What Matters

Tonight, 8/18/09, we had the best crowd we've had in the several months we’ve been working this Lubbock Phoenix Employment Project. I can almost say without hesitation that 100% of the people who attended walked away with a job. I can say without equivocation that 100% of the people who attended left with hope.

The panel consisting of Charlene from Wells Fargo, Jeremy from O’Hair Shutters and Pierce from itsQuest,Inc. were engaging, funny, talkative and embraced by the audience. The audience asked tough questions, asked tons of questions and stayed on track.

All two of them.

We had two people show up and as Diana, one of the participants, left she hollered across the parking lot "Thanks, Rex, I really enjoyed this. It lifted my spirits. It gave me hope." I think she'll be employed later this week as she has a discussion with Pierce and it's bound to yield results. David, too, showed up for his second go around dressed, as usual, impeccably. I think he'll be switching jobs to something much better shortly. David's too intense not to believe he's destined to do something.

None of the preceding mattered that much to me tonight. I wasn't present. I wasn't engaged. I was distant. A friend of mine, Cindy, is in trouble. I lost my best friend to lung cancer when I was 33, twenty years ago; he was 44. Now Cindy, roughly my age, has colon cancer, the stuff that Farrah fought mightily and lived with until her death a few weeks ago.

The following has nothing to do with jobs. It has nothing to do with employment. I guess it could be construed as an argument for or an argument against "healthcare" reform, but it's not intended as either.

Over the past two years, I've often heard others like me on the sideline cheering Cindy on and saying, "I wish I could do something to help."

When my wife and I went to visit her a month or so ago we suddenly knew what we could do. We could brighten her life by getting her home back to an earlier splendor, take care of some things that have gone to the wayside as she focuses her life energy on treatment and has focused money on medical expenses marked "co-pay, out-of-network, not covered."

And so we started things moving. We have stripped off wallpaper, pulled up carpet, patched holes, floated walls and put on fresh coats of paint. And we're just getting started. I'm tiling her dining room now and shortly will move her cherished Grandmother's dining table back into a room that will no doubt make "Grandma C" smile from above. And when we get her Grandmother's beautiful atrium doors hung I think we'll hear "Grandma C" laugh out loud with joy.

Yes, you heard right: her Grandmother's atrium doors. Years back Cindy pulled them out of attic storage and carted them from Iowa with a dream of one day having them hung in her Lubbock home!

And we're working to "Raise those Doors" and make her dream come true!

Over the years, I have been involved in a lot of volunteer efforts, like Lubbock Phoenix. But for me, this one is like no other. The joy I feel as I watch Cindy focus, even for a moment, on paint colors instead of chemo, ceramic tile options instead of liver scans and window coverings instead of test results has more than offset the sore back and aches in muscles I forgot I even had!

I've opened a bank account at First Bank & Trust. I'm working toward a goal of $5,000. I hope some of my friends will help. I'm hoping 5,000 people will contribute $1 or 1 person will contribute $5,000. I'm hoping others share my desire to bring beauty into this ugliness that is cancer. Email rdecastle@suddenlink.net and I’ll send you instructions to electronically transfer money, if you’d like to contribute, or mail me a check at First Bank & Trust made out to Cindy Lucas.

That's why I was distant tonight at the Lubbock Phoenix Employment Project. That's why I wasn't engaged. I offer my apologies to the great folks who were there. Tomorrow will be a better day. That's what I hear Cindy say the nights when I pack up my tools and head home. "Rex, tomorrow will be a better day."

Hope like that we can live with.

Unbelievable Night

Wow! I know I use that word a lot when referring to Lubbock Phoenix Employment Project, but Wow! Another month and another group of about 25 or so folks participated in another exceptional discussion of how to do things better when we’re looking for work.

The questions once again ranged dramatically. We had a couple more conspiracy theorists in the crowd this time than normal, so my apologies as we probably spent an inordinate amount of time talking about “using credit histories” and the information collected on those silly affirmative action forms.

Folks, we, human resources and most companies, simply don’t have the time to seriously consider such drivel in terms of hiring and, as I said during our discussion, if there’s a company that does look at someone and hire or not hire him or her based on those nonsense issues of race, religion, disability gender, age, etc. then it’s probably not a company we want to work with perhaps even if we’re unemployed. Or, at the very least, it’s not a company we want to stay working for.

