My next challenge at work will be training someone up once she starts with us in a few weeks. I have never had the responsibility for recruiting and training a person before. It was an interesting experience!
Being on the other side of things and seeing the nervousness that I probably exuded when sat in job interviews was eye-opening.
I also felt the hand of power touching my shoulder. Here were 4 people, some unemployed, others wanting more hours of work. It was up to me to choose which amongst them had the best merits to warrant authorising Head Office to make them an employee. Me?
When it comes down to it, its harder than you think. Do I take on the girl with the most job experience, or the girl who shows drive and ambition? Do I bother interviewing the guy who says on his CV that he already has a PT job? What do I do with the guy who has absolutely no job experience AT ALL and is nearly 30?
My gut tells me to give the guy with no experience a chance at starting a career and a life. I have been unemployed, and I know how it feels going to interviews all the time, and getting a "no thanks". I know the painful mental bruising that one goes through each time, and here I was wielding the power to do this to 3 people.
My professional side tells me to go with the person who has more experience at operating tills and dealing with money. I'm slightly threatened by the girl who has ambition. (I'm the manager, and I don't want my new found authority challenged just yet thank you!)
As for the guy who already has a job... (!)
I don't know whether I preferred it when I was the one being interviewed.
Power, sometimes it goes to the head in more ways than one.
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Age is but a number
No it's not. It's how mature and experienced you are.
I am learning this as I continue to grapple with the daily ups and downs of my new job; of being in charge of people who are straight out of college, moody, reactionary, and have little experience of the world, or maturity to quantify it.
I constantly have to remind them not to do this, and not to do that, and to explain why I am or am not doing something myself.
Why? Because they don't understand the way the world works. They think they can just do things or say things in a certain way, and it will all be OK; that no-one will take offence at how they have said it, etc.
With the benefit of my years, I can see and understand how things work, and therefore know (most of the time) how things should be, and how I must relate to people.
I admit I'm not perfect, and this has shown up several times this week, but I am still learning. We are all still learning, gaining experience, and growing more mature. And we never stop.
I am learning this as I continue to grapple with the daily ups and downs of my new job; of being in charge of people who are straight out of college, moody, reactionary, and have little experience of the world, or maturity to quantify it.
I constantly have to remind them not to do this, and not to do that, and to explain why I am or am not doing something myself.
Why? Because they don't understand the way the world works. They think they can just do things or say things in a certain way, and it will all be OK; that no-one will take offence at how they have said it, etc.
With the benefit of my years, I can see and understand how things work, and therefore know (most of the time) how things should be, and how I must relate to people.
I admit I'm not perfect, and this has shown up several times this week, but I am still learning. We are all still learning, gaining experience, and growing more mature. And we never stop.
Friday, 6 January 2012
This is my reality
I was slightly unsettled the other day. I was sat at work, and all of a sudden I shuddered as a thought passed through my head in a moment.
"This is my reality". I was sat behind double-glazing, on a high-chair, waiting for customers to walk in. My only recollections of the past week were sleeping, sitting on the bus, and being at work. My daily routine, my life, has now become this ongoing drudgery that everyone complains about.
"So what?" you might think. "It's the same for everyone". No. It wasn't always this way for me. There was a time when I enjoyed my job. It wasn't always easy, but it was enjoyable. I learned something new everyday. I met lots of new people...I met lots of nice people who didn't cause me problems, or try to con me out of money, or become abusive towards me.
And so as I sat there I realised that I am now settling into a day-to-day pattern that may repeat for many years. As I mentioned in a previous blog, my ambitions, my dreams, and my ideals of my life to come were set a bit too high, and this 'moment' of which I write was the latest in the process of realising that life isn't that easy, or well paid, or enjoyable.
We are all guilty of it. Thinking we are more than we are. Thinking we should have more than we do. We should all have dreams and aspirations, of course. But our sense of reality, and our understanding of our station in life, and the limits of our abilities (and bank balances) needs to be grounded in that daily routine.
Just think what the world would be like if we stopped thinking "I want", and started thinking "I have".
"This is my reality". I was sat behind double-glazing, on a high-chair, waiting for customers to walk in. My only recollections of the past week were sleeping, sitting on the bus, and being at work. My daily routine, my life, has now become this ongoing drudgery that everyone complains about.
"So what?" you might think. "It's the same for everyone". No. It wasn't always this way for me. There was a time when I enjoyed my job. It wasn't always easy, but it was enjoyable. I learned something new everyday. I met lots of new people...I met lots of nice people who didn't cause me problems, or try to con me out of money, or become abusive towards me.
And so as I sat there I realised that I am now settling into a day-to-day pattern that may repeat for many years. As I mentioned in a previous blog, my ambitions, my dreams, and my ideals of my life to come were set a bit too high, and this 'moment' of which I write was the latest in the process of realising that life isn't that easy, or well paid, or enjoyable.
We are all guilty of it. Thinking we are more than we are. Thinking we should have more than we do. We should all have dreams and aspirations, of course. But our sense of reality, and our understanding of our station in life, and the limits of our abilities (and bank balances) needs to be grounded in that daily routine.
Just think what the world would be like if we stopped thinking "I want", and started thinking "I have".
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