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FOREWARD: Even Smart People Make Wrong Choices
CHAPTER ONE: Misemployment
CHAPTER TWO: The Right Job
CHAPTER THREE: The Mulling Factor
CHAPTER FOUR: The Right Boss - For You
CHAPTER FIVE: The Right Work Environment - For You
CHAPTER SIX: When to Hold'Em, When to Fold'Em
CHAPTER SEVEN: Beyond the Snow Job...To the Right Job
CHAPTER EIGHT: And Now It's in Your Hands
FOREWARD: Even Smart People Make Wrong Choices
As a precocious schoolboy, by the age of fourteen, Emory Mulling had given a speech before the state legislature, had his own clipping service, and he had targeted his dream job: vice president of human resources. He realized his ambition at the age of thirty-two; he was the youngest person with that title in the city of Atlanta. Just as precipitously as he had risen, and seemingly without warning, he was fired. Today he says, "I was a severance waiting to happen. The signs were all there like billboards but I didn't know how to read them." Now a highly successful human resources consultant, Mulling defines misemployment as the wrong work with the wrong boss and/or the wrong environment. Mulling has seen thousands of people go through misemployment and has guided them to jobs where they thrive. From them he learned the patterns and possibilities from which he developed a new assessment tool to measure something different and more critical than all the other assessment tools.
CHAPTER ONE: Misemployment
Misemployment means being in the wrong job. You know it by its feel: stress, boredom, lack of productivity. At one time or another misemployment strikes most people from the highest executive offices to the lowest paying jobs. And it's not necessary. You can do nothing about it or you can do something. If you do nothing, misemployment usually gets worse and can result in depression, health problems, or being laid off. But to do something--like change jobs--what are your chances of doing any better the next time? Not good unless you assess your needs and find a job that matches. Look at yourself from a new angle.
CHAPTER TWO: The Right Job
The right job feels entirely different from misemployment. When you have the right job, you get up in the morning with lots of energy, time at work passes quickly, you come home happy. What makes the right job? Not money...money will not make you happy...and besides if you have the right job, money will find you. The formula for optimal employment is this: The Right Work + The Right Boss + The Right Environment = The Right Job. The Work: The actual activity you do at your job or profession which you practice, for example, desk top publishing, teaching, caring for sick people, number crunching, selling. To choose the right work, you have to consider both aptitude and interest. Because most people have explored the right work through higher education and/or career counseling, few are actually in inappropriate work. In fact, fewer than 5% of people dissatisfied with their job attribute their discontent to their choice of work. There are many placement directors and career consultants who can help you with the right work. There are, however, no assessment tools to direct you to the two elements that account for over 95 % of misemployment: the right boss and the right work environment. Until now.
CHAPTER THREE: The Mulling Factor
The Mulling Factor is an assessment tool designed by the author and an industrial psychologist to determine what kind of a work style and work environment you are most comfortable in. The Mulling Factor is included in this chapter in its entirety and when you complete it and total your scores, you will know which of four types you are, based on your preferred work style as measured along a continuum of characteristics including degree of autonomy, initiative, reaction to change, risk-taking, creativity, loyalty, and confrontiveness.
CHAPTER FOUR: The Right Boss - For You
About two-thirds of dissatisfaction is attributed to having the wrong boss. Each employee type has a matching boss type, a supervisory profile that is most likely to bring out the best in the employee. A key benefit of the Mulling Factor is to match your work style type with your best boss type. The ideal matches are described in detail. Misemployment results from mismatches of type, the further away from a match, the more severe the mismatch. Eight stories taken from the author's career counseling and executive coaching practice illustrate different mismatches and their correction.
CHAPTER FIVE: The Right Work Environment – For You
About one-third of job dissatisfaction is attributed to working in the wrong environment. Each employee type has a matching environment type, which describes the environment where that employee type can thrive. A benefit of The Mulling Factor is that you can match your work style type with your best environment type. The four types of Environment are described in detail. When an employee is working in an environment that is a mismatch, he suffers the stress of misemployment. Eight true stories illustrate mismatches and their correction.
CHAPTER SIX: When to Hold'Em, When to Fold'Em
Suppose The Mulling Factor suggests you need a different boss and/or a different environment. Do you turn in your resignation? First, there's another avenue to consider: You may be able--depending on your scores on The Mulling Factor--to adjust your work style to better fit your boss and your environment. This chapter helps you determine if "flexing your style" is a viable option for you. If so, here are some of the best ways of going about this. Moreover, you may be able to "manage your boss" to bring him/her closer to you using a formula Mulling has taught hundreds of misemployed people. A difference of one type on The Mulling Factor may indicate you can manage the situation without changing jobs. If you are two or more types different from the right boss and/or the right environment, flexing your style to meet them will be too stressful. You are better off leaving your current job. Consider a shift within the company. If that's not a possibility, it's time to leave the company. You have much to gain, less than you think to lose.
CHAPTER SEVEN: Beyond the Snow Job...To the Right Job
Here are step-by-step directions on who to talk to about a prospective boss, what to look for, what to ask, including specific questions and a behavior check list. Mulling tells you how to get beyond the snow job. Instructions follow on how to research a company and recognize clues to work environment. Specific sources follow including books, organizations, and Internet sites. This chapter is a hands-on guide to finding the right job based on the information that you've gotten from The Mulling Factor. Here are the steps to find the match.
CHAPTER EIGHT: And Now It's in Your Hands
Change is one constant of life. Even an ideal environment can change tomorrow. It's your responsibility to manage your working career, but that shouldn't be a burden. It can be a joy. Because, with the right information, you've prepared for anything the economy, your industry, or your company might throw your way. You now have the critical tool and vital information to lead you on to a happier, more productive, more rewarding working life. Along with knowledge, you need courage. If only you could have seen all the worried faces that have come in my door, and seen all the lifted shoulders and quickened step and clear eyes of those who leave, you would know that you too can experience a clearer vision of who you are and where you should be going and have the confidence to go there.
