It is a sign of the times. Given the current economic woes, many people are turning to a second job to make extra income.  Things are bad everywhere with no sign of improvement on the horizon.  The temporary boost in employment statistics generated by the thousands of part-time census jobs has evaporated.  The numbers just keep getting worse.

Here in Florida we had a .1% jump, which wouldn’t seem so awful if we weren’t already at record unemployment levels.  Now unemployed job seekers have to face off against not just their unemployed brethren, but also the employed (and therefore viewed as employable) workers seeking second jobs and the housewives/college students/retirees who were out of the job market altogether but are now jumping back in.

Even ex-governors of Illinois are not immune to the pinch.  Apparently, sending his wife out to appear on ludicrous reality TV shows isn’t enough to keep Rod Blagojevich and family in style.  Blago showed up at the Chicago Comic Book Convention to hawk his marketability.

The pricing scheme: $0 appearance fee, $50 per autograph, $80 per photo op.  Seriously.  Blago stated in an interview on Fox News Sunday this week that he didn’t make very much money at the show.  But his idea of ‘not very much’ might be different from yours and mine.  And the amount he claims to the IRS is probably very different from the amount he actually received in cash.

I guess the moral of the story is that maybe the economy isn’t as bad as we thought.  Apparently there are individuals in the Chicago area willing and able to fork over gobs of their hard earned money for the signature of a disgraced former politician.

MOSAIC may not be a household name, but they are the world’s largest phosphate mining company. They provide the raw materials that go into the fertilizer that grows the fruit and vegetable products that you consume every day. Last week, they announced plans to lay off over 200 workers from their plant in rural Polk County, FL.

You read the headline that a company resorted to layoffs and your logical response is “it’s the economy, stupid.” Good answer, but wrong. It isn’t the economy. It isn’t a lack of demand or resources and it isn’t competition, domestic or foreign.

MOSAIC was forced to idle their Fort Meade plant and lay off workers because of a line on a map. There is a road, aptly if not creatively named County Line Road, separating Polk County from Hardee County. MOSAIC has, over the course of decades, mined all the phosphate from their land on the north side of the road, but they own more than 10,000 phosphate rich acres on the south side of the road.

Despite their legal ownership of the land in Hardee County, appropriate zoning, and approvals from the US Army Corps of Engineers, MOSAIC’s enormous drag-lines sit idle on the north side of the road because of a restraining order (they’re not just for crazy ex-boyfriends anymore) issued by a judge in Jacksonville. Not just one, not two, but three distinct environmental groups have sued to stop the company from mining any of their land in Hardee County.

Oddly enough, MOSAIC isn’t even a party to the lawsuit, leaving the defense of their very business in the hands of… the Federal Government. The three groups – the Sierra Club Inc, People for Protecting Peace River, and ManaSota-88 – filed suit against the US Army Corps of Engineers. The allegation is that the expansion of the mine would essentially destroy nature and turn the county into an environmental wasteland fit only for cockroaches and high school dropouts (I’m paraphrasing).

Regardless of the impact it will have on the next generation, these people don’t want industry intruding on their little slice of retirement paradise. The current economy is forcing more than enough layoffs as it is; it doesn’t need any help from a group of people who earned themselves a nice living somewhere else in industry have since retired and moved to Florida.

You have the power over the challenges and tasks you face.  You just might not know it yet.  Not too long ago I learned a new term: self-efficacy.  The concept was not foreign to me, just the term itself.

Self-efficacy is your belief in your abilities.  Those with low self-efficacy believe they are not able to accomplish certain tasks.  When they face a new challenge, they lose the battle in their head before they even start.  In contrast, those with high self-efficacy believe they can conquer any  feat.  Nothing will stand in the way.

We all have faced a new situation and thought we were inadequate to deal with it.  The results were we did fail or we barely survived.  Michael Holmes asks in his book, I Shall Raise Thee Up, “Why is it that the salesperson who can ‘close the deal’ in his mind’s eye will always surpass their counterparts who ‘hope’ the prospect can see their products’ value?”

There truly is an advantage to having the confidence to complete something.  I was placed into a key role during a team martial arts competition in front of 15,000 people, standing 10 feet away from Chuck Norris.  I had 100% confidence in my ability and the ability of my team, and we performed without missing a beat.  We attained high self-efficacy through training and practice.

It would have been disastrous if we doubted our abilities.  We would have failed and looked foolish in front of a very large crowd.  Training builds self efficacy.  Practice allows you to envision success.  The more you go through the motions, the more likely you are able to see yourself being a success.

Michael Holmes actually talks about this concept in his chapter on vision, although he doesn’t use the term self-efficacy.  He talks about the lens in which we see the world  through.  If we are optimistic and confident, there is nothing that can stop us.  Picture being a success at the start of a new task, and you already have a leg up on the competition.  You can do it!

News-flash:  The economy isn’t doing so well.  I know that’s a shock to those of you who live in a cave on a deserted island and haven’t seen a TV or the Internet for the last three years.  For the rest of us, it’s just more of the same.  The only question that remains is: when will it get better?

