I have resources, do you?

Recently I learned that the statement itself, “I have resources” is extremely powerful. Just try saying it out loud and see how it feels, and think of what it might sound like from someone else’s perspective. Resources can mean anything, from cash and equity, to knowledge and education, to supportive friends and family, and to even self esteem and stamina. Resources in Alberta conjures thoughts about our oil sands and access to water, as well as our gas, electricity, food, education, and housing. As a community, we have established availability of almost every type of resource imaginable, but individually, we are all at different levels of access.

Those with more resources, financial and ability, have more power. The people with lots of resources, knowledge included, have been buying up real estate and investing in high risk stocks. The more resources someone has, the more ability they have to take chances on the future. We never really know when we will need to draw on our resources, so we need to ensure we have a stockpile somewhere of money, favours, relationships, references, and perhaps even canned goods. How much is enough? How do we know if we are saving enough for an emergency or a worldwide crash? How many favours do we need to keep in the “what if” bank just in case, and for how long? How much reading and knowledge do we need to carry around in our brains to be considered knowledgeable?

If there is something we all learned through this past recession is that stuff happens that is out of our control and we never know when or what this stuff will be until it hits us. Jobs have been lost, even supposedly secure ones, as well as homes and businesses, and relationships and families have been broken. Those folks who saved resources for a rainy day (or stormy year and a half) to use in case of an emergency, are coming out loud and strong now. Business owners who reinvested past earnings in order to save their companies are now hiring and rebuilding. Employees who lost their jobs, are now finding new jobs and are being picky about who and what they will accept for employment. The people who had relationship hardships or health issues are now thanking the friends and family who supported them during the tough times. And those who drew on savings are once again setting aside money for a future emergency.

Standing strong and saying out loud, “I have resources, bring it on world” is a fantastic mantra. Say it together now!

Get Over the What Ifs

What if the grass is greener on the other side? Or worse, what if the grass was greener, and you missed the opportunity?

I am sure we have all had lost loves, or at least locked glances that could have been the one, if only. We have all had missed job opportunities or jobs we could have at least gone after a little harder. Some of us may even have been fired from jobs that we should have handled differently. We have all said something to someone we shouldn't have and wished we could have rolled it back in as it was coming out. Is what I am writing resonating with anyone today? I thought so.


With so many choices, so many decisions, and so many temptations, we often wonder how things would be different had we taken a different path, made a different choice, or kept our mouths shut. We’ve all experienced this in some way; we are all human after all.


So, my point is that we need to get over the “what ifs” and accept the choices we’ve made. The question is how. We are not all analysts, but we certainly carry those “what ifs” with us. We should give ourselves a moment to think about that dream, the “what could have been” or the “if only I said or did” that make us human. We should think about it only long enough to learn something from it and then move quickly into the thoughts of why things turned out the way they did. We will probably find that everything does happen for a reason, and maybe that job we did not take or the relationship we did not start was truly meant for another person at that moment. The people we did meet along the way and the jobs we did take are much more important than the people we could have known or the jobs we could have taken.

It’s important to differentiate what is real and what is not. If the grass seems greener on the other side of the pasture, maybe take a second look. If the regrets are real, do something about it. Apologize, fess up, try again, or change direction. Being human does allow for some latitude, some freedom to dream and think, and some room to correct mistakes. Then we need to move on, live with our choices, and start taking better care of our own grass.

We have it pretty good here in Canada.

I am sitting in an airport right now, writing this. I have just attended a staffing conference in California. It was a relatively small conference, with the majority of the attendees being owners of staffing companies from all over the United States.

I learned a few things at the conference, some typical stuff like how to improve processes and how to sell better, but for the most part, the conference reinforced how many things my company is already doing right. Sometimes knowing you are on the right track is enough to get you motivated. I also learned that we as Canadians, and especially us Albertans, have nothing to complain about.

Our bureaucracy is not nearly as bad as other countries and our barriers to entry into any business are comparatively minimal. When comparing our health care system, banking system, and tax levels to the big apple pie, land of the free, U.S. of A., it sure makes our socialist, sea to shining sea country seem darn good, eh. We do complain anyway about our governments, the price of oil, our crappy vegetable choices, and our lousy weather, but after hearing about the workers’ compensation issues, the immigration problems, and the separate funds required by businesses to operate in the U.S., I think we have it pretty great here in Canada.

No matter how you look at it, our Canadian pension fund and our employment insurance fund, paid into by employers and employees, goes towards helping everyone in need of those funds. There really are minimal manipulations in our systems compared to the nation below. Our systems, for the most part, are used how they were meant to be used. We have the poor, we have the middle class, and we have the rich, as most countries do. But our poor have resources to get help, our middle class does okay, living in houses they probably can afford, and our rich are not that rich, well at least not rich enough to tank our entire economy.

After this week, I’ve realized that even after a really tough year of rebuilding and trying to overcome a worldwide recession, the only thing we truly have to complain about is the weather. And truthfully, the weather has not been all that bad lately!

Employers need to “humanate” the workplace if they want to keep their staff.

I was meeting with an employer recently who had a lot of difficulty hiring and retaining staff, even in a recessionary market. This employer is a straight shooter type of guy, who is very successful and intelligent. I really like him because you know what you get with him, no bull. He’s very honest and fair. Ok, so maybe there are lots of employers like him, who know what they want and go out there and get it.

So, why write an article about a typical employer? Well, because he wants to fix his staff turnover problem. He wants to hire people and keep them for a long time, so he needs to know what he’s doing wrong and how to fix it. He wants to hire the best, pay fairly, offer bonuses, and offer advancement and challenge to his employees. This all seems very reasonable to me. So what is he doing wrong?

I have coined a term for employers like this, whose main weakness is that they are missing the human element in their boss/employee relationships. The term I coined for this is "humanate". It’s a strange term “humanate”, I know, but it’s loaded with meaning. Employers need to “humanate” the workplace if they want to retain their staff. They need to welcome new employees with a smile and some warmth. They need to listen and genuinely care about the people who work for them. They need to ask how their employees’ kids are doing and wish them a happy birthday. They need to make their employees feel wanted and needed from the first day onward.

Employers need to make the expectations of the job clear, before a new person starts, so there are no surprises and so the new employee will know exactly what is required of them in order to continue earning their paycheque. Employees are people, not walking job descriptions, so their thoughts and feelings need to be considered. Bosses who “humanate” the workplace, adding a people perspective to the day-to-day working relationships, will be rewarded with long lasting and mutually beneficial employee relationships. Everyone wants to feel valued and cared for, and the luckiest people out there are those who feel valued and cared for both at work and at home.

These days, everyone is looking for extra human interaction and social wellbeing. The workplace may be the only place some people get to be with others and socialize, so the more human we can make it, without crossing boundaries, the better.