Astron Blog and Personal Websites

We have a new website design here. For some reason our old one just went kaput when Blogger moved over to a new design system. Sorry about any problems you may have been having, but hopefully they're all fixed now. It should be clean and easy to navigate and, hopefully, easy to read as well. Let Jennifer or myself know if you're still having any issues.

Speaking of websites, they can be a great way, for a candidate of getting your name out there on the internet. Showing that you have designed a website (and maybe putting some of your interests on there) can be a living resume out there on the internet. When I Googled "Jennifer Loftus", one of the hits that came back was her website she made in 2006. One of my friends was able to build a website which is a very cool online portfolio of her work. When done right, a website can be a great tool for a job seeker and a great way to have a Google search come back with more than a Facebook or LinkedIn profile.

But done poorly, a website can be a bad thing for a candidate to have out there. Like Facebook, Twitter or MySpace profiles should not have compromising pictures or text, so shouldn't a personal website. I recently heard from a friend that they were in the middle of the interview process with a candidate when they decided to Google their name. The result returned a website. One section on the website was pictures full of the candidate partying. Another had "life goals", which, while sounding promising, had such lofty goals as "partying with P. Diddy" and "sleeping with a celebrity". Not exactly the type of information that gets you hired.

It can be a good idea to make a personal website, but as everything you put out there on the World Wide Web, make sure it's appropriate and professional. You never know who will see it someday.

On Verbal Job Offers and Facebook Friending Your Boss

We start out on this Wednesday with an interesting post from Fistful of Talent which talks about the sad state we've gotten to in job offers when verbal agreements aren't enough. While the author of the post first laments that candidates demand offers in writing but after more research, turns the table on those doing the hiring:

But, maybe, more importantly... why have so many job seekers been jerked around when it comes to employment offers that they have to be so overly cautious? I mean for those of you making offers out there, what the heck are you guys doing?

I agree with Jessica. If you're going to offer a job to someone verbally, make sure that it exists and there's money in the budget to pay for it. It makes things much more difficult for everyone else when candidates can't trust hiring companies at their words.

Next, from Yahoo! News via Reuters the question was put out to America if you should Facebook friend your boss and America said no (H/T Wendy*)."A survey released on Thursday found that 56 percent of Americans say it is irresponsible to be friends with a boss and 62 percent say it is wrong to be friends with an employee." The interesting part of the study is that more and more, people are feeling comfortable saying that while accessing social media/networking at work is OK, doing things like updating statuses uploading pictures, tweeting, or watching online videos are becoming less acceptable to people. Hopefully studies like this will allow more companies to allow access to social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter--and have confidence that the employees will act responsibly.

*Side Note: Wendy happens to be my boss...and she sent this to me--do you think she's hinting at something?

Office Etiquette and Facebook as a Hiring Tool

We start off here on our Thursday with an article from Yahoo! and Forbes on Office Etiquette Essentials (H/T Wendy). This is not good news:

Christine Pearson, professor of management at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz. and coauthor of The Cost of Bad Behavior, says 96% of Americans report experiencing rudeness at work, and 48% say they are treated uncivilly at least once a week.

This kind of manners meltdown can have a direct effect on the bottom line. According to surveys conducted by Pearson and her colleagues, 48% of poorly treated employees have intentionally decreased their productivity and 12% say the boorish behavior compelled them to quit. Workplace rudeness costs employers an average of $50,000 per worker. "There are very high costs associated with even seemingly inconsequential inconsiderate words and actions," adds Pearson.

Ouch

Next comes from itWorldCanada and says that using social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook as talent sourcing tools may open up a company to potential legal repercussions.

Lastly, from Business Insurance, a court ruling from Florida that says that illegal immigrants are due workers comp benefits (H/T Jennifer)

Losing Disability Benefits Because of Facebook/Chippendales

The Lede from The New York Times had this as a title: "Depressed Woman Appears Happy on Facebook, Trouble Ensues."  When you read through the story (first reported from CBC News), it's another lesson to employees to watch what you post on sites like Facebook:

A 29-year-old Canadian woman who says she’s too depressed to do her job claims that her employer’s insurance company stopped paying her disability benefits because she posted some photographs of herself on Facebook in which she appeared to be happy.

Nathalie Blanchard, who has been on sick leave from an IBM office in Quebec since “she was diagnosed with major depression” 18 months ago, called her employer’s insurance company, Manulife, to ask why she had stopped receiving her monthly check. Ms. Blanchard says that an insurance agent informed her that photographs she had posted on her Facebook account — showing her apparently enjoying a Chippendales show, her birthday party and a beach vacation — proved that she was not depressed

Now I can't see how this can stand (but then again I don't know the Canadian court system that well). I'm not sure an insurance agent is qualified to tell if a woman is depressed or not based on photos she posted on Facebook. And if she was enjoying Chippendales, her birthday and a beach vacation, isn't she a normal human being. Let's just say things got worse for Blanchard after this...

[Her lawyer, Tom Lavin] told The Gazette, a Montreal newspaper, that his client’s mortgage insurance was cut off because someone alerted her financial institution to the supposedly damning Facebook photos. “That forced her to sell her house because she can’t afford to pay her mortgage,” Mr. Lavin told The Gazette, “her credit has gone down the tubes and her reputation has been damaged. She’s not having a good time.”

If she wasn't depressed before...Ouch.

