I work in the training and development field, and I often serve as facilitator to newly hired employees in the workplace. I am seeing a disturbing trend in many Americans’ attitudes toward their work and career. The trend is that many employees’ focus is so narrow and limited that they do not allow themselves to see and plan for a bigger picture, a career and a life that could bring them much more than getting past the next round of bills to pay.

Too many focus on just the entry-level job they were hired in at, on their first paycheck, on the next paycheck, and the next. On a regular basis my jaw drops, aghast at the comments made by newly hired employees, complaining in just their first few weeks of employment about their pay rate, their shift hours, the difficulty and/or redundancy of the job they were hired in at. And mind you, they complain right in front of trainers, supervisors, and other management figures in their place of employment. Talk about a bad career move.

Really? These folks are in serious need of a career coach, or at least need to read an article or two about what NOT to do if you want to get ahead. Somewhere along the line, individuals have lost that internal “little voice” that stops them from shooting themselves, and their career prospects, in the foot. And I fear that this little voice has gone the same dismal route as that enigmatic concept once known as a “work ethic.”

And I wish I could say that this trend is strictly confined to the “younger generation” entering the workplace. But woefully, I seem to find this “attitude” nearly as prevalent in older employees. Somewhere along the line, putting in the grunt work to make a career a reality has become a lost concept.

Which brings me to my New Year’s resolution. I have resolved to use the advantage of my platform as a trainer to do more to instill a positive attitude in as many employees as I can. My part doesn’t have to be much. Just a brief discussion on the topic in the first week of training is perhaps all that is needed. But it could be just enough to get some individuals to break out of their myopic worldview and start seeing the big picture of their career and more prosperous years to come.

In just two minutes’ time when scanning the news the other day, I saw the following three stories related to this topic:

• Does Facebook Privacy Confuse Zuckerberg’s Sister?
• Cracking Your PIN Code: Easy as 1-2-3-4
• Colleges Help Students Scrub Online Footprints

For me, a guy who grew up in much simpler and more innocent times, it is hard to believe that we must now take steps to protect ourselves from unseen, and unknown, enemies. What we initially think are innocent postings on social media sites can and do come back to haunt us. And perhaps most frightening of all, completely fabricated representations of ourselves, our backgrounds, or our businesses can pop up at any time in the virtual world to ruin us, our families, and our livelihoods.

Not much of a “happy new year” topic, right?

But there is good news, and hope, for us. There are plenty of great resources out there to help you learn more about protecting your identity and online presence. And some simple, common sense steps make up probably 90% of the effort needed to survive this battle. Luckily, for every story of identity theft, there seems to be an informative resource for protecting your identity. Here are just a few:

• Protecting Your Identity
• The Single Most Important Advice for Better Credit Habits in 2013
•  Identity Theft in 2013: The Battle for Your Data

If we take the right steps to protect ourselves, we can continue to prosper into the new year and beyond. So here’s wishing you a Happy, and Protected, New Year in 2013!

Traditionally, businesses tended to shy away from training customers, and I know from experience that many employees fear the effects of an educated customer. (Any number of ”Dilbert” cartoons reflect this sentiment.) Perhaps the first fear that comes to mind is that if you train customers about your products and services, they will no longer need to call in for help. I have actually heard employees voice this concern. In other words, we consciously or otherwise shy away from educating our customers in the name of job security. We think that if we keep the customers “dumb,” for lack of a better word, they will continue to need us.

But in this new world of educated and empowered consumers, our customers demand more. Indeed, if we educate our customers about the many features, benefits, and uses of our products, as well as troubleshooting knowledge, we will gain in loyalty what we lose in fewer calls to our call centers and tech support.

Another fear that I have heard is that if we educate our customers too much, they may learn just enough to cause them to choose the competition. To that I would say that if you are that insecure, or uncertain, of your own product’s quality, then your problem is much bigger than customer education. If you are confident in your product or service, you should want to educate the world about it.

Training customers on your product or service results in relationships, which ultimately results in loyalty to your brand and your product.

In his article The Diminishing Shelf Life of Learning, Mosher writes, “…the classroom needs to be less about information dissemination and more about information aggregation.” He points out what I have learned and have had to preach for several years now, which is that the formal learning class is just the beginning of the learning experience. Mosher adds, “If anything, learners need help filtering and finding the right information for a specific moment of need. Formal learning can still teach foundational skills, but it needs to shift a good part of its time and efforts to help learners remain current and effective once the formal experience is over.”

Indeed, a greater and greater portion of my training class is not filling learners’ heads with a set chunk of information, but rather teaching them how to find current information themselves, and how to use all of their resources to do so. I agree with Mosher that there is just too much information today to be taught formally, and that such an undertaking would be fruitless as much of that information is obsolete by the time the ink dries. In fact, content found in printed manuals I find myself teaching as “historical” rather than current information.

Blum, an author and writer for Newsweek, gives an interesting TED Talk about what he found on his journey. He talks about the physical pieces, connections, and locations involved in bringing us the internet connections that we enjoy all over the world. I found it interesting to learn about what physically makes up the Internet.

We are becoming increasingly locked in to the internet, spending more and more hours per day there. Yet it is our human nature to take for granted how it all works. This is a good discussion about the basics of the physical internet, yet still quite amazing!

