There are certain jobs you don't hire certain people for. For instance, you wouldn't hire a Mormon to be a bartender, would you? Sure, they'd be friendly enough, but when it came down to knowing the product they were serving, they become a wee bit handicapped. You wouldn't hire the Amish to sell computers, either.
When you are in retail, you need to have a basic grasp of your products for sale. Sure, there are always new employees who need to learn more specifics, but generally people apply for occupations that they are comfortable with, have an interest in, or have some experience in that field. Trainees usually aren't thrown into the deep end of the pool either if that company wishes them to properly represent them. You start off slow and work your way up in accordance with your increased knowledge about the job and the product.
So it was with great amusement that I observed a young man prove my point in the check-out line of the local supermarket.
There was a lady in front of me who was placing her items on the conveyor and in her myriad of consumables was a ginger root. The young man grabbed it, looked it over and then set it aside. He'd scan a few more items and then eye the root again with consternation and curiosity. Eventually the poor chap ran out of items to scan and was forced to confront the issue. Again, he grabbed it, studied it, turned it over and over in his hand. His expression grew pained.
"Excuse me, Ma'am, is this a potato?"
"No," she replied, a glimmer of mirth in her tone. "It's ginger."
"Uh, oh." He eyed her suspiciously. "I thought that was a powder."
Now you could see that the poor boy wasn't a day over sixteen and nervous. I have nothing but patience and understanding for trainees as most of my professional career consisted of training.
But you don't put the new guy on the Express Lane on a Saturday afternoon (of course, why I subjected myself to the grocery on a weekend is beyond me...).
I am so glad I decided against grabbing that jicama root...
Monday, July 14, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Yeah, let me pull some magic money out of my butt....
In the last five years, I have racked up over $10,000 in medical bills. That's just me, that doesn't include the $6000 accrued by my wife. This is with insurance, mind you. Beyond that are the student loans to pay off, plus the obvious credit card debt.
My wife and I are like most Americans who try their best to pay down their debt and "get square" with their lenders. Like half of America, we are true blue Democrats, and for those who have read my writings, big supporters of Barack Obama. We have made our small contribution to the campaign, giving a nominal sum for a T-shirt and a few bumper stickers. But we are in a position, like most in this country, who cannot contribute in large sums like lobbies or corporations. We cannot afford, on our incomes, to give more to a candidate than we pay month to month toward our own personal debts.
So why am I being asked to pay off the debt of the Clinton campaign? Why am I being asked by my own nominee to give money to the woman who is not the nominee and continuously put herself deeper into debt knowing she could not win. She knowingly accrued an ever growing hole in her pocket without thinking of the future consequences (which goes to show that Democrats made the right decision in choosing Obama). And now she has the audacity to ask those who did not support her candidacy to pay off the debts of her egotism.
We cannot afford gas for our commutes, food for the dinner table, insurance for our ills, yet we are asked to deepen our own debt to lessen a millionaire's own financial shortcomings? If you pour money into a slot machine and continue to lose, all the while convinced you will win, the casino is not going to reimburse you when you finally crap out. Take the gamble, pay the price.
Write a new book, go on a speaking tour, do what you must to work off your own damned debt, Senator, and stop insulting the hard-working middle-class you so vociferously fought for. Hell, go get appointed to a board of directors somewhere and then retire a year later; the severance package will most certainly pay off those campaign loans.
As for Senator Obama, take the hint as shown by your supporters' response to your plea to help out Hillary: less than $100,000 has been given for her debts since you clinched the nomination. Don't alienate those who got you where you are. Just concentrate on how you'll make it easier for us regular citizens to ease our own debts.
Hillary, this is why you will always be a polarizing figure: you have no real grasp on reality. Go back to Chappaqua, your multi-million dollar mansion, and your focus on the job you do have.
My wife and I are like most Americans who try their best to pay down their debt and "get square" with their lenders. Like half of America, we are true blue Democrats, and for those who have read my writings, big supporters of Barack Obama. We have made our small contribution to the campaign, giving a nominal sum for a T-shirt and a few bumper stickers. But we are in a position, like most in this country, who cannot contribute in large sums like lobbies or corporations. We cannot afford, on our incomes, to give more to a candidate than we pay month to month toward our own personal debts.
