Month: April 2020

If I were in the business owners’ shoes, I would likely decide to hire Jamie, the more consistent employee. While I like the idea of hiring Avery who has a much higher ceiling, I was turned off by the fact that she/he is known as a slacker. I understand that Avery can perform her job immaculately when she/he has to, but I personally prefer consistency in an essential job position like the one they applied for. 

A job that someone might consider hiring Avery over Jamie is any job within a well-established company with a solid training and mentoring program. Someone with high potential like Avery might just need a little training or guidance for them to reach that full potential and no longer be a slacker. If a company hired Avery and invested some time and effort into her development as an employee, she would be a much better employee than Jamie, although maybe still not as consistent. Avery is more valuable to an organization than Jamie because the organization knows what the potential is with Avery, and they likely believe they can unlock that potential through training and other aid. 

On the other hand, a job where it might be better to hire Jamie over Avery would be a job that does not take much skill or critical thinking. Maybe a job like a librarian, where you just have to be consistent and are not expected to go above-and-beyond your call of duty. Someone like Jamie would be more valuable for this job because as a librarian, consistency is more important than potential.

As an employee, my brand is a combination of being a hard worker and being an extrovert. I anticipate having big projects or work ahead of time, and I try and start on them early if I can. I have also always been one of the teammates who steps up and takes over a part of the project nobody else wanted to do. I put my name to my work, and I try to put my best effort into everything I do, big and small. My brand would also highlight my personality and social skills. I really enjoy talking with people, whether I know them on a personal level or not. I always say good morning and start light conversations with random people who came into my work before Covid-19. 

If I presented myself in a novel, I would depict myself as a bird in the desert. Maybe I would be a hawk that spends all day searching for food and trying to survive, but always keeps a positive attitude and loves chatting with other hawks.  I have always been someone who likes to operate day-to-day life by myself, but I really enjoy casual conversation and getting to know people better in places like work or a classroom.  The hawk depicted in the novel would have the task of trying to fly out of the desert and reach the mountains in the horizon, where he had always wanted to go. The hawk would work tirelessly, flying through the day and night and only stopping for rest and food. Whenever he would make a stop along the way, he would find a new desert animal to have a chat with. Along his trip to the mountains, he learned a lot of new life lessons and gained some insight from new animals he’d never spoken to before. By the time the hawk reached the mountains, he was full of new perspective and information he’d gathered along the way that he would use to help guide him through the rest of his hawk life. This story is a good representation of what I think my brand is today and what I hope it will be in the future.

The last job I had was a pizza delivery driver, so the job description itself was not very influential to me. I had experience delivering beforehand, so I wanted to find a part-time job that I could use my delivery experience in. After reading the job description online, I recall thinking that this sounds like a job I could manage while in school, so I applied as soon as I could.

I do not remember the finer details of the job description, but I remember it outlined multiple chores and tasks for delivery drivers that did not include delivering pizzas. Some specific ones were the emphasis on answering phones, cleaning the oven, washing dishes, and helping unload trucks. My experience I had on the job fit the job description very well. I cannot remember there being anything in the description that I thought was unfair, and I recall doing a lot of the work that was outlined in the description. One way the job was different than the description was the number of boxes that I had to fold in the facility. I do not remember there being any mention of this in the description, but any second that I wasn’t busy doing something else I would be instructed to fold boxes. One way the job reflected the job description was the emphasis on answering phone calls. We had a strict script that all workers had to recite when answering the phones, and we were told to not let the phones ring any longer than 2 rings. As I said before, the job description really did not influence me to apply, I was just looking for part-time work that I had prior experience in.

Upon reading that one of my favorite companies is in the midst of a public lawsuit in which they are accused of discriminating against Norwegians, I felt betrayed. I have been an avid supporter of this company for as long as I can remember, and I feel a personal connection to them and their brand. To find out that they were discriminating against a culture I associate with was saddening.

Finding out that your favorite company is discriminating against any type of culture or ethnicity is unfortunate, but it is especially painful when you are associated with that group. I understand that these are only claims at this point, and the company is innocent until proven guilty. But I can’t help but think that these claims are true. If these claims turn out to be true, my allegiance to this brand would slightly change. I’m not the type to throw out all of the products I own from that brand, but I would consider searching for another company I can support in the future. Being Norwegian is not a very relevant part of who I am, so the brand discriminating against them does not hurt me a lot. This public lawsuit would cause my attitude towards the company to shift from one of my favorite brands, to one that I may only use when I have to.

One thing this lawsuit would definitely affect is my decision to apply for work at that company in the future. If I knew they discriminated against Norwegian people in the past, then I would likely avoid applying to work their. I would not enjoy working somewhere I felt discriminated against, or somewhere I felt I wasn’t appreciated because of my ethnicity.