Aegle Comments – Page 3 – Random thoughts

Do Not Resuscitate

There comes a time when difficult decisions have to be made as to whether or not to carry on or to let nature take its course. Many of us have had to make hard decisions such as a loved pet that has been in an accident or has just come to the end of an active life and we have to decide if we prolong their life or let them go.

This is where we are currently with the Greek debt crisis, do they get a further bail out or extension to their loan repayment or should Greece be allowed to default and ultimately carry out the ultimate sin of leaving the Euro?

A difficult question that has no easy solution. Keeping Greece in the Euro will not solve their problems, the chances of them ever being able to raise the money to repay their debt is only by further borrowing, which is self-defeating. Despite what we may hear Greece and its people are wealthy, they live a good life and enjoy good weather, food and health; despite what people may think the average Greek does pay tax and does contribute to the nation’s wealth. Yes there is tax evasion and avoidance the same as everywhere; how many builders do you pay in cash to keep the price down, do you think they then declare that cash payment on their tax return? It is the super-rich that employ creative accounting to avoid paying tax, much like the super-rich in every country, that are the problem.

The problem with Greece is that same problem that plagues all the southern European states and many of the ex-eastern bloc countries, and that is the idea that one a one size currency can fit all across Europe. Maybe in the future there will be one currency for all of Europe, possibly even the world, but not until other measures are put in place first.

The Greek economy is small compared to the northern industrial giants, the cost of living in Greece is considerably less than northern Europe, hence the average Greek wage is a lot lower than their German counterpart.

We are not talking small regional differences as in London compared to the north of England, we are talking about huge differences in pay and prices for essentials. Conversely it is this price difference that makes Greece and other southern Euro states so attractive as holiday destinations for wealthier northern Europeans. Without this price difference Greece would lose a lot of income from tourism; which is one of their largest sources of income and employment.

The entire Euro project was implemented without any consideration to the needs of the people and the economies of each individual country, granted all countries had to achieve certain criteria with regards to balance sheet and future outlook to be granted entry to this expensive club; but as we have seen nearly all the countries that have joined, or applied to join the euro, have been economical with the truth about their finances.

The idea of one currency is good and will bring stability, but only if the qualifying participants start from a nearly level playing field. This means wage scales, prices and above all taxation across the zone are similar. This way integration will be easier as the adjustment in any one area will be slight; however the disparity between the north and the south will lead to the demise of the Euro.

In order for Greece to recover Europe must implement a DNR policy and allow the country to exit the Euro and return to the Drachma. Greece will then have control of its currency and the world markets will let the new Drachma rise or fall as conditions dictate. This way Greece will climb out of the mess left by the last 2 ruling parties that dominated Greek politics for too long and once again become a prosperous nation.

History has shown that if you keep kicking the people when they are down they soon rise up and bite off the foot that is kicking them. We only have to look at France and the French revolution when the peasants rose up and removed the ruling elite, or the Balkan states themselves; the crucible of 2 world wars.

On a personal note the return of the Drachma could be good as I have a draw full of old (war time) drachma notes to spend.

Graduates seeking work

That time of year is once again upon us as thousands of graduates depart university and have to decide on what to do for a career or how to produce an effective CV; the reason for the choice of career is many do not know what they want to do or have no intention of doing a job that has any relevance to the qualifications they obtained.

Some will go straight into work while others will take the now expected “Gap year” to see the world, do perceived charitable work, or just bum around and do nothing to get over the “stress” of hard university life where everything was paid for by parents and they spent many hours peering out the bottom of a glass.

As Career consultants we get numerous calls from young job seekers seeking advice on their future career prospects, I have always given the same advice and will continue to do so, the advice is; do not take a gap year, start work as soon as possible and prove you are better than the rest. My thoughts have been echoed by Sandie Okoro, Global lead lawyer for HSBC Gloabal Asset Management.

