We may not like it because most people on Main Street are still hurting and struggling financially, but when earnings rebound, when bailout loans get repaid and when a company racks up impressive performances, Wall Street’s long standing bonus structure kicks in.  (Wall Street:  From Bailout to Bonuses, Part 1, post 10/22/09).

Wall Street’s top firm – Goldman Sachs – is sitting on the biggest pot of bonus money in the company’s history:  $23 billion.  Goldman says $16.7 billion of it – is set aside for the much talked about and controversial end-of-year (compensation and benefits) bonuses.

A lot of people on Main Street want to “shoot the messenger” (Goldman Sachs) for having amassed such a bonus pool.  Such a lofty stash of cash infuriates a lot of hardworking, every day people – perhaps in part because Main Street wants to believe that what’s good for Wall Street is good for Main Street and vice versa. 

The reality is – it just doesn’t work that way.  In fact, it’s often the exact opposite.  We live in a capitalistic society and most of us believe in it but feel the practice of bowing to the capitalist gods (corporate America) must change, and that it starts with stopping these eye-popping, anticipated bonuses.

When properly used, I believe bonuses are a good thing.  They were created to motivate performance that would fall to (improve) the bottom line.  And bonuses are a good idea when they’re used as an incentive to motivate stellar performance.  Bonuses weren’t meant to be a guarantee.  They were meant to be the carrot. 

The problem with Wall Street’s bonus structure these days is that bonuses aren’t the carrot that’s being dangled anymore; they’re an expected additional compensation; and the money handlers are getting paid – when they sell you stock, for the transaction, and even when you are losing money on it.

Some say Wall Street bonus rewards should be tied to Main Street’s.  Their argument?  It would motivate the financial services industry to “do the right thing” and “get us back on our feet” rather than just increasing activity where “the rich get richer and though we (Main Street) lost money, they (Wall Street) get a year-end-bonus”.

My issue is the size of end-of-the-year bonuses.  I just can’t wrap my brain around justifying a $500,000 to $700,000 bonus (which is the range the New York Times has calculated for each of Goldman Sachs’ 31,700 employees who qualify for the windfall.)  Goldman’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein says the company needs to pay these huge sums in order to retain its best people or risk losing them to rivals.  

I think that’s a bogus - but popular – argument among all the top firms. 

Here’s the bottom line for Main Street:  the U.S. lost 7.2 million jobs in the last two years driving the unemployment rate to its highest level in more than a quarter of a century.  Plenty of very talented people on Main Street are still looking for work – let alone being retained with six figure salaries and six figure bonuses.

So while there may be some job opportunities out there for these bright, talented, high stakes Wall Street money managers – how many would actually walk away from a job that pays so very well – in this economy?

Here’s to your health and wealth.

TAGS: bailout, Bonus compensation, wall street

If you read my blog last week, you know I’m in Italy.  Today I’m preparing to fly back home from Rome after two week in Naples, the Amalfi Coast, and Sicily with my friend Susan.  There’s a notation on my Outlook calendar, “Return from Italy… If I decide to come back at all.”  One of the women in my office saw the comment before I left and laughed.  I wasn’t kidding.  If I could, I might just choose to remain in Italy for an unspecified period of time.

With that said, I realize real life calls me back to the U.S.  My family, my business, and my friends are all in the U.S.  What makes me want to remain in Europe is the experience of being unfettered (and untethered) from the daily grind.  No e-mail, no voice mail, no one tugging at me for this or that.  So how will I re-enter “real-life?”  Perhaps in much the same way I’ve re-entered in the past – with a resolve to live my life differently.  Here are some ways in which I’ve changed my life after past trips and you can too if you just choose to live consciously instead of in response to others expectations of you:

