How to deal with a job you hate

How to deal with a job you hate

How to deal with a job you hate, How to stay satisfied at a job you hate, Given the high unemployment rate, follow these steps to improve your current gig. There are endless surveys and statistics about the workplace, most of them dry enough to make you fall asleep on the job. But one recently caught our eye and we thought we'd share it with you too.

The survey is called "The Next Generation of the Working Woman," and it explores the satisfaction, or lack thereof, of women in the modern workplace.

This is the generation often accused having it "easy" because of the women that went before them-- or even worse, accused of of "having it all". And yet, the study showed something we didn't expect- more than half of those surveyed said they were dissatisfied with their jobs, while more than two thirds said they were willing to stay with their current employer.

It had me wondering, was this a sign of the times and the widespread job insecurity, and the prevailing attitude of "I hate my job, but at least I have one" or something else at play?

The Best and Worst Jobs for 2012

To understand the study's results we caught up with Wendy Stops, the managing director of risk management & quality at Accenture, a global management consulting firm behind the study.

What Wendy found was that indeed much of the 'staying put, no matter what" attitude was a direct reaction to the high unemployment rates, and the greater value put on having a regular paycheck and secure employment. However, she did notice an unexpected positive that came out of the economic rubble.

Many of the people who during times of economic boom might have quit their jobs in search of more satisfying employment, were now forced to be more resourceful and climb up the ranks where they were.

"In terms of growth this is the good news, about two-thirds of the people are saying I've really got to be proactive", explained Wendy.

But how do you "proactively" improve a job you hate? Wendy had these three insights.

1. People are accepting more roles and responsibilities.

This is a smart move because you may open yourself to a promotion and new duties by expanding your current role, which could make you happier at your company.

2. They are working harder.

Clocking in more hours at a job you hate may seem discouraging, but you may attract managers from other departments who could help open doors to a new position within your current company.

3. Education and training.

While pay and bonuses may be stagnant, companies are increasingly offering opportunities for employees to enhance their skills internally. Taking advantage of this can help you become more of an expert in your field, and may prepare you for your next career move.

Not only were women improving their skill sets, they were asking to be compensated for bringing more value to their employer.

"There is something like a 7% point increase this year of people who said that they are actually out there asking for pay rises or promotion. They may be staying put, but they are saying I'm not going to stay just doing what I'm doing, I'm going to get out there, I'm going to seek new opportunities. And I'm going to ask for it," explains Wendy.

So how can you make the most of your current position? Please share your tips and suggestions for turning professional lemons into lemonades.

via: yahoo

Microsoft Word shortcuts you don't know

Microsoft Word shortcuts you don't know

Microsoft Word shortcuts you don't know, 8 Microsoft Word Shortcuts You Probably Don’t Know, There's an easy way to cut and paste text without keeping the annoying formatting. Microsoft Word: Love it or hate it, practically everyone uses it. I've been using it so long, I thought I knew everything about it. But I stumbled across some super helpful shortcuts — hidden tricks and timesavers that make Microsoft Word easier and faster. Becky Worley shows time-saving shortcuts to make word processing faster and easier.

One caveat for these tips: different versions of Word may have different commands, so some of these may not work in your version. That said, here are my top eight shortcuts:

1. Double Click And Drag

If you're like most people, when you want to move a section of text from one place to another, you use Control-C to cut and Control-V to paste. That's fine. It works. But there's a faster way: Double click or highlight what you want to move, then simply drag what you've highlighted to where you want it to land.

2. Double Underline

You know you can affect text by hitting Control-B to make it bold or Control-U to underline. But if one line of underlining just isn't emphatic enough, Control-Shift-D will double underline. (On a Mac, use Command-Shift-D.)

If that doesn't make your point, you may have to go to ALL CAPS, and I've got a shortcut for that too…

3. Change Case

Instead of retyping everything to change from lower case to Title Case or to UPPERCASE, just highlight the text you want to change, click the case button, and then choose which case you want.

4. Adding Buttons to Your Toolbar

Suppose you just tried using shortcut #3, but the case button isn't on your toolbar, no worries; you can add it (and almost any other command). Go to View, Toolbars, Customize Toolbars, Commands, then scroll to find the command you want — and drag it to where on the toolbar you want it.

5. Add the Date

How many times a day do you type the date? If you do it even once, that's too much. Next time, just hit Alt-Shift-D (or Control-Shift -D on a Mac) to add the date automatically.

6. Quick Parts

This next tip builds on what the Autotext function did in older versions of Word: If you have a certain paragraph of text you regularly need to add to a document — like a boilerplate disclaimer, or maybe directions to your office — turn it into a Quick Part. Here's how:

Highlight the text you regularly use

Click the insert tab

Hit Quick Parts, and choose "Save Selection To The Quick Part Gallery"

Now any time you want to insert that chunk of text into a document, either a new one or and old one you're editing, just hit that Quick Parts button. Just one more click will select which saved Quick Part to insert. This trick will even work as a shortcut for adding a logo or letterhead.

7. Conform Fonts

This one used to drive me crazy: I'd copy and paste some bit of text from another document or from the Web, and then I'd have to click all over the place to get the font size and style to match the surrounding text of my existing document. No longer. Here's all you need to do: Highlight the non-conforming text, then hit Control-Spacebar. Done.

8. Customize Quick Access Toolbar

There is one way to get your most commonly used commands in the same place- that's to customize the Quick Access Toolbar. It's like the center drawer in your desk that has all the stuff you use most in one easy-to-access place. No organization, just (as the name implies) quick access. So take the things you like most and add them to the Quick Access toolbar. Click the little down arrow tab to get to the Customize Quick Access Toolbar drop down menu:

Hit "more commands" and add whatever you use most. You can also position this toolbar below the ribbon if you prefer it to be closer to your document text.

via: yahoo