When I first went to work for Southwest Coca-Cola, gosh more years ago than many people have been in existence, a good friend of mine was excitedly sharing with a coworker, who happened to be African American, the news of my impending departure from the work world supporting academia and my entrance into the mad, mad, mad world of Coke. The African American, with a strained look on her face, exclaimed “Oh my God! Not Coke!” After a moment of awkward silence she added “Oh, he’s a white guy. He’ll do fine.” And I am and I did, but the point is companies get their community reputation for a reason and Southwest Coke had this reputation for a reason and to this day I do not know what that reason was, but it was there.

I was, and still am for that matter, a “white guy.” I’m not sure I have an accurate idea of what other non-white, non-guy communities thought of Coca-Cola, or State National Bank, or BBVA (the Spanish bank that acquired State National) or First Bank & Trust, my current employer. I guess we, human resources people, all hope that folks see our companies and think “gosh, that’d be a great place to work,” but I’m not sure I have enough stuff to smoke to get to that unbelievable unreality. First Bank & Trust I think does a pretty great job. I believe Susan B. and Adrienne H. from American State Bank would say the same thing about their bank. I think Janet C. would add that about Texas Tech Health Sciences Center and Tiffany R. would join her in talking about Texas Tech, the campus. These wonderful human resources folks all participated and three were on our last panel. I think we’d all hope people think the preceding about our companies.

What we strive for in human resources is becoming the employer of choice. The employer of choice is the company, across all races, ethnicities, disabilities, genders, religions, that is thought of as “that’d be a great place to work.”

And, I don’t believe the playing field is nearly level. I consider myself a “white guy” with a brain, and I can accept there have been advances in just about every area of this quagmire. But I’m also privy to some of the jokes and some of the thought processes and some of the policies. I still believe we tend to hold to a higher standard those who are different from us and that is simply bias and bias can simply be prejudice. That’s the reality I see from where I’ve sat.

So, with the preceding as the backdrop, let’s not get overly hung up on the fact that life isn’t fair all the time, or if your glass is half-full, most the time. The goal of Lubbock Phoenix Employment Project is not to change the world, which is good as no one has ever asked me to change the world and I’m not sure where I’d start (probably Cleveland [and I’ve never been to Cleveland, but it’s the brunt of a lot of comedians’ jokes, so I’ll pick on them in my ignorance]).

The goal of the Lubbock Phoenix Employment Project is to assist one person at a time in getting a job.

I know that’s not a monumental, world-changing goal…unless you think about it.

If we take someone who is struggling with finding a job and we help that person with their search. Even if all we do is create hope in what they perceive to be a hopeless situation, then for me, helping this one person, is a rather monumental endeavor and helping this one person has changed the world, but in a tiny way not at the macro level, but at the micro level. For that person, though, we rocked their world in a good way.

And if we change enough at the micro level over time we see changes at the macro level.

So, please accept my apologies if someone was looking at the Lubbock Phoenix Employment Project for a changed world. My goal when this thing started was not to have conversations with President Obama, although that would probably be a hoot (knowing me I’d probably just sort of sit with a goofy grin and drool, awestruck, but I’m sort of that way around Presidents [and, like Cleveland, I’ve never really been around Presidents, but that’s sort of what I envision our “conversation” being]). My goal was simply to help that obviously beaten down person in the third row, in the second seat from the left. My goal was simply to help that person taking the furious notes in the back of the room. My goal was simply to help that person listening intently in the front row.

My goal was simply to move that cloud of despair out of one person’s eyes and replace it with a glimmer of hope.

My goal was simply to turn the fear I see in another’s face and transform that negative energy into positive action.

So let’s not beleaguer the unfairness of it all. Let’s not perseverate on the things we cannot change. Like good little amoebas, let’s focus on the tiny world around us and make the tiny changes we can and see what we end up with at the end.

Thanks to the incredible panelists we’ve had to date and this last group of stellar human resources professionals, I know we’ve accomplished my goals every time we’ve met. Thanks to the amazingly accepting audiences we’ve had I know we changed some worlds. I know we did something monumental. I know, therefore, we’ve met my goals.

Thank you.

The Lubbock Phoenix Employment Project is free and open to the public. We meet the third Tuesday of every month from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the WorkForce Solutions South Plains Career Center, 1218 14th Street in Lubbock. If you're looking for work or under-employed, we’d love the opportunity to rock your world, so please, if you have a couple of hours, come on over.

Is Lubbock Phoenix Doing Any Good?

