{"id":383,"date":"2008-10-11T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2008-10-11T18:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/how-to-keep-working-in-a-worsening-economy\/"},"modified":"2011-05-31T19:16:49","modified_gmt":"2011-06-01T01:16:49","slug":"how-to-keep-working-in-a-worsening-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2008\/10\/how-to-keep-working-in-a-worsening-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"How to keep working in a worsening economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As I write this, the Dow-Jones Industrial Average has dropped from a record high one year ago to a five-year low.<\/p>\n<p>Insanity is often defined as expecting your personal situation to improve while you continue to do what you always have done.<\/p>\n<p>Protecting your working life from a worsening economy requires standing out &#8212; in a good way &#8212; from the crowd.<\/p>\n<p>I believe that communicating better makes this possible.<\/p>\n<p>Here are ten tips to keep working in a worsening economy, all with a focus on communicating better &#8212; doing something different, so that you&#8217;ll get different results.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tip 1. Watch your spelling.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here are some of the <a target=\"misspellings\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/category\/misspellings\/\">misspellings<\/a> that I have documented in this blog:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>misspelling &#8220;<a target=\"extraordinary\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/these-extra-ordinary-times-called-for-extra-ordinary-actions\/\">extraordinary<\/a>&#8221; as E-X-T-R-A-HYPHEN-O-R-D-I-N-A-R-Y<\/li>\n<li>misspelling &#8220;<a target=\"pronunciation\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/pronounciation\/\">pronunciation<\/a>&#8221; as P-R-O-N-O-U-N-C-I-A-T-I-O-N<\/li>\n<li>misspelling &#8220;<a target=\"likelihood\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/i-know-the-likely-hood-of\/\">likelihood<\/a>&#8221; as L-I-K-E-L-Y-SPACE-H-O-O-D<\/li>\n<li>misspelling &#8220;<a target=\"accessible\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/accessable\/\">accessible<\/a>&#8221; as A-C-C-E-S-S-A-B-L-E<\/li>\n<li>misspelling &#8220;<a target=\"supersede\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/supercede\/\">supersede<\/a>&#8221; as S-U-P-E-R-C-E-D-E<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can throw off half your audience and embarrass yourself by misspelling a word in the title of one of your PowerPoint slides, in an important email message to your boss or customer, or on the front page of a white paper that you have written.<\/p>\n<p>If you know that you are not a good speller, then take action, starting today, to change this.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tip 2. Watch your punctuation.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here are some of the punctuation problems that I have discussed in my blog:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>misusing <a target=\"apostrophes\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/category\/apostrophes\/\">apostrophes<\/a><\/li>\n<li>misusing <a target=\"commas\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/category\/commas\/\">commas<\/a><\/li>\n<li>misusing <a target=\"hyphens\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/category\/hyphens\/\">hyphens<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You <em>can<\/em> improve your punctuation skills. Start today by buying a good book or two about punctuation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tip 3. Watch your words.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Picking the wrong word is another way to look bad in front of your fellow employees, your boss, or your customer or prospect.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some pairs of words that give people trouble:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a target=\"affect\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/affect-vs-effect\/\">affect vs. effect<\/a>;<\/li>\n<li><a target=\"bring\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/bring-vs-carry\/\">bring vs. carry<\/a>;<\/li>\n<li><a target=\"come\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/come-vs-go\/\">come vs. go<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a target=\"lie\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/lie-vs-lie-vs-lay\/\">lie vs. lay<\/a>;<\/li>\n<li><a target=\"nauseous\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/nauseous-vs-nauseated\/\">nauseous vs. nauseated<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some might argue that many Americans do not know the difference in each of the above word pairs, so you should not worry about knowing the differences.<\/p>\n<p>I disagree. Knowing the differences in these and other commonly confused word pairs can set you apart from the crowd with someone who cares &#8212; someone who can give you a raise, someone who can recommend you for a promotion, or someone who can give you new or more business.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tip 4. Watch your grammar.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While text messaging and instant messaging have encouraged people to write in sentence fragments, <em>not<\/em> knowing how to write complete, grammatically correct sentences in other written forms &#8212; email messages, white papers, etc. &#8212; can hurt your reputation with the people who have the most influence over your finances.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some common mistakes with grammar:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>putting a preposition where it does not belong, such as in &#8220;<a target=\"today\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2007\/10\/it-will-start-on-today\/\">on today<\/a>&#8220;;<\/li>\n<li>using &#8220;I&#8221; where &#8220;me&#8221; is required, as in &#8220;<a target=\"for\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/a-unique-opportunity-for-my-colleagues-and-i\/\">for my colleagues and I<\/a>&#8220;;<\/li>\n<li>using the wrong form of a verb, as in &#8220;<a target=\"Hillary\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/can-hillary-be-beat\/\">Can Hillary be beat?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I could list many other types of mistakes with grammar, but you get the point.<\/p>\n<p>If you have a basic discomfort with your grammar skills, then read some books about English grammar.<\/p>\n<p>If you are generally confident about these skills but wonder on occasion whether something is correct, then research your question &#8212; here or elsewhere online. That nagging feeling is usually there for a good reason; pay attention to it!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tip 5. Watch your slang.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Although slang can be fun to use, and although the origins of various slang expressions can be fascinating, using slang in your work life can hobble your career.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some types of slang:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>regional slang, as in &#8220;y&#8217;all&#8221; or &#8220;you guys&#8221; in place of &#8220;you&#8221;;<\/li>\n<li>ethnic slang, as in &#8220;Where you at?&#8221; or &#8220;Git &#8216;er done.&#8221;;<\/li>\n<li>corporate slang, as in &#8220;open architecture&#8221; or &#8220;on the bubble&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now, you might know what all of the above examples mean, but this does <em>not<\/em> guarantee that your boss, your fellow employees, or your customers do, too.<\/p>\n<p>A problem with regional slang is that people will use it against you by taking a &#8220;You are not from around here.&#8221; attitude.<\/p>\n<p>A problem with ethnic slang is that people will use it against you by taking a &#8220;You are not one of us.&#8221; attitude.<\/p>\n<p>And a problem with corporate slang is that it can seem intelligent when first read or heard but will later cause the reader or listener to wonder what you meant.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tips 6-10.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I must postpone these for my next post.<\/p>\n<p>Please think about these first five tips, take a break, and then return tomorrow for the remaining tips!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I write this, the Dow-Jones Industrial Average has dropped from a record high one year ago to a five-year low. Insanity is often defined as expecting your personal situation to improve while you continue to do what you always have done. Protecting your working life from a worsening economy requires standing out &#8212; in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11,3,33,22,5,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apostrophes","category-commas","category-common-english-blunders","category-hyphens","category-misspellings","category-prepositions","category-versus"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to keep working in a worsening economy - Kirk Mahoney . com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2008\/10\/how-to-keep-working-in-a-worsening-economy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to keep working in a worsening economy - Kirk Mahoney . com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As I write this, the Dow-Jones Industrial Average has dropped from a record high one year ago to a five-year low. 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