Follow Us On Twitter

We now have a blog account on Twitter! Follow us @astronworldofhr (and follow Jennifer @astronsolutions)

Also, if you're more into Facebook, you can follow us there via Networked Blogs

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We continue to move further and further into the social networking arena...

Become a fan of our blog on Facebook: click here

Facebook, Google, and the People

Greetings from Richmond, VA...

Livemint.com (from the Wall Street Journal) tells us what Facebook has to do with Human Resources: click here

HR Marketer Blog has some information on how Google rocks and the rolling of HR professionals and suppliers into one community: click here

Lastly, this Human Resources blog says that no matter what media is out there, Human Resources is about the people: click here

Craigslist and The Rest of the List

Among the social networking and various online websites designed to attract job seekers and job posters alike, Craigslist, a website that is more well-know for selling tickets or finding apartments has become a go-to source according to the Wall Street Journal: click here

Personally, I think Craigslist has some advantages and some limitations for both job seekers and job posters, but it is an excellent site to use for posting an open position. It may not be as aesthetically pleasing as Monster or have the name of Careerbuilder or have the social networking opportunities of a Facebook or provide easy searchability like the New York Times jobs website...but with its growing audience and ease of use, it may be the place to be for Human Resource professionals and people looking for jobs in this difficult job market...

From the Boston Globe's Boston.com Monster.com Hiring Hub HR Center HR Blog (seriously, we like to give credit to the articles we post, but can they make this a little simpler?), despite a title that may seem to indicate a different subject, the New York Times admits that women don't just opt out for children: click here

Lastly, an interesting article from the Baltimore Sun on one jail's pre-professional/apprenticeship program: click here

Declining Value of a College Degree

Think that your $160,000 private school degree is setting you light years apart from others? Think again says the Washington Post who say that the value of a college degree is declining: click here

From the RecruitingCenter Blog, an entry stating that all we really have is our reputation: click here

Eccentric Employment is a site worth checking out if you're looking to get away from the boring 9-5 (including taking care of a monkey): click here

Word from TalentSpring that and amazing 39% of employees wanted to quit if their employers blocked Facebook: click here

Lastly, the Recruiter Guy gives a list of 100 Niche Job boards: click here

Bloggerific Recruiting

Taking you around the world of HR on this Summer Friday with some great Human Resources articles/blogs, mostly having to do with recruiting (with some props given to Jim Stroud of the Recruiters Lounge--click here--where we found a bunch of these)

First we start with "Invested, innovative, brilliant: Improving the recruiting experience" blog with articles on Gen Y and Facebook among other topics: click here

Riveting Rosie also has some ideas on reaching Gen Y'ers: click here

Personnel Today has an article on Video Game developers bring in HR to help with recruiting problems: click here

The Boston Herald has new on the in demand job perk that is helping to ease commuting pains and recruit more employees: click here

HR Files has a little bit of everything: click here

Recruiting Trends does also: click here

Lastly, ESPN.com has five new trends in recruiting...for top high school football candidates: click here

Have a great weekend and we'll be giving you more and more HR recruiting resources real soon

Saluting Our Blogroll Pt. 1

It's time to take a look at the fellow bloggers we link to on the right and give you a little idea of what they're writing about...

Blogs for Job hasn't had a post in a while, but shows that employees can be found in odd places (including one who just left a comment): click here

We realized we had an error in the address for Cara Welch's Public Policy Perceptions blog for WorldAtWork so we've relinked to there (click here) and ask you to check out her Earth Day article on Earth Day 2008: click here

Cheezhead talks about a theme we discussed recently and takes you in their latest article beyond Facebook and MySpace recruiting: click here

CollegeRecruiter.com has a great humor article today about 10 ways that the job market resembles Matzah: click here

Which reminds us...Happy Passover!!!

George's Employment Blawg touches on a subject we'll be getting into in a later post...but with the job market how it is, internships are becoming more and more important: click here

HR Web Cafe give you a full menu of articles about everything from spear phishing to bring-your-gun-to-work-day (or permanently): click here

Lastly for today, we go to HR World who asks if male and female owned businesses differ? click here

We'll be back with more tomorrow...enjoy!!!

Facebook and the Office

What happens when social networking and the office combine? Well...it can be an awkward situation, as written here in the Boston Globe: click here

Let's say that situation does come up--you are a boss and one of your subordinates tries to friend you on Facebook or MySpace or one of the other social networking websites or you are an employee and your boss sends you a friend request...what do you do?

Well first things first, whether you are a high school student, college student, young professional or "old" professional, you should scrub your social networking profiles. You never know who is looking at it.

If you think you're exempt because you are a student...just check out some of the articles from this Google search: click here

And if you think you're exempt because you're in the job world, just check out some of the articles from this Google search: click here (or, if you prefer, Myspace: click here)

And as I wrote way back in July 2006 for Astronology, the New Age of Background Checks has moved on to social networking websites: click here

So the truth is, make sure that everything in your profile is Kosher because the last thing you want is to have something meant from your friends, end up in your workspace: it could end up costing you your job.

Talking About the Past

Diversity Inc. ends our recent theme about leaving jobs with some advice about how to answer the interview question of "why did you leave that last job"? click here

Next, Human Resource Executive Online has a review of what happened in the year 2007 in the world of Human Resources: click here

We also have an article from Smart Money that Facebook profiles can spoil job searches for some people when HR professionals do background checks (a past Astronology topic): click here

The New Jersey Star-Ledger says that staffing during the holidays can often be a slippery slope: click here

Lastly, from Spousebuzz.com, word that changes are coming for military pay systems: click here