• No home voicemail.  That’s right.  We don’t have a VM at home.  Our work days are long enough and we speak to enough people on the phone all day long to want to come home to answering more calls.  If I have the energy to talk on the phone in the evening I pick it up when it rings.  Otherwise, it just rings. 
• No pagers or IM.  My cell phone is for my convenience, not for the convenience of others.  If I recognize the caller or am expecting the call, I’ll pick it up.  Otherwise, callers leave messages and either my assistant or I return the call. 
• Weekly mail review.  One of the things that really irritates me is mail.  There’s so much junk in the box and the stuff that really needs attention can usually wait to be opened for a few days or a week.  We have a locked mailbox at the curb and only check it every few days.  This alone gives me an extra 30 minutes each day. 
• Personal e-mails wait 3 days.  Again, I can make myself crazy answering each e-mail as soon as I get it or I can choose to answer personal mail when I have the time.  I give myself a 3 day grace period and no one has ever complained.  If friends and family need to speak with me immediately they typically call my office, say it’s urgent, and we connect within minutes or hours. 
• Clients have priority.   I make my living through the clients I serve.  Everyone in my office knows they have priority and I will do everything possible to speak with them as close to their request as possible.  My family knows I will get back to them as quickly as possible — particularly if it’s urgent.  Everyone else has to wait until I’ve got a minute to breathe. 

TAGS: conscious living, living mindfully, mindfulness, work life balance

I had the complete joy last Sunday of having absolutely nothing to do. It was pouring rain, SeamlessWeb delivered bagels and coffee directly to my door, and my husband and his best friend had plans to watch nonstop football.

So, I camped out upstairs in our apartment — computer turned off! — and read pretty much the entire Sunday New York Times cover-to-cover. In addition to reading Bono’s op-ed, a review of Gail Collins’ new book about women and, as always, the wedding announcements (“the sports pages for women”), I came across an interview with Carol Bartz, the CEO of Yahoo.

In the interview, Bartz is asked to share her best career advice. She says the following:

“You need to build your career not as a ladder, but as a pyramid. You need to have a base of experience because it’s a much more stable structure. And so that involves taking lateral moves. And it involves getting out of your comfort zone.”

It’s no secret that the concept of a career ladder, in which you rise up each rung in a direct (and precarious) upward trajectory, is no longer relevant to the realities of today’s work world. I was excited when, a few years ago, Deloitte’s Cathy Benko and Anne C. Weisberg, authors of Mass Career Customization, coined an alternative term “career lattice.” They defined this as a career that exists as “an undulating journey of climbs and lateral moves.”

I like the lattice image, especially in a corporate context as Benko and Weisberg designed it, but for career paths in general I love the pyramid analogy. It suggests that, in the early years of one’s career especially, your job is to build a foundation that will be the base for future career decisions and accomplishments. It suggests that a career is something from which you can’t “fall off” or “fall through the cracks.” It connotes stability and strength.

Furthermore, a pyramid can be custom built to any specifications. The current Wikipedia entry on pyramids notes, “The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least four faces.” (Plus, if you envision a pyramid that looks more like a progression of steps, you can also incorporate the helpful concept of “leveling up,” which Chris Brogan wrote about recently.)

It’s no secret that many of us have various “faces” at any given point in our careers. I’m thinking of a newly entrepreneurial friend whose pyramid “base” is her seven years at a law firm learning the basics of negotiation and communication. Or my husband, whose base includes eight years in magazine advertising sales that has now grown into a role as VP of sales for a digital media company. Or my own career pyramid, that started with a base of writing and speaking experience and has grown into a business with a variety of “faces.”

What do you think of the idea of career pyramids? Do you think this is a helpful analogy for the “shape” of 21st Century careers? Please share in the Comments!

This post originally appeared on the Lindsey Pollak Career Blog.

TAGS: career advice, managing your career

From June Cleaver to Hillary Clinton, Gail Collins‘ new book, When Everything Changed, reminds us of both how much everything has changed for American women in the last 50 years ─ and just how little. Collins writes skillfully about the “olden” days when a glamour career for a woman was to be a stewardess and when the reason most women went to college to get a “Mrs.”.

As accessible as she is on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times, and as wryly funny, Collins illustrates the historical facts with the stories of real women including those whose names we all know (Hilary Clinton, Sarah Palin and Michelle Obama) as well as those we would probably not know unless we read her book.

What Collins does particularly well though is to highlight that there still isn’t gender parity in America’s workplaces or homes. She ends on a note that celebrates how far we’ve come with a reality check – the gender pay gap still exists, too few women serve as CEOs or sit on corporate boards and the work-life balance conundrum has yet to be resolved.

