August 2008

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Appreciating Employment
 

Remember your first day on your present job?  Were you excited to be there? Did you think this was the opportunity you'd been waiting for? And what about today? Are you still excited to go to work or are things different now that you've been there awhile and see things for what they 'really' are?

 

In the current economy, it pays to look at your attitude. Many people have lost their jobs and without a doubt, more will follow. Having a good attitude is just one weapon in your arsenal to help keep you on the job.

 

 Now, if you work for a large corporation and you are just another faceless body on the assembly line, it may not matter to management what kind of attitude you've got. But it surely will matter to the people around you. And it will matter if you do get axed and have to find other work.

 

If you work for a small employer where everybody knows everybody, having a good attitude can help you keep your job when things get rough. After all, who is your employer more likely to keep around- the woman who shows up in a good mood, on time and ready to work every day or the guy who flies in the door at the last minute looking mad at the world and is the first guy in line to clock out? If you were the boss, which one of these would you keep around?

 

On a happy note, the people doing the actual labor will be there long after a lot of the guys in the office are let go. When orders slow down, they become expendable. But they still must have  workers to produce product, at least for a while. If you work in the auto industry, you've seen things get to the point where even the assembly lines start shutting down. This is economic downturn at it's worst and could spread to other industries in the not too distant future.

 

We've become so complacent in our lives we almost see having a job when we want one as an entitlement in this country. Yet some people live in areas with few jobs and it's always been that way. For them, drugs, crime and prostitution are the biggest employers in town. Other people risk their lives to sneak into this country illegally to take low wage, back breaking field work that the rest of us don't want to do. The jobs we think of as beneath what we are willing to do, they see as a  golden opportunity. In their home countries, they have lived under economic depression for many years.

 

We are just starting to enter into an economic downturn in this country, one that will see the eventual destruction of the middle class if things keep going the way they are. And one day, you just might find yourself wishing for that job you used to hate. Enjoy it while you've got it.

 

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Dedicated to the hardworking Americans that keep this country running.