We’ve been at this for a couple of months. I’ve not only been impressed by the number of folks who have asked me to “review my resume,” but by the number of folks who are really seeking out the other human resource professionals and asking them all sorts of questions and asking about contacts.

Networking is one of those off shoots of Lubbock Phoenix Employment Project (LPEP) that I anticipated would be a significant part of the process, but wasn’t sure how many would take advantage of the opportunity.

Advice Is Fine, But…

I know advice is great, but what people need are jobs. I’ve even mentioned this to the numerous groups of under- and unemployed I’ve been talking with about LPEP. So, to use a business term, bottom line, what’s happening with all the great advice?

Around 70 people have attended our discussions. That’s an incredible number of folks who have given up two hours on a Tuesday evening and come to talk with us. And, I haven’t asked anyone to keep me updated with their progress, but I know of several who are now employed and are either blaming (if they hate their new job) or crediting (if they like it) Lubbock Phoenix.

One of my best friends is employed again after an almost two year hiatus following a downsizing. He called me and told me “Rex, I’m employed again.” His voice cracked. He said after his downsizing that he’d been progressively more depressed and melancholy and had sort of given up. He was still sending out resumes and still filling out applications, but he said he really wasn’t putting any effort into the process.

Getting a job was a full-time job. Unlike a full-time job, however, he didn’t have a boss to kick him in the seat of the pants, and that’s what he said he needed. His boss was himself and he had let himself down. Lubbock Phoenix didn’t give him this kick, but what we did do was told him “if you’re not going to actually try, why pretend,” or at least that’s what he heard.

He revamped his resume, redid his letter, took his suit to the cleaners, shaved and got ready. A phone interview (where he wore his suit) was followed by an in-person interview where he showered and shaved right before the interview, put on his suit and freshly polished shoes and researched the company. He followed up the interview with a nice thank you note expressing his desire to be employed.

He received an offer a couple of days later.

But, Rex, that’s only one.

Another lady connected with one of the HR professionals on the panel and even though she was offered a position with a government entity she chose to interview with the HR person’s company and was hired using the advice the HR person on the panel had given her. Perhaps this success story is more of a self-fulfilling prophesy, but I’d need to ask the lady who got the job if she cares. I doubt she does.

But, Rex, that’s only two.

That’s only two. There are a handful more.

But, Rex, that’s only a handful.

There is a point where this stuff we do won’t work. There are folks who regardless of how they dress, how their application looks, how they present their resume will struggle mightily to get a job and maybe won’t succeed in securing employment. That’s just the facts.

But, as I survey the rising tsunami of the unemployed, which is sweeping across much of the country, I ponder how long Lubbock remains insulated. I know of one company here who will cut it’s workforce by about half because of the downturn nationally in their industry. And although some of the economic indicators are turning up, the one that matters, people, isn’t. It’s heading in the opposite direction largely because the fastest way companies can save money is by cutting people—short-term.

So, that’s what the folks with the shiny shoes and new cars do because they have to impress the other folks with the shiny shoes and the new cars.

That’s simply reality.

I ponder as the tsunami continues to gather energy how much of that will splash over into the Lubbock market. We’re at approximately 4% unemployed today. We may see 6% or 8% or 10% before this thing is all done.

I ponder, then, if we're insulated on the downturn are we as equally insulated from the upswing?

My hope is, though, that the people of the South Plains, as we often do, aren’t looking to “Obama” for the answers, and not because he’s “Obama” and many on the South Plains would have preferred someone else, but because we tend to quit perseverating on things we can't control and simply help one another when we’re in trouble. We’re in trouble now, but we’re helping one another. That’s what we do here.

The Perfect Storm

I was worried about last night. In the only major local paper we had an announcement of the event going out every week (at least once) for the last several weeks and every week it had either the wrong date, the wrong day or both. As hard as I worked at trying to get this corrected each week brought another posting with the same error. The paper decided Wednesday was the day and we meet the third Tuesday of each month. The paper had June 17 and we were meeting June 16. Today, the paper ran a “Meeting Tonight!” notice—we met last night, like we do every month, on the third Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at WorkForce Center (1218 14th Street). Wow!

Each week WorkForce has a class for folks who are receiving unemployment benefits. Each week I go down to this class and invite everyone to attend Lubbock Phoenix Employment Project. In a month I get face-to-face with about 60 or 70 folks. Of these, we can count on around 10 people, very dedicated to finding work, showing up at LPEP. Due to my schedule I couldn't make one class and then a computer glitch at WorkForce failed to send out notices of the class so another of these weekly opportunities was canceled. I was hopeful we’d have three or four people show up.

