Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Annoying Behaviors of Bad Bosses

Have a bad boss at work? Don't worry as you're not alone. There's comfort in numbers. And here are the annoying traits of bad bosses. You should share this with your boss.Bad Bosses are everywhere and we've all had them. They come in all shapes and sizes, but there are five things that I've consistently seen that are tell tale behaviors of bad bosses. Playing Favorites



I've yet to meet a manager or executive who admits to or even believes they are playing favorites. It's like bad breath. Everyone know it's there except the person who has the problem. Managers justify it by saying they are "raising them up" or that they are "team players", but the real question is: Are they being treated based on their performance or based on how they make the boss feel? I was in a company with so many "yes" men and women that I thought sucking up was part of the job description. It wasn't, but maybe it should have been. It seems that the old adage is often true: 'It's not what you know it's who you know.'

Being a Control Freak
There are many great benefits to micromanaging. It can be used to train both new employees and employees learning new tasks. It can also be used to help those who have had performance issues. But when bosses micromanage trained, competent employees it communicates, "I don't trust you," and "I'm the only one here smart enough to do it." It is especially destructive when it is followed up with temper tantrums or threats or belittling comments. And then they wonder why no one 'takes initiative'.He/she wants do to even small things because he thinks you cannot do it.this can be a great demotivator especially for those people who know what they are doing.

Stealing Credit
Stealing credit is one of the most damaging of all bad boss behaviors. Stealing credit goes beyond not recognizing someone for a job well done. This is far worse. This is taking the results of someone else's ideas, performance and hard work and claiming it as your own. It is like identity theft for people in the workplace.

Throwing Temper Tantrums

Temper Tantrums are also incredibly dangerous in the workplace. They intimidate and manipulate people with the belief that somehow this added fear will increase productivity and or respect. In reality, it causes people to lose respect for the angry boss and in many cases can lead to confrontation in the future. Who came up with the idea that anger was a management tool anyway?

Talking Down to Employees

Talking down to or belittling employees is a cousin to throwing temper tantrums. The constant need to remind people that the boss is the boss and that the employees are little more than indentured servants does little to boost morale or productivity. Telling employees they are lazy or idiots or whatever, with the hopes that it will help them to 'get it' is more destructive than productive and communicates "you're here because I pay you and you have no value beyond that." And they wonder why they hear employees say "I don't get paid enough to do that?"

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Fact sheet:climate change science

The status of climate change science today is enough to known about the earth’s climate system and the greenhouse effect (see annex) to know that urgent action needs to be taken. 2007 saw the publication of the first three instalments of the Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) . The IPCC assesses worldwide climate change science in three working groups and in the context of three broad categories: 1) the physical science, 2) climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability and 3) mitigation of climate change. It is politically significant that all governments agreed to the conclusions of the scientists, making the assessment a solid foundation for sound decision-making.


Working Group I: The physical science
Climate change is already happening, is unequivocal and this change can now be firmly attributed to human activity.
Warming during the past 100 years was 0.74C, with most of the warming occurring in the past 50 years. The warming for the next 20 years is projected to be 0.2C per decade.
The world faces an average temperature rise of around 3°C this century if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at their current pace and are allowed to double from their pre-industrial level.
Continued greenhouse gas emissions at or above current rates would cause further warming and induce many changes in the global climate system during the 21st century that would very likely be larger than those observed during the 20th century.

Working Group II: Climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability

Observed impacts
• Many natural systems, on all continents and in some oceans, are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases:
o enlargement and increased numbers of glacial lakes, with increased risk of outburst floods
o increasing ground instability in mountain and other permafrost regions, and ice and rock avalanches in mountain regions
o changes in some Arctic and Antarctic flora and fauna, including sea-ice biomes and predators high in the food chain
o earlier timing of spring events, such as leaf-unfolding, bird migration and egg-laying
o poleward and upward shifts in ranges in plant and animal species

Regions that will be especially affected
The Arctic, because of high rates of projected warming on natural systems
Africa: ° Increased water shortages (up to 250 million people in Africa at increased

risk of water stress in 2020) ° Reductions in the area suitable for agriculture ° Sea-level rise and consequent threat to cities
• Small Island Developing States: ° Sea-level rise is likely to exacerbate inundation, storm surge, erosion and other coastal hazards, thus threatening vital infrastructure that supports the socio-economic well-being of island communities.
° There is strong evidence that under most climate change scenarios, water resources in small islands are likely to be seriously compromised.
• Asian megadeltas, such as the Ganges-Brahmaputra and the Zhujiang:
° Large populations and high exposure to sea-level rise, storm surge and river flooding
• Himalayan glacier melt leading to flooding, rock avalanches, disruption of water sources