For graduates CV’s are difficult as they are starting from nothing with only their education behind them. It is good to put down that you were part of the Uni football/netball team, or that you worked on the Uni magazine/theatre/band, or raised funds for charity. But it looks so much better and improves your job prospects if you also had a part time job from the time you were at school and though university.

When I read a CV I want to see a commitment to work, this means you did actual paid work for a third party; working for the family business is a little tenuous and may not impress very much.

Up until a few years ago most kids did a paper round or similar, some of us worked in shops serving the public or stacking shelves, others worked at the local sports club either on the counter or cleaning; these are the kids who have built up a real work ethic and are in my mind a lot more employable than the ones whose parents do not let them work part time and fund them 110%.

If you are a parent and have kids in school or university then the best advice I can give is make them work part time to build up their confidence and help them understand the true value of money; ultimately they will be a better and more employable person. If you are the graduate leaving uni then start full time work as soon as possible and your career prospects will be better than your peers who take a gap year.

Who is watching the watchers?

Hardly a day goes by that we don’t hear about another corruption scandal at some large multinational corporation, a quasi-government body, a charity or a ruling sporting body.

How surprised were we all to hear that FIFA has been embroiled in nefarious practices and that bribery was pandemic? Next on the list will probably be the Olympic Committee or some other sporting authority. Why? Because sport is no longer about sport, it is about money and how much can be creamed off for the ruling elite and big businesses that sponsor so called sport.

Some international bodies should also be investigated, for example the UN, UNESCO, the IMF, IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), all have grown exponentially over the years and funnel trillions of dollars through their books; granted they may do a lot of good but how much money is finding its way into the wrong hands and how much is being paid to the ruling elite of these once worthwhile organisations.

Some years ago Charities were known as being poor payers, even at senior level. Now the opposite is the norm with the senior people earning eye watering salaries that dwarf the UK prime ministers salary, not to mention the costs incurred in the way these people regularly traverse the globe expecting first class travel, five star hotels and luxury limousines to transport them about. Should charitable donations be misused in this way, to the detriment of donors expected recipient?

It is not just the salaries and bribes but also the lavish entertainment all these organisations hold at various global locations and the meals served up; one of the worst being the food and drink laid on for heads of state to talk about world famine; when the cost of staging such an event could save hundreds of thousands of the world’s poorest people.

The once trusted finance industry has also had its fair share of corruption and scandal, but regulation and investigation has been created to monitor the industry. However the regulators themselves seem to be awarding themselves extraordinarily huge remuneration packages and a lavish life style; far in excess of what one would expect them to earn. Though the recipients would argue against this by saying they do a worthwhile and necessary job.

It seems that any business that relies upon public money (be it tax revenue, charitable donations or membership fees) is prone to corruption and misuse of funds on a grand scale.

One final body that needs thorough investigation and regulation is of course the EU commission, has there ever been such a corrupt and inept ruling body that knows how to spend public money wholesale without any fear of recourse or answerability?

So though many of these industries/organisations have regulatory bodies that are supposed to keep everyone on the straight and narrow, who is keeping a watch on the regulatory body? If FIFA is anything to go by then the world will have to rely on the United States and the FBI; and we all know the US is incorruptible don’t we!

Should I stay or should I go?

How many times do you wonder if you should stay with your current employer or move on? No matter how happy we are or how secure we may feel we all wonder if we are being taken for granted or if we could be better rewarded elsewhere.

There is always the problem that staying with one employer or doing the same job for too long makes you seem part of the furniture or possibly lacking in ambition; this sometimes goes with lack of or lower than average pay increases. Whilst others perceive changing jobs too often makes you seem unreliable or flighty and not someone others would want to employ; other than on a contract.

As a career consultant hardly a week goes by when I am not asked “have I been with this company too long?” or “have I had too many jobs?” There is no answer to either question, it really depends upon how you feel in your current position and if you feel you are being paid a fair wage for what you do.

