Job Search Blog

As technology leaps from frontier to frontier it becomes easier for those that employ us to monitor many of the things that we do each day.

With email and internet monitored, logins tracked, GPS units tracking where we drive and even little swipe cards we use to get into the office recording our every move, nothing is sacred anymore.

These things alone can show our bosses what we were looking up on the internet, how many hours we spent in the office and potentially everywhere we spent time out on the road as well.

How legal is it all? Can our employers just do what they want and get away with it? Well unfortunately, with certain limitations of course, yes they can.

When an employee enters an employer’s workplace, who happens to be paying them for their time, they give up many of their basic rights to privacy.

Can your employer legally intercept and read your work email?
In cases around the world the judicial system has normally found in favour of employers reading employees’ email as long as there is a business reason for doing so.

Remember your employer owns the email system that you are using, so he or she is well within their rights to ensure it’s being used for the appropriate reasons.

Jobhunters recommendation – Use your own private email for personal emails!

Can your employer monitor your internet usage?
Again because the employer owns the internet access that you are using, it is reasonable to assume that they can check that it is being utilized for business purposes.

Jobhunters recommendation – Only surf non business related sites during your breaks and only then if your company is okay with that. Otherwise save the surfing for your own time.

Can I get in trouble for what happens on Facebook or another social media site?
Yes, you can and here is an example.

You normally work weekends however you have a party to go to. You phone in sick so that you can go to the party and have a great night drinking and dancing with friends.

Unfortunately someone has a camera at the party and tags you in the photos, your boss knows someone who knows a friend of yours, sees the photos and then has proof that you lied about being sick.

Jobhunters recommendation – If you are going to pull sickies and then head out partying be prepared to get busted!

Can my employers read my text messages on my work phone?
From what we here at the Jobhunters team have managed to dig up, not easily. Obviously if they take possession of the phone they can see any texts left on there.

In certain court cases the police have been able to get hold of the content of text messages from the provider however it’s not a simple process and would need to be something pretty heavy in the first place.

Jobhunters recommendation – delete any text’s that you don’t want the boss seeing!

We haven’t covered every scenario however it’s clear to see that when it comes to the workplace your employer has a lot more rights than you do. Remember though they are paying you to do a job, and although it may seem like an invasion of privacy they are entitled to ensure they get their money’s worth.

A few weeks ago we wrote an article about resigning by email. However what amazed us was the amount of people and feedback that we have asking about resigning by text!

Firstly let us strongly point out that the team here at Jobhunters HQ do not recommend resigning by text or even by email. We recommend that you do it in person and hand your ex employer a nicely printed out official letter.

However be aware that some people do think it’s perfectly appropriate to resign by text.

If you are ever wanting a job reference from the company that you are leaving, or any kind of recommendation we strongly recommend that you do not quit via a text message.

Would you resign by text?

A large number of visitors everyday arrive at our site searching for information on the number of working days in a month. Over the next couple of weeks we will do the numbers on the major countries related to our Jobhunter sites for 2012 starting with Australia.

Public holidays vary slightly by State so please check your own States holidays. The below is based on NSW Statutory holidays.

In Australia employees get four weeks annual leave a year.

So lets do the numbers.

52 Weeks times 5 days a week = 260 days
Subtract 4 weeks annual leave (20 days) = 240 days

Then we subtract the below public holidays.

• Mon, 02 Jan 2012 New Year’s Day
• Thu, 26 Jan 2012 Australia Day
• Fri, 06 Apr 2012 Good Friday
• Sat, 07 Apr 2012 Easter Saturday
• Mon, 09 Apr 2012 Easter Monday
• Wed, 25 Apr 2012 Anzac Day
• Mon, 11 Jun 2012 Queen’s Birthday
• Mon, 06 Aug 2012 Bank Holiday
• Mon, 01 Oct 2012 Labour Day
• Tue, 25 Dec 2012 Christmas Day
• Wed, 26 Dec 2012 Boxing Day

Less 11 public holidays = 229 working days in 2012

Ideally resigning in person with a letter is the most appropriate, however if circumstances are such that email is the only way to go then here are some simple steps to follow. We also provide a sample email resignation template for you to use and tailor to your own situation if you want to.

Keep it simple
OK it’s a big deal and you are very probably irreplaceable… however it’s not the time to spill out paragraphs of issues and unresolved conflicts.

Include a reason if you have a good one
In the unlikely event that you have a good reason why you are leaving… (relocation, pregnancy etc) by all means include it.

Offer your assistance
Remember this is the time to offer to help, smooth the transition to the new person and leave a nice friendly reminder of your time at the company.