So why am I being asked to pay off the debt of the Clinton campaign? Why am I being asked by my own nominee to give money to the woman who is not the nominee and continuously put herself deeper into debt knowing she could not win. She knowingly accrued an ever growing hole in her pocket without thinking of the future consequences (which goes to show that Democrats made the right decision in choosing Obama). And now she has the audacity to ask those who did not support her candidacy to pay off the debts of her egotism.
We cannot afford gas for our commutes, food for the dinner table, insurance for our ills, yet we are asked to deepen our own debt to lessen a millionaire's own financial shortcomings? If you pour money into a slot machine and continue to lose, all the while convinced you will win, the casino is not going to reimburse you when you finally crap out. Take the gamble, pay the price.
Write a new book, go on a speaking tour, do what you must to work off your own damned debt, Senator, and stop insulting the hard-working middle-class you so vociferously fought for. Hell, go get appointed to a board of directors somewhere and then retire a year later; the severance package will most certainly pay off those campaign loans.
As for Senator Obama, take the hint as shown by your supporters' response to your plea to help out Hillary: less than $100,000 has been given for her debts since you clinched the nomination. Don't alienate those who got you where you are. Just concentrate on how you'll make it easier for us regular citizens to ease our own debts.
Hillary, this is why you will always be a polarizing figure: you have no real grasp on reality. Go back to Chappaqua, your multi-million dollar mansion, and your focus on the job you do have.
Friday, July 4, 2008
The Pursuit of MY Happiness
So why am I sitting here on the Fourth of July banging out my miscreant thoughts instead of getting sunburned at a local fest or bloated from a cold frosty PBR? Because Americans can't read.
Every newspaper across the country today will invariably print a copy of the Declaration of Independence in full, which most will scan over instead of reading word for word, assuming they remember it from their school days. But like a bad game of "Telephone", the rights claimed therein have gotten slightly muddled after two hundred plus years. Specifically, the inalienable right to the "pursuit of happiness."
We aren't guaranteed happiness itself, rather, the right to try and make ourselves as happy as we wish. Whether or not we achieve happiness is another story. Unfortunately, we have become a nation of immediacy as illustrated by the brevity of "YouTube" clips, leaders speaking in sound bites, and television on demand through DVRs and TiVo. We have gone from a saving society that planned for purchases to one of debt where we get what we want now and deal with the consequences of that purchase later. Immediacy has pervaded every part of our lives. Pundits call elections the very second the polls close. Movies can be downloaded to your computer instantly for viewing so you don't have to waste the thirty minutes it would take to go to the video store and back.
Americans don't pursue happiness anymore, they expect it, and they expect it now.
I'm sitting in my office typing on my computer right now because I can't go to a fest or a picnic or barbecue. My wife is at work today. On a national holiday. In the summer. A holiday that celebrates the document that purports her right to try to be happy, which I would assume to be a day off to celebrate the nation's birth. Instead, she's sitting in an office rectifying obstacles to other peoples need for immediate happiness.
In other words, she's got to be the one who tells people they aren't getting the product they ordered because the Post Office is closed today.
My question is why the Post Office has the gall to be closed when every other business in America remains open on the nation's birthday? How dare they infringe on the happiness of the American people like that? Don't they realize that we will collapse as a civilization if we don't get what we want when we want it?
As I wait for my wife to get home from work, I could get in my car and waste the $4.26 per gallon tank of gas on hopping from strip mall to strip mall buying all those things I feel would make me happy today, from a new mattress (the top honor for our country as the biggest mattress sales usually correspond to our more patriotic holidays (President's Day, Columbus Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Veteran's Day, Fourth of July)) to a wide screen television to a garden gnome for the back yard. You name it, I could buy it today, on this, our biggest national holiday.
Really, what better way to celebrate our national birthday than by exploiting it's greatest virtue: greed. We have been a nation of consumers since the first days of the Republic, ever expanding, ever building, ever growing. So why should we close our businesses on this one day? It would be un-American to prohibit rampant commercial consumption.
