Posted on 07/04/2007 5:34:34 AM PDT by ruination
You could lose your job to a foreign worker—not because he’s cheaper but because he has better workplace skills and discipline. That’s the message Labor Secretary Elaine Chao hears from U.S. executives who are worried about America’s competitive future. While losses are low thus far—one study estimates that only 280,000 jobs in the service industry out of 115 million are outsourced each year—that could change. Beyond the cheaper cost of labor, U.S. employers say that many workers abroad simply have a better attitude toward work. “American employees must be punctual, dress appropriately and have good personal hygiene,” says Chao. “They need anger-management and conflict-resolution skills, and they have to be able to accept direction. Too many young people bristle when a supervisor asks them to do something.”
As for our job future, Chao notes that most of the fastest-growing jobs today are in industries requiring advanced knowledge and skills and are “very high or high wage.” But critics say we’re not doing enough for those without a higher education. “Today, only 30% of the workforce has four years of college,” says Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute. “Instead of factory slots, there are slots for security guards and food-prep workers.”
I’ve never been hungry enough to buck hay. Of course, I never had the build for it anyway. As a teenager, I was the skinny long distance runner type.
I went for the harvest-type summer jobs that did not involve animal feed. Picking peaches, green beans, strawberries, cherries, etc., etc.
Bullcrap. There's not enough Americans to fill the jobs at the price the employers want to pay. There. Fixed it.
The NUMBER of Americans available to fill jobs is an entirely different argument from the QUALITY of Americans to fill jobs. We have almost 1.5 million men and women in the active armed forces, not including the Guard. The vast majority of those are young people. In fact, a study in the early 1980s determined that the average age of personnel on a US Navy ship was 21.
Those 1.5 million+ are more than capable of ringing up groceries, but they are employed at something a little more important right at the moment, which includes keeping those Bosnians, Bulgarians, and other foreign nationals, not to mention the rest of us, safe on American soil.
“In my experience, the people in IT with an ‘IT degree’, are good at talking about the job. The people who have the experience and certifications can actually do it.”
That has been my experience as well. I have found that those who take it upon themselves to train themselves on their own time retain more and are more able to apply what they learn to a real-world environment.
Speaking of certs, my wife’s department wanted all the employees to get this HDI help desk certification and Microsoft’s help desk certification. Of 14, my wife and one young guy, neither college educated, were the only ones who passed either and they passed both. Why? They cared about being and doing better. The number of people who seem to have no interest in that is shocking to me.
It is in the phrase that I use to lead into the list of states in posting #20, which reads: The District of Columbia and the fifteen states of....
Were D.C. a state, it would be first on that list, with almost 50% of the over-25 population having at least a bachelor's degree.
Absolute bull shit.
I have had the priviledge of hearing this brilliant woman speak and she puts most Freepers, especially the bigots amongst us, to shame as she recites conservative values. She is the genuine article.
You should be very ashamed of yourself.
I spent my summers as a teenager milking cows, pitching hay bales (mostly wet alfalfa), sanitizing milk tanks, pasteurizing milk, birthing calves, harvesting feed corn, shoveling grain and silage, welding pipe fencing, etc., etc., seven days per week, from 0400 to 1800 hrs. I was too busy and too tired to get into trouble.
You just can't beat that fresh country air and those pretty country girls my auntie would invite over for supper to get a look at me. Trouble is, my uncle worked my cousin and I so hard, all we could think about was sleep after supper. It's a cowboy's life.
Once in a while I will seek bids from a painting contractor or landscaper if I am too busy to do the work myself. If they have a herd of Mexicans for employees, I won't hire them; it means they are cheap and lazy...
“American employees must be punctual, dress appropriately and have good personal hygiene,” says Chao. “They need anger-management and conflict-resolution skills, and they have to be able to accept direction.”
This is a given. Or it use to be.
Dressing in a professional way seems to be dead or dying skill in an ever increasing number of business segments. From personal observation, the "unmade bed" look seems to be the current business look with exception of a few professions.
I can not help but comment on one segment of one particular profession for which I'm sure I will get flamed, but so be it. It is the ladies in the Real Estate industry that are trying to hold on to the "professional image", however, they seem to lack a role model and seem to be winging it. This is from personal experience where I was involved along with other members of my family in real estate transactions in 4 states, therefore my observation is not geographically biased.
Ladies, drive through the "seedy " parts of your community and take a good look at the "working women" walking the streets and then look in the mirror. You look like hookers. Had we not met you in your offices and had you approached us at the property sites, I would have taken you for prostitutes and shooed you away.
How Safe Is Your Job if you’re over 50?
How Safe Is Your Job if you’re over 50?
You are so right. I know people who are over fifty and have tried to work for ATT cellphone sales, for call centers, for AOL and they don’t last. They are let go, not promoted etc. I know they have a great work ethic, on time and so on.
I myself am a retired senior and would like to work. Don’t even know where to begin to look.
A very close friend of ours was just laid off from Verizon - part of the fall out from the MCI/Verizon merger - 49 years old and in middle management. I fear it may be a very long time before he is employed again, and I doubt it will ever reach the same salary. He has a generous severance, but it won’t last forever. It’s tough out there.
It’s about an image of self-worth. If you think you are only worth X, X is all you will make.
Well, there's that, but also if you want to get ahead, either with or without a degree, you need to be willing to work hard.
A buddy of mine worked in dental labs since high school, making dentures and such. He did so all through college as well, though he eventually dropped out of college (as did I). Today, he's a partner in a dental lab, and last year he made over $100,000. The only reason he's doing so is because he's a very hard worker. I don't think that he's even worked less than 50 or 60 hours a week, and as a partner, he still puts in 6 day work weeks.
In 4 1/2 years as an IT tech, I worked 80 hours a week. Today, I'm still in IT, just shy of 20 years later. I've made as much as $80,000, but 2 years ago I lost my job, and had to start out again, making far less. Still, by working about 220 hours a month, I'm doing well, and have gotten 2 raises in just a year and a half at this new job.
The key is that you have to be willing to work hard, and do what ever it takes to get the job done. Unfortunately, too many kids today aren't willing to do it.
And regarding college degrees, I have no doubt that I'd have done much better with a degree than without one. I've been turned down for jobs because of it. I'm sure that I could have done as well or better, with far less work, if I had completed a degree. Or, knowing myself, I would have worked just as hard, and been far ahead of where I am today.
Mark
Real farming isn’t like the old tv show Green Acres.All the locals are have problems finding help to bale hay.I am lucky enough to have a couple of friends that help us,a lot of folks are going to round bales ‘cause they can’t find the labor to do small square bales.We stacked 2400 bales in the barn last weekend-I’m still tired.
Want to see dirty restaurant bathrooms? Go to S.F. Chinatown and eat at the Chinese restaurants the local Chinese eat at.
But that said, at my wife’s work place (assembly), there are various races. Wife says the Chinese/Orientals work the most and talk the least. The Mexicans talk the most and work the least. The Phillipinos get in the most arguments. The whites have the most “I don’t really feel like working” attitude and quit the most frequently and have attitudes of “you can take this job and shove it”.
Pay starts at about 10 and goes to 15.
The animals can't wait.
We stacked 2400 bales in the barn last weekend-I’m still tired.
Nobody has a squeeze lift?
A squeeze lift isn’t in the budget right now.I will be shopping for a New Holland stack wagon though.On the bright side,at least we have hay to bale.A lot of farmers in the southern drought areas are having to sell their stock-no hay or grain.
I lived in the Bay Area for years. Will not eat in Chinese restaurants in SF - no matter what Savage says.
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