1 trillion in technology, but has realized little improvement in the efficiency or effectiveness of its knowledge workers. He has attributed this failure to organizations' ignorance of ways in which knowledge workers communicate and operate through the social processes of collaborating, sharing knowledge and building on each others ideas.

Toward A New World Order of Business

The contrast highlighted above may be attributed to a transition of the economy from an era of competitive advantage based on information to one based on knowledge creation. The earlier era was characterized by relatively slow and predictable change that could be deciphered by most formal information systems. During this period, information systems based on programmable recipes for success were able to deliver their promises of efficiency based on optimization for given business contexts. Success stories of IT miracles of this era, such as Mrs. Fields' Cookies, have been chronicled by the Harvard Business School case writers and many others in the academic and trade press. However, as argued by Brian Arthur, Dean of Economics and Population Studies at Stanford and author of Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy, the new world of knowledge-based industries is distinguished by its emphasis on precognition and adaptation in contrast to the traditional emphasis on optimization based on prediction. He suggests that the new world of knowledge-based business is characterized by "re-everything" involving continuous redefinition of organizational goals, purposes, and its "way of doing things." This new business environment is characterized by radical and discontinuous change which overwhelms the traditional organizational response of predicting and reacting based on pre-programmed heuristics. Instead, it demands anticipatory response from organization members who need to carry out the mandate of a faster cycle of knowledge-creation and action based on the new knowledge.

Knowledge Management in the 'Old' Information Era

In the information era characterized by relatively predictable change, technology gurus, as well as hardware and software providers, have been offering out-of-box solutions that are expected to enable knowledge management. Such off-the-shelf solutions are expected to offer means for storing best practices devised by human experts in information databases which may be later used for crunching out the pre-determined solutions based on pre-defined parameters. For example, a Software Magazine article defined knowledge management in terms of understanding the relationships of data; Identifying and documenting rules for managing data; and assuring that data are accurate and maintain integrity. Similarly a Computerworld article defined knowledge management in terms of mapping knowledge and information resources both on-line and off-line. The convergent and consensus building emphasis of such systems is suited for stable and predictable organizational environments. However such interpretations of knowledge management -- based primarily on rules and procedures embedded in technology -- seem misaligned with the dynamically changing business environment.

Such programmed solutions may be good enough for devising strategies for a game of business that is based on pre-defined rules, conventions and assumptions. However such mechanistic solutions based on the traditional information-processing emphasis of knowledge management are increasingly inadequate in a business world that demands increasing flexibility and resurfacing of existing assumptions. This is the world which requires not playing by the pre-defined rules, but understanding and adapting as the rules of the game, as well as the game itself, keep changing. Examples of such changing rules, conventions and assumptions of business are suggested by the changing paradigms of organizations with the emergence of virtual corporations and business ecosystems.

A Definition of Knowledge Management for the New World

We propose a definition of Knowledge Management that attempts to go beyond the quickfix solutions or unidimensional views offered by many others. This definition is intended to move the thinking of corporate executives towards the strategic, non-linear and systemic view of Knowledge Management reviewed in this article.

"Knowledge Management caters to the critical issues of organizational adaption, survival and competence in face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change. Essentially, it embodies organizational processes that seek synergistic combination of data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings."

Knowledge Management in the New World of Business

The traditional paradigm of information systems is based on seeking a consensual interpretation of information based on socially dictated norms or the mandate of the company bosses. This has resulted in the confusion between 'knowledge' and 'information'. However, knowledge and information are distinct entities!! While information generated by the computer systems is not a very rich carrier of human interpretation for potential action, 'knowledge' resides in the user's subjective context of action based on that information. Hence, it may not be incorrect to state that knowledge resides in the user and not in the collection of information, a point made two decades ago by West Churchman, the leading thinker on information systems.

The confusion between `knowledge' and `information' has caused managers to sink billions of dollars in technology ventures that have yielded marginal results. He asserts that the business managers need to realize that unlike information, knowledge is embedded in people... and knowledge creation occurs in the process of social interaction. On a similar note, Ikujiro Nonaka, the renowned Professor of Knowledge, has emphasized that only human beings can take the central role in knowledge creation. He argues that computers are merely tools, however great their information-processing capabilities may be. A very recent Harvard Business Review special issue on Knowledge Management seems to lend credence to this point of view. This issue highlighted the need for constructive conflict in organizations that aspire to be leaders in innovation and creation of new knowledge.

