Are you an extraordinary boss?

That might as well be one of those rhetorical questions, since who would answer ‘No?’ Truth is, most of would fall into the average group. We’re pretty good at some things; not so good at others.

But business writer and sales guru Geoffrey James has a different take on what it means to be “average,” and “extraordinary.” In a recent post on Inc., James lists eight “core beliefs” of extraordinary bosses. Drawn from his years interviewing countless CEOs (including, presumably, many who are merely “average”), James paints a stark picture of the difference between average and extraordinary.

An extraordinary boss, he says, “treat(s) every employee as if he or she were the most important person in the firm. Excellence is expected everywhere, from the loading dock to the boardroom. As a result, employees at all levels take charge of their own destinies.”

Average bosses, “see fear — of getting fired, of ridicule, of loss of privilege — as a crucial way to motivate people.”

His portrait of the average boss seems better suited to the poor boss. At the opposite end, his description of the extraordinary boss is one no human could fit day in and day out.

That doesn’t diminish the significance of the point James makes: Extraordinary bosses see the workplace and the people who inhabit as a positive. They inspire and lead, rather than order and direct.

In his view, extraordinary bosses “see work as something that should be inherently enjoyable–and believe therefore that the most important job of manager is, as far as possible, to put people in jobs that can and will make them truly happy.”

Attention bosses: Today is Administrative Professionals Day. Do we have to spell out what that means?

It means today is the day that bosses — and office workers supported by an admin — say thank you to the hard working administrative assistants, clerks, receptionists, support staff, and other administrative professionals for the countless tasks they handle day in and day out.

Sure, much of what they do is in their job description. Thank them for doing their job so professionally. Much of what they do is not in any job description. Those are the countless courtesies they do because they’re part of the team. Things like ordering fine tipped pens just for you. Or helping you collate that special report when the copier wouldn’t. Or showing you the easy way to create a table of contents.

It was 60 years today that PR exec Harry Klemfuss and the former National Secretaries Association (now known as the International Association of Administrative Professionals) established the first National Secretaries Week.  It both recognized secretaries for their workplace contributions, and served to attract people to the budding profession.

There are more than 4.1 million secretaries and administrative assistants working in the United States, and 8.9 million people in administrative support roles. Over the six decades since the first celebration, the nature of the job has changed dramatically. Almost exclusively a woman’s job in 1952, in 2012 it is not at all uncommon to find men in admin positions. Few had any college 60 years ago. Today, the typical admin has at least an associate’s degree.

And where once clerical tasks were the primary part of the job, now support staffs produce reports and spreadsheets full of data, create presentations, participate in project teams, handle most office purchases, and make decisions in the absence of managers.

If you doubt the importance or value of the work they do, you figure out how to unjam the copier, soothe an upset client, or recover the nearly completed project that  just disappeared from your computer.

That’s why at offices all across the country, administrative professionals will be showered with cards, flowers, and balloon bouquets. Bosses will lunch with their admins. And office workers will show their appreciation with lunchroom potlucks or pizzas.

How ever your workplace recognizes the support staff, make sure that at the very least, you go out of your way to say a personal “Thank you.”

Here’s an unexpected finding about job interviews that makes sense once it’s explained. Narcissists do better in interviews than the rest of us.

How can it be that a trait most of us consider obnoxious can actually improve the chances of someone acing an interview?

Simple, says Peter Harms, assistant professor of management at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a co-author of a study being published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. Most of us are entirely too modest about our accomplishments. While we might start off promoting ourselves and talking about our accomplishments, as interviewers begin to ask questions, we tend to ease off on our self-promotion.

Narcissists, on the other hand, not only stand their ground, they escalate their efforts.

“When feeling challenged, they tend to double down,” Harms said. “It’s as if they say ‘Oh, you’re going to challenge me? Then I’m not just great, I’m fantastic.’ And in this setting, it tended to work.”

In the first of the two-part study, 72 volunteers were put through a simulated job interview by expert interviewers. Those identified as narcissistic, increased their efforts to look better when challenged by the interviewer. Others, backed down.

Then, in part two, recorded interviews of candidates were reviewed and rated by evaluators. The 222 raters were consistent in awarding more positive evaluations to the self-promoters. The more quickly and longer they spoke, and those who smiled, gestured, and complimented others got the better ratings.

Those who were equally qualified for the job )a variety of positions were used), but who were more modest about their achievements scored lower.

“This shows that what is getting (narcissists) the win is the delivery,” Harms said. “These results show just how hard it is to effectively interview, and how fallible we can be when making interview judgments. We don’t necessarily want to hire narcissists, but might end up doing so because they come off as being self-confident and capable.”

There is a fine line between self-confidence and narcissism. Knowing where it is is not always easy, but hiring a narcissist can have disappointing, even disastrous consequences.

