Chasing Employment

Yesterday I dropped off my employment application at two stores.  One being Home Goods and the other T.J. Max.  What an interesting experience.

 

The store manager at Home Goods was professional and explained the hours, what was expected of me, reviewed the application, thanked me for coming in and informed me that the hiring manager would be in contact with me for an interview. 

The second place, T.J. Max, the manager was not pleased.  She reviewed my application and stated that I had a great deal of people experience, but no retail.  Her attitude was markedly different and frankly, I don't expect to receive a phone call from her hiring manager.  The manager's final words were, retail is a busy environment.  I informed her that I had no problem with this concept.

 

What was troubling, she had no clue about my work history, although I listed what I had done.  Her assumption about me were wrong.  As a property manager you are on call 24/7 and invariable things go wrong weekends and late night in addition, it is never just one thing but several maintenance problems or people issue at once.

 

Which brings me back to a book called "Up the Organization," written by Robert C. Townsend and  Warren Bennis. The book is still relevant minus a few needed updates. 

 

One thing I learned being a manager, we hire people that reflect our work ethics.  A sentiment that was brought home again being interviewed by the local T.J. Max store manager.

A messy life

How does one reconcile the craziness of the Boston Bomber with the pleasure of sitting in my balcony and enjoying a leisurely Sunday afternoon?
As parent where does the disconnect enter that I can say my son is a good boy, after he has killed innocent people? 
Where does religion come into the picture that glorifies the wanton slaughter of people and validates a jihad?
Where does morality goes to after you kill people.

What gives the people that seek to destroy a country then the right to seek protection from the law of the very country that was on they hit list.

I am puzzled.

American Justice

The American justice system may not be the best, however after hearing about the Italian Supreme Court allowing Amanda Know to be charged again and the South American system allowing a police man charged with murder to keep his job and to investigate another murder, I am happy that I live in America.

 

We don't permit double jeopardy, we don't permit bond on capital charges and we don't permit a police man out on bond for murder to remain on his job and investigate another murder.

Unions and other Professional Associations

In todays' evening news we learned how a policeman interrogated a suspect by making the man stand in a bathtub with the water running and holding a taser gun during the questioning of the suspect.  A complaint was filed against the policeman and to no ones surprise, the State Attorney found nothing wrong and as usual the entire episode was whitewashed.

 

Let me digress.  I grew up in Germany and everything is unionized.  When I came to this country I was pro Union, etc. etc.  However in the last fifty some odd years I have heard on the news, read in the paper and watched attorneys, doctors, policemen, teachers and other numerous professional people being absolved of their crimes.

 

The Unions and Professional associations wonder why the public at large does not like them and hold them in low esteem.  The reason is basically fundamental, their failure CLEAN UP THEIR HOUSE.

 

Don't tell John Q. Public how difficult the job is, how dangerous the job is, how much the doctors, teacher, attorneys went in debt because we all know this.  But we also know, policemen don't follow the law that they are chartered to up hold, ie three hour lunches, speeding and stealing evidence, teachers don't teach because it is too much work, doctors want to make all of their money right away instead of waiting just a bit longer.

 

Once, we the people see that you, the associations police your members justly and with integrity, you will regain our trust and our support again.  Until this happens, this blogger whose grandfather on the maternal and paternal side help start union will vote against them like so many other people.  

Balanced Budget

I heard Governor Jindal spouting that States just like households must balance their budgets.  On the surface this makes a lot of sense, however upon closer examination, the Governor's statement is riddled with fallacies.

 

Let's see.  How many people have mortgages, car loans, credit card debts and maybe even student loans?  Cities, counties and States finance capital improvement via bond issues.  Using Jindal's logic, unless we can pay cash, we should only have what we can pay cash for. 

 

Ideally, this would be great, realistically, it isn't going to ever happen.

 

The solution, carefully managed debt, reduction of expenses and additional income.  However, it will take statesmen and not politicians to achieve this balance, because politicians are beholding to their special interest groups.  Our current congress is prime example of being occupied by politicians and not statesmen.

As an after thought, why doesn't Congress and the Senate cut their salaries and perks?  Why are they exempt, what makes them so special?

The Politics of Sequester

Politics!!!!!
I could just scream. I have been watching the news channels and listen to the columnists and pundits.

The conclusion, I can write the responses to the Sequester based on whom they represent, irrespectively if they are from the far left, the extreme right, or the tea party. It is a joke and frankly, we the American people deserve this mess 100%.

We the people get the government we deserve. Remember, we voted the self-serving politicians into office, we bought lock, stock and barrel the drivel they fed John Q. Public.  We did not bother to examine their motives and their money supporters.

Do I sound angry, YES.

My political views are based on the individual subject. Briefly, I favor the death penalty and a woman's right for an abortion, Religion does not belong in the classroom and illegal immigrants should be returned home.  If this sounds harsh, think of the Crusades and the jihads and I was a legal immigrant to this country. 

 What's the answer, get involved, write to your representative, express your view, and let them know what you think. Use Facebook, twitter and all the social media available to you. If you don't have access, drop a letter. Your representative dearly wants to keep his/her job and the related perks, therefore if they receive feedback from their constituent, trust me, they will listen.

I listen, examine the issue and then respond, but then thinking, I guess is not fashionable anymore.

 

The Assessment Test!

What a misnomer.  

The professionals who designed these tests, structured the personality questions to eliminate people not matching or fitting the company profile which does bring up a question, what exactly is the profile with respect to an employee.  I then wonder what is the turnover rate and when you combine this with the cost of training and drug testing low competition employees, what is the actual retention cost? 

I feel comfortable in saying that the majority of shoppers have been to the different stores I applied to (Office Depot, Target, Kohl's, Sears, Walmart and Michaels').  Remember, the employees encountered are supposed to be the cream of the crop because they passed the company’s assessment test, making them the most qualified personnel the company hired.

Think about your last employee interaction in the stores!

Please understand, I am not upset at not being hired, just puzzled because their assessment test eliminates employees like me.  I am retired and have not worked for about two years.  My answers based on my past work experiences will be problematic because the answers will not fit the expected parameters.

 

And therein lays the problem.