There seemed to be a perfect storm brewing.

Again, we had three amazing and excellent panelist with decades of Human Resources experience, Debra from Lubbock Regional MHMR (http://www.lubbockmhmr.org/employment/); Cathie from Sun-Star Electric (http://www.sunstarusa.com/about.html); and Rodney from Covenant Health System (http://www.covenanthealth.org/view/Careers/default). Counting myself we represented over a half century of Human Resource experience and almost 7,000 employees with Rodney having easily the lion’s share at around 6,000.

Edwards Place of Employment, a private employment agency, was also in the audience and invited folks to come check out their offerings.

There were 21 in the audience. Even with all the aforementioned missteps we had a decent sized crowd. And, even though smaller, they asked good questions and the discussion was lively. And, as with the first session, there were folks there from every walk of life, every neighborhood and every age group. And, as with the first group, the information exchange was invaluable.


Felonies, Getting Fired, Other Not So Great Stuff

I had a friend about ten years ago who was working for an EMS service in Texas. He was planning on going to medical school. Sharp, bright, exceptional kid. He then went to apply for some student loans. A felony conviction he received when he was 17, he said, for intent to deliver, and he said for marijuana, precluded him from getting a student loan in Texas (he said). In Texas, if you have a felony conviction…what's the best way to put this…you may be pretty much screwed. We, in some respects, are not real forgiving and the road you've laid—and, yes, the person with the felony, pretty much built this road from the first brick up—is one with a major obstacle sitting in the way right at its beginning.

Sex crimes, even those that are so innocuous as to be silly, are like that as well. Companies cringe when they’re new employee's picture shows up in the break room because one of those nifty coworkers went out to the web and found the "sexual predator" area of a county's website and guess whose picture popped up? And maybe it was some real, real simple, simple deal and "we were in love," but it was a bad choice that may haunt a person for a lifetime—some junk is like that.

And getting fired (laid off is NOT the same thing) isn't as bad as being a sexual predator by a long shot, but all this stuff presents enormous challenges for applicants. I'll get 25 or 30 applications for any position I post. Of those maybe 10 will be qualified. If I’m looking at 10 applications and two of those ten already have felony convictions and/or “I hit my boss, so they terminated me” on the application, who am I going to pursue? At the same time we all advocate people being deathly honest with us. For folks with the preceding history, they may need to rely more heavily on their contacts and they need to read the following and insure their applications and resumes are way, way beyond perfection.


Quick Pointers for Those Out There Looking

Make sure, absolutely sure, your application is pristine—no errors: no spelling mistakes, neat and legible if not typed, no glaring grammar errors, properly formatted, phone numbers right, contact information correct—pristine.

I'm not sure why some choose not to listen to this fruit that is so low hanging you'd need a shovel to get to it, but they don't. About half of the applications we’re receiving go to the "maybe next time" pile because of these sorts of simple errors. That's one in two.

With major employers if the qualifications are "1 year of college accounting" and no where on the application do you list "1 year of college accounting" the computer evaluating the application will throw it into the "maybe next time" pile. Smaller employers who may or may not use a computer to evaluate the application might give folks a little more leeway. Rodney has 6,000 employees and receives 1,600 applications a month. There are approximately 22 eight-hour work days in a month. Rodney receives 9 applications an hour or about 70 a day. Spend about 5 minutes with each one and that’s over 6 hours.

No wonder the average amount of time a hiring entity spends reviewing an application is 7 seconds.

You might want to reread that last sentence as it’s real big in this whole "how do I get a job" question.

There's no way, too, of knowing how regimented an employer is in terms of qualifications. Most of us in human resources tend to follow what’s in the postings pretty closely. Or, at least we attempt to. Larger employers tend to be more regimented as the volume and their sheer size and bureaucracy demand it.

The process of application for an employer is often an exercise in exclusion. With that first 7 second pass we’re not looking for reasons to keep an application; we’re scanning for reasons not to.

"Their our know miss steaks inn this cent ants." The preceding "sentence" one of the best examples I’ve seen of what a computer can and cannot catch. Type that cent ants into MS Word and there’ll be no red underlines for misspellings and only “Their our” will be underlined in green suggesting there might be a problem. A computer generally cannot tell the difference between "their," "there," "their our," or "they’re." It can catch misspellings like "alot" (for all the West Texans out there, "a lot" is two words—sorry—"allot," however is one, but it means something completely different; and while I’m here “fixin to” is “getting ready to”). Some will say "you don’t no what your talking about." I say "Oh, but I do and in that last sentence 'no' should be 'know' [MS Word caught this one for me] and 'your' should be 'you're'" [Word missed that one].