When Everything Changed is an inspiring book.  If we have forgotten the sacrifices and struggles of women who blazed the trail and take the fact that they changed the world, we should be reminded.  And even if we haven’t, Collins shows us that we have miles to go before we sleep.

Let’s get busy!

And please, after you’ve read When Everything Changed, comment here about what you will do differently as a result.

TAGS: Gail Collins, LinkedIn

Goldman Sachs, Wall Street’s top firm, has set aside $16.7 billion for bonuses to top employees.  That’s up 46% from the bonuses the firm gave a year ago.  Paid at year’s end, this chunk of money is compensation and benefits for the first nine months of 2009.  The New York Times says it’s enough to pay each of Goldman’s bonus qualifying workers $527,192.  

Ka-ching!  But not on Main Street.

Wall Street bonuses have always been a hot topic but – in the current economic environment – bonuses are even more controversial and often lead to some very angry points of view.  

Goldman Sachs is in a lot of people’s crosshairs because Goldman’s bonus number is far greater than any other on Wall Street. 

But the flipside is – Goldman Sachs had a spectacular third quarter:  more than $3 billion ($3.19 billion, to be exact).  And since the bonus compensation formula is based on performance – I believe that will be central to Goldman justifying the bonuses to the public. 

Goldman’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein set a Wall Street pay record two years ago with a $70 million salary, stock, bonuses and options package.  He “slashed” his pay last year ($600,000 and nearly $278,000 in deferred stock rewards) and went without a bonus after the firm’s first quarterly loss.

Blankfein accepted financial support from the government : $10 billion.   He/Goldman Sachs has repaid the $10 billion in bailout money plus dividends.  Now the company is resuming allocating billions of dollars for year end bonuses. 

We may not like it because most people on Main Street are still hurting and struggling financially.  But when earnings rebound, when bailout loans get repaid and when a company starts racking up impressive performance, Wall Street’s long standing bonus structure kicks in.

That’s why I think how Goldman handles this end-of-the-year bonuses story will shape its image in the public’s eye for many years to come.  My bet is Goldman will justify having the biggest bonus pot in company history by showcasing its standing ovation third quarter performance.

Wall Street – From Bailout to Bonuses, Part 2 – next week.

Here’s to your health and wealth.

TAGS: bailout, Bonus compensation, wall street

As you read this today I’m in Italy somewhere along the Amalfi Coast.  I left last Friday with my dear friend Susan to celebrate her 60th birthday.  When she first asked me if I would be willing to do a special trip to honor her 60th I said yes.  I thought she would want to go to a spa or the wine country — nothing beyond my reasonable expectations.  When she said Italy was her destination of choice, I was surprised but agreed to do whatever would make her birthday memorable.

Research done by the American Association of University Women indicates that girlfriends play a critical role in our formative years.  It is through them that we learn to trust, feel joy, and experience intimacy.  But as a girl turns thirteen or fourteen years old her focus shifts from girlfriends to boys.  This is when the “mean girls” phenomenon kicks in and our relationships with other females become more complex.

How often are we asked to do something that goes beyond our expectations?  How infrequently do we ask others for what we would really like?  Here are three simple things I’d like you to think about as you consider your relationships with the women who are really important to you:

• Stretch.  In my case, I had enough award mileage available to pay for not only my ticket but Susan’s as well. I was saving those miles for a trip to Ireland next year, but Susan would only turn 60 once.  In thinking about the joy I had received from Susan’s friendship over the years it didn’t seem unreasonable to cash in those miles to go to Italy.   If your good friend asks for something that requires you to stretch, go for it.  Friendships are invaluable and we can’t really put a price tag on them.
• Ask.  What is it that you want from friends but are reluctant to ask for?  Supportive friends will want to make an effort to meet your needs — but you’ve got to ask.  You might hesitate to ask friends to pitch in $100 a piece to rent a house in the mountains, desert, or at the beach just to spend some time together, but  think about the shared experience that will result.  It’s not only about you, it’s about them too. Whatever expense and challenge they have to go to make it happen is usually well worth it. 
• Be grateful.  When surrounded by the women who make a difference in your life be consciously grateful of their presence, of what they have given to be present, and how together you can make a difference.  Take time during your experience to identify ways in which together you might contribute to other women who are less fortunate or help out a friend who is going through a rough time.  Visit the website www.gratefulness.org to learn more. 

