Recognising the Early Signs Before You Burn Out

Recognising the Early Signs Before You Burn Out According to HSE, around 15.4 million working days are lost due to  work-related  stress in 2017 with  595,000 British workers suffering from Mental Health issues such as depression and anxiety over the last 12 months with 239,000 new cases. Further research by the CIPD and SimplyHealth found presenteeism had more than tripled from 26 per cent in 2010 to 86 per cent in 2018 and was associated with rising stress levels. Following these recent statistics,  Instant Offices  shows what the early signs of suffering burnout and how to effectively avoid hitting rock bottom. If your work and family life are consistently stressful, you’re almost certainly at risk of burnout. Most people only realize that they are genuinely burnt out when it’s too late and then they need to work towards eliminating the symptoms, often while still having to deal with the stresses that caused it in the first place. But by keeping an eye out for warning signs can help you make changes proactively, making it easier to prevent burnout, while you still have the will and motivation to make the changes required. Disengagement Over-engagement is a symptom of high-stress levels. Going to sleep and waking up thinking about a problem or a deadline is a perfect example of over-engagement. When you start to disengage with your work or your personal problems by ignoring or avoiding them, burnout warning bells should start ringing. Helplessness Stress usually manifests as a sense of urgency, often resulting in hyperactivity. Anyone facing perpetual deadlines knows the feeling. Burnout, however, is characterized by helplessness and hopelessness. The belief that nothing you do is going to have any effect on your situation, or drive any real change. Blunted emotions When under stress, you may find that your feelings are exaggerated and more difficult to control. You may become angry or upset far easier than usual. Blunted emotions are a symptom of burnout. You may feel that you do not have the energy to react emotionally to situations, or that you are unable to feel excited or worried at all. If you’ve started exhibiting any of these symptoms, you may be approaching burnout. By taking action and making changes as soon as possible, you can minimize the severity and effect of burnout. The following are the most critical steps in addressing the issues that are leading to your exhaustion. Acknowledge your problems When one problem causes overwhelming levels of stress, it’s easy to ignore or downplay other issues in your life that may be contributing to your burnout. Make a list of all things you worry about on a daily basis, including the things you feel that you have no power to change. By ordering these by the level of importance, you’ll know which issues you need to address first. Actively address your problems While this may feel like an impossible task, once you start to work toward actively making changes, you’ll find that many issues only exist because you haven’t had the strength or motivation to correct them. This is particularly important in the workplace, as most employers and team leaders would instead take drastic steps to help you through your burnout, rather than lose you. The following are the most important steps: Assert yourself and explain the reasons why you feel like you do. Just speaking about the issue will start to eliminate some of your feelings of helplessness, and give your employer a chance to try to rectify the situation. Talk to your boss about new duties you could assume, or any training opportunities available. Getting out of the rut of doing the same thing every day is a great motivator and learning new skills, or augmenting those you have, may help to reignite your interest in what you do. Take some time off. Sometimes taking time off work is the only way to give yourself time to re-evaluate your priorities and get to the root of your stresses. Make a conscious decision to use this time to reflect on your situation and not merely evade it. Slow it down Feelings of being out of control, and the idea that everything is under severe time-pressure, are common symptoms of long-term stress. Take a few minutes each day to acknowledge your anxieties for what they are; irrational and exaggerated. Prioritize things like spending time with friends and family and outdoor activities. When listening to music or watching movies, make an effort to pay attention and don’t let your mind return to endless loops of stress. John Williams,  Head of Marketing Research at The Instant Group concludes: Under stress, it’s easy to prioritise relatively meaningless aspects of your life, over those that contribute most to your happiness. If work stress is affecting your personal life, it’s time to move on, or to change your thought patterns in order to be able to leave work stress at work. It’s vitally important to learn to create a mental divide between work and your life outside it, as it’s extremely unhealthy and unproductive to be thinking about work during “off time. It’s important to be honest with yourself during the onset of burnout and to acknowledge the stresses that you have surrendered to. Remember, these are simply tips to help you improve your situation in the short term. Burnout has genuine health implications and we strongly recommend that you seek professional help in overcoming it. A mental health professional will provide you with tools to make your recovery simpler and easier to maintain. About the author:  Established in 1999,  The Instant Group  is a global flexible workspace specialist. Underpinned by unrivaled expertise, Instant tailors unique solutions to help businesses of all sizes to grow, drive savings or gain invaluable insight.   With offices in London, Berlin, Dallas, New York, Hong Kong,  and  Sydney, The Instant Group employs more than 100 experts and has clients in 113 countries.

