Labor

In Transit to Cold Spring, NY — Today I take the Metro-North train upstate to Cold Spring to visit and spend Labor Day weekend with friends. The ride is a little more than one hour. I’ll take an Iris Murdoch book and a journal for moments to read and moments to capture.

It is fitting that this trip takes place on a weekend when I (like so many) equate this weekend as the crossover point to the fall season. Fall isn’t here but you can see it in the wider culture. I take this weekend to renew myself. It’s the season to do that. It’s a season of change and for serious commitments. School starts again. Commitments are renewed. Nature prepares for the season ahead. And in November, Americans get to elect a president for change.

This Labor Day means something new. I get to decide where next to put my labors. I have joined the many Americans looking for a job. If this process were easy, there would be no anxiety. The anxiety comes when what you’re asking for is a kind of labor that is suitable and fulfilling and that pays what you think you are worth. I want to facilitate staff development and career development for employees in organizations. My search efforts are apportioned between the jobs I want and the jobs I’m willing to do to bring in income.

Two weeks ago, I marched into a neighborhood deli with a “Help Wanted” sign hung up to apply for a weekend job. The owner was working and was looking for someone to make sandwiches during the weekend. I said I could do that. He took my number and has yet to call.

So this weekend, I appreciate all those who have jobs and who support the economy. And I hope that my search to find labor will be borne of love for this time in my life and love for the kind of job I want to do. To hope isn’t easy but that is the strength required. One hopes through the struggles.

“Hope is a combination of doubt and presumption,
but also their transformation.” — Alfred Ederheim



photo by DaylandS. Some rights reserved
http://flickr.com/photos/dayland/collections/

The Rubber Meets the Road

New York, NY - I have an interview this afternoon back in a particular industry that I had left a year ago. The kind of industry is not as important as the fact that I left it. The job involves working in a way that is new and exciting to me: to develop staff.

Here lies the conflict: I want this job but I do not care for the industry. How do I get the employer to hire me? How much do I share in the interview? Can I forward my value proposition in an industry that I do not care for?

The phrase “The rubber meets the road” comes to mind: The rubber represents my truth: I have skills and desire for this opportunity . The road represents the reality of the world: The employer has needs and will pay someone to address these needs. Truth meets reality. The interview determines how close the match is.

Thankfully, the interview is a conversation. It is a meeting of equal minds. I represent my interests. The employer represents his. Each of us gets to say: "Here's my need and here's what I offer." Marketing is all.

I've decided to be as truthful as I can be. How much truth is ultimately a personal decision. As a independent contractor, I now welcome an organization paying my benefits as opposed to paying for these on my own. If the employer asks why I’m pursuing this job, I will not prevaricate. I will say that it is nice to belong to an organization and have benefits paid.

Marketing is important. I hope integrity counts too.