What If...Darth Vader

The perspective of managing as Darth Vader from the stand point of “What Managers Should Do to Support Training” (noe 187).

If you are working as Imperial commander you're under allot of stress. Mainly because your boss, Darth Vader, has extremely high standards for what he wants to accomplish. Heck, its a prime example of a hostile work environment which would be an example of harassment. How would you like it if the only position up the ladder from yours is one where they don't just get fired because of bad performance they get force chocked. That is what happens when there is no rules and you're the one that makes the rules.

Let us get back on track here. How would someone support training when there is no training? You're put in a management position and told if you don't succeed you're going to die. That reminds me of a story about a guy that didn't have a CDL and was told by his boss to drive the truck from one city to another. He had to learn pretty darn quick how to drive manually in order to get the job done. (this story is true and is an account from a Frito-Lay employee here in Utah)There's no training in there.

Darth Vader should know this, that he needs to learn how to support employees and not treat them like flies. He also needs to understand the content, know how to train, and give feed back instead of death wishes.

"..focusing strictly on results does not provide guidance on how to improve." (noe, 226)

Fortune Telling, What If and How

I wonder if organizations actually use the planning process on page 119 in the text. How can anybody forecast or tell the future?

What if the information is wrong? Hiring is such a risky business.

I believe that downsizing is a result of a poor planning strategy. Its plain and simple, somebody hired a bunch of people and didn't know how to shut off the flow.

In this economy I don't hear about much retiring. Who wants to retire in this economy? Its not safe.

I don't think outsourcing solves anything either. That makes it so a company is dependent on a another company. What if that company tanks?

The best way to get a job right now is not by job boards it is through networking or through people you know. That is the truth.

Discrimination Alive and Well

Discrimination is, according to Dictionary.com, the treatment consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit.I believe discrimination is every where. I had stated in my discussion topic-"Will there ever be a cure for discrimination?" I addressed my group with this question and they said no. Then we discussed alternatives and what not. Its like wishing for world peace right here right now.

I think that discrimination in the work force is caused by the lack of confidence that is experienced by those around you. A lack of self worth. I think that if we all just stop caring about what other people think then maybe we would all just get along.

An example mentioned in class of a guy working at Victoria's Secrets really got me to realize that guys should be able to work where ever they want just as well as a women.

Age Gap

As I’ve gone around looking for a job and observed what gets hired. I’ve found it’s usually the skinny good looking fresh out of high school. Either that or people look really young. It's the younger ones with the jobs.

At the career workshop I attended a couple weeks ago I noticed allot of people 40 and over that had either retired and/or without a job. Most of them were without a job because they couldn’t stand the one they were at and/or they got bored. They were in a transitional phase.

 While I was a career workshop I participated in mock interviews back and forth with this man that had to be over fifty. It eventually was my turn to interview him.

As I did he was watching me very intently as I fumbled to go through the interview questions unprepared. As a result, he remembered a time when he had gotten interviewed for a job by some young buck (I think that’s what he said) that was fumbling around and being lax on how he was performing the interview. This old man proceeded to tell me what I was doing wrong then told the instructor. I had nothing to do with what had previously happened to him and didn’t have any idea on how to interview him for a Chaplain Job.  Anyway instructor had told him that this would be something that would happen in the work place and I would be the one with the job and if he had acted that way he might not have gotten a job.

The book mentions on page 28 in the HR How to section that “tomorrow’s workers hitting the 55-plus age group… many of tomorrow’s managers will be supervising workers older than themselves.  I guess it might be appropriate to say that getting to know the 40 and over generation may be the best thing to do.  It’s really a shame that I personally don’t get to socialize with too many people in that age group because I’m in college.