Bite your tongue
Sometimes silence is the best option, and I would recommend that you use that option when heading through the resigning process.

Sample Email Resignation

To: The Boss

Subject: Resignation – John Smith

My apologies for notifying you by email, however please accept this email message as notification that I am leaving my position with *the company name* effective March 14 due to personal reasons.

John Smith

We all grow up in different environments. Some of us had parents who drilled into us from an early age that we needed a degree to make it in this world, others of us had parents who may never have even mentioned what they expected.

Some occupations require a degree no matter what country you live in, e.g doctors, dentists, lawyers, etc. If you are planning on heading down one of these career paths you are of course going to need a degree!

On the opposite end of the spectrum there are jobs where a degree is certainly never a requirement, e.g professional sportspersons, actors, models, custodians, etc..

Most employers weigh up the requirements of the role they are trying to fill. For the best chance of succeeding you must posess a balance of both education and experience. If you have a lot of experience but less education you may be able to convince the employer that experience is no different to education outside of the classroom.

One thing you must consider is the fact that if you are being considered for a role and have relevant experience yet no related degree and your competition for the position also have the relevant experience plus a degree then you may well end up missing out on the opportunity. This is particularly true in today’s tight employment market. One way to counter this is to pursue additional training and supplemental education relevant to your chosen career path when possible.

Each and everyone of us has a unique view and chance at the career and life we want to make for ourselves and in some cases a degree will definitely help. However the lack of a degree should never hold you back from your dreams and ambitions. At the end of the day, just like on the series “The Apprentice”, street smarts along with common sense and experience definitely have their place in this world.

When I walked into Jobhunters HQ this morning my task seemed simple. All I needed to do was find out what were the most boring jobs in the world. However it’s not that easy because what maybe boring to one person can be exciting to another.

The below though would have to be boring no matter who it was, we look at five of the most monotonous jobs in the world.

Watching Paint Dry
There are some unfortunate souls out there who work for paint manufacturers and have the job of timing how long it takes paint to dry.

They stick their finger in the paint every so often to see how sticky it is becoming and by doing this the paint manufacturer can accurately estimate paint dry times.

Laundry Worker
We all know how boring it is doing our own washing, how bad must it be doing someone elses all day long! We think being a laudry worker would be a very boring job.

Envelope Stuffer
There are some unfortunate folk that spend their days stuffing envelopes for a living. It couldn’t get much more boring than that.

Assembly Line Worker
Imagine standing in the same place on your feet for hours at a time, performing the same small easy task over and over again, being unable to even talk to your co-workers. That is unfortunately the life of an assembly line worker.

Nightime Security Guard
This would have to be one of the most lonely and boring jobs out there. 99% of the time nothing ever happens (depending of course on where you work). Fighting the urge to sleep would be one of the biggest challenges a Security Guard working nights would face.

The easiest way to get some idea of the general market rate for your type of job is to check out salary surveys.

Some of the surveys are better than others and will require more information regarding background education, years of experience in the role etc.

We look at the countries related to our jobhunters demographics and provide links where you can see for yourself how much you should be getting paid! Maybe you are lucky and already get above average, or like many of us, you may be getting less than what the market pays.

NZ
Trademe Salary Guide – I really like the trademe salary guide, the main reason is simplicity. Its quick and easy to find out the range of salaries been offered for your type of role.

Aus
Live Salary Guide – A free Salary Exchange for Australians, you share yours and get to see where on the scale you fit in.

UK
UK Recruiter – A questionaire/survey that shows you what your colleagues in similar positions are paid.

USA/Canada and Others
Payscale – This site has collected career and salary data from more than 23 million people, covering 12,000 job titles and 1,100 distinct
industries in 150 countries.

If you have any other survey sites you would like to share with us, please do so by leaving a comment or heading to our facebook page.

In the past at Jobhunters we had an issue where Network Marketing type companies would register with us and then attempt to email our entire candidate database with their get rich quick schemes. Herbal products, fuel additives, Tupperware etc.. we have heard them all.

What we ended up creating was an email queue of sorts, when an Employer first registers any emails they send to a candidate heads into a holding area. Then the Employer is googled, checked and we confirm that they are actually emailing people about the type of work they are looking for.

One of the things we check is whether their email address is a company one, or a gmail, yahoo or hotmail. Often if it’s one of the later they are not a proper company offering real jobs.

Once we are satisfied that the employer is genuine we then release the emails, if not they just keep emailing into cyberspace until they figure out they are wasting their time.

It’s not a perfect system however it does filter out 99% of the spam problems that we used to get in the past.

