The Gump Description

Written by David Marceau, VP Sales for Ridgefield One, LLC.

                Since going into the Staffing business, I’ve been baffled by the reaction candidates have towards a job description being an exact match for the actual work duties.  We hear feedback like, “That’s not in my job description,” or “This isn’t what I expected.”  The end result is the employee quits the job.

                I’m of the school of thought that when you get hired to do a job, you go to work to do whatever the company requires to be successful (within legal and ethical guidelines).  A good example is when Forrest Gump’s drill sergeant asks him, “What's your sole purpose in this army?”  He replies uncertainly, “To do whatever you tell me, drill sergeant!”  The drill sergeant barks back, “This is the most outstanding answer I have ever heard.”

            I didn’t always think like that.  I once had a job where I thought I was smarter than my manager and I could do things in a better method than I was prescribed to do.  Essentially, I was re-inventing the wheel.  Meanwhile the training I had received was acclaimed by Fortune Magazine as being the best in the field.  So to be successful, all I had to do was to do what I was told.

            I failed miserably at that job.  The one thing I agreed on with my manager was that at the end of my first year I should leave, and I did.

            The next time around, I decided that I wasn’t going to do things my way.  I was going to do like Forrest Gump and do whatever it was my manager told me to do.  This way, if I failed to accomplish the goals that were set out for me, it would be on my manager, not on me.  I also figured that the reason that guy was the manager was because he had sat in my seat for many years and had figured out the business.  So there was a chance that if I did things his way, I might just learn something.

            You know what?  I was wildly successful at that job.  The other unplanned benefit was, when the manager got upset at my team, other employees received his stern admonishments, but I was usually in the clear.  Most of my teammates would complain about the manager behind his back, but I was all right with him.  We got along because I just did whatever he told me to do, the way he told me to do it.

            I’ve taken this lesson forward and now try to apply it whenever possible.  Here at Ridgefield One, we’re a small company and things can move quickly.  Roles and responsibilities evolve as the company grows and often our employees are asked to do things that weren’t in the original job description.  Those who can adapt do well and are happier and have a longer tenure than those who refuse to work outside a narrow, rigid interpretation of the original job description.

            The same goes for the candidates we place with our clients.  One consultant, for example, started work using a basic entry-level skillset.  He did it well and accepted new challenges as they came along.  This enabled him to turn a one month engagement into over a year of work.  The client was happy with him and they got a lot of value out of him so they kept extending him.

            Conversely, we’ve had people quit the jobs we set up for them because the job turned out to be something other than what they had expected and they refused to adapt to the new circumstances.

            This has led me to declare that we should do away with the traditional job description.  All job descriptions should be one sentence, “Do whatever it is your manager tells you to do.”  I call it The Gump Description.

            Sure, it’s good to have an overview of day-to-day tasks, and certainly managers and recruiters need to have some parameters around a general skillset.  But in the end, it comes down to one thing.  When someone is hired by an employer, that employer has a goal above and beyond whatever it is they’re hiring for.  The employee is there to help the company be successful, whatever that means.  Sometimes that requires everyone to pitch in and do things that weren’t in the original job description.

Facebook, Twitter, and All that (Social Media) Jazz

Written by Elisa Zuckerberg, Marketing Director for Ridgefield One, LLC

Does Social Media Marketing really make sense for all small businesses? Does it really add to the bottom line for companies in all industries? How about Landscape, Accounting, or Insurance Firms? A Medical, Dental or Podiatry Practice? Many do use this forum as an attempt to communicate with their customers and patients. For retail it makes perfect sense. For other professional services, I wonder if it is necessary.

I’ve been managing the social media for Ridgefield One, a staffing and web development agency for over a year and a half now and am not quite sure how effective it has been at bringing in new business. I post a couple of times a day on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and reply to any messages or comments. I follow those who follow us, like those who like us, and so forth. We now have a decent number of Twitter followers and Facebook fans, but has it helped build brand awareness? Probably. Has it translated into sales? I do not know, perhaps indirectly.

To address my first question, if you are one who believes that all industries should promote themselves using social media, what’s the rationale? Some say it makes existing customers more loyal? Prove it… and while you’re at it explain how you measure ROI? I don’t believe that most companies are keeping track. I understand that some companies use it as a customer service tool. That makes sense; this is a matter of retention, but I’m still not convinced that it brings in new customers.

