Editor’s note: Each year, by request, we publish a series intended to help people get and keep jobs. This is the last of four parts.

By Charles Winslow Story published Aug. 12, 2022 / v09e16pA8

In the past three issues of the INNformer, we printed columns on how to get a job, write a resume, and the dos and don’ts of interviewing. Now I’m going to give some hints on how to keep that job once you’ve got it. Pay attention, things are about to change and not for the better. Some of you won’t appreciate my advice or views. Too bad.

As Bob Dylan used to sing “Times, they are a-changin’.” Are you ready for those changes? Maybe a better question would be: Do you understand what’s happening?  You better, because your future will depend on you having at least a passing understanding of some basic economics.

In the past year we have seen the net results of what happens when entry-level wages skyrocket because of the lack of employable people. Couple that with those ill-conceived and short-sighted “stimulus” checks – as well as other government policies – and what do you get? Inflation.
 

Sure, wages went up and now everything costs a heck of a lot more. When the costs of doing business go up, those costs are passed on to the customers who will, in turn, decide what they can afford to spend. Businesses will close and jobs will be lost. The companies that remain in business will soon be forced to make do with fewer employees and expect those who work for them to be more productive. Workers who won’t produce will be considered dead weight and will be let go.

That’s the new reality. Be prepared and don’t be surprised when you discover that employers expect more from you. You have been warned.

Here are the basics of surviving in rough job market:

1) The first thing you will have to do to keep a paycheck coming in is the most basic and important. BE THERE.

Despite what you may try to tell yourself, or what your unemployable friends may have told you, showing up when scheduled is very easy. Over 100 million Americans manage to do it every single work day and you will be expected to do so as well.

Want to make your boss question the wisdom of hiring you. Always be late. If you are working from home, “forget” you are scheduled. These show poor planning skills and continually being late or skipping those annoying Zoom calls clearly communicates you just don’t care.

Want your employer to start looking for what we refer to as “the next contestant?” Call out or be a no-show FOR ANY REASON during your first few weeks on the job.  Your car won’t start. Your ride didn’t show up. Space aliens hacked your computer and you couldn’t log on. You have the plague again and (cough, cough, cough) are too sick to work and need to go fishing.  You may think your boss is buying it. Don’t kid yourself, we have heard it all before.

Until you have earned your boss’ trust show up when scheduled. Everyone gets sick and everyone has been exposed to COVID. I would suggest that if you are going to use the COVID excuse, go to urgent care and be tested and don’t post photos of yourself on social media eating at a Mexican restaurant or sitting on the beach.

If you call in sick, don’t be surprised when you are told you need a doctor’s note clearing you to return to work. That’s a trap bosses just love to spring on slackers. And, for the record, it doesn’t take all day to change a flat tire.

Being a no-call, no-show is never acceptable. Period.

Does any of this sound too harsh? Too bad, Buttercup. For every legitimate reason an employer gets for someone not being there when scheduled, there are a dozen garbage excuses from slackers who don’t want to work but still expect a paycheck.

2) The second thing you have to do is simply DO YOUR JOB.

Work has to be done and if you are hired to do it, then show up and do it.

Do you think a bride will be forgiving if her wedding cake isn’t done on her wedding day? Of course not. Customers have the right to expect a business to have their orders finished on time and the work will be completed as promised.

A business has the right to expect their employees will show up and do a good job so their customers are happy. Happy customers come back and are actually the folks who provide the money used to pay employees and to keep the lights on. No customers equals no income, which equals no job. Not a hard concept to understand, is it?

If your boss has to chase you around with a stick to get you to work, then don’t expect to keep the job for very long. We all know how long a task should take. Most supervisors have done the jobs they hire people to do. Hiding around corners and texting when you have a task to finish isn’t acceptable and you aren’t fooling anyone.

The same goes for those people working remotely. Companies can track how productive you are and the only difference about working from home is there’s a heck of a lot less drama when it’s time for the boss to put an end to the nonsense.

3) DO YOUR JOB TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY. Doing a poor job and not caring about what you are doing hurts business.

A long time ago I worked for Radio Shack in Boston as a commissioned salesman. Back then The Shack was a great company to work for and they prided themselves on having the best and most knowledgeable sales force.

My district manager once got everyone together for a meeting and gave us all a lecture that, even 35 years later, I still remember. “It takes months and years to develop customer loyalty and only minutes to lose it.”  When is the last time you stepped foot in a Radio Shack?  Over the years they lost that customer loyalty and the company went from being the second-most-profitable retail chain in the country to bankrupt and gone.

Are you going to go back to a restaurant where you received rotten service and bad food? How about the tire shop who told you over the phone they had your tires in stock and set up an appointment only to tell you when you got there the manager forgot to write down your appointment and they would have to special order your tires.  That happened to me recently and hell will freeze over and the sun will explode, before I ever go back there.  Give the service you expect to get.
 
4) MAKE YOURSELF VALUABLE. Be willing to learn new skills and take on more responsibilities. Show some initiative, it will be rewarded.

5) KEEP YOUR DRAMA OUT OF THE WORKPLACE.

Your family issues and your personal drama and trauma is none of your employer’s business, so keep it out of the workplace.

You are hired to perform a job and your job description likely doesn’t include oversharing the train wreck that is your life with your co-workers or customers. No one wants to hear your problems, trust me on this one, so keep that trash to yourself.

Conducting your personal business on company time is also unacceptable. This includes having your baby mama show up to talk to you or your boyfriend’s other girlfriend show up to have it out with you. If you want to keep a job, you must keep a separation between your personal life and your professional.

6) JUST SAY NO TO DRUGS. Drugs are a destroyer of lives and a pestilence on our society. If you are using, stop and do it now.

If you work for a company that has a drug use policy, then you better follow it. You may be able to get through a drug-screening but you have another think coming if you think you are fooling anyone. Your behavior, attitude and appearance will give you away.

There are those who believe partying is none of there boss’ business and spew nonsense about how it doesn’t impact their job performance. It certainly does. Just as it destroys lives and families.

The definition of pestilence, by the way, is a contagious, infectious epidemic disease that is virulent and devastating.

7) And, finally, DON'T BURN BRIDGES.

We all have had bad days and horrible weeks. Everyone has been assigned tasks we thought were beneath us.  No one, me included, likes having their mistakes pointed out. Grow up and deal with it.

Think twice before doing something you may very well come to regret. Burning bridges may seem like a lot of fun at the time but karma has a nasty way of rearing her ugly head and she has a long memory. Never burn a bridge you may need to re-cross in the future.

Who knows, maybe you will need to have a reference from someone you left in a lurch? You never know, do you?

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