Those of You Who Upset the REST of US!

I’ve touched on this before but I have not gotten into the full details as to why you make the rest of us mad as hell! You are the people that paid a half of a million dollars for a 500 square foot condo or a million dollars for a 2200 square ft. home. To accept usury prices for yourself is one thing but then to move across country and raise the prices that are outrageous in our States made the cost of homes go up Nationally. By your paying for a home that was overpriced in our area where the wages could never pay for the cost of the prices you were willing to pay, it forced the rest of us to have to come up in price, in order to own a home. Unfortunately, in order I’m sure of your avoiding paying through the nose on capital gains when you sold your homes, you passed on your own State’s broken system, by paying too high of a price for a home in our area.

We now have homes that no matter how much the income we make, we will never be able to afford them, much less pay them off. Currently the market is still dropping at a rate of 6% on houses that should never have been priced so high in the first place. Yes, we are as responsible as you are, as we lost sight of our own common sense in order to own our own home. Texas appears to be one of the few States that did not fall for this.

People that are on unemployment, that have no intentions of getting a job, make us mad as hell, as well. I will use Colorado as a point of this as they pay unemployment if people are fired or if they quit on their own. I personally know of a person that lived for 3 years on his ex-girl friend’s couch. He went out on interviews with the deliberate attempt to fail at getting the job. He was too lazy to work and by mooching off an ex-girlfriend he could work 6 months and then quit and draw unemployment for 2 to 3 years and never bat an eye at the fact that he wasn’t entitled to do so. He is one of many that claims to have a right to unemployment because he paid for it while working. The truth is they have never worked long enough to get back what they draw. It is the taxpayers that pay for it, and whatever they tell themselves, they are drawing welfare and denying it to themselves.

People that have the attitude that if credit card companies are dumb enough to send you a credit card, you would be stupid to not get it, people with the attitude that they may not pay on time but eventually they do pay and are willing to pay usury interests rate and payment fees, people that buy appliances or furniture on the, “buy now pay two years later plan” and pay absorbant interests rates as a result, really make those of us disgusted! We will be paying through our nose for years, even though our credit is good, because most of you will not pay off your interests ever, much less pay off the principle. Even with the new guidlines there are no caps placed on interest rates.

Those people that go to debt consolidators or file bankruptsy, because they were willing to pay the high interest rates to get what they wanted now, rather than wait and save money, or get the one appliance that needed replacing, rather than all of them, because they wanted all matching stainless steel. Now you feel justified because the credit card companies have made a mint off of you so you are entitled to screw them. You have set up and established debt consolidators all over the Country that do not care if the rest of us have good credit or not but once our names get on their calling list, even when we have excellent credit, we are being hounded day and night by their calls. PLus it isn’t the credit card companies that are getting screwed, because you now refuse to pay, it is us the consumer that refuses to pay such high interest rates because we limit credit card use and pay on time that are paying off what you refuse to pay, and we are all mad as hell!

ALL OF YOU above, combined with those of you that were convinced that you had no business owning a home yet let some greedy lender talk you into buying and now are mad as hell at the government because they are not paying stimulus dollars to help you all pay the high rates on your credit cards, homes you had no business buying, or giving you jobs that you feel entitled to have, even though when many of you do work it takes two to three of you to work as hard as one of us that holds the same job, really makes us Mad!

Many of you have not only played the system but you have also drained the pockets of family members as well as turned others against the members that were smart enough not to bail you out, after you created more upset amongst friends and family!How dare you think that we still owe you more by having our tax dollars through the stimulus bill pay you for the mess you got yourselves into! When will you realize the problem is YOU?!

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Leadership Image

Sometimes it may come as a surprise to competent people that know that they are good at a job and will out work everyone else while there, that they get over looked on the interview. Years back I worked with a personnel director in hiring new employees for our 200 person office.

I was amazed at the time, and will go on the assumption that not much has changed since then, that people that are good workers, capable and intelligent, are not aware of the fact that image is everything! It is the standard of hiring once your resume’ passes through to the top echelon of people that hire.

For years now, tall people have been seen as more competent over shorter people. The less weight that you carry will determine job ability. Age does matter especially if you held the same job for years and were not promoted. The more professional a person dresses the more they are deemed as leaders. If you are in the later groups how then do you compensate for the difference? New studies out of the University of California show that the person that talks the most in both an authoritative manner as well as a non-challenging manner appears to be the most knowledgeable. Even when a study was done with math and the students answers were not always correct, as long as the person appeared to know by what means they arrived to get the answer, they were viewed as math whizzes.

