Employment
The main ingredient for survival is securing a job. It is the source of our income. A good job will provide happiness, pride, personal satisfaction, a sense of achievement. It will cover our expenses and provide us with food and shelter; it will pay for entertainment, it will help our marriage, and much more.
Finding a good job, the right job, takes some skills, preparation, and persistency. Anyone can find a job if they set their minds to it, but finding the job you want and that you will enjoy needs homework.
The best way to achieve this goal of finding the perfect, enjoyable job is to start your homework in junior high.
In junior high, we are at an age when we are establishing our character; we are on our way to settling on who we are and who we want to be. This is when we are exploring in excitement. This is the time when being exposed to new things can leave a huge impact on what we want to do for the rest of our lives.
For this reason our parents, teachers, business owners, society, and government have a big role to play. We are new to this world—they have been there. We don’t know what’s out there—they do or they are supposed to know. This is when we need them the most if they want a better future for us, a better generation.
Parents, teachers, business owners, society, and government should join hands and guide us toward a better future. They are not doing it. If they were, they would do the following:
1. Extend school hours
2. Change the curriculum to match the times
3. Teach ethics, discipline, manners, etiquette
4. Expand our general knowledge, be it in history, geography, politics, finance
5. Fight drug dealers, eliminate them from schools and their surroundings
6. Educate about sex, sexually transmitted diseases, the consequences
7. Coordinate and organize visits to a huge variety of work places from factories to hospitals, museums to art galleries, and mom and pop stores to department stores, and offices to retailers. From military outfits to the congress and more.
8. Invite speakers from different facets of life to explain what is it they do
9. Provide videotapes, DVDs of different businesses, professions, and artists explaining their jobs, how they are compensated, and what is required to attain their profession.
10. Teach them how to prepare a resume, search for a job, interview
11. Provide an honest, well-studied forecast of what jobs will be in demand five years, ten years down the line when these children graduate, to balance what will be in demand and avoid crowding one type of a job and having shortages in another
12. Teach the children how to research which college, university, or technical school will suit them best and how to apply to them
13. Teach the students how to finance their college years, where to apply for a loan, a grant, how and what the requirements are
14. Reintroduce uniforms, as thoroughly discussed in the book The Next Falling Empire. Replace competition for clothing and sneakers by competition for grades and manners
Making these changes will prepare the students for the realities of life, secure their future, and have them ready by the time they attend college and prepare for their careers.
As we notice there is much to do to secure a job. If we wait for a student to learn all these after they graduate college, it will be too late. One, they may have chosen the wrong field and not realized it one, two, or three years into college, and they find they need to make a change, losing a few years of their life deciding which field they want to be in. Two, they will owe outrageous sums of money in student loans. Three, they will find out they made the wrong choice, and they are not happy because they are doing what they have to do and not what they love to do. Four, they will then realize that if they had the opportunity to know better and they didn’t, they will blame everyone, their parents, teachers, the government, everyone but themselves of course. But we can’t blame them for that because it wouldn’t be their fault. They were still in the process of growing up, but the rest were supposed to be the guides, the mentors, and the experienced ones who didn’t do their job right. They failed, and the children lost.
How to handle employment:
We will explore several types of employees.
Good Employee: a good employee is an employee who
1. is always on time
2. follows instructions
3. is knowledgeable about the job he or she is entrusted with
4. maintains a good rapport with coworkers
5. acts professional with coworkers, employers, and customers
6. does not act like a pest at work
7. does not gossip or spread rumors
8. friendly and cheerful yet knows where to draw the line
9. ambitious, wants to advance
10. looks after the benefit of the company
Bad Employee: a bad employee
1. has poor attendance and many unexcused absences
2. does not follow instructions
3. is not dependable
4. is always looking for an argument with coworkers, employers, or customers
5. is a pest
6. is full of gossip and rumors
7. is jealous of other coworkers
8. is a complainer
9. is selfish
10. does not want to learn anything new
Smart Employee: a smart employee
1. is everything a good employee is, plus
2. is constantly educating himself or herself to better his knowledge of the business
3. is always aware of changes
4. brings something new to the company to better the company
5. assesses his performance every now and then to see if he can improve himself
6. has a goal for promotion
7. has good diplomacy
8. loves challenges and handles them
Here are some general rules to follow when employed by others, whether the employer is an individual, a company, a corporation, or even the government:
1. Make sure you have a good understanding of the job you are hired for.
2. Make sure you understand your responsibilities and your rights.
3. Maintain a positive attitude.
4. Leave your personal problems at home or throw them out the window on your way to work. Others have their own problems. Do not discuss them with your employer and coworkers; they are not psychologists, psychiatrists, or therapists. You should handle your own problems; not doing so will show your weakness.
5. Be cheerful and friendly, not necessarily friends with your coworkers or employer; remember, you probably are competing for the same job or position.
6. Dress appropriately.
7. Do not harass anyone.
8. Do not impose.
9. Be a team player.
10. Do not expect compliments and appreciation for doing the job you were hired to do in the first place. Your pay is your compliment and appreciation. Employer does not owe you favors for doing your job.
11. Don’t be judgmental. If someone does not respond to your salutation, it does not mean he has a problem with you—he probably didn’t even notice you because he has a problem.
12. If someone makes a mistake, do not capitalize on that to look better than that person. Mistakes are the problem of the employer and the person committing the mistake.
13. If you are mistreated by someone, do not create a worse situation than it really is. Be diplomatic. Rehearse how to handle it, and deal with the appropriate person or department. Do not advertise it within the place of work with the wrong people who had nothing to do with it in the first place.
14. Avoid personal relationships with coworkers after hours.
15. Participate in company events, not private parties by only few coworkers.
16. Keep up to date with the news of the day and current affairs.
17. Keep up to date on news about the company you work for.
18. Do not suck up to your employer; you must be judged by your merits, not kissing ass.
19. Don’t think you are invincible, irreplaceable. There are many people who qualify for your job.
20. Do not look at your employer as the enemy. The more you help your employer succeed, the better your chances of advancement. Every employer has made many sacrifices to build the business that is providing you the very job you have.
21. Do not accuse anyone, assume things, make up stories about anyone, and do not believe everything you hear until you have proof. Even then you need to be courteous, diplomatic, and very careful.
22. Follow up with the market, how much demand is for your job.
23. Be flexible and willing to adapt to change. Don’t be stubborn, especially when and if laid off. Example: You lose your job for some reason as an office clerk, where the requirements were communication skills, ten-key calculating, and word processing. When looking for a new job, you learn that there is demand for someone with your qualifications, but an additional knowledge or experience is needed to land the job, such as using an Excel program. Don’t be stubborn and say, “I don’t have to learn Excel. I have done all the learning I need. They need me, I don’t need them.” Go learn Excel. Staying unemployed does not provide either your livelihood or pride. Being stubborn will cost you a job that others are competing for and they will get. No one is done learning at any time.
24. Continued education helps you advance faster than your colleagues who don’t believe in it.
25. When and if you come up with an idea or a suggestion that may help your employer in advancing the business, you should—after carefully analyzing your plan, sorting out the pros and cons, and assessing the potential—present your plan to your employer at his convenience, one on one, with great humility yet with confidence, without making your employer feel little. The final decision is his, not yours, and so is the business. Do not discuss your plan with others before, during, or after you present it to the employer.
26. Finally, do not crap on the plate you eat from. Working, talking, planning, and rebelling against your employer will only leave a very unpleasant taste in your mouth, and you will probably lose your job and secure a very bad referral for the next job you will have to apply for.
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