It’s interesting that the most popular article I have ever written on this site is the one How to Resign. Here we are trying to help people find work and yet the main information visitors to our website are after is a quick and easy template for a resignation letter!

It became clear that we at Jobhunters HQ needed to find out the main reasons employees leave companies, and perhaps by doing that we can help both employers who are losing talented staff, and the number of people who end up having to search for new jobs.

1 – Job not as expected
This is the number one reason that employee’s leave according to our research both off and online. Make sure as an employer that you outline the job that you are hiring for in a realistic manner!

2- Job is not interesting, challenging or a good fit
Make sure as an employer that you hire the right person for the job, not just someone that can probably do the job. This is people’s lives that you are dealing with! It needs to be a good fit.

3 – Little or No Feedback/Coaching
As an employer you should give constant feedback to your team, not just some of them ( or your senior staff ). The others probably won’t pass it on, so either do it yourself or make sure that your team leaders do!

4 – Little or no hope for career growth
How about a little bit of hope for something better in the future? A career path? Many HR departments will be jumping up and down saying, yes we ask all our managers to work with their staff and help them with their career path but, seriously, is this happening? As it’s number four on the list we doubt it!

5- Not feeling valued or appreciated
Ever wanted a pat on the back for a job well done and not received it? Notice how quick management is to jump onto something when things aren’t going right, yet when things are going well often no one is recognised or praised for their hard work. Ask yourself as an employer which of your staff get all the recognition, and which get little or none at all?

6 – Feeling overworked and stressed
Work/life balance is something that can be tough to maintain at the best of times, let alone when you are working to deadlines and have your boss breathing down your neck (normally because his or her boss is breathing down their neck!) Remember this – if you are letting your employees become stressed out and feel overworked it is one of the main reasons they leave – so do this at your own risk!

7 – Lack of confidence and/or trust in leaders
Leaders sometimes need to remember that without their team they would be nothing! Think about that for a while and it becomes clear that leaders could well spend more of their time serving and looking after their staff, rather than treating them like inferior beings.

8- Management demands that one person do the jobs of two or more people
With redundancies and workplace cost reduction commonplace, this can often result in longer days and weekend work. If you can get the same type of job somewhere else and only have to do the work of one person why wouldn’t you leave?

9 – Management puts a freeze on raises and promotions, when an employee can easily find a job earning 20-30 percent more somewhere else.
Its hard to stomach getting little or no pay rises year after year, when other companies are doing and paying well!

10 – Communication
One of the reasons staff leave is because of little or inadequate communication from above. The more an employer gets down in the trenches and communicates with their staff the more empowered their staff will be.

Ironically, money doesn’t even rate in the top ten reasons why staff leave, yet employers often cite financial renumeration as the biggest hurdle they face when trying to retain staff.

The reasons are clear for those that want to listen, however will those that need to listen, hear?

Chances are there is someone at work that annoys the crap out of you – and you don’t know how or are not quite sure of the best way to deal with the situation.

If this describes you then you should take a few minutes and read this article – you will soon see that you are not alone!

What kind of things annoy people at work?
Well I managed to do an anonymous survey of people from a range of different backgrounds ( None that I directly work with ) and asked them what were the things that annoyed them most about co-workers, here is the pick of what they came up with.

• Colleagues that bring their kids into the office, letting them use someone else’s PC while they sit and pick their noses all day long!
• The co-worker that asks for help while talking really close to your face and having bad breath.
• That colleague that spits all over you while talking to you about a work problem.
• People that bug you for help when they can see you are having lunch.
• The colleague that asks you a simple question and cc’s your boss so that you have to answer them or act quickly when they could have just asked you and you would have done it anyway.
• Those that send you an email, then come to your desk to tell you that they sent you an email.
• That workmate that talks really loudly on the phone to their friend why you are trying to get some work done.
• The Manager that micro-manages every little thing that you do.
• The colleague that keeps talking in the middle of a conversation, Interrupting it.
• Those that instead of doing their job and helping a colleague end up chatting about family issues on the phone.
• Stealing someone else’s thunder – that irritating co-worker that takes the credit for your hard work!
• Co-workers that grease up to and brown nose management, instead of just getting on with the job.
• The co-worker that insists on sending emails at all hours of the night, especially cc’d to management to show everyone how hard they are working above and beyond the call of duty
• The clockwatcher – That fellow worker that refuses to work a minute more than they are required.
• Co-workers that eat noisely at their desk and leave a mess of food ( or stink the place out with their fish curry )

We would love to hear what you find most annoying about past or present co-workers so please share with us!!! ( Leave a comment )