One of my favorite hobbies is to watch and collect science fiction and horror classics from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. While most movie viewers shun these classics as outdated, fake, and “cheesy,” I marvel at them on various levels. These films give me a deep appreciation of the special effects and technology that we enjoy in today’s movies. I also appreciate the finer dialogue and acting that was required to make up for the lack of special effects.  But more than anything I watch in awe the work of these early moviemaking pioneers as they tried to create supernatural stories with such primitive technology.

Working in the telecommunications industry (video, internet, and telephony) gives me a front row seat to all that is on the cutting edge of technology and entertainment. In a recent training session, I happened to view a video that details the evolution of letterbox, or “pan and scan” technology. While I thought I understood the basic gist of pan and scan, this video, Turner Classic Movies: Letterbox, gave me a greater appreciation for what it took to create a “panned and scanned” movie to fit standard definition TVs. While I view pan and scan as, actually, a step backwards in technology, it is nonetheless very interesting to learn how it was done, and what was sacrificed in its making.

If you have a similar interest in entertainment technology I think you will enjoy this clip: Turner Classic Movies: Letterbox.

On July 31st I was the unfortunate victim of a corporate “reorganization” that followed a buyout of our small company by a national giant. I did not wallow in my misfortune, however, and quickly set to work seeking my next career opportunity after 5 1/2 years with the same company. I was never truly worried that I would not land on my feet in short order.

Indeed, I had been preparing for just such a moment as this for the past year. In a way, I’d been preparing for this moment for the past 15+ years, making sure that I had a broad set of skills and a solid, reliable track record. I made sure to become an expert in my work as a trainer, curriculum developer, editor, writer, and more recently as a new instructional designer. I sought out opportunities for my own career development over the years. Finally, add to that having the wherewithal to develop and keep in touch with a critical set of professional contacts and friends (via LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.).

With all of this in place, I was able to enjoy the next month having numerous interviews and recruiting contacts. In exactly one month I had a job offer, albeit a contract position. My prospects are looking very bright moving forward (knock on wood), and I honestly feel like my layoff was the best thing that could have happened to me. And all this in a terrible economy.

I share this for the benefit of any young professionals or recent college grads new to the workforce. My advice is quite simple and not very hard to follow: Start by getting a decent degree, and then continuously build your career (and resume) by moving upward while at the same time diversifying your skill set. And lastly, follow the Golden Rule while you are in the workplace. Act like a professional rather than like you are out for a night on the town with your friends.

Everything will take care of itself after that.

I will only add that it was later revealed that the author’s college majors were English and Creative Writing.

Read on and then let me know your opinion about this piece.

You might be surprised to learn that a lot of companies are giving in to these kinds of complaints, demands, and wishes.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Leslie Kwoh investigated how organizations today are having to change the way they manage their younger Generation Y employees.

Many management and HR professionals might be tempted not to put up with such attitudes initially. Yet with more and more of the workforce consisting of Gen Y’ers, organizations should think twice before dismissing this new attitude. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Millennials will make up more than 40% of the U.S. labor force by 2020. If you don’t pay attention, and you resist the needs of the new generation, they will no doubt move on to greener pastures. Dan Rosensweig, Chief Executive at Chegg Inc. adds, ”If they don’t feel like they’re making a contribution to a company overall quickly, they don’t stay. If you provide them with the right environment, they’ll work forever, around the clock.”

Read the Wall Street Journal article to learn more about what Generation Y employees expect and hope for in the workplace. After all, if you want the most talented young people working for your organization, you better start paying attention to what they want. And if you give them what they want, you could just end up with a new, young, talented, and loyal employee base.

Last year Rowe spoke to the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee about what he sees as a need for change in the way Americans view the workforce. He believes that skilled trades are being relegated to jobs meant only for lower class citizens. He suggests that we are trying to push all citizens to earn four-year degrees, and leaving the skilled trades to, well, no one.

Rowe makes the following plea to the committee on behalf of all skilled workers:

“I believe that we need a national PR campaign for skilled labor…something that addresses the widening skills gap head on and reconnects the country with the most important part of our workforce. Right now American manufacturing is struggling to fill 200,000 vacant positions I’m told. And there are 450,000 openings today in trades, transportation, and utilities.”

Rowe gives an account of a U.S. governor who couldn’t move forward on the construction of a new power plant, not due to a lack of funds or support, but rather due to a lack of qualified welders. The host who has apprenticed in most all of the skilled trades ponders a question that is becoming more common over the past few years. “How can high unemployment exist at the same time as a skilled labor shortage?”

We shouldn’t really be surprised about this, Rowe says. He notes that the vocational arts in high schools have all but vanished, and says that we’ve elevated “higher education” to such a level that any other form of knowledge has been labeled as something less important, or looked down upon. The vocational arts are now deemed a consolation prize best suited for those not cut out for a four-year degree.

Watch Rowe’s testimony and then consider, “What is my attitude toward the skilled trades?”

To read more about the shortage of skilled labor in America, read my blog post about the Deloitte Survey: Qualified Workers, Not Jobs, Are Lacking from earlier this year.