Category Archives: Work

May 5, 2013 · 6:07 am

Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion!

I am convinced that my current job at The New Moyer Academy in Wilmington, Delaware is a gift from the Universe.

You see,  in all my other executive positions, Director of Public Relations, Corporate Officer,  Director of Training, not one of these jobs or titles comes close to what I do now.  Sure, I used to be the boss.  I had a job to get done and I learned how to manage teams of Information Technology experts spread across the country, flying from city to city, not seeing my family for months at a time.

I drive to this job every weekday morning.  I sit at one small desk in one small school.   I am the school secretary.

And in my job, at my small desk, I have a chance to make a difference in the lives of children in my school – a school that works with an under served population of children.  A school that has brought me into the lives of these most wonderful, most challenged and most beautiful spirits I have ever spent time with.

Are some of them hard to handle?  Yes.  Are some of them angry? Yes. Are some of them sad, afraid, lonely?  Yes, yes, yes.

But each and everyone of them is special; each is a child with hopes, dreams and desires.  Each of them deserves my respect, my trust and, frankly, my love.

These small ambassadors of life have seen hardships and sorrows most of us will never know.  And they have come through.  They have found a way to patch themselves together, to keep putting one foot in front of the other, to come to school against all odds, to come to learn. And I get the chance to reach out and tell them, every day, how special they are, how glad I am to see them, how very much they can do and be.

I have never been a teacher.  I have been taught.  Grade school, middle school, high school, college, and graduate school have exposed me to some wonderful teachers and some lousy teachers.  I wish Rita Pierson had been one of my teachers not because of her subject matter expertise or her curriculum.

Rita Pierson teaches so much more than lessons, words and numbers.  She teaches about the heart, the spirit and the opportunity that every adult in every school, from janitor and secretary to teacher and Principal, has every day to reach out and touch one child’s life.

Listen and learn and maybe take a chance and build some relationships, too.

Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion | Video on TED.com.

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May 15, 2012 · 10:20 am

Scamming the Unemployed – Really?

It’s not bad enough that millions of qualified men and women in this country can’t get a job.

It’s not bad enough that, in Pennsylvania, you have to hire a lawyer to arm wrestle with the minions at the unemployment office to get back some of that money that we have paid into the fund over all the years we have worked — 50 in my case.

Now, unemployed people who are seriously looking for jobs are being scammed, big time.

My first encounter with a scammer came when I answered a Craigslist ad for an Administrative Assistant at a busy doctor’s office.  Imagine my surprise when I received an email from someone named David Marks that said, “Your resume was received and it has been reviewed, I did appreciate it. So I will give this a GO.”

But…he needed a bit more information like my first, middle and last names, my street address including city, state and zip, my cell and home phone numbers, my current occupation and my email address.

Hmmmm….if he had really reviewed my resume, wouldn’t he already know all of this information?  First hint that something was just not right.

Then Mr. Marks described how this would work:

  1. He wasn’t in town often so we would only communicate via email.
  2. He didn’t really have an office so I would be  working from home.
  3. He would pay me $785 a week for a part time job.
  4. Work would include doing personal chores, scheduling flights and making, “…regular contacts and drop offs on my behalf.”

Sounds just a bit off – $785 a week for a part time job working for a man I will never meet and making contacts and dropping off…what…on his behalf.  Second hint that this was not a kosher offer.

The final hint that Mr. Marks was a rat-scammer was this incredibly transparent paragraph:

“What i would want you to do for me this week is to run some errands out to some of the orphanage home, I do that every month. A payment in form of a Cashier Check/Money Order will be sent over to you from one of my clients and i have some lists to email you once you received the funds,You will make some arrangements by buying some stuff for the kids in the Orphanage at any nearest store around you so you can mail them out.”

Really?  I don’t know you, have never met you, work out of my home because you don’t have an office and I’m supposed to …run money for you?  Of course, throwing in the orphanage was a nice touch but hello…Mr. Marks…I may want a job but I am not really desperate or stupid.

Today, a more sophisticated scammer than Mr. Marks (hard to imagine, isn’t it?) sent me an email from an Human Resources department for a company that does exist – LDR Distributions – saying they had , “…reviewed your resume and you’re a great match for this position.”  I was to go online and make a formal application.

