Ring in the New Year with Our Top Posts of 2014!

When it comes to the world of staffing, things happen at warp speed. Trends emerge, businesses hire, and employees are promoted or leave positions to seek new ones. Keeping up to date on the latest in job and staffing news can be a full-time job in itself. This year, we covered these topics and more. The most popular posts were about getting (and not getting) a job, why temp-to-hire is launching careers, and fun infographics about our Open Interview events that took place throughout the year (and will continue to take place in 2015).

A new year means a fresh start, but our mission won't change – we’ll continue to keep you in the loop about what it means to be job seeker or an employer in Maine and New Hampshire. We’ll provide more job and staffing news and interesting insights about employment, hiring, and being part of the work force in the months to come. We’ll be here to listen to you, too – if you have questions or comments about BONNEY Staffing, about job seeking and hiring, and if you have suggestions about what you want to hear more about.

To cap off the year, here are our most-read posts. If you missed them, they are worth a read.
And finally, whether you are an employer, and employee, or a current job seeker, we wish you a rewarding new year marked by new opportunities and successes.

Our Top 5 Most Popular Posts of 2014

1. Why You Didn’t Get The Job. Waiting to hear about the perfect job? Eliminating these mistakes along the way will increase your odds considerably. 
2. Temp-to-Hire Emerges As Today’s Career Launch Pad. Find out why today’s temp jobs have emerged as career and resume gold.
3. Open Interview Event. Not sure what to expect at an Open Interview Event? This always-popular infographic provides the basics in a glance so you’ll be ready for the next one!
4. Jobs for Veterans: Easing Re-employment's Challenges. Find out about job resources for veterans and how staffing companies are easing their transition into the workplace in Maine and New Hampshire.
5. BONNEY Staffing Center is a 2014 Best Place to Work! Our good news is also a favorite read, and that’s a fitting end-of-year tribute to our outstanding staff. See why our award-winning work environment benefits our staff, our clients and our community.

Ready for a new start in 2015? Join us! There's no better time to find out how BONNEY Staffing is changing lives and starting careers.

Holidays at the Workplace

An Employee Survival Guide for Grinches & Elves Alike

Whether you work full-time or part-time, or you are a temporary or seasonal worker, you probably consider your coworkers your second family. And like family, you’ll be spending at least some of the holidays together. The key to navigating the season at work, as it is at home, is to pass along the joy and take a pass on the disasters. These holiday tips will help you do just that– think of it as our gift to you.  

Workplace Gifting 101

Price can be a workplace gifting bugaboo. For instance, going big can send the wrong message, plus incidental workplace costs can already make mincemeat out of your wallet. Whoever is in charge of gifting, whether white elephants or Secret Santas, should set price limits up front. (If that’s you, around $20 is the norm, as is asking coworkers to opt in rather than opt out of the events). With moderate pricing in force, thoughtful giving is the rule of thumb. Gift cards or food gifts are evergreen workplace options. If you’re buying for someone you don’t know, put your Santa hat on and find out a little something about them first (“I heard you get your 10 o’clock coffee fix at The Screamin’ Bean – here’s a gift card!”) to avoid being too generic.

If your workplace isn’t organizing a Secret Santa, remember that business etiquette does not require you to give a gift to anyone in the workplace. In fact, if your instinct is to bring cookies to the lunchroom and call it good, be our guest – a majority of American workers don't plan to give gifts to their coworkers or their boss. Our best advice: follow company culture, gift to those in support roles, and cover yourself for any surprise elves bearing gifts by keeping a small wrapped present in a drawer just in case.

Did your office gift party go from “nailed it” to “oh no he didn’t”? Take heart from these gift giving fails from USA Today.

Holiday Party Basics

Cutting an annual rug can be a workplace rite of passage after all that nine-to-five. But we all know the first rule of holiday parties: Imbibe, and suffer the consequences Monday morning. While Ebenezer required a ghost of Christmas past to show him his transgressions, today we have it all on video (yes, that’s you dancing on the appetizer table). As mundane as this advice is, it happens – when the punch or eggnog is spiked more than it should be (You added the rum? I added the rum!), you’re tired, stressed, and working on an empty stomach. There’s just no other way to say it: when it comes to workplace celebrations, your mantra is moderation. Now, repeat until 2015.

Take that advice to heart, and the rest is simple. Remember that workplace parties are fun and work all rolled together in a proverbial yule log. Take a couple of minutes before arriving to make a mental note of names, small talk openers, and who you need to track down for a quick conversation (such as complimenting your supervisor on her design skills in the latest office memo). Bringing a significant other? Your workplace will let it be known if it’s OK. According to Blogging4jobs.com, you may want to think twice about bringing a brand new beau – unpredictable behavior will be a reflection on you. Do you have a friend who might be interested in the company or is spending the holidays solo? Unless its employees only, they are usually welcome, and they can make the evening more festive.

