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10 Habits Assuring Career Self-Sabotage
:::Expert's Classic "Fatal Flaws" of a Doomed Employee:::
You're fired! This succinct phrase strikes more fear into the
heart of the working man than any other. Why is it, then, that
many well-intentioned and reasonably astute professionals...
Lost Your Job? Good for You!
Losing your job is a shock no matter how it happens. Fired, laid off, downsized-it's all spelled 'unemployed'. But once the shock of a job loss wears off, you might discover there can be real benefits to being unemployed By looking for the positive...
Online Education Courses Learn to Do Anything
Online education courses are a great way to learn many things. With the sheer number of people today who have regular access to the Internet, the opportunities to learn these things are far greater than they were just a decade or two ago. Without...
Searching For Jobs Online
Searching for jobs online is easier than ever, but also more confusing than ever. Any Internet user doing a job search online will find that they can choose from hundreds of national employment listing web sites and the numbers can often be...
Teaching our Kids RITE from RONG - Education
Are we as caring parents doing more harm than good by sitting down to teach our kids what we were taught from our school days? Mum and dads want the best for their kids and encourage them by dedicating their free time to help with their sums.
In...
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Genuine Help Vs. Exploitation
I had a recent exchange of e-mails with someone who wrote:
"39 dollars for a book that proclaims itself to be a way out of
depression and feelings of worthlessness for unemployed people?
Tell me: what does a PsyD know about unemployment and
low-self-worth?
This price tag is atrocious.
You are victimizing the unemployed, the societal outsider, and I
do not appreciate it."
After my initial response, he wrote back: "I can't say I
expected any less than what you've given... a total dismissal of
my opinion. Do you see no injustice in the "Catch 22" of
expensive "ways out" of financial difficulty?"
The gentleman raises a very interesting question. Is there
something inherently exploitative about selling a product or a
service to individuals who are in a place of great need and few
resources?
There is a common expression in marketing: "Don't try selling
boxes to the homeless." Why? Because they obviously have no
money, that's why they are homeless. Sales need to be geared to
a more lucrative market and demographic distribution charts are
developed that pinpoint geographic locations, professions, age
levels, and ethnic distributions where household incomes are
higher and purchasing is more likely.
Where does that leave the homeless, or anyone else who is in a
difficult situation where help is needed but money to pay for it
is unavailable or severely limited?
There is the government for starters. At all levels, our public
agencies exist to provide the help and services citizens need,
that is the purpose of paying taxes. In fact, they do provide
those services to a greater or lesser extent, depending upon how
well developed is that particular sector.
When the services fall short of what is needed, the private
sector steps in. Apart from true charity organizations or
companies contracted with some level of government, private
services require regular income or will shortly vanish from the
scene.
If public colleges don't provide the classes you need, on a
schedule convenient to you, you pay to attend a private
vocational school that costs thousands of dollars more than a
community college but gives you what you need, when you need it.
If the State Consumer Credit office can't help you
with your
bills and creditors are driving you crazy, you pay a private
credit company to work out some sort of financial survival plan.
If the unemployment office has not been able to help you find
work, you may pay a private job coaching service to redo your
resume, give you interviewing skills practice, and perform
research in your field.
Are these agencies exploiting your predicament or meeting your
needs?
If they give you what you paid for, they are providing a
service. Obtaining solid vocational skills that lead to a good
job, working out a manageable repayment schedule that allows you
to live without the hounding of collectors, or transforming your
self-presentation to allow successful competition for a good
position, are all examples of worthwhile pay-for-results
exchanges.
It becomes exploitative when a school takes thousands of
dollars, provides training of questionable quality, and leaves
you unemployed with huge student loans to repay. It is
exploitative when a company takes money to reestablish your
credit and fails to follow through, leaving you still battling
collectors with even more depleted assets. It is exploitative
when an employment-assistance agency charges you hundred (or
thousands) of dollars and fails to produce the results they
promised.
In the end, it comes down to what we need and whether we are
willing to pay for a service we see as better than those
publicly funded. It also means that we have a responsibility to
ourselves to thoroughly research any company, or group, or
author, before we hand over our money, to make sure that the
services offered will be useful, that the source will deliver
what has been promised, and what recourse we have if premature
withdrawal is necessary.
P.S. I cut the price of the book in half, anyway.
About the author:
Virginia Bola operated a rehabilitation company for 20 years,
developing innovative job search techniques for disabled
workers, while serving as a Vocational Expert in Administrative,
Civil and Workers' Compensation Courts. Author of an interactive
and supportive workbook, The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment
Survival Manual, and a monthly ezine, The Worker's Edge, she can
be reached at http://www.unemploymentblues.com
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