Here comes the future!

Last week many companies, including Gannett | USA TODAY NETWORK enjoyed hosting Take Your Child to Work Day.  Our future leaders!   One of my favorite days as I get to see our employees being Mom, Dad or caregiver, being proud and being in the moment.  A great day!

This annual event happens every April with over 37 million future employees participating at over 3.5 million companies.  I have fond memories of bringing my kids to work each year.  My boys still share funny stories from some of our days.  One year, my company had a very structured day with presentations, learning activities and tours. Not to mention the breakfast buffet set up, lunch, ice cream and an afternoon movie (from 3:30pm-5pm to allow parents to catch-up a bit on their work for the day).  It was fairly scheduled with leaders speaking and interacting about their roles, activities for the kids around building resumes, interviewing and looking at data, etc.   What did my boys tell their mother when she asked about their day? “Dad’s job is pretty cool - he eats donuts and watches movies all day.”

Anecdotes aside, the day was founded in 1993 by Gloria Steinem and the Ms. Foundation for Women, originally called Take Our Daughters to Work Day.  In 2003, the program expanded to include boys, renaming the day to “Take Our Children to Work Day.” According to the official website, the program was changed in order to provide both boys and girls with opportunities to explore careers at an age when they are more flexible in terms of gender roles. The Ms. Foundation also states that men who have hosted children have benefited from being seen as parental figures in addition to their roles as professionals, which can contribute to combating gender stereotypes as well. 

Each year my boys saw more and more of what I did.  By bringing them to work with me, they had the opportunity to see executives and leaders, at a young age.  They were exposed to many different jobs and saw how we all juggle work-life balance.  As they grew older, they listened to conference calls, helped me go through my daily emails, were involved in some decisions, and gained an understanding of what our company was about.  They also started to tie what they were learning in school with what they would need in their “jobs” as they got older.

At Gannett | USA TODAY NETWORK’s Take Your Child to Work Day, we referred to all of our children as #LeadersInTraining.  We understand that our future will be in their hands. It is our responsibility to develop and cultivate their creativity, to allow them to feel emotionally safe, and finally to give them an interactive environment to think about their goals and help them better envision their future.  By including girls and boys in our day, we educate our children that family-friendly work environments are not just a woman's issue, but an issue for everyone.  Without gender limitations, the day gives our children an opportunity to see what's out there, to understand what it means to work, to dream, and to create a future for themselves.   This day is about introducing our child to that same balance of work and family -  proving to our sons and daughters how important both members of the family are in creating that balance.

Some thoughts I have for all of us as we talk to our kids about last week:

The day will give our kids a relatable experience - helping our kids experience all kinds of different things is important for their development, and it broadens their understanding of the world.  No matter what you do, it’s something our kids haven’t experienced before, and that exposure alone could be a really good reason to let them tag along.  A great reason to talk about something different.  Chances are, your kids have asked if they could come to work with you. And now you have let them.  They’re curious about what you do and how you do it.  What did they learn?  What did they like?  What did they not like?

The day will add a new twist to your relationship – I am betting that last week when you brought your children to work– it might not have been your most productive day, but it probably was memorable!   I am sure your kids were very proud when they went back to school the next day.  Not only did they miss a day of school, but they spent quality time with their mom or dad or sibling or grandparent or caregiver.  It was a special day.  An excellent bonding experience for you and your kids. You made terrific memories, and your children will be talking about it for months.  They now may see you in a different light.  Children sometimes lose sight of the fact that we are real people. Chances are, they don’t spend much time thinking about what our life is like when we’re away from them.  Having the chance to see us in a different environment, working, interacting and leading, hopefully, gave them a little more understanding of our day, our responsibilities, our company and the (sometimes crazy) pace of our day.  What did they like about our workplace?  Our company? 

The day may encourage our kids to dream a bit more - the big idea has always been to help kids feel inspired and excited about their future careers. It helps our kids appreciate the benefits of an education, and it could improve their academic performance.  The fact is, this probably was a more profound experience for our kids than we could ever predict.

The day allows you to combine two worlds, work-life and family-life - After last week, hopefully your co-workers had a chance to meet your most prized possessions.  Additionally, when you are at home talking about your co-workers and boss, your children now can put the name and the face together.  I hope you had the chance to combine your two worlds, your work life and your family life.  Blended, they make up most of your life.  Think about that.