In short if you are in a group of four and you are the one that is doing the most talking you will be seen as the most intelligent with the most leadership ability. The job process is very seldom based on anything that the rest of us might find to be fair. If you are going for interviews and not being hired now is not the time to clam up anymore than it is the time to point out the failures of society or go into it with an attitude of apology. Educate yourself on what the company that you are going to work for deals in.

Stay away from any controversy but ask questions that show that you are knowledgeable in the field of which the company deals. If there is a company scandal that frightens you, then do not apply. Often times employees think that showing up and asking the company to explain itself is preferable. Sometimes it can be, if the employee field is limited, but not when there are not enough jobs to go around, as is the case now.This certainly does not mean a know-it-all that has an inability to listen once he/she ask the questions, is going to appeal to anyone. Let them educate you but be prepared to ask the questions and converse accordingly.

Whether you are male or female do not wear your hair in a pony tail if you are applying for a job that requires professional skills or dealing with the public in any manner. Especially in retail, restaurants,customer service and sales, appearance is as important as it is in the professional arena. Even if it isn’t true, wearing a pony tail suggest to employers that you are too lazy to shower and do your hair. Wearing long hair up in women if swept back nicely, is fine. Wearing after-shave and perfume can also leave a person with the impression there is a hygiene problem so do not wear it. Do though use deoderant! You would be surprised by the number of people that do not know this.

Do not over dress as this makes an employer think that you do not need the job. If they see you in a more expensive suit than they can afford or draped in gold and diamonds they will dismiss you for the person they think might be more hungry than you are. This is not a time to try to impress anyone of your good taste beyond knowing how to match the clothing you wear. Do not think that wearing a blazer or sport coat over the t-shirt and jeans will give you an advantage. Ladies, watch the make-up and even though it may be unfair, wear a skirt.

For ladies then the simple sweater not too tight with an outside cardigan or a blazer or a suit and blouse, always with a skirt, is appropriate. Make sure of course that your hair is clean and in place and the make-up natural. For men if the job will require a suit, a blazer/sport coat and matching slacks with tie, will suffice on middle management jobs but a suit with tie is mandatory in the upper management positions. If it is sales a sweater and tie with dress slacks will do. Remember ALWAYS cleaned shaved!

So many people that have held jobs for a number of years and remember the casual side of the work place sometimes fail to dress appropiately when going back through an interview, following experience. It is just as important to dress appropiately with experience as it was without it. Some Companies would rather hire new fresh recruits rather than train an “old dog” new tricks.

If you have long hair get it cut. Once they know you better then you can approach the long hair look again. This is the time to remove all jewelry including Rolex watches, unless the position is with a Corporation, that expects their CEO’s to wear Rolex watches. Those are few and rare. Most of those jobs do not go through personnel but by word of mouth. Men do wear your wedding rings as Companies do like to see men that appear to take marriage seriously. Women on the other hand can wear their rings as well, even though there is a double standard, as Companies tend to prefer single women over married women, as they are more likely to travel and will not be asking for time off, due to pregnancy or sick children.

So you just got out of college with your degree and now you think you will get the job that you trained for? Get over yourself! You may need to take a job in a field that has nothing to do with the area that you trained in. That was the point of taking all those courses that you thought had nothing to do with your degree field. If you have never held a job of any kind, because your parents have paid your expenses all your life, consider applying for a responsible position in volunteer work for 6 months,even if the job does not pay. You are going to need more than just the degree as employers tend to skip over college graduates that have had their way paid for them through out their lives. They need something that shows you are a team player. Almost all jobs that use to require a high school degree now requires a college degree as the employer has a much larger field of College graduates to select from. Just having the door opened for you is an amazing asset even if you do not currently understand that.

You are no different than anyone else even with your degree you will need to be ready to start at the entry level if you have no previous work experience in the field that you are being hired. The degree simply opens the door for you and then like everyone else it is up to you, to how high you will rise in the company. It takes both an ability to lead and to listen to get ahead in most jobs of any kind. That is the time that image wears thin and the real worker is spotted.

Until then it is up to you to make them know why they need you rather than the reverse. Of course when the resume’ gets the second look be ready to move to the area or State that the job asks you to move to. Good Luck!

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