Really, What Should Be Taught In School?

As much as I would not consider myself a social media fiend, I have recently wound up working a lot on social media, to do some volunteer promoting for my own entertainment blogs and helping another website promote, also.

One of the things I do like about social media is the sharing of quotes.  I love quotes.  It's one of my favorite things.  I love to take those quotes and use them for my own personal life.  It's nice to be able to put a very mindful thought in such few words.

I found this quote, and it kind of bothered me.  It was a quote about some of the things that should be taught in school.  It started to list things like cooking, ironing, balancing a checkbook, various things like that.  Things that may not have value in the workforce unless you become a cook, seamstress, or designer, etc., but things that people nowadays take complete advantage of not knowing.

When I responded to my friend who had posted this, I took a look back at the whole list, checking off everything I knew how to do or I had experience with, and then responded accordingly.  I mentioned that most of those things were taught by my parents and at church.  The only thing that I was taught at school was taxes only because I took a tax class for accounting.

It's been a few weeks since I saw that quote and I was thinking about it again today.  I have or know quite a few people in my own church who teach at school.  Someone asked me what I'm studying and what I was going to do with that degree.  When people ask me about my degree and I tell them what I am studying, they automatically assume that I'm going into education because it's the degree that people in education usually study.  That was not my path.  I had thought about teaching a long time ago, but I really don't like having my hands tied to follow regulations when I may feel that I can do something better.  I am the kind of person that will follow rules and regulations for the most part.  But if I know that there something that will help me, I will go and do it.  I've learned that sometimes you have to do something and apologize or repent later, as we call it.

So going back to this quote.  I was thinking about it today and thinking that no, that stuff should not be taught in schools.  I never took home economics because I didn't need to.  My mother taught me how to cook.  Now, I know that not everyone is brought up by a mother.  But I truly believe in the idea that it takes a village to raise a child. What that means to me with this quote is that we all need to help each other.  I really don't think cooking should be taught in school.  I think it should be taught at home.  Or if you are on the streets maybe your pals know how to cook outside.  There will always be an excuse why someone doesn't have a home and believe me, I am extremely sympathetic towards that situation, as I have been homeless before.  But, I believe we have a social and moral responsibility to each other.  If parents are not around to teach, a neighbor, friend, or mentor should take that responsibility to teach the basic things of life.  And if you don't know how to do it that means you need to learn from somebody else.  We should all be sharing this kind of stuff.  There is nothing here that can be claimed as ownership by one person. 

After thinking about the though, it occurred to me that I should teach a class on the weekends on how to sew a button.  It might be something I can start in January.  Sounds like a good idea.

In school, did have home economics and I guess they still have it nowadays.  I did learn how to do some sewing in school back in the day when things like that were taught.  I had already learned elsewhere, though.  The only thing I learned at school was how to do my taxes because I took a tax class for accounting.  Someone who's not interested in accounting should learn how to or should take a class in simple taxes. 

I think we're so conditioned to try to make so much money so that we would don't have to do that kind of medial work.  I remember having a conversation with a coworker about how he was studying accounting and that he didn't know how to change the tire.  I told him that he should learn how to do that kind of stuff, and asked him what happens when the car breaks down?  He said that he would be so rich that he would pay for someone to fix it.

I think we all have dreams of being so rich that somebody else takes care of us. That would be really nice.  Most of us are not born with a silver spoon.  Most of us need to take care of ourselves or even wind up taking care of other people.  Most of us have to work hard to get somewhere.  It's call appreciating work.  I don't think all of these things that people take for granted like cooking should be taught in school unless you want to be a chef.  I don't think so sewing should be taught unless you want to go into designing.  I don't think changing a flat tire should be taught in school unless you become a mechanic.  I don't think it is the responsibility that schools take over the things that people should be teaching each other to survive.  But to learn all of this and other little things that people don't know how to do should be taught to by each other.  We should be teaching our neighbors, friends, kids across the street how to do these things.  It might keep people out of trouble. 

And I'm willing to do so.  I can pretty much do the whole list although I've never tried to change the tire yet.  But with all the information we have online nowadays, it can't be that hard.  There are videos on how to cook.  There are videos on how to take care of the car.  If you can't find someone to teach you, go online.  Teaching each other as a way that we take care of the people around us.

That I know how to do a lot of the stuff makes me feel little bit richer where I think it counts. 

Which One Should You Believe?

Now with a stable job for the time being, I can get to writing about things that I think are important and have relevance to my work and studies.  

The biggest news or one of the biggest news this week has been the eye-opening article about how employees or former employees, feel about a major, world-wide company.

I really haven't read the original article but I have read a lot of articles that have taken snippets of the original article to post their own ideas.