How important is this sort of low hanging fruit that is so low you need a shovel to access it? One in two. Fifty percent. Half. Some of us eliminate, or our computers do, one in two, fifty percent, half because they use "alot." An oversimplification. Probably. Maybe not. We know when our application goes in the wrong stack, but then it’s sort of too late.

Beyond the preceding the next big "into the wrong pile" centered on qualifications.

Again, Cathie at Sun-Star Electric, and similar employers, may have some flexibility. Her employees are many times dealing with "things" and not with "at risk populations," so the pressure to hire people with more angelic backgrounds and more stringent qualifications is greatly reduced.

However, if Debra has a job that requires a certification to work at Lubbock Regional MHMR, she’s not going to entertain someone without the certification. If she needs an RN, I hazard to guess she’s not going to be able to hire a first year nursing student. If the job has a requirement that a person cannot have a felony conviction for an assault with bodily injury, as much as the person may have changed, as dated as the conviction may be, she’s not going to be able to hire a felon with an assault with bodily injury. But she may be able to look at someone with a felony for a substance abuse conviction.

So applying for these jobs without the basic qualifications is a waste of everyone’s time. There’s not a more honest way to write that last sentence, although I probably could have said it nicer.


So Low You Need A Shovel

I tell folks junk like the following all the time:

If you can't spell, find someone who knows how (like a word processor on a computer and even if you're handwriting an application, you can write it first on a computer).

If you can't write, find someone who can.

If you don't know the difference between a comma and a catapult, find someone who does.

The preceding is the fruit that is so low that we need a shovel to dig it up. And, yet, this morning I've received four applications. I forwarded one on to the hiring manager. Two were disqualified because they couldn’t follow the instructions in the application (at First Bank & Trust, as with most employers, we like folks who can follow instructions). The other one was sloppy and I couldn’t read some of the words, but they appeared to be misspelled. Hint, we all used the "scribble the word and hope the teacher can't read it and he or she will thinks it's spelled right" trick in Jr. High. Hint, the sequel, this trick is still not working.

Keep Your Hopes Alive

Eleven years ago, I would not have dreamed I would be writing on a blog about Human Resources issues or anything else for that matter, since blogs didn’t even exist at that time. But here I am and I hope my story will be helpful.

After becoming a widow at the age of 40, I worked as a business administrator in a church for over 10 years. Following a desire and determination for something different in my life, I decided it was time for a change, not only professionally, but personally. I began the Organizational Management program at Lubbock Christian University and moved to Lubbock. I pursued getting another job for a year and half before being hired as an Administrative Assistant at TechTel Communications, a start up telephone company located in Lubbock. I was fortunate enough with this company that after 1 year of learning the business, pursuing my degree and doing the billing, hiring, employee relations, etc., I was promoted to Director of HR due to having been mentored by another professional HR person, who saw potential in me and took the time to learn under her expertise.

3 years later, this same HR professional recruited me to work for Alamosa PCS, the largest Sprint affiliate in the nation. I was there for 4 years until the company sold out to Sprint Corporate.

Fortunately, Suddenlink Communications had an opening as a Recruiter and I was hired. During my tenure here, I took and passed my PHR. About a year later, I took a position as Regional HR Manager for Trinity Industries, but exactly one year later, Trinity sold out their local facility leaving me without a job again. 3 months later, Suddenlink had another opening and I was blessed to be hired back as an HR Generalist II.

None of this is too spectacular or that unusual unless you count the following facts:

1. I was 50 years old when I made the decision to make a change.
2. I kept looking even thought it took me 1-1/2 years to find my new path.
3. I pursued my degree--even though I was older.
4. I worked as hard or harder than some of the younger people.
5. Everywhere I left employment, I left on good terms, enough to get rehired.
6. I never gave up!!

Have you had one of those days, weeks or years, when it just seemed everything was against you? Maybe you lost your job, a family member is ill or you are ill. We have so much that can pull us down and make us give up hope. But, you can’t give up because you have something to offer and people are depending on you. How do you keep going when life throws obstacles at you from every direction?

