Unemployment Blues

Hello Everyone:

Today is Giving Tuesday, a day designated for people to give to their favorite charities.  Actually, the act of giving charity should be a year-round thing.  Charity can take the form of giving a homeless person some loose change in your pocket or giving your time to help out at a local food bank or shelter. Personally, I hope you show some love all year round for three causes, thus far, I've mentioned on the blog: Road Recovery (http://www.roadrecovery.org), Hungerthon (http://www.hungerthon.org), and the National Trust for Historic Preservation (http://www.preservationnation.org)  These organization all do wonderful work and any little bit will help.  Thanks.

Yesterday I finally got my unemployment deferment issue straighten out.  One trip through paperwork hell successfully navigated and one to go.  I'm back to the soul sucking task of looking for work.  At this point, I'll take almost anything.  I draw the line at retail and restaurant work, just so not worth the effort.  I'm not knocking the people who work in stores and restaurants, it's just I've done my turn in retail and for what they pay, the amount of effort I put in isn't worth it.  See, I reckon that if someone is going to pay me to spend some time with them, give or take everyday, then I should really make it worth it to me and to my employer.  I think that's a fair trade off.  I don't like being one of those people who punch in and out, collect a check every two weeks.  I think a person has to take their job seriously if only to make a good impression.  In retail, based on my experience, this rationale doesn't seem to apply.  I've worked long hours and really tried to make a good go of it only to watch others who sit around barely lifting a finger get ahead.  All that effort for very little pay and no benefits.  True, this is the way of the working world but I think it's reasonable to expect one's co-workers to pull their weight. I also think it's fair to expect, that at the end of the day, the pay and benefits reflect the effort. Showering your employees with discounts and the occasional treats is nice for about ten minutes. Another thing I intensely dislike is employee recognition awards.  This when individual employees are singled out and given a certificate in recognition of doing their jobs.  What bothers me about it is why is this necessary?  To motivate other employees?  To recognize an employee for simply showing up every day and doing their job?  Whatever.  I always thought these things were arbitrary, based on who the boss likes the most.  There was never any real criteria for which employee should placed above the others.  Anyway, that's just what's on my mind.  I saw one or two things that piqued my interest so I'll give it a closer look.