According to this article, which I can link later, employees tell stories about how management in Amazon takes care (or doesn't care about) their employees.  It is kind of hard to believe that because Amazon is such a big company.  But you never hear about Amazon having free lunches or playing games inside Amazon offices.  I guess that should be one of the bells about Amazon especially when you hear so much about other bit companies that do offer interesting perks (Netfix).  I never hear one thing about the perks of working at Amazon.  Yet people want to work for Amazon because it's such a big name and looks good on a resume.  Even I have applied for Amazon a few times.

My first experience with this human resource mess was an article on LinkedIn from an employee. The article went through the original article stating things and contradicting things that were stated in the original article.  The problem is that the employee is in upper management.  Of course the view is different when you are management than if you are a regular employee.

It made me think about what I think about various places that I have worked.

For example, when I worked for an inventory service, I thought it was the best company in the world.  Even though it was no startup or IT company, I thought it was the best thing I ever encountered in my life.  The reason I thought so, was that I was out of work for 2 1/2 years so being hired was a blessing.  I was there for four years and I enjoyed the majority of it.  Many say that the schedule was the hardest thing about it, but you stay there because you love the people.  I never thought that I was being treated bad, although I am sure that there have been problems and a couple of class-action suits.  But those class-action suits came against something that happened to a few people.  Still, I would never say that this company was a horrific place to work.  I know there are people who hate this company.  I know that there are people who would never work there again whereas I would go back in an instant if I knew they would pay me enough to live.  I would defend it to the end. 

On the other hand, I have worked for a couple of companies this last year where the company makes a lot of money, people talk wonderfully about the company, and I just sat there thinking this is the worst place I could've ever worked for.  I found a lot of faults with the companies, took notes, pictures and recorded a few meetings. 

What I'm saying is that for up to a point, the view of what you think about the company depends on you.  Although, some of those things that were stated in the original article about Amazon were a nightmare for me to read about, as someone in human resources.  There's another side to all of that.
I'm learning that even though human resources has to be the watchdog, and everything comes back to human resources, depending on the culture of the company, sometimes the executive management will try to override the procedures to allow employees or customers to be satisfied. It's business, which I understand.

Some of the more interesting things I've been reading are the comments about to these articles.  One of them was interesting because everyone who was against the horrible things that were reported, had particular comments about the CEO.  They stated that the CEO, who had given either an interview or wrote an article, to retort or comment about the original article, knew the culture and that it was his fault that the culture was following the path that had found its way to this particular article.  I find it interesting because I can say that the culture of the company that I worked for four years, the CEO was so far away from the company, that he would not have had a hand in how the culture formed.  I think, and we study it this way, that the top management does have a hand, and the research and studies have theorized that all culture comes from the top.  That's not always the case.  It is supposed to work that way, with procedures and processes.  I argue that if the CEO so far away from the company especially something as worldwide as Amazon, that you can put in procedures, you can put in measurements, you can put in goals, but you can't always control the culture of the company.  I know this for fact because I worked for company whose culture was different with every single office.  I would warn my new hires.  I would tell them that the culture in one city is completely different than another office and that as soon as you stepped into the office, you could tell that it was different.  There was no way that the CEO or anybody past the district manager or even the regional manager could have a say in how the culture was formed.  Sometimes the cultures formed just by having a majority of an ethnic group.  They're going to bring their own culture into the company.

So whether or not I believe that the CEO of Amazon or the executives of the company knew about the culture, they should've known about the various things were happening in the company.  But an article out there stated people are afraid of losing their jobs, which is why they don't tell.  Fear of not finding a job is a real thing.  I have experienced longer than I want to remember.  Nowadays, it has been said by many people now and I truly believe it-that the tide is turning from employers to employees.  It is becoming the employees arena and it is better for job searchers to find a job.  They have their pick of jobs.  It may not be a job with Amazon or Google or any other top companies, but you can find a relatively similar job for companies around nowadays.

The other side of this is as a customer; are you happy with Amazon?  I have to say yes I am for the most part.  But it doesn't matter to me if I get my packaging in two days or one day.  Amazon isn't my first place shopping place.  Even though there are companies out there that aren't as big as Amazon, I do a lot of shopping elsewhere.  There are better prices on things that Amazon doesn't have any more.  I also don't trust a lot of sellers on Amazon.  It's nice that Amazon has included outside sellers but it's also not one of my favorite things.

The only way that anything would happen is if half of us stop shopping Amazon.  Is that going to happen?  I highly doubt it.  Amazon is too easy to shop and too many people have the desire to get what they want asap.  Amazon delivers that way.