1. Set your goals--what do you really want to accomplish in your life? You can’t get there unless you have established where you want to go. Write it down and keep it before you every day reminding you of where you are heading.
2. Write down the steps to reaching your goal--Do you want to be a nurse? Then research the educational requirements and financial requirements of getting that degree. Talk to the counselor at the specific school that offers the courses and schedules you can work into your life. Be PROACTIVE. It won’t come to you--you must go get it.
3. Don’t think you are alone--There are people everywhere who will help you if you have a genuine desire and DETERMINATION to better yourself in life. I have a desire to be a millionaire, but don’t have the determination to stop spending on unnecessary things and instead--put the money in savings where it will grow to a million dollars (well, those days may be gone). Desire must go hand in hand with determination to get to the goal line. Seek and find those who will and can help you.
4. Smile when there is nothing to smile about--You’re thinking "what does that do for me?" A smile on your face draws others to you--others who can help you, encourage you, think--this is a person I want to be around or help.
5. Never, never, never, never give up--You will never reach your goals, feel good about yourself or inspire others if you try but give up. Look for every resource to help you get to your goal, whether it be a higher power, friends, family, networking – it will not happen if YOU give up. Stand strong and get’er done!!!!

Life lessons are not easy but they can make you stronger or make you weaker. It is our choice which will win.

Questions, Answers--An Open Book Test

Between the three human resources (HR) panelists and I we had almost 75 years of human resources experience sitting in the room. I’m going to say I was the oldest just to take the pressure off, but I wasn’t the one with the most experience. We had a major county hospital, UMC, the City of Lubbock and a major communications company, Suddenlink Communications, and my bank, First Bank & Trust, represented.

We were all there as volunteers. I had built the thing, so I thought I probably had to be there. The others showed up because I asked. They sacrificed a night to make a difference. I was watching the whole thing come to fruition and thought “now if this isn’t what America is about I’m not sure what is:” helping one another, talking with one another, hope.

I spoke to a man who was 69-years-old and caught in the disaster that represents many of our 401(k)s. I talked with a younger man who was an out of work welder, his company having shuttered its doors as their workers waited anxiously for “senior management” to arrive with what was rumored to be a “major contract.” A woman without her GED, but closing in on it fast, several folks with felony convictions who were struggling, people with disabilities or representing those with disabilities. African Americans, Hispanics, Caucasians, men, women. I thought “now if this isn’t what America looks like I don’t know what would.”

But this isn’t my America. An America where the average age of a homeless person is nine-and-one-half years old. Nine-and-one-half! This isn’t my America land of the free and home of the brave. For although this room was filled with people brave enough to show up, brave enough to face some pretty heavy odds, brave enough to stand up when they’d been knocked down, it was not a room filled with the land of the free. For, in many instances, we have replaced the yolk of iron shackles with one no less stringent, no less confining, economic peril.

But this isn’t my America and that is the reason I was here tonight. I have no delusions that we can save America, but I intend to help an American. This country was built brick by brick and block by block and it will be rebuilt job by job. Last night, LPEP, for me this is what all this energy is about.

And, what we talked about was not real complex issues that fill the halls of Harvard or Yale or some other bastion of higher learning. We talked about misspellings, bad grammar and sloppiness.

The general consensus of this 75 years of HR experience is that misspellings, bad grammar and sloppiness account for a significant percentage of people getting knocked out of the process. Then you add in some of the harder things: getting fired, terminated or asked to leave...multiple times...and a felony conviction and maybe age, or race, or disability, or gender—yes still in my America—not everywhere, but it should be nowhere.

So, our advice throughout the night was attack the low hanging fruit: clean up the application, write a pristine letter (or get some help), write a beautiful resume (or get some additional help). For crying out loud use whatever network is available. And, these 50 folks were able to network with four of the top HR people in the region (well, 3, but it was my idea). And, when going into a business to ask for an application, dress the part. Flip flops and shorts and a t-shirt are great, comfortable clothing and super to garden in. Walk into First Bank & Trust and the majority of other employers and ask for an application and there probably wasn’t any reason to walk in to begin with.
Cover up the tattoos if possible; if impossible, well, we really didn’t address that. Ear, eye, tongue, nose, cheek, any other body part that shows stud take it out. Remove it. It doesn’t belong at work. And, we can all afford to turn our cell phones off, leave our iPods in our purses or car and generally get rid of all that other stuff that distracts us from reaching not just this goal, but many others...hmm...like building a relationship.

