They found the right man

3-knife operator & binder
Indianapolis is in luck

Rotisserie positions

There are a couple of local companies that tout growth, importance, "and other fine stuff like that there", yet have an old White Castle building, still white, still fresh paint and french fry smell. The one place in particular had a very odd question indeed. What car do you drive?

What the? I drive Herz and I'm a backseat driver. What does it matter what car I drive? They didn't hire me. I think I was turned off on the question, showed it and the hiring manager was put off by me. Oh, well. That was a long time ago. I do find it interesting that this company apparently goes through new "talent" quickly or are really growing at a fast past. I think the former is more likely. I think it likely that it was a more sales than promotion job.

I want you to sell 110% of last week. So each week, you are gaining 10%. After six months, will expect 130% each week. Then you're on the fast track to management.
"Kiss ass while you bitch, so you can get rich, but your boss gets the richer off you."+

The job description I got was, "Take these fine new products from big name companies and get them displayed and sold in local markets." Now, what does my car have to do with that? I guess, presentation is foremost, which is fine. If I look like a slob, then say, "thanks, but we have more promising prospects". The company started early with the carrot. I have interviewed with other companies that start with the carrot.

Now, you can view "the carrot" in two ways, neither positive. A carrot can be on a string, on a stick in front of you, driving you forward. You are never really going to get the carrot. If you do, you have well exhausted yourself and are quickly tempted by another. The other "carrot" could be one given to the pet rabbit. While the rabbit eats kibble and sustaining food, what it seeks is alfalfa and carrots -- broccoli. These treats are given irrepective of effort or work. So there is no reward. This type of carrot is well documented, though humorously, in Office Space.

No more carrots! I am looking for a job, seeking a career. When you have a career, you grow, and are "into" it. You instictively seek to learn. You give a care about what you are doing, and even the company. The tokens and tickets and carrots are demeaning and make people unproductive and the company less profitable. So, the company has 60% aggrivated workers, so little is done. If the company has low morale, there is little incentive. The low pay, lack of raises and the expontential gain (salary, bonuses, benefits) of some CEOs and chairpersons sucks the life out of the company.

Dilbert shows the pointy-haired boss, less competent than TV. The TV is a medium for entertainment that is disguised as fact. It offers nothing other than programming mostly for toddlers. This is management that moves up in the company, doing nothing, yet finding ways to remove inspiration. I know that in a city job, I won't be more specific, when a person isn't performing, that person isn't fired. Oh, no. That would make sense. The person isn't shifted laterally either. The failing flunky is moved up, in charge of people and paper. When he can't do that, he's moved up to handle different paper and people. With each level, there is less responsibility and more pay. In this instance, it is a government job and the taxpayers pay for the flunky to move up the ranks because of failure.

On the lower end, an honest person might be stationed as a door, only ever moved and not on it's own accord. Not all persons are doors, but a great many are. A flunky passes through them on to the next place, while the door remains. Look, you're a good door. You helped keep out others and let an person pass. You have a purpose.

+ "Holiday in Cambodia" by Dead Kennedys (covered by) Laaz Rockit

twenty-three is a magic number

Schoolhouse Rocks didn't see this coming! Bachelor's degree -- now very common, yields "jack" for pay. Let's see. I owe $22,000 - 45,000 for student loans. This job is paying me $23,000. How? Why? What?
"I'm wonder'n if a shake come wit dem fries"+

Twenty-three should not be the magic number. Now, I wouldn't expect 42, the answer to the meaning of life, but between 23 and 42 would be more reasonable, especially if you have experience.

What colleges need to do is cut the waste classes or brochure classes which you pay for a couple of paragraphs of information and move on to practical and useful classes. I wouldn't even mind paying for them, if they were online and I could finish twelve of those in a semester or faster.

How about an MBA. Okay, but what if I'm not a master salesman? I'm a "betterer" as MR put it. I have lots of ideas and I can improve things ... business or otherwise. I can read and comprehend post-doctorate scientific journals and pre-school scrawling. I can examine my old ways and build on them, making learning and doing faster.

I guess I'm just burned because middle and high school were a waste, followed by the useless classes in college which were wastes. I got debt and the salary I'm offered isn't real. Then, I have other political grievances, and I get to shoulder the financial burdon of bad action and planning by the government. When the blood is dried my this stone, me, it goes to the next generation and so on.

I want companies to pony up to qualified persons. I'm not asking for $50,000, and not $40,000, but $22 or $23 doesn't cut it. Perhaps the companies are more like France in that the old, old, old persons there, older than the walls of the building are not keen on change and forget that education costs and that some people wound up paying for it through loans. Perhaps they forgot that when they were hired, they struggled with debt and no money and were thinking, "give me a break ... a raise, please". When the cost of living rises and the gratuities and raises do not ... the nation will become the welfare state.

Whereas the terrorists plot to overthrow the government and to destroy its finances, the government and its complacency with companies overpaying CEOs and shipping jobs out of the country, the US will overthrow itself given enough time. At some breaking point, there will be rebellion or the reversal of democracy, since the clothes-wearing pigs seem to forget that some are not more equal than others.

American companies need a swift kick in the backside. A bachelor's degree in a field, not general studies

+ great communicator 50-cent

on the killing floor

This is a job where you supervise killing.

on the backs of the workers

Yet another missuse of people and their abilities:
bilingual Spanish & English paid $9 per hour. Now, normally, if you are schooled and trained with a skill, like a language, you get a bump in pay. I guess they expect people to be bilingual and don't plan on playing any more for that person's ability, regarless how s/he obtained it.

putting BS to work

I saw two jobs in which the illustrious companies were offering to pay the rate of $10 per hour and one was < $8. Let's see. Applicant went to school and paid $25000 or more for a bachelors and you are willing to pay $15,500 - $20,000. If you don't get a lot of takers, understand that you want the impossible. The entry title is one catch phrase used by a company to entice people to use their degree. Um ... how?

Harold's last day

So ... may I take it you quit or were fired?

Whatever the person's name is, I commend her/him for making this indellible mark on her/his work history.

exec asst

shortened, like my chance of getting it.

"Must type 65 wpm accurately"
What kind of words? I have done that while the words are in my head and generally with my eyes closed. I type better that way. If I'm reading from a source ... not possible.

reminded of

I found postings for jobs that I already applied. I guess they didn't choose me and they're still looking. The funny thing is that the one place sent me a notice that jobs "matched" my profile. I went there, answered the 90 questions, filled out the supplementary app, but nothing. They had me go there again and I had to answer the same type of questions and app again. The questions are generated from a database, much like fortune cookies. It is possible that you will find the same question as the same number in your questionaire, but it is very unlikely. I didn't help myself by sending comment to the third-party host that does the questions. My comment mentioned that the questions needed a minor review for English grammar and syntax. The questions also were poorly phrased so the optional answers may not encompass would-be candidates real perspectives.