Week 10 EOC: Up In The Air

In the movie Up In The Air, Ryan has a very special skill set that he has developed through the course of his career as a Career Transition Advisor. He has to be very professional while still giving off the feeling of empathy towards the person he has been hired to fire. People act very differently on a case-to-case basis and he has to be completely prepared to remain the calming force in the situation. He has to be prepared to deal with people directing anger or other very strong emotions toward him. He has to think on his feet in order to best handle each person. His responses have to be very well thought out so as not to create a liability for himself, the company he represents, or his own company. He used these skills, which are useful in any working environment, to calm people down as they were finding out some very hard news. He made them realize that it is just a job and they are probably destined for something more in their lives. He made them see the good in the situation and took their focus from the negative to help them see it more as an opportunity. This would be a very hard job for me. I would have to admire a person that could remain so in control of their own emotions in the face of constant confrontation. I tend to shy away from confrontation if at all possible. Since I know how it feels to be let go from a job, I know that my response to being let go is one of sad acceptance. There is nothing you can say when your fired so you may as well just resolve to move on.

BOC Week 10: Getting Fired

It all started with a song on the radio. I don’t even remember which one it was, but I do know it was on a radio station that had been approved to listen to in the bar. It was a busy Friday morning and I was alone at the bar. I was helping my customers and they were all happy and having fun. Then the manager came in and immediately said she didn’t like the song that was on the radio and could I please change it. I said no problem and proceeded to change the station. That was all that happened. The next day as I was preparing to leave and the other bartender was getting ready to come on, she pulled out a piece of paper and said I needed to sign it. I read it and couldn’t believe what she was telling me to sign. She said that I was being written up for having an inappropriate song on in the bar. I explained what had happened and that it was on a radio station that had been approved by management. She said she didn’t know what to tell me and that I had to sign it. I did but I told her I didn’t agree with the reason I was being written up. The next day, Sunday, I came in expecting to see the schedule up for the next week. We waited all day and they never released it. I asked my manager before I left if I was working the next day or not. He said I was off but he needed to see me at noon. I knew then that I was going to be fired. I just had a feeling. It had been exactly 3 months to the day that I was hired and from everything I had heard about the company, 3 months is the general time limit on that job. I still don’t understand the reasoning behind firing everyone after 3 months and having to train all new people. I had never had a complaint or been written up before this time. I never called in sick and was only a little late once. I never even requested time off and my customers loved me and gushed about me to the managers all the time. This was the most ridiculous company I have ever worked for in terms of management. I felt confused and angry and hurt because I had been working to the best of my ability. I was never rewarded and there was no feedback except bad feedback ever offered. I learned from this experience that sometimes it doesn’t matter how good of an employee you are if your managers are psycho.

EOC Week 9: Personal Freedom vs Union Membership

What would you do if you wanted to work for a company and you had to join the union to get the job? It would really depend on the job, what the pay was, what the benefits of joining that particular union were, how much the dues were, and what the policy on being laid off were. If it was anything like the carpenter’s union here in Las Vegas, I would join. Based on what I know about that particular union, it doesn’t seem like such a bad thing. When someone is out of work or laid off, which happens often lately, they still continue to get a paycheck for the maximum allowable amount from unemployment. They don’t even have to file for it as the union takes care of all of that for them. They also let the person know when there is work again, and if you remain in good standing with the union and the companies that hire the union members, you can get work again fairly quickly.

What if they called a strike over an issue you did not agree with? I feel like if I chose to join the union and take the benefits of doing so, then I must expect that this could happen and accept the consequences. I would go on strike with the union. Often times the company will end up firing workers that don’t stay with the union and if they don’t fire you, it’s definitely more uncomfortable in the work place when the strike is over.

What other issues might concern you if you HAD to belong to get a paycheck? I don’t really see it as a problem because it’s so normal in Las Vegas to belong to a union. In fact I would love to belong to a union and make $17 an hour to be a bartender. That’s 5 times more than I would make in a non union position of the same kind.

BOC Week 9: History of labor unions in the United States

In the United States unionism in some form is almost as old as the nation itself. Crafts that form local unions in the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth century included printers, carpenters, tailors, and weavers. Their chief purpose was to keep up craft standards and to prevent employers from hiring untrained workers and importing foreign labor. (http://Infoplease.com/ce6/bus/A0861691.html) Thus begins the long and colorful history of labor unions in the United States. To some people, they conjure up thoughts of organized crime and gangsters like Jimmy Hoffa. To others, labor unions represent solidarity among the working classes, bringing people together across many professions to lobby for better rights, wages, and benefits. As of 2006, 15.4 million people were union members, and although union membership peaked in 1945, when 35 percent of the nonagricultural work force were union members, unions are still a powerful influence in the United States (and even more powerful in many other countries). They are also an important and fundamental part of the history of United States commerce and the country’s growth into an economic powerhouse. (http://money.howstuffworks.com/labor-union.htm) Today labor unions are generally thought of in a favorable manor, at least in Las Vegas. They provide stability in an economy that is far from it. Craft unions represent workers who essentially have the same skills or perform the same tasks. A union consisting solely of plumbers or electricians is a craft union. Industrial unions represent workers in given industries. (Managing Hospitality Human Resources, p.350) Industrial unions are found all over Las Vegas. They encompass such professions as bartending, food serving, and almost any other job found in a casino.