The Work Buzz's Latest News: “Justin’s 5 Favorite Comments of the Week” plus 1 more

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Justin’s 5 Favorite Comments of the Week Posted: 02 Sep 2011 12:30 PM PDT In an effort to really thank our fans and followers, I’m going to share my five favorite posts of the week. My intent is to highlight people who share great career tips with their peers, who share their CareerBuilder success stories and who just put a smile on my face. 1.  Sending us pics Marsha sent us in a pic of her mobile command unit that she uses with her treadmill desk, which sparked a great dialogue on workplace fitness. Richard Hertz Jr also presented a great idea that companies could utilize these treadmills or a workplace gym facility to actually produce/conserve energy. I love people who come up with solutions. 2. Recommending stuff Theresa sent in one of her recent reads on careers called Career GPS by Ella Edmondson Bell Ph.D. and recommended it to other women who are looking for guidance in mapping out their career path in corporate America. Thanks Theresa for sharing and if any of you find books you want to recommend to our followers, please send them our way! Maybe we can even use #CareerMustRead as the hash tag? 3. Giving advice Another hot topic this week centered around a link to The Oatmeal’s list of ten words that everyone should stop misspelling. I made the point to say that especially in résumés or cover letters or in any professional correspondence, there’s no excuse for misspelling or misusing words. But Teresa hit the nail on the head, saying that we’ve all become too reliant on spell check. Don’t worry, it’s betrayed all of us at some point.  Her tip, that most everyone hit on, was  to proof read your work! If you don’t, employers are just throwing your submissions in the trash. 4. Sharing success We want to congratulate Ness on her two job interviews that she’s got lined up! If you have landed interviews or get the job that you applied for and want to share your success story, feel free to tweet us, share your story on our Facebook wall or leave a comment on this post. We think it’s important for our community to cheer each other on and support one another during their job search. 5. Community support Finally, I want to just thank  the CareerBuilder fans and followers who welcomed me this week when I took over our social media accounts. I look forward to connecting with more of you through Twitter and Facebook and hope to bring some more exciting things to the social sphere in time and can’t wait to hear from you. Bonus comment: One fan actually wanted to share his new song with us this week and it’s swag-a-riffic. Keep on trucking Elizah and we encourage anyone to follow their passion and turn it into a career. Best of luck! Join us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and join in on the conversation and who knows, you may make it into the top 5 comments of the week. Check out my Q&A to know a little bit more!

Sad but true: Promotion decisions are often based on favoritism Posted: 02 Sep 2011 09:24 AM PDT If life were fair, nice guys would finish first, cheaters wouldn't prosper and job promotions would always go to the people who were most deserving. But, a new study from Georgetown University has confirmed what many of us have suspected for a while: life isn’t always fair. The study, which polled 303 senior-level executives across the country, found that favoritism often plays a part in determining who gets promoted at work. In fact, 84 percent of  executives felt favoritism occurred at their organization, even though most also said their organization had a formal process designed to keep promotions objective. Despite acknowledging the prevalence of favoritism, most executives did not admit that they supported it, with 83 percent responding that favoritism led to poorer promotion decisions. Fewer, still, admitted that they'd been subjective in their own hiring decisions: just 23 percent said they'd played favorites in the past and only 9 percent admitted to using favoritism when making their most recent promotion decision. When asked to cite the reasons for their most recent promotion decisions, most of the respondents stated objective factors, like leadership potential, job-related skills and a history of strong performance reviews. Though the results of the study make it clear that favoritism does happen, why don't more executives admit to practicing it themselves? What do you think can be done about favoritism at work? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

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