The 'wicked environment' of the new world of business imposes the need for variety and complexity of interpretations of information outputs generated by computer systems. Such variety is necessary for deciphering the multiple world views of the uncertain and unpredictable future. As underscored by the strategy guru Gary Hamel at the recent Academy of Management meeting address, non-linear change imposes upon organizations the need for devising non-linear strategies. Such strategies cannot be 'predicted' based on a static picture of information residing in the company's databases. Rather, such strategies will depend upon developing interpretive flexibility by understanding multiple views of the future. In this perspective, the objective of business strategy is not to indulge in long-term planning of the future. Rather, the emphasis is on understanding the various world views of future using techniques such as scenario-planning.  

Lessons for Business & Technology Executives

So what can executives do to realign their focus from the old world of 'information management' to the new paradigm of 'knowledge management' discussed here? A condensed checklist of implementation measures for business and technology managers is given in the following table.

Table 1. Implementation Measures for Facilitating Knowledge Management

Instead of the traditional emphasis on controlling the people and their behaviors by setting up pre-defined goals and procedures, they would need to view the organization as a human community capable of providing diverse meanings to information outputs generated by the technological systems.

De-emphasize the adherence to the company view of 'how things are done here' and 'best practices' so that such ways and practices are continuously assessed from multiple perspectives for their alignment with the dynamically changing external environment.

Invest in multiple and diverse interpretations to enable constructive conflict mode of inquiry and, thus, lessen oversimplification of issues or premature decision closure.

Encourage greater proactive involvement of human imagination and creativity to facilitate greater internal diversity to match the variety and complexity of the wicked environment.

Give more explicit recognition to tacit knowledge and related human aspects, such as ideals, values, or emotions, for developing a richer conceptualization of knowledge management

Implement new, flexible technologies and systems that support and enable communities of practice, informal and semi-informal networks of internal employees and external individuals based on shared concerns and interests.

Make the organizational information base accessible to organization members who are closer to the action while simultaneously ensuring that they have the skills and authority to execute decisive responses to changing conditions.

In the final analysis, managers need to develop a greater appreciation for their intangible human assets captive in the minds and experiences of their knowledge workers, because without these assets, the companies are simply not equipped with a vision to foresee or to imagine the future while being faced with a fog of unknowingness. As noted by Strassmann, elevating computerization to the level of a magic bullet may lead to the diminishing of what matters the most in any enterprise: educated, committed, and imaginative individuals working for organizations that place greater emphasis on people than on technologies.

Fire Protection Systems and Business

This article leans towards my career based expertise but relates to any business with assets that need protection from catastrophic fire loss.

Choosing the "best" fire suppression technology is not a simple task. A good starting point is to discuss your risks and operations with your insurance carrier. The large insurance companies have consulting engineers available who will have direct experience with the various systems. Your insurance carrier has a vested interest in getting you the best possible advice.

The fire department's primary concern is life safety, not contents. Their interest in your suppression system relates to safe exit of staff and visitors. It must protect the structure from collapse, which would endanger the lives of the fire fighters. Protecting the contents is therefore the responsibility of the owner.

The starting point for choosing a fire suppression system is a risk analysis to reduce the potential for a fire. Many hazards can be eliminated or reduced. The second objective is to mitigate the damage and to facilitate the recovery effort associated with the type of suppressant used. Regardless of which system is chosen, quality of installation and maintenance is critical. Your insurance carrier can also assist with testing and maintenance procedures. The following is an overview of the common suppression systems:

Wet pipe - A well-designed system will include flow monitors and pressure gauges to monitor the pressure on both sides of the valves when closed. Once the pipe flange seals set after installation and the system is monitored and maintained, it is highly reliable. There are probably more wet pipe systems than any others. They have an excellent track record and of course fast response. As long as it is not a deluge system, heads release as needed at a predetermined temperature as the fire progresses. Wet pipe systems should be discharged monthly (to the outside through an external valve), and pumps, valves, pressure gauges and alarms verified at that time.

Dry pipe and pre-actioned dry pipe and combinations thereof are considered to require more maintenance than wet pipe. Corrosion is a problem in systems with air or nitrogen in the pipes. However, they do have a place in freezing environments. There is a slight delay before water gets to the head at the rated volume and pressure. As with wet pipe, flow and pressure monitoring will alert you to problems. The pre-actioned systems are activated by sensors, and water release can be total or zonal with the heads releasing from the heat of the fire. Pre-action systems rely on smoke detection to get the water into the pipes. If the detection monitoring fails, the system is not activated. Both dry and wet pipe require that water be shut off manually.

