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15 Oct 09 Get A Raise During A Recession

Getting a raise in a recession is not easy, but can be accomplished.  Even if your company is cutting jobs, and looking for new ways to save money, you can still find a way to get a raise.  Or even a promotion, if the situation warrants such a thing.  The road is especially difficult, but nothing is impossible if you play your cards right.  Just be careful in how you approach the situation, or else you could find yourself on the money saving chopping block.

First off, ensure that you know the situation.  If your company is basically on fire and jobs are falling left and right, and not even your boss seems to be safe, probably not the best place for a raise.  But if things seem fairly comfortable, with a few worries here and there, you could have a good shot.  Just make sure you don’t paint a target on your back by asking for more than the company will think you deserve.

Asses your worth to the company before asking for a raise.  If you find people have been laid off or fired in your department, but you have survived the scrutiny, there has to be a reason for that.  Asses your accomplishments and your skill set, so that you can see why the company values you.  This will give you good groundwork to make use of in an argument for why you deserve a raise.

Finally, using your track record as a resource, go in and ask for a raise with your previous accomplishments as your foundation.  Be prepared to get rejected, after all it’s recession, and this is more of a long shot than anything else.  But be courteous and stay positive, and illustrate this isn’t a deal breaker for you, as to whether or not you’ll stay with the company.  You’d just like a raise or a promotion for your continuing efforts in helping the team strive for success.  Make that point evident, and you’ll be fine.

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02 Oct 09 5 More Ways to Improve Your Writing Part-XI

We have come a long was in this series, and in the process we have learned quite a few things. We have covered from timing to inspiration to description to techniques to tools of writing. Each one of them was important, and so are the tips I am going to share in this part. In this part of the 5 Ways to Improve Your Writing series, I will tell you about quality; about how you can maintain the quality of your writing. Let’s begin with shedding inhibition for risks.

Take risks

Do not always play a safe game; rather, never play a safe game. Take risks and explore the terrain. You will not learn new things about life, about new ways to construct sentences, and will never get new ideas to write about until you venture out and take risk. Try different construction; try different storyline; so what if you fail!

Revisit your write-ups

Reading and analyzing what you have written in the past is another way to ensure quality of your future writing. You should have a sense of history. You should know from where you started and how far have you come, and then only you can realistically decide where you can go from here.

Rope in your friend

This advice is the toughest to follow because no matter how good your friendship is, he or she will not like to do proofreading for you, at least not readily. My friends have never done that for me, and neither have I put myself through the grueling session of proofreading for my friends. You got the clue, but still you need to talk your friend into proofreading your stuff. If they don’t agree then you have not tried hard enough.

Take a break

Writing is not like producing soap in the factory. You cannot just keep on pouring oil and chemicals for hours, even when you are tired and exhausted, to get the final product. To write well, you need to take breaks between your writing. Play games, watch TV, listen to music, or do whatever you like, but take breaks.

Take a break then return to proofread

Do not proofread your document right after finishing it. You will miss out many errors because your mind was primed by the article. Take a break 10-20 minutes and then come back to do the proofreading. Please do not think about what you wrote during the break.

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