Quote:
Originally Posted by GailH
My first job at 17 was at McDonald's. It was supposed to be fulltime but I was lucky if I got 12 hours a week. I was told it was because I didn't do a good job. My next job was at a newspaper and I was constantly yelled at by my boss. I have been fired at least a dozen times. I have good attendance and I work hard but I've never been fast enough nor accurate enough. I have a degree in journalism and not being able to find a job in that I went back to school and studied word processing and other computer applications as well as medical terminology. I was still bombarded with complaints that I wasn't fast enough and wasn't accurate enough. I am on the verge of losing my job now as a data entry clerk because I am took slow. I am 56. My wrists ache. I am living in a state I don't want to live in. I moved here because my mother was in her last years. Now that she's dead and I have no relatives nor friends I am stuck in a state where I don't want to live. I am planning on a retirement or semi-retirement at 62 so I can leave this state. Right now I am not at the point where I can go. It is so frustrating not being able to do a good job and getting called in all the time. I don't know what's the matter with me.
|
Gail, I so understand where you are coming from. After 30 years in the work force, I am hearing nothing but complaints from employers and criticism up to the ears all the time. I am not fast enough, flexible enough, available enough, french enough, young enough, experienced enough, organized enough... blah blah blah. I am presently working my butt off for a supervisor who can change opinions as quickly as our wind patterns do here.
I am 47, working retail and restaurant, on my feet for 30 years, feeling joint pain from the hard flooring we are on constantly. I apparently was told by my boss prior to her vacation leave a week ago that she was concerned about my performance, and management would be watching me while she is gone and she likes me personally, and she wouldn't want to comeback to hear that I have been let go. A backhanded compliment if I ever heard one.
My coworkers tell me I am a hardworking person but for her I am never good enough. I am not enough like her. I can relate to your struggles. I send you many hugs. I don't know if it helps any to know that you are not alone in this. I have told my counsellor that after tons of education and years of rejection and criticism in the workplace, I have no idea what skills I have. I can list a dozen or more faults, but i have not one clue of what I do well. Companies call it constructive criticism, but a human being can only take so much.
One of the things i studied was Human Resources Management, and if an employer has good leadership skills, and notices an employee is lacking certain skills, they are to try to provide a way for the employee to acquire those skills, improve with more training, or find a position within the company which has a better fit to the good skills the employee does show. When an employer just craps on an employee constantly, they are not showing very good leadership themselves. If the company is small and cannot provide much movement, they should at least provide some extracurricular activities that enable employees to demonstrate other skills that can draw a compliment now and then. Very few employers do this.
Do you have any hobbies outside of work? My counsellor said I am very articulate but I have no clue how to apply that to a resume. She says I have "soft" skills rather than "hard" skills. That may classify my skills but still doesn't specify what skills in particular. My typing is slow, I have crappy math skills, and my thought patterns are not creative for the arts or logical enough for the analytical work. So where do I fit in?
