| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/5/2009 9:18:58 AM | I've become increasingly aware over the years of the amount of people carrying out jobs or roles or being involved in professional careers, who have (or appear to have)personal attributes, qualities, beliefs or values that would appear to make adequate performance within that role pretty difficult.
I wonder how such people reconcile their personal views with their professional obligations?
I wonder how they feel about having to perhaps contradict their personal stance on something in an effort to perform well in their chosen career?
I wonder mostly, why on earth do they go into careers where their personal views or stand points are going to be compromised?
Just a few examples that I've noticed personally, picked up on on these forums or heard of via some medium or other:
Teachers who don't like children
Glamour models who don't like men perving over them
Nurses who are intolerant and uncaring
Care workers who don't respect old people
Racist police officers/teachers/health care professionals/shop assistants
Judgemental social workers and mental health workers
Sex therapist who won't work with gay couples
Catholic pharmacist who won't give out morning after pill
Magistrates way out of touch with the reality of life 'on the street'
Do you feel that you have views that you have to put aside in order to perform well in your job? If so how do you accomplish this?
Have you experienced anyone who was clearly in an inappropriate profession or job?
Do you think that it is possible to perform well in a role even though your personal views may make it difficult? Should personal views exclude people from certain professions?
Have you changed your career because you were unwilling to compromise - was this because of changes to your company's ethos, changes in your own outlook or simply because you didn't realise that your own views may be compromised in such a position when you took it up?
I don't expect the questions raised to be answered questionnaire style, they are merely intended to evoke some thoughts and discussion. | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/5/2009 9:36:50 AM | I've recently been promoted at work.
It didn't just happen, I was groomed for it. Told what I should wear, what car I should get (I had an N reg micra, was 'told' it wasn't suitable because our client's fleet car is the Audi and everyone in our company drives a jag or audi etc.)
10 years ago I would not even shake hands with a person as I thought it as ridiculous as wearing a tie.
What made me change?
I had to to progress. I have given myself some concessions, there are companies I will not work for, and I only work for honest companies. But you just do have to accept certain things to get on in life.
You don't HAVE to of course...................but you'd better enjoy drudgery or failing that have your own company.
Just the way of the world.
The way I see it, a few years of being their bittch.......then I'm free and retired. | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/5/2009 11:12:00 AM |
Have you changed your career because you were unwilling to compromise
Many years ago I worked in retail managing a shop for a small family company. I became aware that the guy who owned the shop was dishonourable and a bit dodgy in all aspects of his life.
When it wasn't something I had to be part of I admit I turned a blind eye, but when he asked me to start doing something that I knew to be blatently fraudulant, I left, putting myself out of work for the first (and thank god only) time in my life.
It wasn't something I wanted to do nor could I afford to, but my honesty and integrity are not up for sale at any price.
Strangely enough when I went for an interview for another job and was honest about my reasons for leaving, it got me the job! | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/5/2009 11:16:38 AM | The two first posts honestly and effectively reflect the corporate world. I have been there and done that and it does require sucking up, off, or whatever you need to do to keep your "things". I wasn't to happy with that atmosphere and so I did, as was suggested, become my own boss. (Other personal situations have stopped that now, so IMMMM BACK!! lol).
The corporate life is a mind set and it does pay off if your willing to compromise your entire self, as many do. However, the real successes, the stand outs, the innovators, have all bucked this trend and pursued what made them happy. Not all arrive, and some fail miserably. Example given; Ted Turner, and Donald Trump. Successes?????? Heck yes, but not until many failures and setbacks.
Should you compromise who you are to succeed , first define success. If it "stuff" or money or worldly possessions, then YES. If you are less apt to compromise you can still have a productive happy life, I did it with minimal skills, rofl, just kidding.
Lastly, if you are in a position that you CAN get out of, now or with training or opportunitty
then I would suggest you do it, but wait till you've "whored" your self out long enough to save some money.
FYI- I too have taken a higher paid position doing close to what I wanted but not happy about it. But then, my kids in college and sometimes you have to suck it up.
SELL SELL SELL, lol | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/5/2009 12:03:16 PM | I have never believed that one should have to work for a living, but I do. Does that make me guilty of having inappropriate skills for the job?  | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/5/2009 12:19:56 PM | To me a company is a system that chugs away without having the slighest care in the world for whoever it has working for it.
It's sole purpose is to survive, cover it's ars, and make a profit.
I don't see why I should give a monkeys as to wether we're suited or not. | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/5/2009 12:48:05 PM | I was perhaps a little misleading.
I LIKE the company I work for.
I have had to change certain things, yes, and I would choose not to if I could. But they are relatively minor things such as dressing a certain way, behaving a certain way most of the time, and driving a certain type of car.
That said, I am still me, very much an individual as are my coleauges. It's a competetive environment, but not an uncaring one. We have two employees, lovingly refered to a 'heckle and jeckle' Despite being virtually useless throug arthritis and in the other case, pure stupidity, we keep them on out of pure loyalty for the service they have given. I myself have had to take a lot of time off for cancer treatments and still take off time for checkups and other work.
I do dislike some of the formality, but I do also see the necessity of it. you do not get through 4 progress meetings and cost reports in a day by being anything other than professional and to the point.
