Time to Change Jobs (1)

[New series: A Time to Change . . .]

I can't remember what hourly rate I earned at my first job as door-to-door magazine seller in Mercer County NJ. I was hired for the summer, and was the only one left of the original 15 youth. (I am a Taurus) At the end, that company skipped town with all the yearly subscription payments, mostly from seniors. My first scam experience. 

Nor do I remember the cents per paper earned delivering the Santa Ana Register (California), or my commission rate selling Encyclopedia Britanicas in Orange County, again door-to-door. Nor as a stock clerk for many months at Woolworths in '67 next to Ewing High School, my alma mater. Nor as a busboy at International House of Pancakes on Parkway Ave (closed last year), and the free spaghetti dinners workin' nights.

I do not remember my nightly hourly rate cleaning Motor Trend Magazine and other Anaheim CA offices in '68. That job I got from my second cousin Donny (mentioned in my book), a swingin' bachelor. No, I don't remember that $$. In every one I was pleased and almost happy to be working and earning my own cash, shared with no one.  Thru the '60s dozens and dozens and dozens of jobs appeared in The Trenton Times, where I found my first magazine gig.

As far as any of my jobs or positions go, I enjoyed workin' and was always goalless, just goin' with the flow. Especially workin' as a salaried 35 hour-per-week employee for the State of NJ; almost 39 years. My actual "career," ended in '09 as a six-figure  manager; unplanned, unguided, happenstance thruout.

Grateful for each employment, which is why I now advocate vociferously for fair jobs for every able-bodied person who requires water, food, shelter, clothing and healthcare. Right now there are millions of jobs available, just look online.

But they all require meticulous backgrounds, bachelor's at a minimum, sometimes Masters, and years of training and experience in the field. Too many ridiculous and obscenely unnecessary requirements.  And they expect you to "hit the ground running." Mentoring or in-house training may be a joke, unless its sales or marketing, "America's job god." Yes, week or two-week courses on "How to overcome Buyer's barriers to buying," with many more to follow. Every salesperson's ABC? "Always buyers closing."

Let me digress. Consumerism keeps this country alive. It used to be buying U.S. manufactured goods, wars (still wars), which jobs mostly went oversees to slave labor rates, and tby the '70s turned ballistic into buying services. We seem to produce more intellectual property now than anything else, which will grow. I'd hate to be the US Patent Office!

So, jobs, jobs, jobs. Most politicians crying this mantra for decades, especially since the 2008 crash. It's a great mantra, but easy solutions, like OJT, more equal emphasis on technical schools, and legislation for things like the 30's Works Progress Administration, would be a starts. America's infrastructure is crumbling. A trillion gallons a year leaking from deteriorating pipes -- one example of dozens -- dangerous, overcrowded, narrow suburban roads, leaking sewer lines, wasted buildings/brownfields. At least cities and munis are recognizing these areas more now.   

So? Solution to jobs scarcity? Big ugly circle, sales and consumerism at all levels equal jobs and better earnings (maybe).

Why consumerism will not save us alone, nor even higher minimum hourly rates (which I'm in favor of), won't do it, in next blog.
All my opinion of course.

By Rodney Richards, subscribe or comment to 1050ablia@gmail.com