So what can anybody do?  I guess a class-action can happen against the company.  It does open the ideas and minds of people that are starting to make sure that their employees are treated as human beings.  Hearing that a building was so hot that they didn't fix or couldn't fix the air conditioning but had emergency vehicles just in case?  That is absolutely ridiculous.  What's wrong with getting a bunch of fans?  Unless the electricity was out.  No one had windows?  I don't know I wasn't there.  In human resources we always say: document, document, document.  If I had been in the situation I would've started taking videos.  I would've taken pictures.  I would have started recording conversations.

I have been known to take pictures of things that happened around me.  That's why I have a phone.  I have also recorded conversations I have had with people, and they knew it.  USE YOUR DEVICES!

Anyways, who should you believe?  It depends how you feel about your work situation.  If you think your company is wonderful, you might think that employees are out to get the big companies.  If you are or have been treated wrong at a job, you will probably believe the employees.

No company is perfect.  I hope that companies take a look at their employees and management to make sure that they are complying with federal and state laws with regards to treatment of their employees.  If Amazon learns something from this, that would be amazing and worth it.  

The orginal article: The NY Times
The Linked article: Linkedin
An interesting article: overwork
The CEO defends the company:  seattletimes.com

Almost....there...

I do not have much to say about school right now.  There was a mixup in school and in my funding that I am on a two month break out.  I hope to be starting by the end of August back into school to finish my masters because I only have one class.

The only thing I can say now is that I will probably look for another school to continue my education.  I love the classes and the teachers were wonderful.  I am having a problem with how the administration took care of my finances.  I recently had to send a very stringent letter back to finances about the classes that I was offered to complete my education.  I fear that they will not take my proposal and that I will wind up extending my graduation until the end of the year.  I hope that does not  happen.

I think it was funny that this problem happened when I was not working, although the problem has esculated as I started this new job.  I am kind of happy that I did not have school while I was looking for a job because it was very stressful to study and to look for work.  I am glad that one is happening after the other, although I was supposed to be done in April.  I should have known better when I was told that I was going to be done in April.  I should have laughed and said, yeah right.

Now I am looking for a school to continue beyond my Masters degree.  I was planning on going in next fall 2016.  If I cannot finish my classes until the end of the year, starting the doctorate might have to wait.  I also have to find another school.  But one thing at a time;  Masters, certification, and then a little break.

Nearby where I work, there is a community college that I heard about a long, long time ago.  A friend of mine years ago told me about the school and I never thought about it.  Currently, the address of where I work is very close the schoo, that it would be a short bus ride or car ride.  I looked at the catalog and found out that were a lot of classes that I would love to take.  I will probably take classes that I have always wanted to,  like computer programming, website design, music classes, maybe even some language classes and a couple of other things that I am interested in, maybe for a year.  They even have dance classes, which I am very excited about.  If I can find a place to live in there by the end of 2016 or so, I will be set for life.

I also found out that someone I know, was hired by a company that let me go back last Christmas.  She will  do great.  I did not tell her that I knew about the company and that I had worked for them.  I just hope they treat her better than I was treated.  But then again, I still feel that there was a backstabber in the company.  I think the person I know, will do okay because I do not think the company is looking for a manager, although she has managing experience.  I think if the person who backstabbed me could be the current manager then things will be okay.  Well, that manager will not feel worried about someone taking her position, although when I think back, she was a bit skittish and offsetting. 

Oh well,  I am okay with that because I am making more money than that position offered me.  I knew I would when they let me go.  Also, I work with great people.  I cannot say anything bad about the company I work for now. 

I have not been overly excited, though.  The reason is I am trying to keep my cool, I am a bit superstitious when it comes to good things that happen in my life.  I am grateful, but I try not to wave it in front of people.  I keep very low-key when I think that something is very successful.  When I have been overly excited, I fall flat on my face.  That is kind of sad.  I should be able to enjoy excitement in the things that I achieve.  I mean, I did not even celebrate my bachelor's degree.  I got it, was happy, and went on with life.

Now that I do have a position, I can start talking about other ideas, school, and maybe a little bit of fun here.  I can also start talking about my interest in human resources and the fun things that I've been finding online.

But I will tout around and say that I am happy to announce that I have a 4.0 grade average in my Masters' study.  I am very happy about that and I hope that I can keep that up.  

Note: this was part two of the previous blog.  It was just cut in half to write about different subjects.  As of today, the letter I wrote was accepted, although I do not know if the administration enrolled me for school.  Enrollment was due last week.  No word or response yet.  Sigh!

From Biscotti to Bagels

There is a difference between biscottis and bagels.  Biscottis are considered elegant and high-class.  Biscottis are a treat that you have with the morning coffee or hot drink, and a special food that you do not have all the time.  Well, until they called them cookies.  