Finally, here’s the holiday party tip of the decade: Participate in the traditional antics. Says Boston.com, embarrassing yourself by joining in karaoke at the holiday party means you’re a team player. The points you get for belting out Celine Dion when the time comes will be worth it, even if the boss thinks you’re a little pitchy.

If all else fails and the office party is an abject disaster, don’t worry, it could have been worse.

Hush Your Humbug 

Nobody wants to be the coworker with the mistletoe hat and the jingle bell socks (Phil, I’m talking to you!). But being office neg-head when it comes to holiday cheer gets old as well, and it’s a brutal contagion. Forced joy can exacerbate seasonal frustration. Nevertheless, take the Rudolph target off your cubicle wall and grasp the jolly while you can. If over-commercialized giving provides the pall, spearhead a toy or coat collection for a local charity, or volunteer (scientifically proven to lift spirits). Then, put Idina Menzel’s holiday album on Spotify, and take the office celebrations in stride.

The Bottom Line

Remember that even if your only holiday tradition is strife while others seem to be having a season worthy of Norman Rockwell, it’s probably not the case. In fact, many of us aren’t caroling over the holidays – we’re working.

According to recent data, a quarter of Americans will be punching in instead of taking off this season. Holiday workers include employees in retail or service industries, those who work temporary and seasonal jobs, and those who rely on the extra cash. It’s easier said than done, but if the holiday pressures are bearing down particularly hard, do your best to make like a snowflake and chill – once the New Year is here, spring can’t be far behind.

Multitasking Mixed Messages

Is Task-Juggling at Work OK? 

In the heyday of multitasking, it was common to brag about answering email, writing a report all while in a meeting about the latest sales numbers. But today, multitasking has plenty of detractors, and for good reason. We now know that focusing on a single task, not juggling two or three, decreases stress and increases productivity exponentially. However, in many jobs, including production, assembly line, administrative, even managerial jobs, employers consider multitasking an asset. And in certain positions, i.e.  Reception, Front Office, or Customer Service, constant interruption and switching gears is simply part of the job. These mixed messages can have employees asking, when it comes to workplace multitasking, exactly what’s acceptable and what spells job disaster?

Workplace Multitasking: Acceptable

• You go high-low. According to experts on cognitive function, the key to effective multitasking is pairing a low level task with a higher level task. If you are engaged in something mundane, like stuffing envelopes or highlighting weekly income totals on the annual report, feel free to have that weekly check-in meeting, or dial in to the monthly conference call without worrying that your draining brain power. 

• Your job requires it. Don’t confuse doing too much that your work suffers with putting good job skills to work. Many jobs require multitasking behaviors. In fact, employers sometimes consider it a job requirement. Taking a coffee order at the same time you’re making change isn’t inefficient. It’s good service. And, the more habitual multitasking becomes (that is, the more experience you accrue) the less cognitive dissonance will result.

• You’re chunking it out. There’s a difference between doing two things at once and alternating tasks. If your job requires you to accomplish diverse duties, but you’re doing them in blocks of time of at least 15 to 20 minutes (the longer the better) without interruption, you’re “chunking”– and your multitasking is probably in the clear. 

Workplace Multitasking: Unacceptable 

• You’re there, but you’re not there. Sometimes, managers encourage workplace multitasking – when conference calls last for hours, answering email or working on other projects is expected practice. However, it’s important to understand multitasking expectations in your workplace, even if rules are not explicit. Are earbuds customary, or do they make you look like you’ve checked out? Does compulsive phone-checking in meetings mean you’re dedicated, or that you’re more interested in your personal life?

• You're constantly task switching. According to the author of The Myth of Multitasking: How 'Doing It All' Gets Nothing Done you’re losing precious time when you task switch: it’s the refocusing that causes time spillage. If your switch-to-task ratio is out of proportion, you’re on multitasking alert. Set single daily meetings with conversational time burglars, and shut down electronics to avoid interruptions. Immerse in tasks for 15 minutes and work your way up to 40 to reset your multitasking meter.

• You’re not taking time to think. You may be good at being task-focused, but you turn to email immediately after closing that Excel sheet. Take five instead. A breather after focusing on a task isn’t just a mini-vacation for your brain, say cognitive scientists. That brain downtime allows you to make connections, come up with solutions, and be more creative on the job. And that will make you a better employee, not just a busier one.

What’s Your Multitasking Profile?

Multitasking Maven. If I’m not texting, emailing, walk-talking to a lunch meeting while on hold with tech support, call the authorities – space beings have taken over my body.

Not Now, I’m Chunking: For at least 15 minute intervals, I’m immersed. Except for the phone – hey, it could be important.

Do Not Disturb. Zen-like periods of focus are the only way I get my work done. All my calls go straight to voice mail.

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