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November 2016

Nov 04
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Is the Cost of Grad School Worth it for Your Career?

By Your Employee Matters

1611-em-4People with graduate degrees earn more over their lifetime than people without advanced degrees. Grad school is expensive, though, financially and personally. You have to know if the cost is worthwhile to your career before you enroll.

Consider the Course Expenses

Most graduate schools charge a fee per credit hour, and books can cost thousands of dollars a year. Compare the cost of several traditional and online programs as you calculate the exact expense of grad school. College Scorecard is one helpful website that details the average annual cost of different schools, the average post-graduation salary and loan and debt information.

Find financial aid, too. A variety of options, including free grants, loans and scholarships, exist to help students afford grad school.  Ask your employer about tuition reimbursement, too.

Investigate the Cost of Living

Whether you choose an online or traditional grad school program, your cost of living will change. Consider how it will affect expenses related to your:

  • Room and board
  • Transportation
  • Salary and benefits, including insurance
  • Childcare if you have children

Remember that you can always create a budget and get aggressive about repaying debt, cut as many expenses as possible and set up an automatic savings account as you afford grad school. You may even consider taking on overtime hours or a part-time job as a way to boost your savings.

Understand the Grad School Lifestyle

Enrolling in grad school will change your lifestyle since you’ll spend more time studying and have less free time to pursue social and personal interests. You may also need to cut back on work hours. Be honest about your commitment level since grad school will cause significant lifestyle changes.

Calculate Your Future Income

One purpose of grad school is to provide you with more income. Use Payscale.com or Salary.com to look up the average salary of someone with your degree and get a picture of your future income potential.

Determine if You’ll Recoup Your Expenses

With your projected college expenses and future salary, calculate how long it will take you to recoup your grad school expenses. Use the Repayment Estimator provided by the Department of Education as you understand details about your post-grad school finances.

Explore Grad School Alternatives

After doing the research, you may decide that grad school isn’t for you. That’s okay because you can improve your skills and expand your resume when you:

  • Take free or inexpensive online courses
  • Ask your boss to cross-train you
  • Audit local college courses
  • Take a part-time position in a different field

Grad school can be a wonderful investment in your career. Consider these factors as you decide if it’s worth the cost for you.

Nov 04
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How to Counteract Workplace Discrimination

By Your Employee Matters

1611-em-3Workplace discrimination strongly affects with work environment. It lowers morale, causes conflict and increases turnover. It can also lead to lawsuits. Counteract workplace discrimination as you do your part to make your workplace safe for everyone.

Workplace Discrimination Defined

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) defines workplace discrimination as any action that treats employees differently because of their race, color, national origin, age, gender, health or religion. Discrimination is prohibited during every phase of employment. Employers cannot violate this federal law as they hire, assign jobs, pay, give benefits to, promote, discipline or fire employees.

Implement Anti-Discrimination Policies

The first step to counteract discrimination and create a unified workplace is to implement anti-discrimination policies. Management should set the tone for the entire workforce and outline acceptable behaviors since employees may not know what discrimination looks like.

Those policies should include details about discrimination such as:

  • The official definition of discrimination
  • Prohibited behaviors
  • Penalties for violating discriminatory policies
  • Affirmation that the company will not retaliate against anyone who reports discrimination

Hold Anti-Discrimination Trainings

Regular trainings ensure the entire workforce remains discrimination-free. They should be held at every level for all employees.

During training, employees learn about federal anti-discrimination laws and potential penalties companies face for violations. They should also review workplace policies. If specific cases of discrimination are happening, the training should address those issues via role playing that teaches employees the right way to handle differences. A question and answer session can clarify details.

Know the Procedures for Reporting Discrimination

Every workplace should have a formal process in place for reporting discrimination. It assures employees that the company takes discrimination seriously and is committed to workplace safety.

Employee should all be encouraged to report issues as soon as possible. They should know who to talk to about discrimination, what forms will need to be completed and how to document the discrimination. Also, management needs to reinforce that every discrimination charge will be investigated quickly and thoroughly and that they will take any needed disciplinary action, even if it remains confidential.

