Lesson Learned
As parents, we give our children advice that we believe will help them to grow and be successful adults. We usually base that advice on or own experiences be they failures or successes. We always hope that our advice isn't out-of-date or irrelevant to the world they know but it doesn't always work out that way.
As parents of three young men, we educated our children and instilled in them a work ethic that they all took to heart as adults. We told them that even if they are working a minimum wage job, always give your best effort, show up on time, work hard, and do the best job you are capable of doing, if for no other reason, than to get a good reference for the next job you take. In other words, build a good work history.
Boy, were we wrong. My youngest graduated college as the pandemic began and in fact had to finish his last semester online due to the college closing in-person classes as pretty much all schools did. During the pandemic, he took a retail job working at one of the large home improvement stores. He worked for this company for a year before he quit to go to grad school. He also applied for some university jobs and all of the above asked for references. His most recent employment seemed like a perfect reference since he had never missed a day, was never late, worked extra hours, and gave a month's notice that he was leaving after a year.
Well, guess what. He learned that it was store policy that they never give references to their past employees. WTF? He worked with people that lasted all of two days before they left without notice. Many were constantly late, or never showed up and quit without any notice. They all got the same reference my son got. NOTHING!!!!
What the hell is the point of ever doing a good job for any of these businesses? It makes no difference at all. I guess that our advice was completely worthless in today's job market. And they wonder why nobody wants to work for them anymore. Repugs keep saying that kids today are lazy and want everything handed to them. Bull F***ing S!!!
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