What Millennials Seek, Desire in an Employer - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

What Millennials Seek, Desire in an Employer - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career I just read an interesting article online entitled, Stop Treating Millennial Employees Like Enigmas, written by Sara Roberts and Michael Papay and featured on Fastcompany.com.[1] As the title suggests, the article focuses on how businesses can best utilize the skills and talents of Millennials, generally defined as that 80-million-strong cohort born between 1977 and 2000, making it larger than the highly influential Baby Boomer generation. Since Millennials will make up fully one-half of the workforce in the next five, short years, and 75 percent in the next ten years, it certainly would seem to be in the best interest of businesses to pay at least some attention to this huge group of current and future employees, to learn what it may take to attract and retain them in the not-so-distant future. WHAT MILLENNIALS WANT FROM EMPLOYERS Strictly as a broad overview, here are FOUR key things the authors say Millennials desire from employers: Treat us like our heads count, not like a head count. In other words, they want to be engaged in a human way, not treated in the abstract. They want to be allowed to provide input, not simply be receptacles for input from the top. Set up collaborative environments. Millennials say they thrive on both giving and receiving feedback from an employer, and they want an opportunity to “weigh in” on important issues and strategy. They want to be actively involved in shaping the direction of their organization. Talk frequently with us. “Like you, we are constantly learning and growing,” the authors write. “The annual cadence of the employee engagement survey or annual reviews is not (emphasis mine) working for us: They are way too slow. We enjoy and can evolve with constant feedback.” Explain why. Millennials want to work in an environment where it is “safe” to ask and explore “why?” “Gone are the more simplistic days of the industrial era when a rote job description and manual sufficed for someone to do their job well,” the authors write. It’s of course hard to argue convincingly that any of these job desires are wrong headed or ill conceived. In essence, all of these desires can be distilled into just another way of employees asking to be treated with respect, to be valued as people and not mere cogs in some giant industrial wheel. They want to have their opinions and contributions valued, and which of us don’t also desire such treatment? Nonetheless, a jolt of reality is also called for, I believe. ARE MILLENNIALS JOB DESIRES REALISTIC? At the beginning of our careers, had we been asked what it would take to make us “happy,” the majority of us quite probably would have answered the question by citing wants, needs and desires similar to what Millennials are said to seek in the article cited in this post. Never mind the fact that most of us were not in fact asked this question in the first place because companies thenâ€"and, surprise!, many companies TODAYâ€"didn’t really have as their top priority making employees “happy.” A hiring company’s TOP priority then was making money in order to stay in business. Coincidentally, that priority has not changed for hiring companies today. Now, for those of you who may be feeling the urge to rush to your computer to blast me as being a dyed-in-the-wool, “old school” cynic (I much prefer to think of myself as, and to be classified as, a realist), please hear me out. Yes, most hiring companies of yesterday, today and tomorrow placed, place and will indeed place a top priority on employee morale, and that’s particularly true of market leaders. Significant to note, however, by the very nature of business it can never realisticallybe expected to become the TOP priority of any business enterprise! Here’s why: Business are not now, nor have they ever been or are they likely to become . . . An institutional democracy. Not all “votes” are equal in any business. As a matter of fact, in most businesses, the vast majority of employees get no vote whatsoever when it comes to key business decisions! An organization designed to “create jobs” or hire people who need/want jobs. Notwithstanding the implied “social responsibility” obligation for being able to do business in a free society, most businesses create new jobs and hire new people for one principle reason: They have determined it is the best, most efficient, quickest way to add to the bottom line, in order to make the business successful or even more successful. A social organization. Since most of us spend at least one-third of our working lives on the job, it’s just natural that the workplace can easily evolve into an important environment in which to “socialize” on a regular basis. But to imbue the workplace with the characteristics of a genuine social organization is to entertain career disaster if circumstances were to suddenly head south. An employee’s “extended family.” One good thing about family is that, once part of it, one can never be “fired” from the family. That same claim cannot be made by those employees who allow themselves to be lulled into believing that fellow employees are in actuality part of his or her “extended family.” HOW MILLENNIALS (AND OTHERS) WILL SUCCEED IN FUTURE Virtually all of us want to be in a position to be valued and given the opportunity to make a difference in our chosen career. We all want to be taken seriously and treated with respect, and the sooner the better. That’s especially true when we first enter the workforce. We may have just earned our degree in our chosen professional specialty and we’re excited about havingâ€"and widely sharingâ€"the knowledge and skills we believe we possess. But you know what? Until you are actually offered a position, hiring companies don’t really care what you want, need or desire in a job. They principally care just about one thing: What can you offer the  company, i.e., how can you make the company money, save the company money, or both? Hard fact of life. Once you are in fact offered a position, the hiring company definitely will then seek to learn what it is that will make you “happy,” will make you want to accept the offer. Still, even after you are hired, nothing will be given to you simply because you want it or desire to have it. You will have to earn the right to be heard and taken seriously. In other words, you, like virtually every person in virtually every profession, will have to first “pay your dues.” Can the 80-million-strong Millennial generation ultimately exert enough power and influence to mold the future workplace into an environment more to their liking? Perhaps. Still, history and experience clearly demonstrate the uncanny ability of those who are now the “oppressed” easily morphing into the new “oppressors,” if and when they take over the reins of leadership. We shall just have to wait and see what develops. [1]Roberts is CEO of Roberts Golden, a boutique consultancy. Papay is CEO and co-founder of Waggle, a real-time employee feedback platform. ___________________________ To learn more about how to get your career back on track, be sure to check out Career Stalled?, Skip’s latest job-hunting book in the “Headhunter” Hiring Secrets Series of Career Development Management publications  featured on Amazon.com. Going on a job interview soon? Know someone who is? Download Skip’s FREE “How to ACE the Job Interview!” publication by clicking HERE. Learn how to interview the way Superstars do!