Everyone’s circumstances are different, if you are approaching retirement (within a couple of years) and been with the same company for a long time but have an easy time of it, then why risk changing your job for a small increase and going to a company where you will have to work hard to prove yourself for a short time?

In the recent past it was common for people who remained with a company for a long time to see their salary fall behind the market norm, with new comers being paid considerably more. However salaries have been fairly static for a few years and the movement of staff has also declined; resulting in companies keeping good staff at a sensible level of pay.

Should you stay? That depends upon your own circumstances, has the job become mundane, do you feel that you are doing the exact same thing day in day out, do you feel you are achieving anything, are you spending time surfing the web or social media sites, do you feel excited about going to work, are the people around you starting to irritate you and finally are you getting job satisfaction?

Even if the answers to these questions indicate that it is time to go leaving may not be the answer. It is possible you could change jobs within the same organisation with a bit of careful thought and the approval of management; however it is unlikely that this will change the way you feel about the company or the people you work with.

Before you decide to leave you should take a good look at the consequences of leaving a secure job and why it is you are leaving. If it is just for money and status then the increase in both should be considerable to offset the risk. If you are leaving because you are fed up then perhaps it is not a new company you should be looking at but a change of direction and a complete new career; one were you can utilise your skills and experience in a more productive and satisfying way.

For this it may be advisable to get independent help by talking to someone who can offer practical help. There are many companies out there that purport to do this, but not many have actually been through the same dilemma and survived a complete career change.

We at Aegle have all been through a career change and understand the issues you may face and can offer sensible solutions to most of them.

It is your future and now is a good time to take a look how you can improve your life style and achieve more.

For more information call us now on 01689 820820 or drop me an email rick@aegle.co.uk

A manifesto that discriminates against one section of the workforce

Every time we pick up a paper, switch on the radio or television we see some politician spouting on as to how their ideas are best and they will save the country. Some ideas are average, some mediocre and others are terrible. But one of the worst proposals to come out is discriminating against just one sector of the work force; bankers.

There are anti-discrimination laws in place to protect people from racism, sexism, ageism, religious or disability discrimination plus many more, yet here we are with politicians stating that they will introduce an extra tax on banker’s bonuses. Why just single out bankers when there are many more professions that are giving bonuses that far exceed the average banker’s bonus. Granted some bonuses paid to senior bankers are obscenely high, but many bonuses are just average or paid in shares.

Over the last few years we have seen salaries in the public sector rise well above the private sector with leaders of local councils and NHS trusts earning in excess of £200k plus Continue reading “A manifesto that discriminates against one section of the workforce”

Promises Promises; from bad interviewers

“Why can’t employers/recruiters/interviewers (delete as appropriate) be honest and tell me the truth?” The times I hear this from prospective candidates after they have attended an interview; I have also been accused of not being honest or not giving a straight answer.

There are a number of valid reasons for the lack of response that may well be beyond the control of the accused person, job cancelled, change of management or strategy; but it is not an excuse not to let the interviewee know why they are not getting the job.

The worst cases we hear of are interviewees who have their interview cancelled while they are on the way to the interview; with one case a few years ago where one of our candidates was on the plane flying to the meeting. The excuse from the prospective employer was “we decided last night to go with an internal candidate, and as we have cancelled the meeting we will not reimburse the candidates Continue reading “Promises Promises; from bad interviewers”

Evolution of your career

It is a fact in nature that the fittest survive while those not up to the task wither and die. The same analogy can be applied to your working career.

You start your career with great aspirations for the future, you know that you are better than the rest and that you will get to the top, in most cases your driving force is money; you want to earn as much as possible and will do what it takes to achieve your goal.

As we go through our working career we have different driving forces governed by age and personal requirements, a typical career path is as follows.

Age up to 25

When you leave full time education you are enthusiastic and want to learn as much as possible. It may be that you realise that your chosen career is not for you and what you thought was a dream job is actually a nightmare; no problem just change career path, after all you have no commitments or anyone else to think about. Your ultimate goal has not altered a lot.