Last week was a wonderful opportunity to bond with your child on a new level. I hope you gave them a better understanding of what you do all day long while they are at school. They may now ask you questions about your work life that would never have been discussed unless they saw you at work. If they are older, I hope you opened their eyes to a whole different world outside of school, sports and other after-school activities.  Opened some new dreams, or thoughts, or questions.  Maybe even earned some respect and admiration. 

You are a working Mom or Dad because you want to be a good role model for your children.  I am sure for many of you, and for me when my boys were younger, you can enjoy watching your children pretend to be like you.  Nothing is more rewarding.  Here comes the future (before you know it).

See our #LeadersInTraining during Take Your Child to Work Day here

Together.  We.  Win.

Dave Harmon
People Division
“Kindness is Currency”
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidharmonhr

Look for us on: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram,  Facebook, The Muse, Glassdoor and Gannett Careers

Be your most amazing self!

As our kids and neighbors are stressing with college applications and decisions on where to attend – here is my advice to our next generation of greatness:  “Be your most amazing self!”  Use your intelligence with positive enthusiasm.

College is a journey that offers growth beyond academics.  You learn about maturity (Mom and Dad not there to protect you from every fall), develop interpersonal skills (we all had THAT roommate or THAT professor), build character (do you do the right thing when parents are not there), understand the realities of relationships (and the drama of break ups and crushes and “the one that got away”), strengthen and deepen friendships that will last a lifetime (how we love to hear from our college buddies three decades later), improve time management skills (term papers, sleep deprived, 8am lab, football on the green, study for Econ, etc.), learn your purpose and passions (the protests, the opinions, the like-minded friends with causes, etc.) AND learning the realities of financing your life (I spent all my money on Panera on Tuesday and I do not get paid until Friday).

So here we are … what school, what major, what activities?  According to a recent article in Forbes (by Ashley Stahl), “82% of 2015 graduates researched their field of choice before determining what major to pursue in college. When you look at this statistic through the lens of student loans and the 2008 recession, it comes as no surprise that students want to pursue careers that will enable them to pay off their hefty debt.  If your degree alone guaranteed a job, this kind of strategic long-term planning would make sense. And yes, there are certain jobs that require the skills affiliated with specified degrees, such as engineering, architecture, and computer science. But by and large, your college major is unlikely to have any bearing on your career success.” 

I have learned in life, that my most successful friends were those that found a career that supports their lifestyle and supports their passion.  Successful, in my mind, is not defined by dollars, but by happiness. Think of the teachers we all know and love – they are not jet-setting the world.  They are making a difference every day in shaping the future of this country.  What a rewarding experience it must be when students come back ten years later to thank their teachers for course correcting.  Or the shout-outs at a grocery store from someone who graduated years earlier and now wants to show their new baby!  And what about the hand written note when a hard-working student gets into their college choice!  That is success.

That said, here are some of the facts.  A NerdWallet study of college graduates’ employment, industries and salaries from more than 240 top-rated undergraduate programs found that those who obtain technical degrees and attend specialized schools enjoy high employment rates and salaries.  They also found that only around half of students found employment in their field of study right out of college.  Financial services, consulting, education/service, and information technology were among the most popular industries.  Recent graduates of specialized schools, such as engineering, nursing and business, were the most likely to find employment.  And finally, the engineering and business students earned the highest starting salaries.

From The Atlantic (White), “Economists agree that going to college matters a lot for future earnings. But does the college logo on that degree make a difference?   That depends—for certain majors, going to a top-tier institution is invaluable says much of the research. But for many career paths, it just doesn’t matter where our son or daughter got his or her education, according to a recent study from Eric Eide and Mark Showalter of Brigham Young University and Michael Hilmer of San Diego State University. The researchers compared the earnings of individuals from schools with different selectivity rankings, controlling for their majors and their level of degree attainment (e.g. those with solely bachelor’s degrees were compared to other’s with solely bachelor’s degrees) 10 years after they completed undergrad.”

According to their results, school choice matters the most for business majors. Those who attended top schools earn 12 percent more than their peers who went to schools that were in the middle of the pack. And grads from those mid-tier institutions earned 6 percent more than their peers who went to the least-selective schools. For social science and education majors there was also a significant boost that came from attending a better-ranked school.