Applying the Law of Attraction to Your Job Search

Applying the Law of Attraction to Your Job Search The Law of Attraction simply states like attracts like. According to the theory this means that our current situation is a result of the thoughts and feelings we have each day. So in other words, that means if you have a lot of debt, its probably because you constantly think and worry about your debt rather than focus on becoming wealthy. Apply this same principal to losing weight, dating, and landing your ideal job. The famous book The Secret describes humans as magnets that attract back whatever thoughts are put out into the universe. Therefore, if you are looking to change something in your life all you have to do is change your thoughts and feelings. Beware: thinking about what you dont want will give you just that. The Law of Attraction does not know the difference between good and bad thoughts. Rather, it gives you what you are thinking about. So, how can you use the Law of Attraction in your job search? -Pay attention to how you are feeling to ensure you are thinking positively. -If you are feeling discouraged, think about what you are thankful for to shift your thoughts back to the positive. In Jack Canfields words energy flows where attention goes. -Believe and feel that you can get your dream job. Imagine it, think about it and talk about it. -Dont talk or think about NOT getting a job. -Make sure your thoughts and actions are aligned with what you want. For example, saying you want job x, but feeling and thinking that the economy is too terrible for you to ever get it will not work. -Believe in yourself even when others dont. -If you dont get a job you interview for, think of it as a good thing. This means that it wasnt the right job for you and the right job is coming, you will find out why down the road. -Believe and think that there are more than enough great jobs to go around rather than assume there are not enough. -Be aware of your intuition. -Write down what you want in a position, and read it daily to keep your specific goal top of mind. Although this might seem like a tall order, I think you will find that the more you start to think positively the more good things will come. From there, changing your thought patterns will become more natural. Good luck!