Since I manage social media for the company and use social media products personally, I am acutely aware of whom and when people interact with these forums. It’s tricky to elicit responses or encourage action; it is a game of sorts.

Samantha Scott, in her blog, getpushing.com, talks about a “pray and spray” effect. She describes the idea of “throwing out information, media like photos and video out on the Web and hoping someone looks at it, like your target audience.”  In her opinion, that does not work.  I agree with her. We don’t just want to measure how many fans or followers we have, but what we are doing with them. It doesn’t matter if your company Facebook page has 2,000 “likes” or “fans” if none of them are commenting, liking, posting or sharing with you.

A couple of months ago I conducted rudimentary research on this issue. I posted the same exact statement on both the Ridgefield One page and my personal profile. The personal profile received far more comments. Yes, it true I have more friends than Ridgefield One has followers, but I would still expect a couple of responses. I’ve done this several times since - same results.  It makes me wonder if followers and fans ignore professional posts because they see them as advertisements. 

Here’s what else I found:

People do not reply to anything that requires them to read too much or do any work!

Experiment: I posted links to articles that were timely, relevant, and thought provoking. Then I tried to elicit a response with a question which would prompt them to reply. NOTHING. Then I posted the question, “What was your favorite rock concert ever?” I received a bunch of enthusiastic comments immediately!

Observation: A friend of mine posted the following question on Facebook, “Do you brush your teeth before or after you take a shower?” In one day she received 43 responses! This proves my point. If that doesn’t tell you something about the dynamics of Facebook, then what does? You know what else gets people to react to posts? Sick children, sports updates, pictures from events, and any stupid video with animals.

I’ve been talking mostly about Facebook, now how about Twitter?

People who “tweet” think that they are so clever. Many use cryptic language in order to get their message across in 140 characters. It’s very confusing. Almost every tweet is a link to an article. Who has time to read all these articles, white papers, and blogs! And it’s never ending, just when you thought you’d cover all the important news, within seconds there are 100 more posts! With all this constant feed of information, how does a company get noticed? And if they do, does this translates into sales?

What we can learn from this.

If a business chooses to use Social Media Marketing, someone needs to manage it, have clear objectives, and make sure the social media manager keeps up with the technology and changing features. Clearly, the purpose of social media for business is to have a dialogue - communication in not one-sided. If companies only posts industry news or their own business updates, no one will be interested. Social media experts break it down like this:

Facebook and Twitter Posts

Ideally businesses need to measure social media performance. There are tools and methods to do this. Look out for my next blog: Utilizing qualitative and quantitative research to measure social media marketing effectiveness.

The attitudes and opinions expresses are those of one employee and not those necessarily of Ridgefield One as a whole nor its management.


Ridgefield One is an IT and Creative Web Service Agency located in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Ridgefield One also provides an Extra Set of Hands on a Temporary Basis.

Should Designers Code?

Tom Marra is an Interactive Developer for Ridgefield One, LLC.

http://intenseminimalism.com/2011/designers-shouldnt-code-the-digital-duo/

This article is an interesting perspective from the Developer side of the equation.  I agree that both designer, Developer, and Information Architect (omitted from article) should understand each others' disciplines enough to be comfortable with the limits of the media they are collectively working with.  I feel that any individual with the determination to succeed can be proficient at any task they set out to do.  With the simple understanding that success will not come overnight.

As a trained designer I think it's important to understand all components of a project you are a part of.  A designer's first obligation is not as an artist but as a successful communicator.  As a current developer I believe my colleagues need to understand that some factors of technology will innately escape those who are afraid to do the work required to understand it.  As the article suggests, we should be more open to conversations about the limitations of the language or technology you are working with; Preferably in as understandable verbiage as we can muster.  Coding puts a person into a mindset that is difficult for others to understand.

I think I was personally lucky to have a number of friends who were computer scientists.  My experience with them helped to  ease my transition from design into technical artistry.  Those of us who are lucky to have cognitive capacity on both ends of the spectrum should understand that we are a crucial link between the members of the team we are a part of.  We can solve problems and fix communication gaps that others can't see.  Regardless of your natural ability, it is important to remember that disciplines are only boundries of the mind and society.