Ask ten economists, and you’ll get ten different predictions as to when the economy will turn around.  The only commonalities will be that they all think it’s a ways off, and they’ll all tell you something different than they did six months ago.  It’s bad out there.  It may not be getting any worse, but it isn’t getting much better, either.

Unemployment – high and holding steady.  Costs – high  getting higher.  Foreclosures – setting new records every month.

Now the federal government has passed health care legislation that, regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, is bad for business.  Big businesses already have begun shoring up their reserves in order to pay for their increased costs associated with the health care reform.  Their estimate of the cost: $1 billion dollars.

AT&T is a big company.  They can afford to put aside a Billion with a “B”.  They’ll just pass the cost along to the consumers, maybe lay off a few thousand workers here or there.  3M, a not quite as big company, is preparing for $90 million in additional health care costs.

This month’s jobs report is due out this Friday – Good Friday.  In jobs terms, I’d imagine that the only good thing about it will be that the markets are closed, so the news won’t have much of an immediate impact.  Although a few talking heads have suggested that the report will contain good news – gains up over 100,000 jobs – other, more reliable estimates predict a similar number – of jobs lost.

Imagine walking to a well with a large bucket.  You can  fill this bucket only once per day, and you have to live off of this water for 24 hours.  What would you do with your rations?

Essentially, this is a metaphor for our time and energy each day.  We only have so much to give but have many vessels that require  filling.  If we let it happen, there are many who would dip their cups and take our water.  Soon, nothing is left for us.  Is this what’s happening to you?

Our time is precious.  We can’t afford to waste it on things that don’t matter.  We must prioritize our efforts, or we will never quench our thirst and eventually dehydrate.

We all have 24 hours to the day.  Why are so many much more productive than others?  Prioritizing.  We need to determine what is most important and first fulfill those needs.  We all have families and jobs demanding our times.  The problem is we say “no” to the family more than we do the job.  Obviously, we need to work to care for the family, and therefore, the time there is well-distributed.

The danger is when we take on more than we can handle and let everyone at the office dip into our bucket.  Eventually we become spread so thin, nothing ever gets done well.  The fix: just say no.

We take on more and more additional duties that soon we neglect the primaries and lose focus of the company’s goal.  Give the first part of your workday to the things that must be accomplished.  Place your fresh energy and the majority of resources to your job description.  This is why you were hired to the position.

Next, focus on the things that contribute most to the mission of the company.  Place your medium efforts to the additional tasks that will allow the company’s mission to become accomplished better, faster and stronger.  Everything else, work on if you have the time.

When the day is done, you can go home knowing your primary job is done, and you still went above and beyond.

There has been some buzz in the change management world about a system for change created by psychologist Kurt Lewin.  He identified three phases for change back in the early 20th century.  We still use these today.

His model uses the unfreeze, change and refreeze methods.  These methods help make organizational change go more smoothly.  We all know that everyone hates change and that the only thing constant in a company is change.

The unfreeze phase is when the need for change is recognized.  Change agents begin to trumpet the need for the change and begin to gain buy-in from the group.  Everyone knows that resistance is going to happen.  People hate change and will resist it for many reasons.  We fear the unknown and worry about how the change will affect us.

It is up to the change agent to persuade the masses the change is required and educate them.  The better prepared the group is for the change, the more likely they are to accept it.  A technique I love to use is to get those whom others really look up to and fight for their support.

When the next phase of implementing the change unfolds, these champions will set the example for others to follow.  Instead of fighting for your own buy-in alone, you have help.  As a change agent you need to monitor and make sure the change is going as you planned.  If something seems to not be successful, you can correct it.  Not all change is going to work as planned or even work at all.  You need to realize this and pull the plug when it is a failure.

Finally, the refreeze phase takes into account the change that works.  When you implement change, it can’t be fire and forget.  You have to stay on top of it until the culture accepts it.  For example, you go through all the trouble of training the next generation of workers with a new method and then they get to the workcenter and the old method takes over again.  Refreeze is the phase to stop that from happening.

Before we even start, let me be clear about this one thing: the earthquake in Haiti and the resulting devastation was a terrible, terrible thing. We Americans, individually and collectively, should do what we can to help the people of Haiti recover from this disaster. I am not in the Rush Limbaugh, “Let ‘em take care of themselves” camp.

Having said that, this is a business blog, not a humanitarian aid blog or a general current events blog. So, it is appropriate that we take a look at the long term impact that this disaster may have on business, divorced from the tragedy itself.

In the short term, there are a few companies and industries that will benefit from the devastation of a small island nation within spitting distance of US airspace.  The same old, big players who rush to the rescue, to the benefit of both the victims and the company’s bottom line.  They know who they are.

A less obvious, longer term impact on the US economy will be the certain influx of many thousands of Haitians to the United States.  There will be a sudden and pronounced increase in the pool of unskilled and unemployed workers, which already is pushing maximum capacity.  Southern states, Florida in particular, are likely to be hit the hardest by the influx of Haitian immigrants.