10 Steps to Start a Successful Digital Marketing Career - Classy Career Girl

10 Steps to Start a Successful Digital Marketing Career Digital marketing is one of the most exciting, challenging and fast-paced industries you can work in and I can promise you’ll never be bored. The digital economy is growing fast and there’s no better time to get into digital marketing. Be prepared for a career that will keep you on your toes with no two days the same! It’s a competitive industry, but there’s some simple steps you can take to get ahead. 10 Steps to Start a Successful Digital Marketing Career 1. Get to grips with social media Digital marketing is more than just finding the perfect filter for your selfies. You need to understand how brands interact with people on social media and use these channels to build relationships and make sales. Get up to speed with the science of it and you’ll be on your way to success! 2. Build your LinkedIn profile They say it’s not what you know but who you know. LinkedIn is a professional community where you can connect with and learn from experts, as well as stay up to date with the latest news. Having an up to date profile will also show employers you really know your stuff. 3. Join a networking group There  are numerous  groups on LinkedIn but look first locally for in-person networking events you can attend. Usually they have guest speakers which is a great opportunity to learn from experts and you might even meet a future employer there too. 4. Find a mentor Nothing is more valuable than a mentor who has been there before and can help you learn from their mistakes. Having someone close to reach out for some advice can really help you get ahead. You’ll find out quickly that most people are willing to give some time to others looking to get into the industry, so don’t be afraid to ask. 5. Stay up to date with the latest trends Things move fast in the digital world and you need to be up to speed with the changes. Twitter is one of the best real-time sources of news and LinkedIn Pulse is a great way to stay on top of industry trends. You’ll probably be asked about recent updates in an interview, so make sure you brush up on what the changes mean and how you can use them to your advantage if you’re job hunting. 6. Start a blog Blogging is a great way to show your expertise and help you learn by doing. Blogging shows your commitment and skills to potential employers too. Be warned, I’ve often been asked how many followers or website visitors I have in job interviews and that means a blog is a great way to build an audience and attract the right kind of attention. 7. Understand how analytics work Make sure you understand the basics of social media metrics and Google Analytics. You’re going to need to evaluate performance and report on key facts and figures so make sure you know what this means and where to go to get the information. Google’s Partner program is free which  will teach you the basics and it’ll be useful for helping you build your blog too. 8. Take some online courses There  are countless  free or low cost learning platforms bursting with social media courses and digital marketing basics. If you’re trying to break into the industry, free courses are a great way of learning the basics of the main platforms, boosting your resume and showing your commitment to potential employers when you’re just starting out. 9. Learn to code Learning the basics when it comes to HTML and WordPress will really help you stand out from the crowd. You don’t need to become a web development expert but if you know your way around the admin panel of a blog or website and can make minor updates, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and impress employers too. 10. Decide on agency vs industry There’s two main career paths when it comes to digital marketing. You can be an in-house marketer for one company (working in a specific industry) or you can work for an agency and handle lots of different clients. That’s not to say you can’t switch later on but deciding where you’d like to focus can give you a good head start. Digital marketing is one of the most exciting, challenging and fast-paced industries you can work in and I can promise you’ll never be bored! I regularly blog about hints, tips and industry news over on my website: www.rootsconsultancy.co.uk and I’d love to hear if you’ve got any advice for new digital marketers too.

