Job Satisfaction - Real or Imaginary?

I have been fortunate enough to know the wonderful Gail Chandler, APR, for some time now. Mrs. Chandler has been a strong supporter of the SMU PRSSA chapter and has served as our Professional Advisor for the last two years. In fact, Mrs. Chandler even won the Dr. Frederick H. Teahan Chapter Award for Outstanding Professional Advisor this past year at the PRSSA National Conference.


Mrs. Chandler’s visit to our classroom was extremely pleasant. Her usual congenial demeanor and her passion for Texas Instruments left me with a heartwarming feeling when all was said and done. She started out by telling us how she got the “best job in the world” and how we can find jobs that will be perfect for us as well. However, the one thing that stuck with me from Mrs. Chandler’s lecture was her outlook on job satisfaction. “Life is too short to work somewhere that you don’t like,” she said.


The reason that this line stuck with me is that every speaker thus far has loved what he or she does. Deanna McKinley from Frito-Lay claimed that she has the best job in the world, as did Ken Fairchild and now Mrs. Chandler. As cheesy as this sounds, when they spoke about their organizations or their occupation, they had an aura of gratification and contentment around them. It was a testimonial to seniors, such as myself, who are scared about our first “real” jobs that job satisfaction is not just a pigment of our imagination – it truly exists.


Additionally, as a strong advocate of PRSSA myself, I appreciated Mrs. Chandler’s push for PRSA and PRSSA by telling us her stories about how these organizations have helped her succeed in her career. Thank you, Mrs. Chandler, for being such a promoter of our PRSSA chapter!


P.S. I just couldn't help myself when I saw this cartoon... It definitely pertains to Mrs. Chandler's point of retaining employees via job satisfaction.

The Unassailable Position

When I read Ken Fairchild’s bio on the Fairchild Consulting website, I was in awe of his accomplishments and expertise. I mean, the man is one of the originators of spokesperson/media training! However, after reading Professor Flournoy’s exhaustive bio of Mr. Fairchild’s exhilarating career, my awe quickly turned into worship and idolization. I thought to myself, “How can someone so accomplished be so humble?”

However, humility isn’t Mr. Fairchild’s only asset; his commanding presence and his frank nature made the lecture extremely worthwhile. He started out by reminding us of the value of a CCPA degree and equipped us with confidence that seniors such as myself sometimes misplace during the job search. I couldn’t help but feel empowered when a man of his stature was telling us that we are well equipped to take on the real world. I wish I could just sit here and go through everything he said, from the coining of the term “spin doctor” to his breakdown of a powerful soundbite. However, the one thing that I want to focus on in today’s post is Mr. Fairchild’s advice of attaining the “unassailable position” in crisis communications.  

When you look up the word unassailable in the thesaurus, you will come across synonyms such as infallible, inarguable, unquestionable and irrefutable. However, within that same list, you will also find words such as trustworthy, genuine and undoubted. That, to me, sums up his entire stand on crisis communication: Be truthful during your predicament and your statements will be irrefutable.

Mr. Fairchild placed a strong emphasis on the message itself. His summation’s first bullet was “All communication depends on your message.” The message I got from his book excerpt was the same message he gave us in class – the unassailable position is the heart of crisis communication. He quickly pointed out the misconception that people have about this unassailable position, especially ones he noticed in C.W. Fong’s article. “I don’t know why he said you can’t hide anything anymore in crisis communications,” Mr. Fairchild said. “You never could hide anything in the first place if you did your job right.”

Additionally, Mr. Fairchild pointed out that just because social media is easy to use and informal, we should not forget the formal means of communications or the value of the message. Often times, as students, we get so caught up in the clutter on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare that we forget about the essence of our message and applying that essence across multiple digital and non-digital platforms. This isn’t to say that just writing a powerful press release is not necessary anymore; it is just to say that a press release will not fix everything. Instead, he reminds us about using every single medium available effectively, consistently and in harmony. “Use the medium,” Mr. Fairchild says. “Don’t let it use you.”

I appreciated that when tackling the “tough questions,” Mr. Fairchild turned the tables on us. He’d ask students how they would handle a certain situation and then gave his input, which allowed for stimulated thinking and dialogue. His plethora of experiences and his candid manner made the lecture very interesting to all of us. Thank you, Mr. Fairchild, for a lesson well taught!

P.S. My fellow classmates, keeping Mr. Fairchild's "spin doctor" commentary in mind, I figured we could all enjoy this cartoon: