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Work, let me clarfiy
January 31, 2006 by lakisha hFirst let me say that my previous blog obviously wasn’t clear enough. My co-workers were accused of being late coming back from lunch when in fact they had left late, so actually they took their entire alloted hour. Second, let me tell you this. You don’t know my boss, so let me give you guys a few more details.
I have worked at this bank for about 8 months now and this has to be one of the most unprofessional places I have ever worked at. I do my job, which is data entry by the way, so it’s not complicated or difficult. On our shift we have had the highest turnover due to mismanagement and they way the higher ups treat the employees. I believe that people should be treated with respect in the first place. I want to be treated like I treat anyone else and I went into this job with a good attitude even though I had been warned by some people that my boss was weak and frequently shifted blame to her employees for her failings. I have no clue as to how she became a manager. I use to be a lead at my previous job. My sup is terrified of her boss and instead of explaining all she does is say it was the employees fault. Like they new employees. They have been there for 2 weeks with training that was almost as bad as mine. I had 2 days of training and that was it. They got errors, about 5 or 6 which is not that many for 4 people in all. She told that she could fire them up, but because she was a nice person she wouldn’t. That to me is childish and irresponsible. We do have steps that must be followed, that was all talk on her part. If what they did was so wrong why not write them up? Why pretend like you are doing them a favor and hold it over them later, that is what she does. She pulled me into her office because I had made a mistake on an account. She told me what I did was wrong and that the information had been updated on how you should now handle this account. I never got the update, I explained to her that it was her job to issue updates that she gets from corporate. Our time sheets, updates, and stats are something she should give us. We shouldn’t have to ask, that is not company policy nor is that how the other shifts do it. Most of my co-workers don’t say anything, but I refused to be bullied, either fire me, write me up, but don’t threaten me. I told her that her attitude makes me wanna quit or give up even trying to do a good job. All our team ever hear is how bad we are doing and never what we are doing good. I go error free from 3 months, but one error and now it’s “You are doing a horrible job Lakisha…blah blah blah”. A Supervisor should be a good leader that praises and issues discipline not brow beat or threaten you into performing.
As for being late, a manager should lead by example. My boss is always late and I am not exaggerating by any stretch of the imagination. She is late almost everyday. I get there everyday before she does and then she calls in the office asking if I could do her duties because she is running late. I think people that are in a supervisory position take it personal when they here a supervisor criticized.
As for me, well, I live in Texas and I am from up north. I am a shy person that just wants to do her job and be left alone. My boss seems to take it personal if you don’t talk very much, but when the new ladies started talking amongst themselves she told them they were talking too much. I just want to do my job, I don’t like to gossip or talk about this person or that person behind their back. I am not that kind of person, for me work should not be a popularity contest. My work should speak for itself. I work part-time 3 days a week, work should not be a hassle. Those who do know me at work, which are about 2 people that changed shifts because of my boss by the way, know a different side to me that is friendly and likes to have fun. I don’t pretend and everyone can tell I’m not that happy, but how can I when my boss is nice one moment then if you make a mistake it’s “i’m gonna fire you, but no I won’t because I want you to feel like you owe me, so I can hold it over you.”
So please don’t judge unless you know the full story. -
As Seen On TV?
by andrew sSometimes, we all wish life could be more like a TV show. Without the commercial breaks every five minutes, of course. Nobody likes those. But everybody likes the thought of snatching their dream girl/guy away from a nemesis. And the thought all problems could be solved with a well-timed, insightful monologue, and that no matter how bad you screw up everything will be back to normal in 22 minutes. And if we all had goofy, yet loveable sidekicks, how could the world possibly not be a better place as a result?
Or how about the way people get jobs on TV? I am going through the help wanted ads and, oh, this looks interesting. I circle it and BAM, it’s training day! I will not last one day because of some hilarious complication that arises, but that is okay, because the next place I go to has a sign on the window that says “HELP WANTED.” I go in and because the person doing the hiring is a mind-reader, the sign is removed as I walk in. Said sign is replaced as I am literally being booted out the door, things did not go well there either. Depression kicks in as I sulk down Main Street. But wait, nothing has been resolved and the 22 minutes are almost over! (Perfect job falls into lap\get old job back\find new life mission that does not require money\aliens intervene) WOOHOO!
Two things are great about the magical TV way of solving you job-hunting troubles. First that anything you come across is yours, like the simple act of seeing it first is the only job requirement. Even if there is work involved in getting the job, there seems to be no way to fail at getting it. Second that there is always a happy ending, whether the situation improves or simply goes back to the way it was. Of course, that is not the way things are in real life. The trouble is, that is how easy a lot of young people perceive the job search as being. I have never met anybody who thought the whole thing would go they way they saw it growing up. However, I have never met anybody who fully realized how hard job-searching is before doing it either. We know that TV is fantasy, but wishful thinking leads us to believe there is some truth to what we see, it can’t be that hard. But that just is not true. Although if I could transfer one thing from TV into real life, it would be how easy it is to get a job inside that little box. Actually, I take that back. I forgot about the sidekicks. Who needs a good job when you have a sidekick? -
Don’t Let Your Friend Review Your Resume
by Steven RothbergSo you have your resume all typed up and just need someone to review it. Time to ask your friend or someone in your family, right? Wrong. Pamela Braun of Campus Career Counselor advises candidates not to have their resume reviewed by a friend or family member for two reasons.
- The person performing the critique knows you too well so they’re too able to infer meaning. But your resume should be written in such a way that the reader need not read between the lines. Facts should be stated explicitly, not implicitly.
- The person performing the critique is likely to give advice based upon what they look for in a resume rather than what the employer to which you’re applying will look for in a resume. Put another way, it doesn’t matter if your uncle likes how your resume is written unless you’re applying to work for him. What matters is how the employer to which you’re applying likes to see resumes written.
Don’t shut your friends and family out of your job search. They can and should be valuable members of your network and can and should provide you with great moral support. But if they don’t write or read resumes for a living, then look for someone who does.
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Work….*sigh*
by lakisha hI work for a financial institution and it really sucks. This is the second bank I have worked for and it’s the same old same ol’ all over again. I hate the popularity contest and how my boss threatens to fire you any minute.
For example, we just hired 4 new people and 2 of them are already about to quit. They work thru a temp agency and they came back from lunch late a few times and my boss told them that it was not exceptable and they could be fired for stuff like that, which is complete nonsense! I have no idea why some supervisors feel that threats and job loss is the way to get results. All it ever does is foster a hostile work environment and believe me it is so hostile and tense at my job you could cut the air with a chainsaw and still not get thru. Then she got on the new people about the error’s they have gotten. The new people weren’t even trained very well. They sat with someone for about a week and they were thrown in the fire and now they are getting chewed out for mistakes they didn’t even know about. I feel for them. My boss tried to pull the same stuff with me a few months back, but i explained to her that the more she threatens me the more I want to quit. I’m in college and I juggle so much, the last thing I need is a stressful job situation. I can’t handle it. They can’t afford to lose me and I know that, so the whole “I will fire you” speech doesn’t work with me. I told her if she is gonna punish me then go ahead, write me up, fire me, whatever, but don’t threaten to do something and not do it or act like your doing me a favor by not writing me up. I don’t care anymore. I go to work and I am very anti-social. Some say I walk around with an attitude, but I have to. I’m not friendly or sociable, which means the boss leaves me alone. I have been applying like crazy for any kind of job in the journalism field, I don’t have much experience, but I am one heck of a writing and editor. I am on the college newspaper now and have yet to taken any newswriter classes. I love to read and write. I applied for an paying internship for the city I use to live in. I’m not confident, but I still hold out hope. -
Disabled Workers
by matthew pMy brother is disabled. He has neurofibromotosis and it has made him blind and made him a disabled learner. So, he’s a little slow when it comes to homework, or life in general. I told you that just so you wouldn’t think that I was cold-hearted towards disabled people when I tell you what’s going on at work.
They now have this program in which mentally disabled people come to the movie theater and work there for usually about 2 1/2 hours. They don’t get paid anything but a free soda and free popcorn. The program is in place to teach them to be responsible and to get them used to functioning in the real world. However, when they come, guess who’s job they do? Mine. They go around cleaning theaters, which, as an usher, that’s what I’d usually be doing. So, my supervisor finds other jobs for me to do while they do my usual one.
I’d like to think that this doesn’t bother me, but it does a little. To think that I typically do a job that mentally challenged people can do is a little hard to handle. I always realized that cleaning theaters is a simple job but this program really shows how true that is.
When they come to work, I try to treat them like other workers as much as I can. They have their own supervisor who helps them to stay on track so I really don’t have much contact with them. Some of the other workers make fun of them behind their backs, which I feel confused about. Certainly, making fun of them because their disabled is mean. But what about when they have an attitude? Or when they won’t listen to you and they just do exactly the opposite of what you ask them to do? It’s still not justified to make fun of them, but can you really blame some of the other workers for not liking them and making some cheap remarks?
I know I’d be angry if it was my brother that they were making fun of, regardless of what he does. But I can see their side. Anyway, I either have to come to terms with the fact that my job can be done by mentally challenged people or I have to find another job. I’ll probably come to terms with it because I love seeing the movies for free and I love how low-stress the job is. -
Career Services and Much, Much More
by david lI graduated one year ago. Still, I have not found a career that matches my Bachelor of Arts degree in Integrative Arts. In the past two months I have visited many, many online job banks and I have performed hundreds of job searches. After reading quite a few articles while seeking guidance, I took one piece of advice and contacted the online version of my College’s Career Services. I was delighted to find newsletters, networking, workshops, career counseling and much, much more.
Soon, however, my delight shifted to anguish and then to disgust. Every link, from newsletters to much, much more, all seemed to eventually lead to one screen; the online application to the Alumni Association. Furthermore, in exchange for $30 a month for 20 months, I will be allowed all this information, and much, much more.
My hostility grew as every link ultimately led to the membership page of the pricey association. Had I not paid enough? Had the $50,000 in school loans not been adequate to warrant me this online privilege? As a student there were certain career services that were freely available. I did not want them then. I need them now.
Moments later…
And calmer…
Even as Alum, there are services that are provided, free of charge. The ‘loop’ that consistently led to the Alumni Association was misleading. One would not have to spend hundreds of dollars to access this online information. One would only have to have the patience to register to use the service. Registration is free. Finding the free registration page is tricky.
Now if you will excuse me, I have some careers to explore, people to network with, counseling to undergo, and much, much more. -
Top 500 Employers of College Graduates
January 30, 2006 by Steven RothbergIf you’re looking for a job upon graduation, it is definitely helpful to know which organizations are the top (actually, the biggest) employers of college graduates. The 50 biggest employers of college graduates are as follows:
- Enterprise Rent-A-Car
- Lockheed Martin
- Walgreen Company
- PricewaterhouseCoopers
- Deloitte & Touche USA LLP
- Ernst & Young
- Federal Bureau of Investigation
- Schlumberger
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Cendant Car Rental Group
- Hertz
- KPMG
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection
- Boeing
- Teach For America
- Jos. A. Bank Clothiers
- State Street
- U.S. Marines
- 84 Lumber
- Intel
- National Security Agency
- Ferguson Enterprises
- Microsoft
- Wal-Mart Stores
- Accenture
- Cerner
- Internal Revenue Service
- U.S. Air Force
- U.S. Navy
- Target
- Finish Line
- General Electric
- Johnson & Johnson
- PNC Financial Services Group
- Countrywide Home Loans
- National Cancer Institute
- Pfizer
- Pulte Homes
- U.S. Army
- U.S. Department of Labor
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
- Raytheon
- CareerBuilder.com
- Staples
- Capgemini
- Battelle
- Liberty Mutual Group
- UMB Bank
- Farmers Insurance Group
- JC Penney
– Source: CollegeGrad
Are Degrees Useless?
by Steven RothbergInteresting entry today by Jessica Piskorz, one of the students and recent graduates who writes for the CollegeRecruiter.com Insights by Candidates Blog. Jessica is an English major who is unable to find a job in writing, reading, or journalism but someday would like to open her own bookstore. Her fiance suggested that she take a job in a bookstore and work her way up. Jessica doesn’t seem inclined to do so, apparently because her degree makes her overqualified for such a position. Does it?
So many college students and recent graduates assume incorrectly that if they do well in their academic studies, that they’ll be able to land the job of their dreams upon graduation. Were it only so. The reality is that the vast majority of employers are far more concerned with the work experience demonstrated by the candidate than the candidate’s academic credentials. While both are valuable, unless you’re the cream of the cream, excellent career-related work experience is going to be necessary for you to find the job of your dreams.
So should Jessica pursue a job in a bookstore? Perhaps. I think that it comes down to whether she is more interested in a journalism-type job or owning a bookstore. If she’s more interested in being a journalist, then her bookstore experience won’t help her that much. It may help pay the bills and that’s important too, but it won’t be much of a stepping stone. So she may want to work in a bookstore part-time to bring in money while also working part-time as a freelance writer. She could write and submit articles to local publications for free until she’s built up a reputation and can start charging for her work or perhaps even get hired to write for a publication. On the other hand, if her dream is to own a bookstore, then working in one would be invaluable experience.
If you don’t have the experience that you need to pursue your dreams, then go out and get it. Don’t look for reasons why you can’t do something. Look for ways that will allow you to do something. Take on an unpaid internship, volunteer, do whatever you need to do in order to get the experience that you need. Don’t make excuses. Make dreams.
So what’s my degree for then?
by jessica pI have worked very hard to achieve my bachelors degree in English by this May and last night my fiance and I had a talk about me using my degree to achieve a career at least for the time being. I want to pursue my education further but not right now as I am really just over-worked from everything and then there is the move and wedding. He said that there are not job openings for people with English majors that it’s only a stepping stone to something further and right now I am just burnt out and don’t even know what I want to do to further my education, i.e. what to get my masters or PHD in. One day I would like to own my own bookstore and he said that even working at a bookstore could give me things to learn from to apply to what I want later and granted that I could move up in the company since I had a degree. To me this seems like a waste of my degree. What is my degree for then? If I can’t use it to find a job after I graduate at least in the feild of writing, reading or journalism type of work. *Sigh*
A Revelation
by devon cI am definitely on a mission for self-discovery. I have realized, like many others who read my entries, that I am still trying to find out what career would truly make me happy. It is one thing to say that you want to write, but write what, where and for whom? I still need to discover that. I thought television was where I belonged. So I started a training program at a very popular television station. However, the more I learn about television the more I question my desired place in it.
I shared my frustrations with a close mentor of mine and he instructed me to write down all the things that I consider to be important. Then, I was to figure out a way to incorporate these things into the career in which I desire. At first, I had to think about what I was supposed to be jotting down. Was my mentor referring to mundane things like location, salary, benefits and mobility? Or was it something greater than that. Of course those things matter but they are not on the top of my list. Finally I began to write. I wrote down words like: family, culture and social change. What did these words mean and did they answer my question. Then I realized what my goal was. I want to bring the West Indian-American community to the forefront. As a second-generation West Indian there is nothing closer to my heart than my culture. I live and breathe it everyday. This double-consciousness in which I and many others possess in which we are ethnic and American at the same time, inspires me to always challenge the norm and find ways to be recognized. My experiences in school, work and life as a whole have strengthened my creative talents and I wish to convey another facet of life. The West-Indian community is an untapped source of knowledge in regards to creative expression. I have grown up on great writers like Jamaica Kincaid and Ivan Van Sertima and they have inspired me beyond measure. I am now looking into publishing companies. I want to learn the process of book publication and the steps an author must take. In regards to television, I am still very much interested in continuing in that field as well. Despite the onslaught of reality shows, a great deal can be learned about people and culture through a television screen.