Establish Anti-Discrimination Groups

Depending on the size of your company, you can establish anti-discrimination groups. These groups are made of subgroups, including women, minority workers or older employees.

Group members meet together and share their experiences with discrimination. Together, they then suggest solutions that prevent discrimination. Their feedback can create new policies and raise awareness about discrimination and workplace safety.

Workplace diversity and collaboration creates a safe workplace. Understand the anti-discrimination policies in place at your workplace, and make every attempt to get to know your co-workers as you counteract discrimination and protect yourself, your co-workers and your workplace environment.

Nov 04
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Ways LinkedIn Can Boost Your Job Search

By Your Employee Matters

1611-em-2When it’s time to look for a new job, LinkedIn can help. It’s a social media site many recruiters, employers and job hunters use. Boost your job search when you use LinkedIn, too.

Check Out Networking Opportunities

Networking events can help you meet people, including potential employers. Scroll through your list of contacts and see if they’re attending any local or online networking events that you, too, can join as you get your name out there.

Discover Industry Trends

Most industries change regularly, and you need to be on top of the changes as you stay relevant in your job search. LinkedIn Pulse, found in the Interests menu, includes articles that may relate to your industry or skills and help you discover industry trends.

Share Your Resume

Up to 93 percent of job recruiters use social media to research job applicants. Get noticed when you post your resume on LinkedIn. Update it regularly to ensure you remain relevant, and be sure your profile includes industry keywords, is free of grammar and spelling errors and showcases your skills.

Convey Your Professionalism

Potential employers may be watching your LinkedIn profile even if they’re not hiring now, so always be professional. Only post content you would want your boss to read, never badmouth anyone, use a professional photo and stay active as you showcase your professionalism.

Learn About the Employees

After you find a company you like, you can learn more about its employees and make sure you’re a good fit. Navigate to the company’s LinkedIn page and search by department. You can then view individual profiles and learn about your potential co-workers’ training, skills and talents.

Personalize Your Cover Letter

In a cover letter, you tell potential employers why you’re a good fit for them. It includes a bit about your qualifications and background. Via your target company’s LinkedIn page, you discover valuable information about the company that allows you to write a personalized cover letter.

Prepare for Your Interview

Interviews are your chance to get to know your potential employer better, so research their LinkedIn company page. It gives you clues about the company’s mission statement, purpose and values that you can reference during the interview.

Plan Your Long-Term Career

No one can predict the future, but you can surmise how a certain job can affect your career long-term. Simply search people who have worked in your target company and a skill or job title. The results give you a glimpse into your potential future if you work for the company and can help you decide if you should pursue the job.

LinkedIn can be a valuable resource during your job search. Use these tips as you find your next job.

Nov 04
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Why You Can be Grateful for a Frustrating Job

By Your Employee Matters

1611-em-1

A frustrating job dampens your enthusiasm and makes going to work difficult. That job may be a blessing, though. Choose to be grateful for your frustrating job that gives you several benefits.

Learn More From a Job You Don’t Like

You’ll learn valuable lessons from every job you every have, but it’s the frustrating jobs that tend to teach us the most. Learn skills like patience, negotiation or consistency as you show up each day.

Find Your True Career Calling

Your frustrating job may teach you that you don’t like working in customer service, sales or data entry. As you cross careers off your list, you can narrow down your choices and find a career you really love.

Develop Perseverance

It’s easy to quit, but unemployment isn’t fun. Learn to persevere at your frustrating job, and you’ll gain an invaluable trait that will help you in all areas of life.

Enjoy the Benefits

Many jobs include an employee benefits package. Take advantage of those benefits and open a 401(k) account or get your physical health in order. Remember to look for other benefits, too, such as a short commute, casual Friday or tuition assistance. Even though you may not like the work, you can enjoy the valuable benefits.

Learn From Your Co-Workers

Some frustrating jobs are that way because of your co-workers. However, there may be one or two people in the company who can teach you valuable lessons like consistency, forgiveness or empowerment. You might also get leads to networking events, gain a solid job reference or find an exercise buddy as you learn from your co-workers.