TAGS: AAUW, American Association of University Women, Friendships, Girlfriends, Work/Life Balance, work/life integration

Today I’m pleased to share my third and final post on all the types of experience you have that you might not be giving yourself credit for. I hope you find this valuable, and please share any additional suggestions in the Comments!

Part III: Personal Interests and Experiences

1. Investing. Have you put away money since your tenth birthday and watched your savings grow significantly? Are you active in trading and investing through your E*TRADE account? Do you currently manage your finances beyond balancing your checkbook? Since many high school and college students don’t manage their own money, your experience and knowledge could stand out.

2. Family business. If you’ve been part of your parents’ business development process or worked in a family-owned restaurant or store, your dinner table conversations may have involved hiring practices and workplace challenges. Even if you didn’t start the company, your experience is a source of knowledge and brings value to your job search.

3. Travel. Any trip that has broadened your perspective of the United States or the world adds value to your relevant work experience. Did you hike the Grand Canyon or backpack through Europe? Did you visit a country where you couldn’t even read the street signs? Be sure to tell potential employers how you overcame these challenges and broadened your life experience.

4. Passions or hobbies. What do you care about and what do you do in your free time? Whether it’s running marathons, building model airplanes or teaching yourself to cook, anything that demonstrates your dedication and drive has value in the workplace. If you’ve committed yourself to a goal and achieved it (or are working on achieving it), you’ve spent a lot of time and energy in this area of interest. Be sure to mention these experiences in an interview or professional networking situation.

5. Social media. Have you made a (positive) name for yourself in the social media word? If you’ve become highly involved in an online community like Twitter, YouTube, Ning or LinkedIn, be sure to mention this experience in a job interview. Many companies are focused on enhancing their presence online and may appreciate your experience and knowledge in this still-new arena. If your talent includes more than Facebook-stalking your peers, and you’re proud of what you’ve done, don’t hesitate to share.

6. Technology. If you have computer knowledge beyond Microsoft Word, take it into consideration as a marketable skills. If you have significant experience with Quickbooks, Photoshop or are really advanced with Excel or PowerPoint, definitely play up these skills. If you can write HTML code (even basic), that can be very valuable too.

7. Moving. Did you attend more than one high school because your parents decided to move? Did you transfer colleges after your freshman year? If you successfully made friends and acclimated to a new environment, you might mention this experience in an interview. If you didn’t love your first pick of colleges, your desire to change and improve your situation shows strength and courage. Play up your ability to make the most of change when speaking to potential employers.

8. Overcoming a life challenge. Were you injured and completed physical therapy? Have you dealt with a learning disability or taken care of a sick parent? Though these are very personal experiences, you might mention these personal trials in an essay, cover letter or interview. Some of life’s greatest challenges have nothing to do with work or professional experiences. Give yourself credit and consider talking about these difficult life experiences from an attitude of strength. They’re part of who you are today and potential employers will appreciate your honesty and courage.

In addition to brainstorming all of the above types of experience, I poked around the Web to find even more. Freelance work, certification that requires training or courses, awards of all kinds and any involvement with a nonprofit are also worthy of mention. If I’ve left anything off this list, please share additional types of experience in the comments below.

As your post-summer assignment, go back through this list and put together a master list of your own. If you’re stuck, talk to five people who know you best. Ask your parents, siblings, mentors, best friends and favorite professors to help you come up with a list of valuable experiences you’ve had and specific qualities you bring to the table.

When it comes to selling ourselves, we often don’t see what’s right in front of us. Yes, it’s important to be humble, but in a competitive job market it’s also necessary to articulate exactly what knowledge, skills and experiences you bring to the marketplace. Happy listing!

This post originally appeared on the Lindsey Pollak Career Blog.

TAGS: Generation Y, Job hunting, Job Search

A while ago, I wrote a post about keeping your personal life private. But what can you do if you’ve already made the mistake of sharing too much information? Consider this dilemma posed by a reader (edited):

Hi. True confession time. I’m an assistant manager and over the last year, I’ve been a total idiot: sharing the things you mentioned about my private life.