By contrast, engineers who went to the most selective schools enjoyed only a marginal earnings benefit over their peers at mid-tier institutions. And while humanities majors at the most elite schools enjoyed higher earnings than peers at the least selective schools, there was virtually no difference between top-tier and mid-tier earnings. For science majors, the prestige of a school mattered least of all. The authors found that the sciences exhibited the “statistically weakest earnings differences for a given major across college selectivity types."

Guess what, a hard working employee who moves up in an organization because they have all the leadership qualities will get one or two promotions vs their peers and offset that 6-12% differential in a few short years. 

 Assignment Masters, a popular essay-writing service, aimed to discover the answers to our questions. The results were interesting.  They found that most young leaders (greater than 56 percent) hold degrees in social sciences or humanities disciplines.  A specific degree doesn’t lead to greater success on the job market.  Successful individuals have important leadership, technical and teamwork skills.  And most importantly, more than two-thirds (67 percent) of respondents who built successful careers within five years after graduation said they did well on academic writing projects.

Ok, what does all this mean for us and our kids?  Well, what the research suggests is to be smart in your choices, but know that only about one quarter of college graduates end up in a career in their field of study.  This goes back to where we started today, send those “I know everything”, “I have no fear”, “I got this”, “I am nervous”, “I may fail” kids off to a school they love, with love from their parents, and encourage your kids to learn life and leadership. 

Also, encourage  your kids to understand that what really builds success in life is talent and drive.  Hard work still pays off. Preparation and knowledge set you apart. Critical thinking, writing and communication skills propel even the smartest scientist or mathematician to higher levels.  Encourage your kids to find a major that will challenge them to understand the value of hard work and one that will present them with opportunities to learn from the best teachers, professors and mentors. They should not focus on majors that are trendy or very narrow in their scope.  Also, there is value in studying in majors that are focused on fixing things (engineers, welders, electricians) or fixing people (nurses, physical therapists) says Jeff Selingo of the Washington Post.

Remember a degree program is structured and builds a foundation.  From my vantage point, when we hire newly minted graduates, I like to see strong drive for results, great interpersonal skills, strong writing skills, the ability to collaborate with others, organizational skills, and enthusiasm (a positive “can-do” attitude goes a long way).

I will leave you with this, one of my mentors once asked me if I could only choose two traits in hiring employees for my company, what would they be?  My answer was simple and has not changed in thirty years:

Intelligence and Enthusiasm.

Together.  We.  Win.  

Dave Harmon
People Division
“Kindness is Currency”
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidharmonhr

Look for us on: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram,  Facebook, The Muse, Glassdoor and Gannett Careers

Twitter was down this morning, so please just tell me what you had for breakfast?

“Twitter was down this morning, so please just tell me what you had for breakfast.” Or maybe this, “Checked Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat and Pinterest – ready to start my day.  Oh look, it is lunch time!”   Or this, “I now pronounce you husband and wife  - you may now update your status.”  And the best, “I would like you a lot more if social media did not let me see all the stupid things you post”.

Has social media taken over your life?  Are you addicted to “likes” and “hearts”?  Have you ever really tracked the time spent (wasted) on social media?

When Deloitte surveyed 4,150 British adults in 2017 about their mobile habits, 38% said they thought they were using their smartphone too much. Among 16 to 24-year-olds, that rose to more than half. Habits such as checking apps in the hour before we go to sleep (79% of us do this, according to the study) or within 15 minutes of waking up (55%) may be taking their toll on our mental health.

Let’s map our social media “addiction” throughout the day:

• How long, after waking in the morning, do we check in on social media?
• Do our friends and family use social media as their main way to contact us?
• Do we hate being offline?
• Are we “that person” that checks in everywhere we go?
• How many minutes per day do we spend scrolling through all our social media accounts?
• How many times per day do we check our favorite social media account?
• Do we obsessively monitor our likes?
• Is our entire life documented on social media?  Do we post pictures of every meal (and please help us all understand this – I never sent anyone post cards or photos of my meals pre social media)?
• Do we delete or remove posts if we do not get enough “likes”?  (Do I look good in these jeans – no Dave, you are 50 years old so just wear your Dad jeans and get back to work.)
• Do we use social media while using the restroom?  And if so, why?  Really? (Think about that for a moment and you will never borrow another person’s cell phone again, will you?)
• Does the word “hashtag” play in our everyday discussions?
• Do we enjoy the moment (concert, speech, tour, party) or do we worry about posting such event?
• Are our social media “friends” really our friends? Dave tip: I use LinkedIn for all those “work friends” and try to limit my Facebook, Instagram, etc. for those I truly like {yep, I just said that}.
• How long do we go between checking social media accounts?
• Do we hide our social media use at work?
• Have we tried to reduce the time spent on social media but failed?