Great, exciting but…one immediate problem.  When I tried to apply using the link in the email, I kept getting a pop up asking me to fill in an “anti-spam” survey and offering me a chance at gift cards ranging from $100 from the Cheesecake Factory to $1000 from Kohls.  The hair on the back of my neck started rising.

The other problem with this fairly professional attempt to skim my personal information is the type of business LDR is.  This company is a warehouse and distribution company.  I am a 64 year old woman recovering from shoulder surgery.  Would I really apply for a job with them?  Not!  And, because I keep a copy of every ad I answer along with my submission, I was able to prove to myself that I had not fallen, hit my head and applied for the privilege of packing, toting and shipping large packages.

Tips for would be job seekers:

  1. If it sounds too good to be true, it is!  Like getting a part time gig that lets me work from home and get paid $785 a week.
  2. DO NOT include any contact information at all when responding to a blind ad on Craigslist or any other job board unless you know for sure they are a legitimate business engaged in matching employees and employers like Monster or Career Builder.
  3. GOOGLE names, businesses, even job titles and include the word “scam” in the search.  You will quickly discover you are not alone.  There are a lot of people being scammed by some truly low people out there trying to make money off our misfortune.

And keep the faith.  Somewhere out there, there is a job for each and every one of us that truly wants to work.

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May 3, 2012 · 3:21 pm

America: The Land of Lay Offs

So, I’m guessing that just about everyone, everywhere knows at least one person who has been laid off in the last 24 months.

I know quite a few victims of  lay offs — my daughter, her best friend, our friend and neighbor Jim and now, my husband.  I was even laid off – a mutually reached decision as I was months away from turning 62 and turning on the Social Security faucet.  I thought I would have a little time to find another job.  Two and a half years later, I’m still looking.

A Brief Digression on Social Security
This is for  for those of you who think Social Security should…go away.  It’s also  for those of you who are considering the option of slipping peacefully out of the office and into retirement, early.

I have been working since I was 14 and paying into the Social Security fund for 50, that’s right, 50 years.  I paid for the privilege of collecting this small monthly payment so please don’t tell me I’m on the dole or taking a hand out.  If I am doing either, it is from me…to me.

Despite a long and financially draining relationship with FICA, what I get ain’t much.  This faucet only drips less than $20,000 a year — before taxes.  And when I get on Medicare next year, it will drip about $3000 a year less.

I don’t know many people who can actually pay their bills, eat and cover the costs of doctors and medicine on less than $12,000 a year but I worked for and earned the privilege of receiving this money, no matter how small the amount is.

Now, back to gainful unemployment which many of us are currently experiencing.

Of the 5 people mentioned above, not one of us was an underachiever.  Not one of us called in sick just because we could or took long breaks, missed deadlines or just held down the chair and picked up the pay check.

All of us brought the usual stuff to work – the skills,  talents,  and education needed to do each of our jobs, well.  But we also brought dedication, loyalty, passion and a true desire to do a good job not just one day, but every day.  Essentially, we worked for ourselves, for our satisfaction and for the joy of a job, well done.

So, why did we get the ax?  Who knows?

There are dozens of different reasons people lose their jobs. Companies have  ”downturns” so downsizing has to happen.  Divisions are moving in a “different direction” and you won’t fit.  Your job is being eliminated so your services are no longer required.

Sometimes the reasons are a bit more personal.  Your personality clashes with your boss’s personality.  Perhaps your politics just don’t fit in with the politics of the organization.  Or, my favorite, the boss’s niece, nephew, grandmother, needs a job so they’re getting yours.

There are, of course real reasons to let someone go.  Employees that are consistently late or frequently absent can hurt the bottom line.  Employees who are belligerent or threatening can upset co-workers and worry managers.  And employees who just sit around all day, missing deadlines, smoking every 30 minutes and going to lunch for 2 hours every day affect productivity and morale.

But what happens when none of these reasons apply, when a good employee is cut from the herd and shown the door?  The reality is dramatic and painful. And no matter what anybody says, being terminated, fired, laid off, downsized is personal.  

Being unable to get another job is demoralizing.  I’m a Master’s prepared, professional with project management, training, leadership and human resource skills in my portfolio.  The only work I can get pays $83 a day — no benefits.  I even got turned down for employment at Lowe’s!

So, here’s my question.  When did America, the land of opportunity, become America, the land of lay offs?  Anyone have any answers to ease the pain of unemployment?

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