Author: Caden Leno

Labor unions are an interesting role in shaping workplace dynamics for employees, employers, and society. Through my own experience with unions and others around me, they consistently show that unions can tend to secure higher wages, stronger benefits, and improved safety standards for workers, giving employees a collective voice that can sometimes balance managerial authority. At the same time, unions may introduce higher labor costs, stricter work rules, and slower decision‑making, which employers argue can limit flexibility and competitiveness of their job market. As a perspective from society, unions are often viewed as beneficial to the worker, and frowned upon in some cases as you may have seen employees going on strike to form a union. Union pros and cons can vary significantly, and from my experience it’s often times a more beneficial option for the individual employee to join for the protection rights alone.

My job works with people specifically in the construction trade. I deal with many people who opt into a union as they join the workforce. They appreciate the job security and procedures the union provided, but they also felt that the processes sometimes slowed progress and that not all members were equally represented. As for myself joining a union I feel as though I most likely would. The compensation from benefits is a great factor for retirement, and I feel I would have representation and job security through a labor union for example.

Taking the Life Stress Questionnaire I scored a 215 which would put me in the one third of all people will experience an illness or accident and higher than normal. Through the How Stressed Are You survey I scored a 74/100 which equated to a very stressed characteristic and above average. Lastly, the Type A survey showed that I am Type A and received a score of 85/100 which is nearing the edge of Very Type A.

Based on these results, I’m not very surprised. I feel as though I know I live a very high stress, intense, and ambitious lifestyle. I have two kids, work full-time, finishing my bachelors degree because I want to, not because I need to, while still pursuing business in my real estate profession on the side. Balancing my daily life takes a lot of problem solving, facing new challenges, and leaving little room for procrastination. I find myself always looking for the next thing I can be working towards, and can tend to be impatient or wishing I was further along.

One of the largest things I noticed in these results is something that I’m aware of already but serves as a good reminder is that I need to find ways to be less “high strung”. Through these questions I was reminded that I am typically not calm. I am typically stressed, high strung, easily irritable or annoyed, and can lose my patience because I’m always working through multiple problems in my head or feel I have a large amount of responsibility to uphold. Through this survey I’ve found that taking time to myself, working out, taking deep breaths, positive self talk and walking are all easy things I can do to try and better my situation of being stressed out.

In my career my type A tendencies serve me well as I can be valued as a problem solver and someone who doesn’t procrastinate. However, my tendency to become impatient and feel as though I can do something better than others can get in the way of my working relationships. Moving forward I found that I can “sign a contract with myself” in order to address the things that I want to work on and ensure I am taking the steps to do so.

Many organizations are offering trainings to employees on ways to navigate stress and anxiety. Through my own organization I’ve taken several classes that discuss the consequences of not dealing with stress in a healthy way, and ways that you can mitigate stress when it comes around. These have been very essential for the health of the organization, and provide a great benefit to employees.

My career path is a very unique one. One that most people would likely question due to the fact that I essentially worked my way backwards at one point to start a new path. At 20 years old I started in Real Estate, and was very successful at it. I was one of the fortunate few that was able to create a very comfortable living for myself and family off of being self employed. I thought I had everything I wanted, but after about 5 years I grew tired of the self-employed lifestyle and felt unsatisfied within my career. I knew I had to make a change because what I was doing just wasn’t fulfilling to me. I was no longer passionate about what I once was, and I think it was largely due to the fact that I was more so running a business based on commission and not helping others in a more meaningful way.

This is when I decided to work for my Tribal government, so I could assist the community I once grew up in, and shape the path for my kids generation. The reason I give this back story is because compensation was a large factor in these decisions. The motivating factor here was the passion I had to lead others in my community, and work towards a career path that would allow me the opportunity to set process in place that my kids and future generations would benefit from. I was choosing to leave a six figure a year income, and start over. I applied for a position posted as a limited duration part-time employee with the “opportunity” to develop into a full-time role. With no guarantee this was scary. My behavior towards this scenario was increased motivation, work ethic, and overall satisfaction towards my work environment. Once I received the job offer I knew I had to work extremely hard to work my way up the corporate ladder. I left a six figure per year career for $16 an hour part-time. This hurt, and motivated me to exemplify my attributes and find any opportunity I could to prove my value. Due to my contribution, I received the full-time position, and from there I’ve been promoted again to a Senior Executive Assistant. I’m very proud of the progress and growth I’ve made, and did not expect to be here in such a short amount of time. It goes to show with hard work, determination, and consistent action, you can make anything possible.

I have been apart of multiple training initiatives within my career. This is partly due to my eagerness to learn and become a better leader within my field. I enjoy the trainings that are established in order to better serve me within my career. With that said, the most effective trainings I have been apart of have been ones that align with the assessment and direction phase of development where human resource representatives offer training for succession planning an individual one on one sessions in order to give you a clear path to your career.

The reason these trainings are so effective in my opinion is because it draws a clear outline for what to expect, and is productive through and through. There is a clear objective of what we’re going to discuss, and is typically conveyed through a well thought out and organized presentation. This makes it easy to follow along with, and comprehend the material being taught. After leaving these trainings I’ve felt more insight into what my career path has in store, and the opportunities available within my position.

The trainings I’ve been apart of that are not effective are ones that are disorganized, and are put on by dysfunctional managers who feel their way of doing things is the best way even though it’s extremely ineffective. These types of trainings are set out to introduce certain concepts to help individuals better their skillset within the workplace. However, I’ve found when a dysfunctional manager is setting the standard for what is okay and what isn’t, the training becomes ineffective where I’m questioning the decision making and judgement of the presenter. This causes me to disengage and feel I wasted my time.

Overall the most effective interviews are those that aim to produce an outcome that benefits the individual in a way that is easily comprehendible and presented by a well respected manager.

References:

Ciere, M. (2026, May). Week 6 Learning Materials.

I have been apart of a fair amount of interviews within my time searching for a career that best suited me. The most effective interview I sat in was my last interview, where I received the offer for my current job. Since then, I actually have conducted several interviews over the course of my career, and have learned many valuable lessons along the way.

Interviews are extremely valuable tools that help managers evaluate potential qualified canidates, and find out more about their strengths and weakness. When used effectively, it can produce a valuable outcome such as finding the best fit for the team. Reflecting on my own experiences, the most effective interviews were the ones that felt structured, consistent, and directly tied to the job description. These types of effective interviews asked questions like “Tell me about a time” and evaluated responses using clear criteria. Considering my own interviews I’ve conducted, we use a grading system while identifying the answer we’re looking for as a team. This improved reliability, because each candidate was assessed in a similar way, and validity, because the questions were clearly related to the attributes required for the role.

The most ineffective, and actually worst interview I’ve ever been apart of was a very informal, and unstructured one. I applied for a landscape position. I met the owner at a project where he showed me informally what they do, and the interview ended by him stating “It’s not a good idea to steal from me”, which felt very threatening. Needless to say I didn’t accept the job offer. This style of informal interviewing, and giving personal remarks based on ones experience or opinions reduced the reliability of the interview, and took away my desire to work for the company. “But while unstructured interviews consistently receive the highest ratings for perceived effectiveness from hiring managers, dozens of studies have found them to be among the worst predictors of actual on-the-job performance — far less reliable than general mental ability tests, aptitude tests, or personality test”(Iris Bohnet, 2016).

I am an extremely hard worker, and would’ve been a great asset to the company. By having an unstructured process, he lost out on a great potential employee.

If I could give advice to managers, I would recommend implementing structured interviews with standardized questions and scoring systems that reflect the job description. Another important factor would be training interviewers to recognize bias and focus on job related competencies would that also would improve outcomes.

References:

Bohnet, I. (2016, April 18). How to take the bias out of interviews. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/04/how-to-take-the-bias-out-of-interviews

I have a unique perspective on job descriptions because I currently am within a career field where I review and approve job descriptions on a week-to-week basis. Job descriptions can be great. They outline the needs of the department while emphasizing the qualifications they are looking for in order to qualify an individual before the interview process so as to streamline the process of finding the best fit individual. However, job descriptions are also an important tool for managers and Human Resource representatives to use in order to evaluate employees and determine goals based on performance of their duties related to the job description.

In order to ensure a job description is serving its purpose beyond finding an employee who meets the minimum qualifications, you must look at updating and reviewing the job description on a consistent basis. The job description needs to follow industry standards in comparison to competitors, and allow for employees to follow a specific set of tasks in order to measure their performance. In A Job Worth Doing by Kathryn Tyler, there is a mention of the importance to update job descriptions and how most managers simply skip this step which can cost them exponentially in terms of risk for employee disengagement, grievance filings, or job dissatisfaction. “Unfortunately, job descriptions often aren’t viewed as living documents. Once completed, they may be relegated to dusty three-ring binders or long-unopened text documents. Experts say this is a mistake”(Tyler, 2013).