Divorce, medical problems, problems with my daughter. I did this with subordinates I should have NEVER confided in. The big boss is retiring soon and passing the baton to me, so to speak and I’ve made a MESS that unfortunately has stained my reputation here. I get a lot of disrespect from the other employees who will be working under me. I feel that they know too much.

I wish I could go back with an eraser and erase their minds but it is too late. Was I mentally ill at the time I did all that revealing and chatting with them??? I hate myself for that! I feel I have spoiled the chance at being an effective manager with them.

What can I do now besides keeping my mouth shut about my personal life, which I have started doing. Or is it too late? Should I resign and turn over a new leaf somewhere else? I have been with my company 16 years.

I’d appreciate any advice that would help me. I do realize the error of my ways and now need advice on what to do about it. Thanks.

Here’s how I responded:

What’s done is done. Time to move on. Your situation is complicated but I don’t think it’s hopeless.

Suggest that you think about having one-on-one conversations with people who work for you, focusing on their careers and how you plan to support them.

Once people understand that you are on their side and want to develop them, they will probably be only too happy to forget the past. What they may be concerned about is whether your personal problems will overshadow them; you will have to turn that perception around.

If someone brings something personal up that you’ve shared with them, I’d recommend that you deflect it. You might say something like, “Thanks for your concern but that is behind me now. Let’s spend our time figuring out the best way to get this work done without having to stay late.”

It won’t be easy but demonstrating your competence (and concern as a leader) is the way to reinvent yourself in the eyes of your co-workers.

The reality is that once you make a mistake like this woman did, you have to re-negotiate the relationship.  In order to be an effective leader, you must have and use power wisely and well. While she now does have positional power (she is or soon will be the boss), her personal power has suffered because her vulnerabilities are public.  She’ll have to regain her standing one colleague at a time – and negotiation is the way to do that.

TAGS: LinkedIn. recovering from mistakes, privacy, too much information

The Little Pink Book, Pink Magazine ‘s daily ezine linked to The Think Pink Line ‘s own Dr. Lois Frankel ‘s post about curiosity and her career.  Read the post here.  Sign up for the Little Pink Book here.

TAGS: curiosity, Pink Magazine

Many years ago, a much cherished friend gave me the nickname “Valuable”.  It was her way of respecting my Mom’s wish that my given name of Valerie not be shortened (though Val is quite fine with me) – while simultaneously delighting her by creating such a complimentary substitution. 

This same friend is the one who showed me by her example - this most valuable life lesson:  once we have the freedom to re-invent ourselves, it opens up a buffet of choices. 

Her menu has always been varied.  She has successfully and deliberately re-invented what she chooses to do with her time but more importantly, re-evaluated how she felt about herself with each change.   Her career started working at the beginning of the life cycle – as a nurse midwife.  She was present for the birth of both of my daughters.  Her career now post, raising children, surving widowed and the grandmother to a growing nest – is as a geriatric medical specialist.  

In the midst of the lives we live – there is always change.  Remembering my friend’s valuable life lesson has always helped me (eventually) see a bigger menu – a buffet of choices.  It does again as we are changing and starting to feel the beginning cycle of a recovering economy. 

I believe that in the midst of this infant recovery are important generational change characteristics about personal money and what people are choosing to do with it.  Call them the characteristics of new philanthropists in which cultural changes are rampant. 

Younger generations are re-inventing the reasons, ways and to whom they tithe; looking for a return on their investment when it comes to which not-for-profits they support and commit to sustain as their assets and incomes grow.  Charitable giving is coming of a valuable new age and new philanthropists – however rich or modest their financial circumstances – want to see the good of their assets rather than just feeling good about their actions. 

This new mindset is real and worthy.  It will require each of us to commit to seeing/reassessing/recalculating where everybody is now when it comes to money relations.  The old “we’ve always done it this way” formula doesn’t work anymore.  Financial sustainability has new metrics these days and for the future.

The challenge:  each of us must figure out how to move the financial people in our respective lives into the new money direction we each need – and do it without getting everyone’s back up.  A buffet of choices on how to do that is available to you.  Get creative.  Talk with your lenders, creditors and other financial services representatives in your money house and get your money needs recalculated.  It’s doable.  It’s worthy.  It’s valuable. 

Here’s to your health and wealth.

TAGS: charitable giving, philanthropy, Re-inventing money disciplines, recovering economy