Money is your driving force.

Age 25 to 30

This is the time that you settle down into a set career, your ambitions are high, you are keen to learn and to outdo your work mates by getting to the top; or at least as high up the ladder as is possible. Possibly you have a partner who you wish to live with, you are getting pressure from parents to flee the family nest; which you also want to do. In order to do this you need more money and or a better paid job. It is possible that a change of company is on the cards in order for you to gain more money and possibly that first step up the ladder.

Your driving forces are money, career and status.

Age 30 to 35

You have settled down with a partner, you have commitments (mortgage, loans, household bills and possibly children and a pet). Your ambitions are still very much in your mind as you know in order to earn more money you have to move up the career ladder, or change company. You may feel that changing company now is a little risky because of your commitments, but you also know that now is a good time as it will reinvigorate you and fire up your enthusiasm once more. It may even be a good time to move to a bigger home to accommodate your growing family and assets. There may even be some thought about your future and pensions; though you are not sure if you can afford to put money away for a pension.

Your driving forces are money, status, career and security.

Age 35 to 40

Your career is going well, you have been doing the same job now for 4 plus years, you can do the work blindfold and maybe you are getting itchy feet and feel like a change; possibly a new company or maybe a change of direction. However you have recently moved to a bigger house and enjoy the trappings of more furniture, assets and a bigger mortgage. Your small car has been replaced by a large loan for a people carrier or a large 4×4 with all the trappings to keep the kids amused in the back. You have to find money for the kids nanny, education, tuition or other ex-curricula fees; fees that will continue until they leave university at around 21-22 years of age. Continue reading “Evolution of your career”

From the mouth of Royalty

Many people believe that Prince Philip makes gaffs when he speaks, but most of the time he is speaking his mind in a straight non PC thinking way; granted he is protected from too much flack by his status as a Prince, but he has a realistic common sense approach to life.
Yesterday at the launching of the new PandO cruise ship Britannia he was introduced to the Human Resources director of PandO, Paula Porter, and he stated “Humans are not resources”; how true, employees are a valuable asset no matter what position they hold. Though there are many areas of companies that have far too many “assets” that are not valuable and do not contribute to the net worth of a company.
In recent times the platitude “Our employees are our greatest asset” has been thrown out of the window; along with many “assets?” or should I say staff. Pick up the paper and see the number of companies that are reducing staff levels to “streamline” the business, or the companies that are outsourcing their greatest assets to third world countries where the asset can be purchased at a much lower price.
It was about this time that the almost friendly Personnel Departments that took time to talk to employees became the overstaffed and overpaid unfriendly Human resources; a department whose main duty is too manage the cost and deployment of workers. Human resources departments grew in size and egotistical self-importance as they reduced the number of employees that they had to manage. They produced new areas to manage, including diversity training, anti-homophobia, anti-racism, anti-sexism plus many more areas that would give them the opportunity to fire staff without any compensation.
It is not just Human Resources that drain a company’s profits, we have to add to this Compliance departments that seem to be growing exponentially in size and in self-importance. It is not that these areas are un-necessary they are a necessary evil; what I question is the power that both areas seem to wield over the business and the employees.
Both areas are cost centres, in that they do not make profit nor do they contribute to the general running of the business. In the case of Human Resources they are very quick to agree to outsourcing staff to other parts of the globe, yet they never outsource their roles to far flung destinations. Yet if the staff they are responsible for are not in the UK why should the HR roles be kept here.
In the days of 24 hour trading and cloud computing with no or very little physical paper work couldn’t compliance be outsourced to a cheaper location.
I am afraid that employees are rarely treated as an asset these days, even those that generate money for the company. Employees are seen as a future cost and as a resource that should be used and discarded when their usefulness is suspect.
Once again Prince Philip has spoken in favour of common sense.