One can accomplish whatever task they have vision and determination enough to take on.  By labeling people we innately limit them.


Ridgefield One provides an Extra Set of Hands on a Temporary Basis for companies located in Fairfield County, Connecticut and Westchester, New York. Ridgefield One also offers IT Consulting and Creative Web Services.

The Cost Of Holding Out For A Higher Salary

Written by David Marceau, VP of Sales for Ridgefield One, LLC

Have you turned down a job offer recently because you’re holding out for a higher salary?  Have you thought about what it’s costing you to go without an income instead of taking home the lower salary?  A recent Ridgefield One assessment (see chart) produced answers to those questions along with some interesting additional results.

Depending on the salary you’re shooting for, it likely makes more sense to take the lower-paying job.  The reason is because each week without a salary is like subtracting money from your salary.  For example, if you turn down a job for $50,000 because you’d rather earn $55,000, each week you’re losing out on just under $1000 you would have earned, had you been working.  After one and a half months, if you still haven’t landed a job, you’d have given up over $5000 in income.  In other words, you’d be worse off than if you had accepted the lower-paying job. 
 

The more you’re trying to earn, the faster you’ll rack up losses by not working.  For example, if you pass up a $90,000 a year job because you’re looking for $95,000, that same $5,000 difference will be lost in only three weeks.  Waiting one and a half months will result in over $10,000 in losses.  As you get closer to the $200,000 mark, it will only take a couple weeks to create the same losses.

What’s really interesting, though, is the results of holding out on the low-end of the pay scale.  Folks who turn down a $25,000 a year job in favor of $30,000 can stay out of work for eleven weeks before realizing the results this $5,000 difference.  When you add in the fact that many people in this range will have a higher proportion of their income covered by Unemployment payments, it may actually make sense to try for the higher-paying job.  However, these same people may be more dependent on every penny that comes in and would therefore need to get back to work as quickly as possible. 

In either case, there are additional reasons for the job-seeker to get back to work now by accepting a position below salary expectations.  Our experience has shown that the longer someone stays unemployed, the harder it is to get re-employed.  Employers don’t like seeing big gaps in employment.  It makes hiring managers think the candidate really doesn’t like working, or that there’s a reason everyone is avoiding them.

Plus, every day spent out of work is a day that skills are dulled.  The world is still moving ahead while the unemployed remain stagnant.  Getting back to work and keeping skills sharp is more important in the long run than earning a few extra dollars per week today.

Often times, the people who are holding out for more money are people whose jobs went away and are never coming back (at least not at the same salary).  Middle managers, Business Analysts, Project Managers, and others who have moved on from doing to managing are in this position.

Ridgefield One is an IT and Creative Web Service Agency located in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Ridgefield One also provides an Extra Set of Hands on a Temporary Basis.

Dear Warren Buffett - Plan B

Written by Susan Sturtevant - Bookkeeper for Ridgefield One, LLC

I am hoping that in some divine intervention this letter somehow reaches you in the new-fangled age of the World Wide Web.

I have read several articles regarding your recent editorial opinion in the New York Times, “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich” and I have to say – Good Job!!!  I personally think that it is honorable that you are asking the government to stop protecting you and your friends by taking away the long standing and generous tax breaks that have been granted to the mega-rich along with the main point that it won’t hurt job growth since it would be a great investment for the future of all Americans.  But hey, let’s face the facts… if the government is going to shy away from your well thought out plan to get us out of this mess then the hard working (albeit disappearing) middleclass could use a direct boost.   So I have spent many sleepless nights trying to figure out what to suggest as a “Plan B” or workaround getting your mega-rich friends and your money into the economy without going through our government.  And strictly in my opinion – our government is currently in need of a serious shop-a-holic intervention.

So here it is – invest in small businesses.  Don’t laugh – I’m serious!

In your editorial, you mentioned that you only paid 17.4 percent of your taxable income, paying a total of $ 6,938,744.  Your average office employee paid 36 percent.  Which by my calculations (and please forgive me if it is off) you have $ 39,877,839 of taxable income and if you paid what your average employee paid in taxes the total tax bill would be $ 14,356,022.  So you received a tax break of $ 7,417,278.  WOW, that was exhausting.  So let’s work around the government who seems to want to forgo collecting any more then what they deem to be appropriate from you and your friends, all while taking from my fellow Americans’ and my pockets.