“On the whole, we find very little evidence that narcissists are more or less effective workers. But what we do know is that they can be very disruptive and destructive when dealing with other people on a regular basis. If everything else is equal, it probably is best to avoid hiring them.”

The study echoes others, including one published last summer in the  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, entitled, “Do Nice Guys—and Gals—Really Finish Last?” The conclusion was a solid yes, if by last it’s meant they don’t earn as much.

The research found men who measured below average on agreeableness earned about 18% more—or $9,772 more annually in their sample—than nicer guys. Ruder women, meanwhile, earned about 5% or $1,828 more than their agreeable counterparts.

“Nice guys are getting the shaft,” says study co-author Beth A. Livingston, an assistant professor of human resource studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

That doesn’t mean the way to get the job and the top salary is to be a mean, self-promoter. Many companies have policies and will even fire disagreeable, disrespectful disruptors.

Kathy Savitt CEO and founder of Lockers, a social commerce company, says her “no jerks and divas” policy doesn’t’ mean disagreement isn’t tolerated. Just the contrary. “We have a lot of robust debates about all kinds of things. But we do stress the notion of being respectful.”

Last week’s disappointing jobs report, showed  the U.S. economy added only 120,000 new non-farm jobs in March. That was a surprise to economists and labor analysts, nearly all of whom were expecting the number to be over 200,000.

It was the lowest job growth in five months, and the first time since November the number was below 200,000.Even the usually robust growth in temp jobs seems to have taken a breather in March. Temp jobs dipped by 7,500 during the month, the first time the Labor Department registered a decline in the category since last June.

But even with the blip, there were 8% more temp and contract jobs in March than a year ago. That’s well ahead of the overall jobs growth rate, which in a year-over-year comparison is just under 1.4%.

The government’s unadjusted numbers tell a little more positive story. The nonseasonally adjusted jobs numbers form the Bureau of Labor Statistics show the staffing industry added 29,400 jobs in March. Year-over-year, the increase in temp and contract staffing hit 8.5%.

Using the nonseasonally adjusted numbers for comparison, the U.S. economy added a total of 81,100 jobs last month.

“For the most part, staffing firms continued to see healthy demand in March, as was reflected by the nonseasonally adjusted BLS employment numbers,” says Richard Wahlquist, president and chief executive officer of the American Staffing Association. “In the current environment, businesses are understandably cautious about when and how to add additional flexible and permanent staff.”

Before last week’s job numbers were out, CareerBuilder offered an upbeat view of employment in the current quarter. After surveying some 2,300 HR professionals and hiring managers, CareerBuilder says 30 percent of employers plan to increase their full-time, permanent workforce. Even more — 34 percent — expect they’ll bring on more temps and contract workers.

In Q1, 37 percent of employers hired more temps, an eight point increase over the 29 percent who hired temps in Q1 last year.  The company also says 31 percent of employers report not being to find qualified employees to fill open jobs. That’s up from the 24 percent who said that last year.

But it seems that for every optimistic report, another one turns up with a cautionary note. Today’s is from The Conference Board, a business research organization, that says its employment trends index dropped in March. It’s now at 107.28, down from the revised figure of 107.47 in February. The March figure is still up over 5 percent  from the same month a year ago.

“After five months of strong growth, the ETI declined slightly in March,” said Gad Levanon, Director of Macroeconomic Research at The Conference Board. “Together with the disappointing job growth released on Friday, and only moderate improvement in economic activity in recent months, it seems that employment growth in December to February, averaging almost 250,000 a month, may not be a sustainable trend.”

It may be tea leaf reading, but looking back at least year, March’s decline in seasonally adjusted job growth and temp positions has some echoes of last year, when a May surprise signaled months of mediocre growth.

For a sector with 2.5 million workers, March’s loss of a mere 7,500 staffing jobs  might be nothing more than a statistical aberration and easily dismissed, were it not for April, May, and June of last year when staffing growth turned negative after 19 consecutive months of increases.

When growth turned up again in July, it was slower in each of the next two quarters than in last year’s first quarter, when the staffing industry added 66,100 positions. Even with the negative growth last month, staffing firms added almost 84,000 jobs in the first quarter. That’s a 27% increase over the 1st quarter of 2011.

One other data point is worth looking at, and that’s the number of workers at placement agencies. Counted in this category are employees of chauffeur services, nurse registries, employment firms, state job service offices, casting agencies, and the like.

Changes in employment here provides some indication of economic health. But deciding what the changes mean is tricky because some placement services — the government offices, for instance — added workers to assist the unemployed as the economy was tanking. That said, there is evidence that employment in this category does move in some rhythym with general economic conditions. In 2007, just before the official start of the recession, there were an average of 277,400 workers. Two years later, the average fell to 200,200 workers.

Jobs began returning early in 2010 and the growth continued in all but two months of last year. As of February, there were 240,800 workers employed in the employment placement agencies category.