Although many of us may have answered yes to a majority of these questions, this does not mean we have a problem.  What I am trying to convey is that, like many things in life, too much of anything is sometimes not a good thing. Social media is a drug. This is a truth we already know. It is powerful (just like that open bowl of Cheetos at a party). We’re feeding our addiction every morning. Check our Facebook to see if someone “liked” our story/photo, open your Instagram to see where your friends are, scroll through Twitter trying to find something to favorite. This is a part of our life, we are in control in opening these apps. No one is telling us to do this.

Quiz time:

From Psychology Today, “the vast majority of people who are online use social media, often for hours a day. For most, there is no problem. For others, it crosses the line into addiction. When does normal connectivity become a problem?  One way to measure is the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (originally designed for Facebook but since generalized for all social media). It's a short survey used in psychological research that has been widely accepted by the psychology community. It's quick and something you can take yourself.

Here are six statements to consider. For each, answer: (1) very rarely, (2) rarely, (3) sometimes, (4) often, or (5) very often.

• You spend a lot of time thinking about social media or planning how to use it.
• You feel an urge to use social media more and more.
• You use social media in order to forget about personal problems.
• You have tried to cut down on the use of social media without success.
• You become restless or troubled if you are prohibited from using social media.
• You use social media so much that it has had a negative impact on your job/studies.
• If you scored a 4 or 5 ("often" or "very often") on at least 4 of those statements, it could be an indicator of social media addiction.

An embarrassingly time-consuming social-media habit isn’t entirely your fault. “Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter—they’ve all been designed to make you repeatedly use them and check back in,” says Levi Felix, the CEO of Digital Detox, a tech-free wellness retreat in Northern California.  When you keep in mind that these technologies are designed to hold us hostage, we might be motivated to set time limits. Think of it as buying a snack-size bag of chips instead of the party-size – although I freely admit to liking the party size (see past posts on “winter pants”, “chocolate cake” etc.).

So how do we “cut down” our usage:

• Let’s make some rules around meals, bed and driving.  Seems to be a good place to start, especially the driving rule.
• Download some apps to help us track and/or limit your usage.  Delete other apps from our phone.  Even just set a timer.  Some cool apps that can help include: Forest, StepLock, DinnerMode, Onward, Freedom, In Moment, Space, App Detox, Off the Grid, and AntiSocial.
• Is our phone our alarm clock, if so that is causing you to grab it first thing in the morning.  Maybe an alarm clock (OG style).
• Take some breaks.  All day Wednesday, maybe even a Saturday.  Can we do it?
• Think about our posts, are they about our experience or about other people’s RESPONSES to the post?
• Have we looked at all our alerts?  Last week I went through each app on my phone and turned off about 80% of my alerts (full disclosure my Apple watch was not even making it through the day before running out of battery).  Too.  Many.  Alerts.
• Find a new hobby or take up an old one again.  Maybe with a friend, or our beautiful spouse (full disclosure – I “married up”).
• Schedule more time with family and friends and be “in the moment”.
• Maybe, just maybe, think of social media as a treat. We might not buy a “foo foo” coffee every day, or that amazing gourmet cupcake (that does sound good though) or get our spa appointment every week, but we may reward our self with these kinds of small treats when we feel like we deserve it. Thus, think of social media in the same way. Only allow screen time when we've achieved something or we've done something productive first. This might change the way we think about our social media use.
• Finally, maybe just go “cold turkey”.  My wife was off Facebook for a few months and did not miss it.  I have taken summers off from Facebook.  Life still happened.

Social Media is a part of our life and it is very useful, it also is very distracting.  Finding balance in all things in our life is where we all strive to be.  When you sit for dinner tonight, ask someone how much time do they think you spend on your phone everyday (preferably your kids as they will tell you honestly).  Absorb that and change as you see fit.  We all have the “right” amount that works for us individually.  Finding balance … that lifelong quest.

Together.  We.  Win.

Dave Harmon
People Division
“Kindness is Currency”
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidharmonhr

Look for us on: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram,  Facebook, The Muse, Glassdoor and Gannett Careers