Let me get back to small businesses.  According to the SBA the following is true about small businesses:

·         Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.

·         Employ just over half of all private sector employees.

·         Pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll.

·         Have generated 64 percent of net new jobs over the past 15 years.

·         Create more than half of the nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).

·         Hire 40 percent of high tech workers (such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers).

·         Are 52 percent home-based and 2 percent franchises.

·         Made up 97.3 percent of all identified exporters and produced 30.2 percent of the known export value in FY 2007.

·         Produce 13 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms; these patents are twice as likely as large firm patents to be among the one percent most cited

Those are the facts that are given to us – yet, the grants are scarcely available (unless you jump through rings of fire - blindfolded) and most loan processes are just as difficult, have high interest rates, and keep growth to a minimum.  I’ve looked into Angel Investors and Venture Capitalist, however; as I am sure that you are aware, they want to make money also and want a bigger piece of the pie then most start-ups can afford.  Don’t get me wrong they have their reasons and agendas.  Everyone has an agenda (good or bad).  So why are we not investing in the little guy?  Why are small businesses not handed a helping hand from the more experienced and well-funded?  Where is the love for such a large part of our economy?  Where is the government when we need them the most? 

That’s where I am: Working for a small start-up a little over a year in a field that has many bigger contenders.  I’ve searched high and low for solutions to ease cash flow tensions, listening to public radio on my hour and a half ride to work, hoping to find a solution that will give us the leg up in the market.  And the best part is that I am working for a staffing firm – a company that helps the unemployed get back to work.  We want to expand, explore different markets, and make a stance to not only staff people at different companies but to also increase our staff.  You would think that there would be help out there to help others – but if there is I haven’t found very many options that have panned out.  This is why I am writing to you.

If you and your mega-rich friends can’t get our government to filter your tax break money back into the system – take it upon yourselves to do that.  You don’t need the government to hold your hand to get the working population back to work – just help small businesses do that for you.  Think about it.  If you have 10 friends that received the same tax break, you pool all that money into a fund to fund new businesses.   That equals $ 74,172,780 that can go directly into the economy through small businesses.  This money can help fund small business growth leading to job creations strengthening the economy.  I am not saying all the money should go into one business investment (I’m sure you would agree that would not be a wise decision), but rather spread it around.  Just imagine what 741 small businesses can do with a grant for $100,000 a piece that doesn’t need to be paid back?  Imagine what drive that could give the economy?  And hey, don’t forget we have to pay tax on that money, so in a roundabout way, a portion of your money still goes back to the government in the form of taxes.  I know it might not be as elementary as I am making it sound – but does it have to be so difficult and complex?  There is a pool of money, businesses apply, businesses receive money, employees are hired, people have more money to spend, the consumer market gets a boost, more taxes are paid, and the government gets money.  It’s like dominoes.

‘But someone needs to control the fund?’ you might say.  Well, there you go – you just created another team of newly employed individuals.  How wonderful is that.  A team of people dedicated to honestly helping those in need to take on the daunting task of sifting through thousands of potential recipients. 

I have the greatest faith that you have the resources to put this together quickly and efficiently.  Again, it shouldn’t be a difficult application to help progression.  This is an overall investment in our future without all that red tape.

So, hopefully you have received my ideas and thoughts, you are able to look at this from a positive perspective and you have gotten to the end of the letter and have said “that is a great idea, let me get started with that”.  Here I am, Middle America, small business waiting for someone to take a direct stand.

Sincerely,

Susan Sturtevant

The attitudes and opinions expresses are those of one employee and not those necessarily of Ridgefield One as a whole nor its management.

Numbers Don’t Mean a Thing, If You Ain’t Got that Zing….....

I look at numbers all day long, analyzing, configuring, reporting - the list goes on and on…. so no more boring you with the details… but what I can’t understand is these job reporting articles?
Ok, high unemployment is a reality, we get that.  (Realistically it is probably more in the double digits and not the 9.1 or 9.2% B.S. that we are fed).  Anyone who is not living under a rock understands that people are out of jobs or accepting jobs that underpay them given their qualifications and some, not all, are abusing the system just waiting for that pot at the end of the rainbow to shower down upon them.  (Between you and me, those are the people that irk me the most, but I digress). 