Some of the things in our past can no longer be controlled. Very rarely, especially in Texas, can we get rid of a felony conviction—not arguing "right" or "wrong" here (although I have an opinion about the stupidity of all these resources wasted on a non-working "solution"), but simply reality. Okay, but we can’t afford to get another and we have to be deathly honest about our past regardless of consequence. Most employers won’t hire someone who they can tell, or they find out, is dishonest. And, when we blew up at our supervisor five years ago and that ended the best job we ever had, well, there’s another obstacle, but, again another thing we have to be deathly honest about. Now is the time to accept responsibility—absolute responsibility. There was never, ever a fight when only one person was throwing punches. The responsible person accepts the responsibility.

And, I know there are folks saying, “but I’ll never get a job with my history.” Well, remember that old adage grandma used to harp on “you reap what you sow?” Or remember when we wanted to strangle dad as he once again intoned “You made your bed, sleep in it?” Sometimes we still want to strangle someone, but sometimes those things are true. The next job someone with a felony, or someone who has one or more “I was fired” on their application does get he or she needs to hold on to it for dear life until at least something better, much better, comes along.

These were the sorts of things we talked about. We’re at WorkForce Center, 14th Street & Avenue L, in Lubbock, TX, every third Tuesday of every month through December, 2009 beginning promptly at 5:30 p.m. Each month we have a completely different HR panel. Each month we have three different employers. Each month is another opportunity to network. Each month we’ll answer a whole set of new questions. Each month you’re most welcome to join us.

Why The Phoenix?

There are a lot of accounts of what the Phoenix represents and how it came to be what it represents today. They are all derived from some source of mythology and so undoubtedly we can find people who might believe in a literal bird burning itself up every 500 years and then becoming a new bird, there’s not a YouTube video someone has done of a bird actually doing this. For one thing they have no opposing thumbs and therefore cannot probably strike a match and start a fire and the whole "beat the wings while looking at the sun and starting a fire" is a bit of a stretch in reality even when talking mythologically. The following comes from the website, http://monsters.monstrous.com/phoenix.htm:

Its name comes from the Greek word for "purple" because the phoenix is associated with fire and the sun. It has been described as golden or multicolored. Some say it never eats. Others say it eats only dew. Most believe there is only one of its kind and it lives alone in Arabia or Ethiopia. All agree it is a bird of great beauty.

Powers
The Phoenix enjoys immortality, which had to be renewed with fire every 300 to 500 years. When the end of its life cycle drew near, the phoenix would gather aromatic herbs, woods, and spices from around the world with which to build its own funeral pyre or nest.

Sitting in the nest, and having turned to face the rays of the sun, beating its wings, it deliberately fans the flames for itself and is consumed in the fire. Once the old body was consumed, the phoenix would be reborn from a worm, its marrow, or an egg found among the ashes and would embark on another 500 years of life.

According to some legends, the renewed phoenix carried its old bones to the City of the Sun in Egypt where they were disposed of with special funeral rites.

That’s the mythological creature, but I was more interested in the symbol of rebirth. When my force was reduced at Coca-Cola and I was “let go,” “fired,” “terminated,” made to feel like shit and like committing suicide there was a process I went through that I think most closely associates whatever grieving process we are consumed with when a loved one dies. The scary part of the preceding statement is really twofold.

First, I’m a nonviolent person, but if I had owned massive stockpiles of weapons I could have been persuaded differently. I was treated with such incredible disrespect and not by the local friends I had developed over the years, although I thought one of them telling me would have been far better than the “HR” person coming in and slinging the severance package at me, but by the HR person from the big company—the person who should have known better, but seemed to take some delight in her repulsive duty. Slinging the severance after she had brought my entire staff in and told them “Rex will be fine. We’re going to take him to Dallas for a bit to do some training, but he’ll be fine.” A week later I wasn’t so fine.

Second, folks don’t think of “layoff” as getting fired. “It’s a business decision” is a refrain you’ll hear from those ignorant of how incredibly personal this personnel action is. It is indeed a business decision, but losing your job so someone somewhere can pocket a bit more cash is perhaps the most crass and personal encounter any of us will ever experience in the workplace. And, if I’m “laid off” I don’t have to wake up early in the morning to go to work, I have no income, I’m looking for a new job, I get to watch a lot of daytime television—this shit feels a lot like being fired.

