9650 ROCKS! End of Summer 2008 issue

End of Summer 2008

The FASEB Community Newsletter

In this issue

• home
• community chatter
• department highlight
• spotlight 1-on-1
• commute this!
• business basics
• health & fitness
• personal interest
• money talk
• tech know
• october gems
• fun & games
• classifieds
• contact us

Web Links & Resources

• 9650 Rocks! archives
• FASEB intranet
• more links...

Community Chatter

Craft Fair & Bake Sale (more...)

In The Works (more...)

I See "New" People (more...)

Familiar Faces in New Places (more...)

FASEB MARC Travel Awards Announced: EMS 2008 Annual Meeting; SACNAS 2008 Conference; APS/ACSM 2008 Intersociety Meeting (more...)

People really do enjoy their jobs

Would you be out seeing the world
if you didn't have to work?

guide When the work day gets long or difficult, it's not unusual to dream of faraway places. The dream can make you think you'd be there if it weren't for the daily grind.

If your financial responsibilities were at least partly lifted, is touring the world what you would do? Probably not. A job can sometimes be demanding, which is why it's called work, but it has many rewards.

Studies show that when people are finished raising their children, they don't give up their jobs. The Families and Work Institute, a research organization, found that only 3 percent of parents over age 57 whose children are grown say they are likely to leave their jobs in the coming year.

The great departure may be a fantasy, but it's an enjoyable one. Part of the problem is that bills don't stop coming when the kids are grown. One large cost is usually replaced by another.

But people who stay on the job are not less happy. According to a Gallup Poll, 90 percent of Americans are satisfied with their jobs and 75 percent are satisfied with their pay. Two-thirds would gladly take the same job again.

That's one reason they are staying on the job longer. Organizational psychologists at the University of Western Ontario don't believe it when people say they just work for the pension benefits and health insurance. The fact is, they enjoy the social contacts, the challenge and their status.

Over time, dreams have a way of moving from adventure to stability and security. That doesn't mean that dreams don't come true. But when they do, there's usually some kind of work involved.

Have You Heard?

Bethesda, Maryland is ranked #5 on Money magazine's 100 Best Places to Live and Launch list for 2008! Other nearby locations on the list: Virginia Beach, VA (#14); Charlottesville, VA (#18); Leesburg, VA (#31); Blacksburg, VA (#43) and Owings Mills, MD (#49).

Montgomery County, Maryland is ranked as #1 on Money magazine's Best Places For a Long Life list for 2008!

Money magazine's list of America's best small cities (Top 100 Best Places to Live) for 2008 includes: Columbia/Ellicott City, MD (#8); Hunter Mill, VA (#19); Sully, VA (#25); Gaithersburg, MD (#29); Burke, VA (#31); Reston, VA (#37); Rockville, MD (#66); Germantown, MD (#81); Chesapeake, VA (#85) and Midlothian, VA (#99).

Money magazine's 25 Top-Earning Towns list for 2008 includes: Potomac, MD (#7); McLean, VA (#8); Bethesda, MD (#11) and Dranesville, VA (#22).

Business Basics

What does it mean to be engaged in your work?

Management at companies world wide are focusing on you and your co-workers.

They are all looking for something called engagement. It's a quality that has only recently been defined. People who are engaged give companies an edge --- especially in competitive times such as these.

It's a new word, but it's not really a new idea.

We can see engagement in employees every time we see individuals work together to make a team project succeed. We can see non-engagement every time we see teams fall apart because an unengaged member actually undermines their work.

Engaged employees care about the quality of the product and in interactions with customers.

However for the first time, consultants are trying to measure employee engagement and to suggest ways that companies can encourage people to get excited about their work.

You could say measuring employee engagement can be done right at the bottom line. At one company, high employee engagement scores translated into a 3 percent boost in customer satisfaction. Consider how important that is in a competitive economy when we are vitally concerned with keeping customers and fighting for new ones. In uncertain economic times, the pool of customers often becomes smaller meaning that everything each employee does counts toward profitability.

The key question is how do we get employees engaged?

For one thing, experts say it's important to encourage people at all levels to expand their skills with special training and education. That's how people who start out in a lower paid support position can end up in a higher paid technical position.

Another way is to remind employees of the value they bring to the product. Each piece of the puzzle you contribute creates the whole picture. With your full attention we can succeed together.

Business Basics