And it would be un-American to ignore the true meaning of this day.
There was a time not so long ago that we held this holiday in a higher esteem. Growing up in the Seventies, the only businesses open on the Fourth of July were the grocery stores for those who needed a few more hot dog buns for the picnic or a bag of ice for the cooler. But they, too, shut down by noon. Perhaps it was the occurrence of the Bicentennial that made us a bit more reverent, but it doesn't explain how other national holidays were honored in the same way. You couldn't go to the mall on Labor Day because it was actually a day off from labor, for everyone. Now days, most companies don't even offer time and a half for working on that day.
The Fourth of July should be the day that everyone gets to pursue happiness by having a day off work and being able to enjoy the day in whatever manner they chose. The Fourth of July should not be a day when we expect happiness by having someone else answer the complaint line you have called because you are pursuing happiness. It's not guaranteed that someone will answer that line and make you happy, but you have every right to call and try to be made happy. It's that "try" part that trips everyone up.
So go back to today's paper, pull out that reprint of the Declaration of Independence, and actually read it. Double check that "happiness" part. It's not an inalienable right, but trying to be is. So I think I might go try and get my wife to take off work early so that I can try and enjoy the rest of this day. Sorry if that means you won't get your merchandise today. You'll just have to try and deal with it.
Every newspaper across the country today will invariably print a copy of the Declaration of Independence in full, which most will scan over instead of reading word for word, assuming they remember it from their school days. But like a bad game of "Telephone", the rights claimed therein have gotten slightly muddled after two hundred plus years. Specifically, the inalienable right to the "pursuit of happiness."
We aren't guaranteed happiness itself, rather, the right to try and make ourselves as happy as we wish. Whether or not we achieve happiness is another story. Unfortunately, we have become a nation of immediacy as illustrated by the brevity of "YouTube" clips, leaders speaking in sound bites, and television on demand through DVRs and TiVo. We have gone from a saving society that planned for purchases to one of debt where we get what we want now and deal with the consequences of that purchase later. Immediacy has pervaded every part of our lives. Pundits call elections the very second the polls close. Movies can be downloaded to your computer instantly for viewing so you don't have to waste the thirty minutes it would take to go to the video store and back.
Americans don't pursue happiness anymore, they expect it, and they expect it now.
I'm sitting in my office typing on my computer right now because I can't go to a fest or a picnic or barbecue. My wife is at work today. On a national holiday. In the summer. A holiday that celebrates the document that purports her right to try to be happy, which I would assume to be a day off to celebrate the nation's birth. Instead, she's sitting in an office rectifying obstacles to other peoples need for immediate happiness.
In other words, she's got to be the one who tells people they aren't getting the product they ordered because the Post Office is closed today.
My question is why the Post Office has the gall to be closed when every other business in America remains open on the nation's birthday? How dare they infringe on the happiness of the American people like that? Don't they realize that we will collapse as a civilization if we don't get what we want when we want it?
As I wait for my wife to get home from work, I could get in my car and waste the $4.26 per gallon tank of gas on hopping from strip mall to strip mall buying all those things I feel would make me happy today, from a new mattress (the top honor for our country as the biggest mattress sales usually correspond to our more patriotic holidays (President's Day, Columbus Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Veteran's Day, Fourth of July)) to a wide screen television to a garden gnome for the back yard. You name it, I could buy it today, on this, our biggest national holiday.
Really, what better way to celebrate our national birthday than by exploiting it's greatest virtue: greed. We have been a nation of consumers since the first days of the Republic, ever expanding, ever building, ever growing. So why should we close our businesses on this one day? It would be un-American to prohibit rampant commercial consumption.
And it would be un-American to ignore the true meaning of this day.
There was a time not so long ago that we held this holiday in a higher esteem. Growing up in the Seventies, the only businesses open on the Fourth of July were the grocery stores for those who needed a few more hot dog buns for the picnic or a bag of ice for the cooler. But they, too, shut down by noon. Perhaps it was the occurrence of the Bicentennial that made us a bit more reverent, but it doesn't explain how other national holidays were honored in the same way. You couldn't go to the mall on Labor Day because it was actually a day off from labor, for everyone. Now days, most companies don't even offer time and a half for working on that day.