Become a Better Leader

The leadership at your current job may contribute to its frustration. Maybe they don’t trust their employees, aren’t available to answer questions or contribute to the toxic environment. You’ll be a better leader at your future positions as you see how not to act.

Experience a Catalyst for Change

When life is comfortable, you have no reason to change. A frustrating job may be exactly what your career needs since you can put up with the job indefinitely or get your resume in order and find a different job.

Choose to be Thankful

Despite the frustrations, your job is providing the financial resources you need to live. Choose to be thankful for it. Gratitude enhances your personal life and can help you live longer, so start a gratitude list. As you look for things that are good, you may be surprised at how good your job really is.

A frustrating job is challenging. It can be a huge asset to your career, though, especially when you’re grateful for it.

Nov 04
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What Cyber Threats DO We Face?

By Cyber Security Awareness

1611-cyber-4“Hacked” is one of the major buzzwords this election cycle. From Hillary’s emails to fears of Russia to Trump’s promise to prioritize cyber-security. Unfortunately, neither candidate has really had much of an opportunity as of yet to really dig into cyber-security threats, and even if they could, it would be a difficult thing to communicate in 30 second sound bytes for public consumption.

So… what cyber-security threats will our next president have to deal with? Here’s what we know:

  • The ISIS Hacking Division

    There was a time when a group like ISIS would never have considered hacking classified documents. But these days, you can hack a server across the planet with a used eighty dollar smart phone off of eBay and a few dozen Youtube videos to teach you how to do it. Be that as it may, ISIS hackers aren’t exactly Neo and Morpheus just yet, but they are a growing threat. ISIS has already been using their hackers in order to attain sensitive information on “high-value targets,” and this is a threat that will continue to grow into the next president’s first term.

  • Russian Hackers

    Recent reports suggest that American servers are under “constant attack” by Russian hackers. They only seem to slip through the cracks every now and then, so you could say that they’re using a “human wave” attack, a method that is far from elegant, but also very far from ineffective.

  • Domestic Terrorism (and Trolls)

    Sometimes the greatest threat to our national security comes from within. Not all hackers even have a political agenda, some of them are just in it, “for the lolz,” as they like to say.

Both Clinton and Trump have promised to put the most recent technology to work in combating hackers, but… what does that really mean? It’s more of a canned response to assure the public not to worry, right?

They say that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and it should be self-evident to anyone with a basic working knowledge of cyber-security that our next president could actually cut down on military spending by putting more money into advancements in computer technology. The NSA, CIA and freelance tech consultants could create a security system that is, if not completely hack-proof, at least decades ahead of anything that hackers domestic or abroad have access to. Einstein said that World War 4 would be fought with sticks and stones, but maybe not, if World War 3 is fought with a suped up version of Avira Antivirus.

Nov 04
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Choosing an Operating System for the Office

By Cyber Security Awareness

1611-cyber-3Having the whole office running on the same operating system makes everything run a little more smoothly. When you know that you can use the same software, there are no worries about sharing a .PSD file and hoping that they know how to adapt it for GIMP, for instance. But what operating system should you be running?

The short answer is Windows. Whatever the most current version of Windows is, that’s what you should be running in nine offices out of ten. You can find any kind of software you might need for Windows, you can get constant updates from Microsoft, and whether or not you like the smartphone-inspired interface of newer versions, it is nevertheless one of the most accessible, easy-to-use operating systems out there.

The main reason to use Mac OS is because maybe you have some kind of partnership deal with Apple, or you’re running an animation studio or something and you really love how Macs are fine-tuned to fit the needs of artists and multimedia professionals. In any event, this choice is easy, too: Just use whatever Mac released last.

The rare instance where you’re actually going to be considering using any other operating system, you’re probably going to be looking at Linux, and if you might actually need Linux, then you know the answer better than we do when it comes to the question of which OS you should be installing.