While that’s good news for citrus farmers and housekeeping services, it’s not so great for those currently looking for a job or those workers in unskilled jobs fighting to cling to their current position.  There is a very real possibility of a flood of immigrants so extreme that it overwhelms the capacity of some municipalities to deliver services to those in need.

The writing is on the wall.  The influx is coming.  The question remains: how can you position yourself or your business to profit, or at least not suffer, from the coming events?  By proactively considering the impact that this disaster will have in your area, you can put yourself in the best possible place to reap the rewards of looking ahead and being prepared.

There’s an old adage that says when life hands you lemons, you should make lemonade. Well, the current job market is a bunch of lemons, if I’ve ever seen one.  But if you plan carefully and take a long term view, you can position yourself to come out of this better off than your competitors.

If you’ve got a job, hold onto it.  For nearly every skill set and every industry, this is not a good time to be looking for a new job.  There’s virtually no one doing any hiring, and those few that are looking are being swamped with qualified, unemployed, and desperate prospects.  It’s hard to compete when you’ve got a position in your back pocket.

If you’ve got a reasonable gig right now, you may do well to stay put and put your job hunting energies to another direction.  You may, dare I suggest, put that effort into doing your current job really well.  You may be shocked to find that by the time the economy crawls back up out of the toilet, you will have moved up with your current employer.

Another possible use for that time and energy that you previously spent looking for a better job is advancing your education.  Whether it’s an Associate’s, Bachelor’s, Master’s, Doctorate – whatever the next step is in your educational path - if you are in position to go on to get a higher degree, now is the time.  There are a lot of options, including night, weekend, and online classes that make it easier and more convenient (although not cheaper) to get a degree than ever before.

The bottom line is that those of us who don’t NEED a new job right now (even if you WANT one) probably won’t be getting one any time soon.  So, why not take a long range view and spend the next year or so positioning yourself to be ready when the job market picks back up?

I recently was reading an article by one of my favorite authors, Mike Holmes, about how the Bible is needed in the business world today.  His article got me thinking about the universal applications of the Christian message.

Mike wrote about how doing business wrong has no long term sustainability.  Those doing business wrong eventually get discovered and have to pay the cost.  They are going to prison and paying major fines.  Careers are being squashed, and company reputations are smeared.

The Bible teaches wisdom on how to associate with others, such as the popular Golden Rule.  There are many other verses and parables about relationships with others.  Teachings are not only about love but also about dealing with other business people.  For example, Proverbs 27:12 states the wise sees the evil in others and avoids them and those who don’t pay the penalty.  Had that warning from King Solomon been listened to there would be much less economic turmoil.

There are values of hard work highlighted, like Proverbs 6:6-8.  This verse talks about modeling our work ethics after the ant.  The ant labors during the good times to prepare for the bad.  We have seasons of prosperity and then blow it, thinking they will never end.  When the tide rolls out, we are stuck with nothing.

Proverbs 27:23 gives us some advice on our workforce.  We are told to know the face of our flocks and to tend to our herds.  We need to get to know our employees and learn their needs.  If their needs are not being met, they will seek to have them met elsewhere.  They might steal or gossip to others running your name into the ground.

Obviously, the book of Proverbs is my favorite when discussing the business world.  That is because the author, King Solomon, was considered the richest and wisest man ever.  He built massive fortune for the nation of Israel because of his wise ways.  Even those who are not believers would benefit from reading this book of the Bible.  You will be amazed at how implementing some age old wisdom could transform your company.

Technology is ever evolving. But as technology changes, we are changing, too. Every aspect of our lives is being modified to keep pace with the changes in technology.  There have been a number of reports recently suggesting that companies are checking up on potential employees by Googling them.  More than a few candidates have been rejected based on incriminating photographs posted on their Facebook pages.

It seems that the evolution of technology has gone where the younger generation thought it would never go: their parents’ generation.  HR Managers have caught on to the fact that the twenty somethings they’re interviewing are irrevocably intertwined with the online world, so why not hit ‘em where they live?  ”Passed the drug test.  Passed the typing test.  Good handshake.  Friendly demeanor.  Did well in the interview.  But what’s this?  A picture of her topless licking tequila off a Chippendale dancer’s navel?  Next!”

But your web presence doesn’t have to be a negative. A company called BFG Communications recently hired a candidate based on a single tweet.  For those readers over forty, a tweet is a post of 140 characters or less on a web service called Twitter.  For more information on Twitter, go ask a twelve year old.

To be fair, the position BFG needed to fill was a social networking job.  But still, if they based their decision on a 140 word tweet, other companies will follow suit.  It won’t be long before resumes –  you know, the kind printed on paper – will be a distant memory.  Only the old fogies would consider using Snail Mail to deliver a sliver of a dead tree with ink on it to a potential employer when a tweet sent from the Lady GaGa concert (go ask a twelve year old) via the cell phone will do the trick.