From the monthly archives:

February 2008

This one is from the mailbag:
Two years ago, I took a leave of absence and shortly thereafter
resigned from my job as an elementary principal after two years in
the position due to stress and a bad situation with a teacher that
was getting worse.  One year earlier, I had had successful
surgery/treatment for a cancer (melanoma) . [...]

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Terrible Interview Advice

by Lance Haun on February 25, 2008

The ultimate bargaining chip isn’t that “they have to get you a salary in the job offer” as that is assuming you will receive one. The ultimate bargaining chip that you may or may not get an offer. And if you’re playing salary games in the interview process, what’s to make me believe that you won’t play other games. Give me a reason I shouldn’t believe your entire persona is based on an ego that requires having the upper hand in order to play ball.

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HR Wench was right

by Lance Haun on February 18, 2008

So on my last post, I got a response from HR Wench that made sense. If a company doesn’t like you (it happens) and they are jerks about it (that happens too), then they have helped you out. Why you may ask? YOU DON’T WANT TO WORK FOR JERKS! At least, I don’t want to work for jerks. And if you are currently working for a jerk, you don’t want to continue to work for a jerk (even for more money, corner office). If you aren’t currently working for a jerk, why would you want to start (even for more money, etc)?

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Your HR Guy doesn't like liars

by Lance Haun on February 14, 2008

I don’t like lying so I don’t though I don’t know anyone who can claim that was true 100% of the time. Still, I don’t typically lie to job seekers because it is infuriating for them and it has the ability to burn some bridges. People, for the most part, understand that you aren’t interviewing one person. So when I say, “I interviewed another person and they are a strong candidate as well so we are going to do a second interview with them. I know it sucks for you to wait but we can’t make a decision until after that.” people typically understand. I know I certainly do.

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The economy is falling

by Lance Haun on February 6, 2008

From the mailbag:
I was recently let go from a company for not disclosing some information from my background. The company has allowed me to use them as a future reference as this job was an internship and my cut off date was approaching. Since then, I have been job searching for approximately three weeks now. [...]

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Why you hate your job…

by Lance Haun on February 5, 2008

You need to check out this post by Pinny Cohen about why people get burned out on their jobs.
An excerpt:
People are Special
One of the things that sets humans aside from other animals is our unrelenting interest in novelty, and learning. Indeed, one of the best ways to keep our brains sharp is by challenging it [...]

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New blog, different take

by Lance Haun on February 4, 2008

I got an comment from Dan at the Great Leadership blog pointing me to a post about the greatest HR bloggers of all time or something along those lines. It is good to be in such great company.
I have to say that anyone who is working full time with the leaders and managers of a [...]

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New blog, corporate version

by Lance Haun on February 1, 2008

There is a new blog out there in the staffing world. Manpower’s VP of … that’s a long title, Melanie Holmes has a blog on contemporary working issues. I am trying to decide what I enjoy the most about the blog:

Her hatred of speakerphones. From someone who is on the phone a lot, I hate [...]

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