Thursday – The Not-This-Job Applicant

[ninanevermore]

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I felt sorry for the job applicant waiting in the lobby when I left for my lunch break today. She seemed nice enough, and was well spoken enough when I told her it would be a few more minutes before the operations manager could see her, but she was wasting her time. She wasn’t going to be hired. I could see that from just looking at her.

It wasn’t a great job she was applying for. Or even a good job. And the standards aren’t that high: when you are hiring $9 and hour security guards, the crème de la crème does not generally apply for the position. The best you can hope for is some decent, or at least fair. But there are rules that a job application has to follow to land any job, even a low-wage starter job like this. Rule number one is that you don’t bring your children to the interview, even when your mom is there to watch them for you. Rule number two is that you don’t wear shorts and flip flops; it those are the best clothes you have, there are charities you can go to that will give you something better. Rule number three is that if you are a woman, you do not wear a low cut blouse with no bra. This young woman broke all these rules, and probably a few more.

I’m sure the manager gave her a 5 minute courtesy interview and then told her that he still had other interviews to conduct but that he’d keep her in mind (meaning he will work hard to erase her from his mind). No doubt she heard this same thing from countless other managers at countless other companies she’s talked to. No doubt they all dismissed her without telling her why they were dismissing her. You can tell by looking at her that she is poor, and that will probably stay poor.

The fact that her mother was with her and dressed little better than she was told me that this young woman had no one in her life to teach these simple rules. If her mother doesn’t know enough to say, “I’ll stay home and watch your kids. No one will hire you I we all come with you. You’re an adult: you need to do this on your own,” will anyone else in her life have the good sense to? I wonder why anyone is surprised that the daughter doesn’t know better.

I’m not sure what the solution is. Perhaps it should be required that everyone who receives any sort of public assistance be required to take a basic class on how to get and keep a job. Not only do so many people not know what to wear (or not wear) when applying for a job, I have come across people genuinely surprised to learn that if they don’t show up for work and don’t call to let anyone know that they aren’t showing up, they will be fired. No wonder no one hires the woman who takes her kids with her to fill out job applications, or the guy who shows up in a wife beater t-shirt, or the kid who walks into the interview with his iPod still plugged into his ears: they figure if the applicant doesn’t know the first thing about being a good job candidate, they probably don’t know the first thing about being a good job employee, either.


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Comments

[simplecity2htwn.livejournal.com]

Oy veh! This sounds like a cousin of mine.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

We all have those relatives. If we're lucky, they are distant relatives (geographically if not genealogically).

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

That really ought to be a required class to get any type of public assistance. You are correct. Didn't President Clinton try something like that with that "Welfare to Work" program? But the liberals shut it down because it was "unfair."

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

[The moderate, independent notes:]The Welfare to Work program expired in 2004, long after Clinton left office.

A training program would be expensive up front, meaning both parties might be reluctant to go for it. The benefit would take a few years to pay off (and I believe it could pay off handsomely if done correctly), but if it doesn't pay off by the next election cycle, neither party is much interested in it.

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

So Clinton did not start it?
I was crediting that program to him as a "good thing" from his administration.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

The Republican led congress pass it. Clinton signed it. The next administration let it expire.

[jenelycam.livejournal.com]

I think you're absolutely right about the public assistance job training. Though shouldn't some of that stuff be common sense....then again...

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

There's nothing common about common sense. I think the person who first called it that was being sarcastic.

[adamant-turtle.livejournal.com]

Sounds very much like the kinds of behavior we see at work all the time; many of our dropouts have absolutely no clue how to do basic things like make a simple telephone call. You'd think something like calling a place a business and saying something like, "Good morning, this is Susan. May I speak to the guidance counselor?" is something every 10-year-old knows. But I deal with scores of 30-year-olds regularly who call us up, screaming in my ear to my "Good morning, may I help you?" "MR. SMITH!" I'm confused, of course, so I try to gently fish for more info, asking questions like, "Did you need to make an appointment with him?" Because they have in mind what they want or need, and assume everyone should, they will become furious with anyone who doesn't, screaming and cursing, "YEAH, THAT'S WHAT I JUST SAID!" If, God forbid, I should say Mr. Smith is unavailable, the person will never say, "Oh, I'll call back later," but simply SLAM THE PHONE IN MY EAR.

And yeah, dress code. The number of ratty, nasty pajama pants, hoochie tank tops, etc. that I see on a daily basis would make you cry. Since when is this acceptable attire in an academic environment?

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

A 10 year old child knows how to talk to people on the phone properly if they've listened to their parents talk properly from the time they were babies. They know how to dress appropriately if they've seen their parents dress appropriately when they left the house. A 10 year old with parents who are rude and slovenly, or who are just too neglectful to take the time to teach them anything at all, wouldn't know any better than that 30 year olds you are having to deal with.

Schools concentrate on reading, writing and arithmetic, but so many kids aren't getting basic life skills at home that I think maybe that should be covered in school as well. Too many people who have children aren't fit to take care of themselves, much less anyone else.