So, I would advocate we at least use honest language with this process. We don’t have to tell someone being laid off “we’re terminating you,” but we have to quit peddling this nonsense as though it’s somehow the dawn of a new bright and shiny day. Because peddling this stuff in that way is just a big pile of really smelly horse manure.

All of that to say what I try to tell people involved in this process. First, make sure to protect your relationships. Many of us try to Lone Ranger this thing and don’t even take along Tonto. “By gosh we’re going to solve this problem” and we end up pushing away the people who can most help us and provide us the emotional, physical and moral support we need.

Second, I took maybe 24 hours and was really quite irritated with Coca-Cola for all 24 of them. And I still don’t think of the company in the same way as when I worked there. When I worked there I would go to seminars and introduce myself and say “and I work for the greatest soft drink company in the world, Coca-Cola.” At an event one time I did this and a guy from Pepsi introduced himself after I did and he said “and I [emphasis on “I”] work for the GREATEST [heavy emphasis on “GREATEST”] soft drink company in the world Pepsi Co.” Everyone laughed and the facilitator turned back to me “Rex?” “Not a big deal,” I said “they’ve copied everything else we do why expect originality here?” People in the audience were somewhat stunned, but “the cola wars” are incredibly real and incredibly harsh at times. Now, when I talk about the company I more often than not just say “I used to work for the company that produces cavity causing colored sugar water,” which is true and generates huge laughs.

When we get fired for whatever the reason I don’t advocate we continue to promote the company with all our heart and soul, but I do advocate we get moving just as quickly as we reasonably can. 24 hours is plenty long enough to mourn something that didn’t even think we were worth keeping.

Because I was told I was staying throughout the downsizing process I didn’t do anything to prepare. I hadn’t updated my resume, I hadn’t expanded and grown my network, I hadn’t done any continuing education. I had gotten fat, lazy and comfortable. Shame on me.

I vowed never to make that mistake again and I never have. I’ve also put everything I have physically into every job I’ve had since, but I no longer put my entire heart and soul into it. Work is work and when an owner decides to sell, or the economy goes into the toilet, we can hope and pray and wish for the best, but the bottom line (that’s a business term) is that if the new owners need to save a dime, or the former owners need to make another buck, positions (it’s a business decision, so we don’t use “people”) are expendable.

The former owners of the company where I was let go made over $570 million in the transaction. I made really good money. It would have taken me almost 5,000 years to make that much and I've set down with the actuarial tables and studied them...real hard...and I don’t think I'll make it that long.

I pulled my family closer to me. I contacted friends. I called and emailed every contact I could think of (when a company sells, or you get the feeling, or just as a good rule, make sure you have a copy of your contact list that’s stored on your work computer). I let them know I was no longer with this company, I was out there and I was looking. I did this in the first week after having my force reduced.

I also became even more engaged in my community activities. A good friend of mine who runs one of the larger not-for-profits in Lubbock said to me “You, know, if you keep volunteering down here so much, we’re going to have to find an office for you.”

I was at a United Way Board meeting as I didn’t quit going to these either even though I didn’t represent squat any longer. This was a few months after I had been fired and I still wasn’t working. “Rex, I wanted to thank you,” a friend of mine said after the meeting. I smiled. “Thank me. What for?” “Well, a lot of us are facing being laid off and you’ve shown us a different way to respond. You haven’t lost your sense of humor and you’re more engaged than any of us.”

That remains one of the highest compliments I’ve ever been paid. And you know what? I just felt like absolute hell. But I had made a conscious decision to keep moving. One foot in front of the other with a smile on my face, a spring in my step and my head held high and by God we can lose a job, or it can lose us, but we can’t lose our dignity, we can’t lose our sense of self worth and we can’t lose our attitude (unless it was crappy to begin with).

I received 17 phone calls over the course of the months asking me how I was doing and mentioning some potential employment somewhere. None, zero, nada came from my former employer. All came from community contacts except for two that came from family. The job I eventually took came from a phone call from a wonderful friend, a community contact and my next boss.

How important do I think networking is? Almost as important as I think our reaction to being terminated is. The process of rebirth is to pick ourselves up, cry some (for a very little time), dust ourselves off and then get moving down the path to solving the problem of having to find some way to pay for the next meal, the phone bill, the house payment, kids’ school clothes, etc., etc., etc. To sit around and get depressed and watch television and listen to the virtual abyss of ignorance on talk radio is to give away all the power we have to control our future. We get up and get moving—NOW!

That’s why the symbol of the Phoenix. The symbol of rebirth.