Our guide to getting a graduate job in Birmingham - Debut

Our guide to getting a graduate job in Birmingham - Debut Kids, have you heard the news? Getting a graduate job in Birmingham is the new cool thing now. Of course, theres a lot to be said for moving to London, but moving to a different city could really give you the edge in the grad game. Top companies are always looking for places to expand their business in the UK. For these firms and their employers Birmingham is the latest fashion. Besides, everybodys moving to London these days. Dont you wanna be cool and different? Of course you do. So, for your cool self, weve put together this guide to securing a graduate job in Birmingham fit for the trendsetter you are. Why Birmingham? Weve explained a bit about why you should get a graduate job in Birmingham here, but it bears a little bit of repeating. Birmingham is a veritable breeding ground of young talent. Its the youngest city in Europe and it boasts 5 universities and several higher education colleges. As you can imagine it produces a high number of graduates, which makes it perfect for a top firm to set up shop there. More besides, Birmingham is being constantly improved. From shopping malls, transport links, modern apartment blocks and sweet new attractions, a new graduate can work hard and play hard while building one hell of an adult life. The big employers based in Birmingham Birmingham is the home to a whole host of big businesses looking for new talent. Many of them have their biggest headquarters outside of London there. After all, a rapidly developing region like this is crawling with new business opportunities. Here are some of the biggest employers in the city, according to RH Nuttall and Glassdoor. Jaguar Land Rover  ?? The luxury car manufacturer is the UKs largest and its headquarters are just a stones throw away in Coventry. They employ 2,000 people in Birmingham and run a highly desirable grad scheme for engineers. National Grid  ?? Another doozy for the engineering students out there, taking this role will show everyone that YOU have the power.? National Grid have their headquarters in Warwick and have a grad scheme which offers a cool £27,500 salary. Thatll go far in the Midlands. National Express  ?? Considering they have a bunch of coaches coming in and out of the sleek Digbeth coach station, its no wonder National Express is based in Birmingham. With 4,800 workers, theyre Birminghams biggest employer. Their graduate program comes with all kinds of perks too, including the opportunity to do a sponsored MBA. Lloyds Banking Group  ?? Almost no introduction needed for this huge British financial institution. Theyre not based in the Midlands, but they still employ 3,220 Brummies.  You only need a 2:2 to apply for their graduate programmes and theyre hugely varied. From business banking to product management, you can get it here. Sainsburys  ?? Most people dont go to effort of going to university just to end up working at a supermarket, but Sainsburys offer a pretty rewarding grad scheme. They take all comers and have positions to fill everywhere, from finance to tech to marketing. Their HQ is based in London but they employ 3,470 people in Brum. EY  ?? Just like they have a home on the Debut app, Birmingham is one of many places EY calls home. And theyre not alone; KPMG, Deloitte and PwC also have offices in the city. We know you likely dont need much convincing to work for them. But imagine getting all the jollies of working for a big four accounting firm with Birmingham as your background. Ideal. BBC  ?? Their major television centres are in London and Salford, but BBC also operates studios out of Birminghams Mailbox. And yep, they take grads for both production and journalism. Because who doesnt wanna work in the place where they make Peaky Blinders? Thats just the tip of the iceberg but hopefully, its given you an idea of where to start looking for a graduate job in Birmingham. More importantly, we hope its opened your eyes to the world of possibilities up in the Midlands. If you dont know, now you know. Connect with Debut on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for more careers insights.