When new hires fail, it’s not because they don’t have the skills or the know-how. It’s attitude, says bestselling business author Mark Murphy. Of 20,000 new hires, 46% of them failed within 18 months. The reason in almost 90% of the cases had nothing to do with their ability to do the work. “The attitudinal deficits that doomed these failed hires,” he maintains, “included a lack of coachability, low levels of emotional intelligence, motivation and temperament.” To reduce the turnover of new hires, companies are using a battery of methods to find workers with the right attitude for their culture, Murphy says. One method he doesn’t mention is temp-to-hire where employers make offers to the best of their temp workers.  Forbes

That whole brouhaha about employers demanding Facebook passwords has been overblown — and not by a little. Demanding social media access from employees and potential hires and is most definitely the exception and not the rule, says attorney Eric Meyer, a labor and employment specialist. What’s more, all the articles and recent excitement about nosy employers comes, not from dozens of examples, but two dated situations involving a city government in Montana and the Maryland Department of Corrections. And why wouldn’t employers want access to employee Facebook accounts? Because it’s probably not legal, Meyer says. TLNT

Young workers prefer to live in urban areas, so they naturally gravitate to the downtowns of larger cities. What’s more, 65% of the people in the 25-34 age group first find a place they want to live, and then go look for a job.

That’s the kind of data that recruitment marketers are beginning to embrace as they develop strategies for attracting talent in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Marketing Meets Staffing addresses the importance of data, and especially demographic data in spotting workforce trends.

One critical trend, the article notes, is the mobility of the workforce, and the willingness of the most educated workers to relocate for a job. “That workers are migrating to where work is comes as no surprise. What may surprise, however, is the extent and character of the migration. Movement is occurring on an unprecedented scale and the primary driver is economic opportunity,” the article notes

Even way back in Biblical times they knew that,” Man doth not live by bread alone.” Somehow employers seem to have missed the point.

Anyone who thinks that a paycheck should be enough of a thank you is someone who has a workforce full of less than satisfied workers, many of whom would bolt if the right opportunity came along

Now we shouldn’t need a survey to alert us that offering a little praise, a thank you for a job well done, is an important ingredient for a happy crew. Yet thee are plenty of them out there saying the same thing: Workers who got recognition and praise along with a paycheck don’t typically go looking for a new job.

The Globoforce Work Mood Tracker, for instance, turned up the same thing that many of others of its kind have: large numbers of American workers are feeling unappreciated.

The survey finds 39% of workers feel unappreciated at work. Just over half — 52% — are dissatisfied with the recognition they get. And here’s the saddest part: 17% of employees have never gotten any praise.

It took visits by three apparitions to explain the why of this all to Ebenezer Scrooge, but even he got it. Yet it seems no matter how many surveys and studies explain the correlation between praise and job satisfaction, the next one that comes along finds not a lot of change.

The Globoforce survey of a few months back found that of those workers intending to look for a new job, 76% said they were dissatisfied with the recognition they get for doing a good job. On the other hand, among those not ready to go job hunting, less than half that number (37%) said they were dissatisfied.

It’s not that money is unimportant or that heaps of praise will take the place of a deserved raise. That’s not true and the Globoforce survey clearly shows money is the most important ingredient in job satisfaction. It’s also the most cited reason people change jobs. Recognition and appreciation, though, are in second place.

Globoforce is a rewards and recognition company, and the survey is used to illustrate a genuine problem, as well as prompt employers to hire the company. That’s certainly a nice touch, and tangible recognition in the form of gift cards, airline miles, or the like are important and should be included in a formal recognition program.

More important is the occasional feel-good pat on the back from the boss. It’s a cheap way of appreciating the work someone does, and when deserved and genuinely given, it’s worth far more than a Starbucks card. Alas, the Globoforce survey found only 39% of employees get feedback throughout the year. The rest of the workers get praise or feedback either at review time or, shockingly, 30% say they get none at all.

So the next time someone does a good job, don’t wait for a wake-up call from your own set of apparitions. Say thank you. It’s not important to make a show out of every atta boy, but a public acknowledgment is the way to do it. Even if that just means their cubicle neighbors hear, the word will get around.

And that word will be that the company notices and cares.

With temporary workers swelling the hiring numbers, the evidence continues to grow that this is not just a response to an uncertain economy, but a permanent shift in the American workforce. The latest word on this comes from a survey in which 69 percent of independent consultants say the flexible workforce is a permanent change in the way employers do business. Staffing Industry Analysts

With nearly one-in-seven inhabitants of planet Earth now on Facebook alone, there’s no question social media is a potent force. No surprise, then, that recruiters, employers, and job seekers — and those who think they might be interested in a new opportunity — have embraced social networking the way the last generation turned to the Sunday Help Wanted ads. Even though the actual number of hires directly attributable to social sites is small, the recruiting leaders at some of America’s largest companies say they are responsible for leading untold thousands of others hires to their door. ERE