Fresh water resources and their management
Impacts on water resources could be geographically extensive and in some locations dramatic. As the planet warms it is highly likely that, depending on location, there will be an increase in the frequency and severity of floods and droughts.
By mid-century, annual average river runoff and water availability are projected to increase by 10-40% at high latitudes and in some wet tropical areas, and decrease by 10-30% over some dry regions at mid-latitudes and in the dry tropics, some of which are presently water stressed areas.


Food, fibre and forest products
Crop yield is projected to increase in temperate regions for a local mean temperature rise of 1-3 °C, and then decrease beyond that in some regions.
In tropical areas, crop yield is projected to decrease, even with relatively modest rises of 1¬2 °C in local temperature, increasing the risk of hunger.
Increases in the frequency of droughts and floods are projected to affect local crop production negatively, especially in subsistence sectors at low latitudes.

Ecosystems
Increased risk of extinction among 20-30% of plant and animal species is likely if the global temperature increase exceeds 1.5 – 2.5 °C.
In the second half of this century terrestrial ecosystems will see net carbon uptake weaken or reverse.

Coastal areas and low-lying areas
Coasts are projected to be exposed to increasing risks, including coastal erosion, due to climate change and sea-level rise. The effect will be exacerbated by increasing human-induced pressures on coastal areas.
Increases in sea surface temperatures of 1- 3 °C are projected to result in a major decline of most corals.
Many millions more people are projected to experience severe flooding every year due to sea-level rise by the 2080s. Those densely-populated and low-lying areas where adaptive capacity is relatively low, and which already face other challenges such as tropical storms or local coastal subsidence, are especially at risk. The numbers affected will be largest in the mega-deltas of Asia and Africa, while small islands are especially vulnerable.


Health
• Projected changes to the climate will affect the health of millions of people worldwide. The changes will be most felt by those least able to adapt, such as the poor, the very young and the elderly.

Industry, settlement and society
Areas most likely to be affected are the poorer, often rapidly expanding communities near rivers and coasts, which use climate sensitive resources and are prone to extreme weather.
Where extreme weather events become more intense and or more frequent, their economic and social costs are predicted to increase.

Responses
Currently, adaptation is occurring to a very limited extent.
More extensive adaptation is required.
Future vulnerability depends not only on climate change, but also on the development pathway.
Many impacts can be reduced or delayed by mitigation.


• Impacts of unmitigated climate change will vary regionally, but aggregated and discounted to the present, they are very likely to impose costs which would increase over time.
Working Group III: Mitigation of Climate Change

GHG emission trends
Between 1970 and 2004, emissions of CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs and SF6, the greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol, have increased by 70% (24% since 1990). CO2, being by far the largest source, has grown by about 80% (28% since 1990). This has occurred because increases in income per capita and population have outweighed decreases in energy intensity of production and consumption.
Without additional policies, global GHG emissions are projected to increase 25-90% by 2030 relative to 2000. Fossil fuel dominance is expected to continue to 2030 and beyond, hence CO2 emissions from energy use are projected to grow 40-110% over that period. Two thirds to three quarters of this increase is projected to come from developing countries, though their average per capita CO2 emissions will remain substantially lower than those in developed country regions. Since 2000, carbon intensity of energy has been on the rise due to increased use of coal.



Mitigation in the short and medium term up to 2030
• There is a significant economic potential for the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors over the coming decades, sufficient to offset growth of global emissions or to reduce emissions below current levels.

Mitigation in the long term (after 2030)
Global emissions must peak and decline thereafter to meet any long-term GHG concentration stabilisation level. The lower the stabilisation level, the more quickly this peak and decline must occur.
The most stringent scenarios could limit global mean temperature increases to 2 - 2.4C above pre-industrial level .This would require emissions to peak within 15 years and decline to around 50% of current levels by 2050.
Mitigation efforts over the next two to three decades will determine to a large extent the long-term global mean temperature increase and the corresponding climate change impacts that can be avoided.