As time goes on in most employees careers they are bound to take on more responsibility as the department adapts to new challenges. If the job description they once signed off on no longer outlines their job responsibility as it once did, the employee will not be fairly compensated which can lead to a lack of motivation, and slowed performance. I’ve experienced this personally in my career. My department was small to begin with, which meant as we grew there would be more work to take on for everyone. I was quick to say yes to any new project, because I knew this would result in more skill, experience, and leverage to reason for a promotion when the time came. I ended up taking on a much larger responsbility of tasks that were not within my job description, and recognized 2 years later that I was being extremely under compensated which led me to become very unmotivated to do more. To combat this risk, a manager should take a very close look at their job description in order to evaluate each task individual to build their team in the most efficient way. In First Break All the Rules, it states a managers catalyst role is to “select a person, set expectations, motivate the person, and develop the person”(Buckingham & Coffman, 2016).

Ultimately in order to ensure efficient productivity, workplace satisfaction, employee motivation and egagement, you must actively review the job descriptions set in place. Without this internal audit, you may lose good talent, and develop an underperforming staff due to the desire to be valued in the way their job expects them to perform.

References

Buckingham, M., & Coffman, C. (2016). First, break all the rules: What the world’s greatest managers do differently. Simon & Schuster.

Tyler, K. (2013, January 1). Job worth doing: Update descriptions. HR Magazine.

Synchrony

Synchrony is a great example of a company with a strong sense for employee satisfaction. Roughly 94% of employees say synchrony is a great place to work, and this is largely in part due to their nature of putting their employees first. They built their company and relationship with employees based on trust, employee voice, and flexibility. The company places a large emphasis on a listen to employees and co-creating with them in order to bring a larger sense of workplace satisfaction. In doing so, they build a large sense of trust by ensuring their employees feel heard and valued. Another highly valued aspect employees have of their career at Synchrony is their work life balance. The company has implemented a strong sense of flexibility where employees feel a sense of relief due to remote work options and flexible day to day schedules. With these values combined, employees have said Synchrony is an amazing place to work and it sits well above the average for employee satisfaction.

NVIDIA

A total of 95% of employees say NVIDIA is a great place to work, and here’s why. Employees of NVIDIA have stated the company has built its foundation with employees based on high trust, strong leadership, and employee engagement/empowerment. Employees state that management is honest and ethical within their business practices, and would only lay off as a last resort method making them feel more secure and valued within the workplace. People working at NVIDIA have a large sense of responsibility, and thus are more empowered to be proud within their career. Overall NVIDIA has a high employee satisfaction rate due to managements honest efforts to creating an empowering environment.

Hilton

Hilton hotels has a strong employee satisfaction rate sitting right at 95% of employees reporting this is a great place to work. The reason employees find Hilton to be a great place to work is due to their efforts in creating an environment where people feel included and welcomed. Employees report a large sense of inclusion, trust, growth opportunities, and ethical business practices from the leadership team. Inclusion comes from many directions, and employees report feeling valued and respected regardless of the position or title they hold. Employees feel management is competent in their decision making, and value their employees whole heartedly.

Type of Manager I’d Like to Become

The type of manager I would like to become is one that encompasses all things mentioned from the above companies. I think employee satisfaction is one of if not the most important thing to consider when leading a team. The way to go about ensuring that is by valuing, respecting, listening, and encouraging your team members in a way that you yourself would value. I’d like to be the manager that everyone feels welcomed and respected by. The things I learned from these companies is a great way to introduce those vlaues in my world.

Challenges of Managers

I believe the challanges come from a difficulty of understanding team dynamic, needs, and differences between groups. Not all individuals are the same, and you can’t resolve conflict, introduce rewards, or encourage everyone in the same way. I think the most challenge thing of being a manager or leader of any kind is understanding the needs of the people you intend to lead. Just like most things, being a manager is one of those things that you adapt over time and will never be perfect at, but trying to implement the things you’ve learned along the way, and learning from past mistakes is what can make a good manager great.

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