Water mist systems are highly efficient but the technology is expensive. Small diameter piping is a plus and the use of a mist reduces damage to materials stored.

Fast response systems respond at an early stage of a fire. There are numerous types (release controls and heads) in this class of system.

Gas flooding systems are activated by temperature and smoke detection sensors. The gas is released under tremendous pressure. Statistics Canada is reported to have damaged certain records (shredded them) that were stored adjacent to the discharge nozzle. In computer rooms gas pressure is reported to have sent heavy floor tiles flying. These systems require that the room be extremely well sealed (doors, windows, ducts, piping, etc.) to achieve and hold the required concentration of suppressant. If the detection system fails there is no gas release. Should there be an equipment failure and the tank is discharged, there is no back-up. This is a major problem if the fire restarts itself. The length of time to get a tank recharged is a period of complete vulnerability.

Clearly the most important aspect of fire suppression is the sensing technology and monitoring (both technology and human, in-house and external). The next most important aspect after design is installation and maintenance. Every aspect of installation must be carefully monitored and inspected.

In one project, water pressure to sprinklers in a large records storage room was supplied by two 750 gal/min. pumps. The seals on the pumps were not evenly tightened during routine maintenance, which damaged the seals and the shaft alignment after about two years. Parts and repairs took almost one month for each pump. When a pump was out of service, there would have been an inadequate water supply to fight a major fire but sufficient for a small blaze. With shafts out of alignment, the pump might not have lasted long enough to combat a fire.

The pump and valve room should be well secured to avoid sabotage. Main supply valves should be locked open to avoid sabotage. Pumps require back-up power supply - another vulnerability.

At the end of the day there are no perfect solutions. You wrestle with options, choose one and accept the vulnerabilities. The protection of your structure, materials and people is reliant on good monitoring technology and safeguards, routine and thorough maintenance and a disaster recovery plan.

The Hunt is On!

On top of almost everyone's list I've found is networking. Don't keep your job search to yourself. Tell friends, family and former colleagues about the type of position you're looking for. It's a tough proposition for those who might be timid or introverted, but it has to be done. According to all I've read out there, this vital conduit can not only land you a position but provide for potential customers/clients in that new position.

Another area often tossed out is temporary positions. Don't be so quick to say no to temporary positions. Those temporary positions often turn into full-time jobs. Even if they don't, working temporarily still bolsters your résumé. It also is a great way to avoid doing nothing!!

When I set out on my hunt, there wasn't a company with an opening that didn't have a copy of my resume. I didn't care or think to care that blindly applying for every position out there wasn't going to bolster my chances of successfully attaining my dream position. On the contrary, I may have burned a few bridges by using what I call, "The blanketing".

Instead of blindly sending out résumés to every help-wanted ad in your field I found that targeting companies and positions that are the right match would be a far better approach. I tailored my cover letters accordingly and adjusted my resume to reflect specific requirements of the company. Yes, it's a job in itself. But landing the right position is worth it in the end. By taking the time to specifically address the person in charge of hiring shows you've done your homework as an example. It shows you're interested in the job because you're aware of their history, growth and achievements--not just because you want any job.

If you do happen to get an interview, knowing about the company's mission, strategy and competitors goes a long ways. The interview should be a conversation. The candidate is interviewing the company just as much as the company is interviewing him or her. That means you should ask smart, relevant questions that demonstrate your knowledge of the company. When answering questions, use examples from your past work experience that demonstrate how you accomplished a goal.


If you've recently graduated from college and don't have much work history, utilize examples from committees you've served on or leadership positions you've held. After the interview, send a thank you note to everyone you met. Hand-written notes especially help candidates stand out from the crowd, since they're so rare in this electronic age. Anything that separates you will go a long way toward landing the job.

Just a note on resumes and formatting. Companies prefer resumes sent online, keep the formatting simple with a Microsoft Word document. Avoid fancy formatting and bullet points since that gets lost in the process. I can't count the hours I've spent trying to make my resume presentable in the myraid of site formatting standards out there. If you want something to stand out, bold fonts work just fine.

Well that's it for now. My first blog in the wide world of cyber job hunting practices. If no one happens to read it that's fine too. It's painting by numbers and I can count so it's all good! Happy hunting!