I do not know of any biscotti stores unless they have some in, say Italy.  I did not check online.  You can do that.  You can find them in 7/11's which should ideally bring down the high-class ideal.  What I am saying is that the idea of a biscotti cookie is not a high-class treat anymore. 

Bagels on the other hand, are not as high-class or special, yet they have specialty stores.  They come in a variety of flavors and can be made into other types of food-sandwiches, pizza, even dessert.  Both of these items come from a cultural backgrounds that are very different.  I prefer bagels over biscotti. 

The reason I am bringing this up is that I am reminded of my previous job the first four months of this year.  I was happy to have a job, but I was not happy to have a job that would not get me to my career goal.  When I was offered the job, the owners were looking for someone who wanted to stay 5 to 10 years.  I thought about staying, around the first week, excited to be with the company.  After seeing what the company was really about in the first week, I thought that maybe I would stay for at least five years.  I remember speaking to my best friend about staying there.  The following week, I thought maybe I would stay two years, just long enough to finish my degree and get started on my next educational goal.  By the third and fourth week, I was thinking that maybe I would just stay until I finish my masters degree.  Around two months, I started having second thoughts about the job.  After the second month going into the third month, I relunctantly started looking for another job.  I had hoped that I would find a job before the company let me go, but that was not the case.

I was happy to be free of the confines of that mess, but even then, I learned a lot about myself and what I wanted in a career.  More importantly, I knew what I did not want. 

I am not really go into what happened there.  I have my side and they have their side.  All I know is that I was not happy after two months, realizing that my potential was not going to be used according to my own desires.  I did not feel that I would grow with this company.  I felt there was a lack of connection between the owners and employees, which is vital to keeping employees happy.  I should have really listen to my first intuition with the company when I was being interviewed by the owner.  He said, in his own words, that he does not think of anybody in the office after he leaves.  I laughed because I thought it was just an old man making a joke.  Little did I realize, the comment was more than true and conflicted with my personal beliefs in employee engagement, transparency, being honest and open with employees.  I soon realized that everything I believed in business conflicted with how this business ran.  The business does well moneywise.  But while I was there, two people were either fired or left, and there are only three employees.  That is two thirds of the workforce.  If you count me, it is 100% turnover.  I had heard that turnover was pretty bad before I joined. 

I struggled looking for another job, but I decided that I would not take a position that I did not feel comfortable with or just because I needed a job.  This time, I wanted a position with the company that I knew I was in for the long haul, or at least until I finish my next education goal. 

The reason I brought up the biscotti and the bagels is that my new job, started about three weeks ago, gives us bagels on Fridays.  Bagels are actually more expensive than biscotti.  A bag of bagels, which holds six in a bag, cost three dollars and up.  A box or container of 25 biscottis cost between $18 and $20.  Not even a dollars worth for each.  I remember having a conversation with the owner of the previous company.  I was asked to find something else for clients to snack on while they were waiting, because the owners thought that biscottis were too much to offer the clients.  I offered ideas like fortune cookies (I thought that was a cute idea and they were Chinese) and other things but nothing satisfied them because it was either too expensive or it was not classy enough.  I really do not consider biscottis classy.  They are breakfast food.  Just like bagels. 

I'm really happy where I work now.  I am in human resources for mortgage company.  I love the idea that I am working in a region that I want to live, which is beyond the hills of San Francisco bay area.  My goal is to move over that way.  The current school that I attend, is in that area, also.

Even after three weeks, I am still in the process of being trained.  The majority of work in the human resource department is payroll and benefits.  Because there are commissions to be paid, payroll is a little tricky.  But I like tricky because I get to learn something new.  I really like the group, too.  It is a very big company to me.  There is an opportunity to learn from a lot of different people and opportunity for me to grow in my human resources studies and career.

One of the best perk is that I get health insurance within 30 days.  That was the clincher for me.  I did not get health insurance at my last company because I was hoping to find another job before I made three months.  The day I was going to turn in my insurance papers, I was let go.  

Another cool thing that I get to do is a lot of research for human resources.  It is upping my game.  I am learning all about the different compliances, laws, and other things that probably do not interest others, unless it has to do with their pay or taxes.  I had to do some major research on a couple laws that recently changed.  I get to be in charge of looking out for when they actually come into affect.  This is critical because after my Masters degree, I am going to study for my California certification.  I kind of like the idea of having certification.

I can say I am happy here.  My best friend keeps calling me, asking me if I am still happy.  Although I do not act overly excited, I am happy here.  I look forward to sharing the skills of my job and the new life ahead of me.   I truly hope that this is the end of looking for a job for a long time.