The Fourth of July should be the day that everyone gets to pursue happiness by having a day off work and being able to enjoy the day in whatever manner they chose. The Fourth of July should not be a day when we expect happiness by having someone else answer the complaint line you have called because you are pursuing happiness. It's not guaranteed that someone will answer that line and make you happy, but you have every right to call and try to be made happy. It's that "try" part that trips everyone up.
So go back to today's paper, pull out that reprint of the Declaration of Independence, and actually read it. Double check that "happiness" part. It's not an inalienable right, but trying to be is. So I think I might go try and get my wife to take off work early so that I can try and enjoy the rest of this day. Sorry if that means you won't get your merchandise today. You'll just have to try and deal with it.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The nerf of some people....
It's bad enough that we coddle our children and try to be their "best friend." The result being "grown-ups" who have never had to grow up. We don't discipline anymore out of fear of over-reactive observers who claim that a justified smack on the bottom constitutes child abuse. Instead of laying ground rules and consequences, we encourage indifference and contempt for authority. Children who are not held accountable for their actions will continue to be irresponsible in the future. What we do now influences how these kids will behave as adults.
So it was with complete exasperation that I read about a Little League conference in Ohio that has cancelled it's All-Star Game for fear that "singling out certain kids as better players than others can hurt youthful self-confidence."
Well, then, when these summer sluggers get back to school, we had better make sure we eliminate the honor roll, and then for high schools and colleges, the valedictorian and salutatorian honors. We don't want the "stupid" kids to feel any "stupider" than they already are.
How will this help them!? Are they going to go to their boss when they get a job and cry that it's unfair that someone else got a promotion and they didn't? Or be surprised when they get a performance review?
How will this help them learn to take criticism, feedback, learn humility, respect for others, respect for hard work, respect for determination, respect for the job they have done? How does this help them learn to better themselves? How does this help them learn introspection?
It doesn't, plain and simple. What it does teach them is that if you don't try and you don't give your best effort, you'll be congratulated anyway. You'll be taught that it's not important to to try and be better, to do better. You will never be able to learn from your own mistakes because you will never be able to recognize when you do make mistakes. You will never realize your own potential.
Coddle these kids now, and they'll be bigger cry-babies in the future than what you're trying to prevent them from being now.
So this season, Beechwood, Ohio, don't do it half-assed: stop keeping score (or at least make sure every game ends in a tie), let everyone get on base, eliminate the play-offs, and you better use an extra-soft nerf ball (egos can be pretty fragile....).
So it was with complete exasperation that I read about a Little League conference in Ohio that has cancelled it's All-Star Game for fear that "singling out certain kids as better players than others can hurt youthful self-confidence."
Well, then, when these summer sluggers get back to school, we had better make sure we eliminate the honor roll, and then for high schools and colleges, the valedictorian and salutatorian honors. We don't want the "stupid" kids to feel any "stupider" than they already are.
How will this help them!? Are they going to go to their boss when they get a job and cry that it's unfair that someone else got a promotion and they didn't? Or be surprised when they get a performance review?
How will this help them learn to take criticism, feedback, learn humility, respect for others, respect for hard work, respect for determination, respect for the job they have done? How does this help them learn to better themselves? How does this help them learn introspection?
It doesn't, plain and simple. What it does teach them is that if you don't try and you don't give your best effort, you'll be congratulated anyway. You'll be taught that it's not important to to try and be better, to do better. You will never be able to learn from your own mistakes because you will never be able to recognize when you do make mistakes. You will never realize your own potential.
Coddle these kids now, and they'll be bigger cry-babies in the future than what you're trying to prevent them from being now.
So this season, Beechwood, Ohio, don't do it half-assed: stop keeping score (or at least make sure every game ends in a tie), let everyone get on base, eliminate the play-offs, and you better use an extra-soft nerf ball (egos can be pretty fragile....).
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