Installing Linux across the typical office is sort of like assigning an M1 Abrams tank as the company car. In the right hands, it’s immensely powerful, but it’s also a little more muscle than you need to do most work. Being open source, and free, Linux is an incredibly popular operating system for very tech-oriented users. You know all those supercomputers you read about from time to time? The ones that are measured based on how much of a football field they take up? Almost all of those machines use Linux. IT teams frequently use Linux, as do many advanced tech companies. Using Linux is not a bad idea if your entire staff is very tech-savvy, and if your particular corner of the industry is focused on advanced technology. Otherwise, it’s more muscle than you need, and more trouble than it’s worth.

In short: Most of the time you can just use whatever operating system came with your computers, whether that’s Windows or Mac OS, but a supergeek company can get a lot of mileage out of an open-source OS like Linux.

Nov 04
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Can Hardware Be Damaged By How A Computer Is Used?

By Cyber Security Awareness

1611-cyber-2In more than a few movies, you see people contract viruses on their computers, and then it isn’t long before the computer starts emitting smoke and sparks. That doesn’t really happen in real life, but there are instances wherein a computer can be damaged by how its used. It would take a little more than most hackers are capable of doing, of course, and anyone with a little bit of know-how (or the ability to use Google) could probably reverse the problem before it causes any major physical damage. But it is, technically, possible.

Speakers and Headphones

It’s possible to damage your speakers or headphones simply by the sounds you play through them. The most harmful things for speakers and headphones would be loud music played for extended lengths of time, and loud transients, being sudden loud noises that move the magnet in the speaker too quickly, tearing the cones of the speaker. It takes a very, very loud sound to do this. If you think this may have happened, play some music and listen for rattling and humming indicating punctured or torn cones.

Screens and Monitors

Turn your screensaver off and leave it off, and you’re going to wind up with an image burned into your screen. Gaming consoles can be bad news for HDTV sets, because most of them do not use a screensaver. Turning your monitor off when screensavers aren’t an option is your best bet to avoid long term damage.

Overheating

The main problem you’re going to face with your computer being damaged is overheating. A poorly ventilated system or a system that is being overclocked can suffer serious damage if made to run high-end graphical processes for an extended length of time. Most computers these days will automatically shut themselves down if they sense overheating. It would be possible to sabotage someone’s PC by turning off the automatic shutdown system, disabling the fans, and overclocking the system, all without needing to crack open the case or play with the physical components of the system at all. But chances are you would notice that something is wrong long before it would fry your motherboard or your hard drive.

In short, computers can be damaged physically without doing anything at all to the physical components themselves, but it would take a very dedicated hacker, and a victim who is very slow to catch on.

Nov 04
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Cluttered Browsers And How To Avoid Them

By Cyber Security Awareness

1611-cyber-1You install a free program, and the software is fine, it does as advertised, but… you load up Google Chrome or Firefox and you see that your search bar has been changed to some engine you’ve never heard of, an engine that couldn’t snow in Siberia, and there are a dozen other doodads and widgets cluttering up your browser including MP3 converters, Youtube downloaders, shopping apps and all kinds of features you would never download and install on purpose, and will never use.

Here’s a few tips for dealing with all that bloatware:

Give Your Browser A Fresh Install

Honestly, this is often easier than sifting through your options and settings and uninstalling and deleting every single thing individually. A fresh install for your web browser lets you chunk the whole thing in the trash and start over without having to Google “How do I get rid of _____” for a dozen different things. You can save your bookmarks, and you won’t need to stress about why your browser isn’t working.

Check Your Uninstall List

If your new software installed fifty things into your browser, it may have installed other programs, as well. Find your uninstaller (“Uninstall a Program” for most Windows systems), sort by date, most recent to least recent, and look for anything that you don’t recognize.

Download From The Source When Possible

There are a lot of apps out there that aren’t available from their developer’s site anymore. But, when possible, it’s better to download from the source than to get your software through torrents or websites that share freeware. People often take freeware and shareware apps and add installers for their own adware to it before redistributing.

Uncheck All Those Installers

Sometimes, a piece of freeware with no developer support can only be attained through questionable sources. No matter where you get your software, no matter what you’re installing, pay attention to the installation process. Keep an eye out for anything you can uncheck and keep from installing.