Piggy Bank

Like many people I had a piggy bank when I was a child, in fact I had a number of different types. There was the one with a plug in the belly of the pig so that I could dip into my “savings” when the need arose and there was the solid china pigs that had to be smashed to gain access to your savings; unless you were clever enough to use a knife in the slot to extract the odd farthing (yes we still had farthings when I was a small child, they ceased to be legal tender in 1960).

The problem with the piggy banks with a plug was that not only could you dip into your savings, but that other people (siblings?) could also slowly extract your money. Whereas to rob a solid pig was more of a smash and grab, with the emphasis on the smash part; but at least you knew your savings were being purloined by a dishonest person.

We have a similar situation with regard to pensions, whether they be personal or state run. We are constantly being told to put money away for our old age, so that we may have an easy retirement. Like many I listened to all the advice and recommendations and put money away in various funds so that I could continue to enjoy a comfortable retirement when, and if, the time ever comes that I decide to stop work.

Over the years pension pots are have become like the piggy bank with a plug in its belly, as fast as we load our farthings into the slot the money is removed from the bottom either by greedy inept fund managers to boost their income or by governments that see all this wealth as their personal piggy bank to be raided as and when they see fit.

Once again we are hearing politicians of all parties bragging about how they intend to “raid pensions” to fund some other hare-brained scheme that encourages the politics of envy by robbing the “rich?” to give to someone else, not necessarily the poor. The latest cockaigned scheme is to use pension funds to reduce the cost of university education from £9k to £6k.

When a better way to help fund student education would be to take full control of student loans and to ensure that EU students repay the loans granted to them, currently there is some £40m in unpaid loans granted to EU citizens. Another way would be to make students that drop out of university courses repay the money spent on their wasted education.

With various politicians (all on final salary state pensions) constantly dipping into our piggy banks is there really any incentive to the current work force to put money aside for their old age? Try as I might I cannot bring myself to say to any younger employee “put money into your pension fund”.

It wouldn’t be quite so bad if the government were more honest about pensions and smashed our piggy banks so that we would have proof that we have been robbed, rather than seeing the funds syphoned off for non-related uses.

On a personal note I received my annual income from one of my pensions last week, a small fund that should have paid me around £5k per year; the net pay for the year was £101.00, so off to the local pub tonight for an average meal and bottle of wine.

A job for life

How many of us where told when we started our careers in banking that “Banking was a career for life”, especially if you had joined one of the big 4 UK banks.

Since then times have changed, we have seen all manual back office functions replaced by computers and mechanisation leading to a reduction in the need for so many staff. Then as the need for greater profits for shareholders increased and the need to reduce costs to maintain competitiveness we saw most back office functions being outsourced to countries that could handle the business for less money.

Gone are the days when you joined one firm and very slowly climbed the ladder until you qualified for a gold watch and were put out to pasture. It was a system that worked, but did not allow for progress or innovation either for the bank or the employee.

Nowadays staff job hop from one company to another on a regular basis, normally as a way to improve their career prospects, knowledge and remuneration; the benefits being felt by all parties as fresh blood brings fresh ideas.

The employment market has done a complete about turn over the years and where once staff loyalty was seen as a good thing now employers wonder why you have remained in one company for so long and if you have the all-round experience that is required in a rapidly changing world.

For many there is still the fear of change and the unknown, as people get older and take on more personal responsibilities (mortgage, family etc) they are less willing to risk the perceived security of their current employment. That is until someone else makes a decision that leaves them on “gardening leave” or “job at risk” situation.

I give everyone the same advice, no matter how secure you think you are always be prepared for that call that escorts you off the premises. This means keeping an up to date CV on hand at all times and ensuring that you have an up to date copy of all your contacts backed up onto your personal computer or private email account.

If you find yourself in such a situation do not worry too much, normally things happen for the best and being let go by your present company may be the kick up the backside you need to progress your career. Over the years we have helped many people who have found themselves losing their “job for life” by showing them how to get a better and more rewarding career.

Most jobs now are transient so it is up to the individual to make the most of what they have and use each position as a stepping stone to the next career move.