I get it; I was unemployed for over a year, almost two (I am one of the lucky few that was able to find a job that fits).  The most stressful times were when the State of Connecticut constantly sent me official-looking reminders that my unemployment checks would cease to exist the following week.  One time I didn’t find out that I needed to renew until the day before.  I was actually at the unemployment office for a mandatory resume writing class (don’t get me started as to how much of a joke that was) – and I went to the main desk to ask about my status since I couldn’t find the information on their website and the wait time on the phone is atrocious (you want to talk about a department that is understaffed and underpaid look no further).  Long story short, I was crying all the way home with bills to pay and no Angel Investor looking my way – I was planning a diet of Raman Noodles and time spent reading books for the next few years of my life.... thinking that this couldn’t be MY life… I have two undergraduate degrees, a master’s degree and years of professional experience – apparently in all the wrong fields.  Let’s just say depression and dark clouds loomed over my once-promised bright future.

So, in the words of one of my favorite dads: do you know “what really grinds my gears” (small shout out to Seth MacFarlane) - - - these idiotic reports regarding unemployment rates and even more so the reports about how many more jobs are added to the market http://bit.ly/o7gGOE. Oh the numbers came out on Friday?  Great.  Unemployment hasn’t changed? Expected.  More jobs are added to the market.  Wonderful. 

But who gets these jobs?  Where are they located? Are the median wages at minimum wage?  How many jobs were taken off the market?  How many more people are unemployed but stopped reporting? How many more families are seeking shelter at a local shelter because they have just used up their benefits and lost their homes?  Here is another question, what is the difference between the jobs added to the market and those that were dissolved?   Why don’t we see these numbers?  Because they might scare us back into the Stone Age?  You don’t think that we can “handle the truth”?

Oh the questions go on and on…. so if you learned anything regarding this rant of mine… know that we should not be taking the numbers that are force fed to us on the silver spoon of journalism and that they don’t mean ANYTHING unless you look at the other side of the street.  Numbers can’t lie; you just need to be looking at the whole picture.

      - Susan Sturtevant

Susan Sturtevant is a bookkeeper at Ridgefield One

Ridgefield One provides an Extra Set of Hands on a Temporary Basis for companies located in Fairfield County, Connecticut and Westchester, New York. Ridgefield One also offers IT Consulting and Creative Web Services.

Don't use getElementsbyClassName in JavaScript!

Recently I was asked to update an existing site.  Going into someone else's code can be one of the tougher parts of the job, as you must get into the head of the other developer to see how and why he made the decisions he did.  In his JavaScript, he used Prototype, which is a JavaScript Framework. Because I was not as familiar with Prototype, I used some regular JavaScript to code out my site. Unfortunately, while coding I kept getting an error.  I found out after some research that the “getElementsByClassName” method, a very useful bit of code in JavaScript, is not supported in older versions of Prototype.  Only Prototype 1.6 and later supports it. Here is a link to the Prototype site on this issue: http://www.prototypejs.org/api/element/getElementsByClassName

I am glad most AJAX libraries have learned to not overwrite native objects.  It is great to work with a robust language, but be wary of obtrusive JavaScript issues like these.

The issues with “getElementsByClassName” do not end with the recent updates to Prototype. IE8 does not support “getElementsByClassName”.  This is just another reason coders dislike IE. The browser has a history of being slow to adopt new code standards and is sometimes considered unsafe and insecure.  It is also noted for rendering websites wrong, causing many coders to spend countless hours working into the night, debugging issues.  Until IE8 accepts “getElementsByClassName”, I do not recommend using it.

Here is an alternative way of using “getElementsByClassName” that works in all browsers; make the function yourself: http://www.webmuse.co.uk/blog/custom-getelementsbyclassname-function-for-all-browsers/

      - Dan Schipul

Dan Schipul is a Web Developer for Ridgefield One

Ridgefield One provides An Extra Sets of Hands on a Temporary Basis - Offering IT and Creative Web Services for companies located in Fairfield, Connecticut and Westchester, New York. Also helping companies with their temporary Office Administrative hiring needs.