No matter how careful you may be when downloading and installing new software, sometimes it happens, sometimes it’s unavoidable, and you wind up with a browser that only shows you about 200×1100 pixels of content with all the extra junk cluttering it up. These widgets are usually not malware, just junk. It’s unlikely that you’re infected if you find that your search engine has been changed, but it never hurts to run a virus check.

Nov 04
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Some Of The Weirdest On The Job Injuries

By Construction Insurance Bulletin

1611-con-4Drill-bit Taylor

What do you do when you get impaled by a drill bit?

Look we warned you this list gets a little gruesome: You unscrew it.

That’s what happened when Ron Hunt tipped his ladder over during a routine drilling job and wound up with the drill bit stick in the second worst place for it to go: his head. The amazing thing is that, today, he’s perfectly fine. The medical team got the bit out, put in some plates, and he made a full recovery. Unfortunately, he was uninsured at the time, so there was some permanent damage, but only to his checking account.

Lumberjack Miraculously OK

Chainsaws have to be the scariest tool to take out on the job with you. Forthman Murff was out chopping some wood when he was struck by the branch of a tree he’d just cut down, knocked into a ditch, and then… well, he caught the chainsaw right in the neck. Amazingly, the saw missed his spine and arteries and he managed to drive himself to a friend’s house where he waited for an ambulance. If that doesn’t convince you that this is the toughest guy alive, he still lists the loves of his life as “Jesus, music and chainsaws.”

Bazooka Joe

You tend not to think much about injury in the armed forces: If your crew has a bad day with a bazooka, you don’t live to tell the tale… unless your name is Channing Moss. Moss’ unit was hit with an RPG attack, and he took it head-on, but instead of detonating, the rocket got stuck on the way through his body. They managed to get the still-live rocket out of him by sawing the fins off, and he made a full recovery. Most army guys would take a bullet for their men, but how many would take a bazooka?

Your best bet for surviving an on-the-job accident is to not get into one. But, it’s heartening to know that the human body can survive a lot more punishment than you might suspect. If you can move quickly in a crisis, if you can apply first aid and think clearly, you might have a chance at getting out of a life-threatening scrape without losing so much as a pinky toe. Not that we’d want to be in the position to find out…

Nov 04
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Scheduling for Safety

By Construction Insurance Bulletin

1611-con-3Scheduling can be one of the biggest logistical headaches when it comes to running a construction crew. If you keep giving people overtime, that can take a serious chunk out of your budget, but if you don’t give people enough hours, they might go find someone who does. Two guys on your crew might not get along, but what if you need them on the same day?

On top of all this, you have safety to consider. Scheduling is both technical and intuitive, and unless you’re going to have us visit your worksite, there are a lot of issues that we’re not going to be able to help you with… but, we can give you a few tips on creating a schedule that emphasizes safety:

Seize On Sunny Days

When you have a nice sunny day, get your crew outdoors to do roofing and siding, this way you won’t wind up trying to get your project done on time by working in the rain and cold on rooftops and scaffoldings.

Give Out Overtime Sparingly

Nothing is more dangerous on a jobsite than an overworked employee who’s in a rush to get home. Some overtime here and there is a great way to put a few extra dollars in your crew members’ pockets, but overworked employees are bad news. Anymore than a few hours of overtime a week per employee is asking for trouble.

Do The Dangerous Work In The Morning

The safest time to do the more dangerous work tends to be in the morning, after everyone’s had their first cup of coffee, but before the post-lunch wind-down has begun. Spend the afternoons hanging up drywall, use the morning to bring out the spot welding team and the pneumatic drill while everyone is still sharp. This will also let you get this work done without rushing to finish it up before quitting time.

Work In Daylight

They call’em “nine-to-fives” for a reason. Trying to get work done before the sun has come up or after it’s gone down can be pretty dangerous. When possible, stick to a regular daytime schedule to make sure you don’t have to deal with limited visibility on the job.

The best thing you can do when it comes to scheduling is to give yourself some breathing room. With a couple extra laborers, you can stretch more hours across a bigger crew, so you don’t need to worry about overworking anyone. Some people like to work Saturdays, but if you take the whole weekend off, then you have your weekends free as your “just in case you’re needed” days. Keep your scheduling flexible and the job becomes that much easier.

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