Overview of CO2 concentration level, corresponding temperature increases and year that concentrations would need to peak to maintain specific concentration levels.
CO2 concentration in ppm (pre-industrial levels at 278 ppm; current levels at 380 ppm) Global mean temperature increase in C above preindustrial levels Peaking year of CO2
350 - 400 2.0 -2.4 2000 - 2015
400 - 440 2.4 - 2.8 2000 - 2020
440 - 485 2.8 - 3.2 2010 - 2030
485 - 570 3.2 - 40 2020 - 2060
570 - 660 4.0 - 4.9 2050 - 2080


Annex The greenhouse effect
The earth's climate is driven by a continuous flow of energy from the sun. This energy arrives mainly in the form of visible light. About 30% is immediately scattered back into space, but most of the remaining 70% that is absorbed passes down through the atmosphere to warm the earth's surface.
The earth must send this energy back out into space in the form of infrared radiation. Being much cooler than the sun, the earth does not emit energy as visible light. Instead, it emits infrared, or thermal radiation. This is the heat thrown off by an electric fire or grill before the bars begin to glow red.
Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere block infrared radiation from escaping directly from the surface to space. Infrared radiation cannot pass straight through the air like visible light. Instead, most departing energy is carried away from the surface by air currents and clouds, eventually escaping to space from altitudes above the thickest layers of the greenhouse gas blanket.
The layer of greenhouse gases is measured in “parts per million” (ppm), which is the ratio of the number of greenhouse gas molecules to the total number of molecules of dry air. For example: 300ppm CO2 means 300 molecules of CO2 per million molecules of dry air.

The climate system is characterised by inertia and does not respond immediately to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Some greenhouse gases survive in the atmosphere for years, decades or even centuries. As a result, climate change will continue for hundreds of years after atmospheric concentrations have stabilized.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

How Kenyan Banks Waste CPA's Holders

With job scarcity Kenyan graduates with CPA's are finding themselves working for a Kenyan bank in various roles. Some are in customer service, others in credit and majority are in operations i.e supporting back office operations. Unless you have decided your career to be that one of a banker then my best advice is for you to reconsider what you're currently doing. I know that jobs are not easy to get in Kenya but then again you are not doing yourself any good by working in a job that doesn't suit you.

Take the case of Emily. Upon graduating with a B.A Economics and CPA K, Emily was lucky to be invited for an interview by Barclay's with the job title of a financial adviser. And what does the job entail? Your guess is as good as mine...selling credit cards! How does this relate to the three years spent learning consolidation and taxation?

Another example is that of Francis who is a cashier at Equity bank. When he completed his studies at Moi University his wish was to work for any of the big four audit firms in Kenya but after eight months of tarmacking all he got was a cashiering job despite being a CPA and CPS holder. He has been at it for the last 13 months and there is nothing agonizing as doing something day in day out in which there is no possibility of growth. As for now Francis has already begun a apart time job to learn the practical aspects of accounting.

I have nothing against people who work as cashiers or in customer service in banks. All i am saying is that you should be careful not to be matched with positions which lessen your value and more so when you are a fresh graduate.

Those who have worked with Kenyan banks will bear me witness that its very hard for you to be promoted o transferred from being in customer service with your MBA to the finance docket. Normally your employer will either advertise the job and an outsider who even if there in customer service in another bank will be elevated to this role. Kenyan banks are that selfish and to an extent you will only become valuable if you first resign, work somewhere else even if for a month and then apply for a position with your old employer.

When banks give you a role that does no suit you will be stagnate in your career. What do i mean?

I gave you the first reason with my example above in that chances of you being promoted to finance are very minimal with your employer giving first preference to outsiders.

But what should worry you is how you're able to compete with other job seekers out there. Truth be told accounting is one career where experience ranks very very high. It does not matter whether you are from Harvard University but if you can't handle a simple task like cash book reconciliation and i mean the practical aspect then the guy who has KATC and a few years of experience stands a better chance than you.

The more you stay as a cashier the lesser time you have to practice as an accountant and the more the opportunities in accounts/finance will pass you by. It's not enough to have a CPA-K if you cannot deliver on the simple accounting tasks then you have a very long way to go.

One way to bridge this gap and make life easy for you is to seek part time accounting duties. This way you will learn core accounting duties i.e performing reconciliation, account payable and receivables, statutory returns, audit, aging analysis, fixed asset registers etc.

With this experience no matter how minimal you stand a better chance to make it in the accounting profession despite your current employer being a Kenyan bank.
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