5 Ways to Leverage the Internet in Your Job Search - CareerAlley

5 Ways to Leverage the Internet in Your Job Search - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. In todays very competitive job search market, those who get there first have the best opportunity of getting the interview. Recruiters and hiring managers receive more resumes than they need to fill their job openings. Those qualified candidates that deliver their resume in the first round have the best chance. Imagine that you are out for lunch one day and you get a call from a recruiter who has this amazing job opportunity, but he needs your latest resume in 15 minutes. You are nowhere near a computer, all you have is your smartphone. What do you do? Well, if you are state of the art, you use your cellphone to grab your resume from Dropbox, make some changes with Google Docs, and email it back to the recruiter using your smartphone. Or, youve got an interview in 15 minutes and you want to do some research on one of the people who will be interviewing you. Using your smartphone, you quickly use your LinkedIn app to find out everything you need to know. Okay, you get the picture. If you have the right tools at your fingertips, you definitely have an advantage in your job search. In today's very competitive job search market, those who get there first have the best opportunity of getting the interview. Those qualified candidates that deliver their resume in the first round have the best chance. Tweet This On the Fly If you are not near a computer and need to access your resume (and maybe make a change or two), you will need to leverage your smartphone. And, in order to do that, you will need to have all of the right apps to create, edit, and share your documents. Some of the more popular apps are: Google Docs (Android or iOS) Smart Office 2 (Android) SmartOffice (iOS) MS Office. If you have an iPhone, Apples Pages app is fully integrated. Where are your Files There are many apps to access files you may need (but dont have) on your smartphone or in the cloud. You probably already have and use one or more of the apps listed below. Some of the more popular apps are: Dropbox iCloud Drive Google Drive Microsoft OneDrive Box Files (iPhone and iOS only) Job Search on your Smartphone All of the popular job search sites (see a partial list below) have both a smartphone app and their web interface. Learning to leverage these tools on your smartphone will give you more flexibility in our search and allow you to react quickly if an amazing new opportunity pops up. LinkedIn job search Indeed Linkup ZipRecruiter Monster LinkedIn In 30 Minutes Price: $9.99 If you're serious about taking your career to the next level, you need to be on LinkedIn ®. In LinkedIn In 30 Minutes, author Angela Rose will show you how to make a rock-solid LinkedIn profile and expand your network. Buy Now from Amazon We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Last Updated: March 1, 2020 Who do You Know Who you know (and how you leverage them) is probably the most important tool in your job searchand LinkedIn is a really important tool (with really good smartphone support). Xing, Meetup, Jobcase, and Opportunity are some of the alternatives. Get That Job So many of the posts on CareerAlley have been about leveraging the Internet in your job search. But you can also find job leads and apply from your smartphone. Many of the well-known job search sites have their own apps. Take a look at Indeed.com(aggregates jobs from a number of sites), Careerbuilder (supports iOS and Android) and of course Monster jobs. The 2-Hour Job Search: Using Technology to Get the Right Job Faster Price: $9.69 Buy Now from Amazon We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you. Last Updated: March 1, 2020 What's next? Ready to take action? Choose the right tools to help you build your career. Looking for related topics? Subscribe and make meaningful progress on your career. It’s about time you focused on your career. Get Educated Contact Us Advertise Copyright 2020 CareerAlley. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy + Disclosure home popular resources subscribe search

How Do I Find The Best Resume Writing Service Near Me?

How Do I Find The Best Resume Writing Service Near Me?There are a lot of resume writing services out there but how do you know which one is the best? There are just too many of them to be able to make a final decision about what to use. Finding a good service will involve a little research.First, you will need to find out if the service offers resume writing software. Most of the services that are not offering software will probably have their own template programs that they can send to you so that you can write the document manually. Once you have this, you will probably have a great deal of control over the look and feel of your resume. This is a big selling point for a service to you and should be considered.After you have decided on a company that offers both, you need to consider whether or not they have the resources needed to make your resume. This means that they have a large staff and they have staff who is available for you to work with on a daily basis. If this is not the case, then you might want to move on. This can be a problem if you need a certain level of service in order to have a successful career or business.The next consideration for whether a resume writing service is the best is whether or not they specialize in your type of job. Some services only provide resumes for certain industries or for certain professions. You will want to do your homework so that you get the best service.Once you find a service that has the services you are looking for, you will need to find out how long it will take to have the work completed. Some services charge a lower price for faster work but you will not necessarily get the same level of service. You may also need to pay for the use of their software and the hardware they will use to help you produce your resume.Once you know the cost of the service and the amount of time that the service takes to produce your resume, you will be able to easily decide whether or not it is worth the cost. The more money you are willing to spend, the better it is going to be. You will also want to find out whether or not they have experience in producing a resume for you. This is important because if they do not, you may need to seek other services for your job search.One final consideration is whether or not the service uses all-inclusive packages or those that require a deposit to be paid before the service does work for you. There are many advantages to the latter and these include better discounts and fast shipping. If you are only looking for a first draft, then all-inclusive packages are the way to go.It will be important for you to research the best resume writing service near you before choosing one. Once you find the service that meets your needs, you will have a much easier time developing a resume that is going to impress your prospective employer. It is well worth the time you spend finding a good service in order to get that job you have been looking for so long.