Dress wise, ok, i wouldn't choose to be suited and booted. But you have to have some kind of standard, it just happens to be set at smart rather than my prefered smart casual.
I do know that if i say something it will be upheld and not reneged on at a later date, there is integrity.
And they pay me well for my time. It isn't as though i have a lot to complain about! | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/5/2009 2:04:54 PM | ^^^^^^ that was a log fire stop being so dramatic young man.
Some good thoughts, quite interesting and not at all what I expected. Labiden -
So I guess what's been said so far is that if it is a means to your own ends you will compromise in an almost "I'll be having the last laugh" or "While you're happily screwing me, I'm actually screwing you" kind of way.
Interesting...
vvvvv OK. So it's a matter of getting as much as you can out of it while you can?
Are people who compromise themselves sometimes seen as brown nosers? Are these the ones who prosper?
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/5/2009 2:25:00 PM | | I worked with a woman some years ago in the care profession who was clearly in the wrong job.She had no patience with the elderly residents and many disliked her.She was head of care at the time until an incident with a resident and she was demoted.I could never fathom why she did the job. | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/5/2009 3:18:21 PM | As soon as I saw this thread I thought of my manager (I do hope she's not on PoF reading this!!)...
She readily admits that she's not a people person, in fact she's stated several times that she detests the general public... chosen profession of over 20 years.... Front of house manager in a hotel! Makes no sense to me! I've lost count of the times that she's made me cringe when I've overheard her exchanges with guests, there's nowt as strange as folk! | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/5/2009 4:04:00 PM | We have a Rupert (officer)here who has never had a proper job....left school to go to Uni...gained a lower second in politics then went to Sandhurst...Scraped thru (his words) then sent to us.....by his own admission hes 'not keen on getting dirty' and his man management skills are very poor.
But on a more positive note he can out run almost anyone in the regiment and really knows how to polish a sports car 
Hes actually a rather likeable character though | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/5/2009 5:39:19 PM | Don't you have to look at social services these days and the neglect of children..is that through lack of care of the workers or because of government under funding?
I'm sure there are some that will go out on a limb to be there for the needs of those who are at risk but some are just in that career for the money side of it and maybe not skilled and trained or caring enough to actually do it properly? | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/5/2009 6:14:16 PM | I just wonder that as things are with kids choosing career paths at 16 preparing to take A Levels or deciding what college course to do and giving a lot of thought to what degree or profession they wish to take up when they are 18/19/20/21 etc etc if we are setting ourselves up for a workforce who don't really give a shit?
I mean at the age of 16 when a youngster is told that "there is a lack of good social workers" or "there's a shortage of mental health nurses at the moment" are we pressuring kids into carers that they don't really have a natural aptitude or even desire for?
On what basis do we choose our career path at the age of 18? Is it right that we should be choosing at that age or could the system do with a shake up? If so how do we shake it up?
Is it good enough for our social workers to be people who care alright, but care about the money they are earning and job security rather than the people they are providing a service to? (I'm not knocking social workers, I'm just using them as an example prompted by the poster above me) | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/5/2009 6:36:01 PM | A gig's a gig.
I don't always end up playing the music i'd choose to listen to, but it makes people happy. Every gig you do is rehearsal for the next one.
If you're lucky you can earn a living from something you love. At other times you end up doing something else in order to have those luxuries such as a roof over your head and eating regularly.
If the work you're doing is approached with that in mind, then it doesn't really matter how you earn a crust or two. It's just another gig. Learn something useful, and get on with the things you really love. | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/6/2009 2:33:40 AM | Well that's what they seem to like now, if you can do the job and you actually like the job, you definitely wont be chosen for it. If you're ignorant and useless then you're hired!
Ive been for jobs in nurseries, I have two nephews and i like them but middle aged angry women who smoke and swear a lot and hate kids usually get the job instead
Although actually there was a Monty Python sketch where Cleese is driving a lorry and says something along the lines of "I wanted to go into script writing but ive got a degree so can only drive the lorry"
Not that having a degree is strictly relevent here but i understand what he meant, i mean people have the relevent "nvq" or whatever but the job goes to somebody who hates it but wants money | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/6/2009 4:32:44 AM | I'd say that the majority of people are doing jobs that they aren't necessarly suited to and don't have the right skills for. Beggars can't be choosers at the moment. I know a teacher who became a teacher because both her parents were teachers and she always felt she needed to please them and live up to their expectations. Her father was a narcissistic bully and her mother was a manic depressive. She seems to think she's a good teacher but she handles emotional situations like a child herself and and can't abide authority. You can be trained to do jobs but if you don't have the right character or attributes to follow through then you could be doing more harm than good in your job.
Edit: In one of my jobs I am doing a job well below my capabilities and in my other I don't bite off more than I can chew | |
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HenXX
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Joined: 6/16/2009
Msg: 18 | |
| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/6/2009 5:01:15 AM | In my neck of the woods,you trained or worked wherever there was a demand when you left school,probably even more so now for the young ones.Sadly suitability for the job did not come into it.Rather than re training into something else more suitable people tended to stick with what was safe.Have seen many within the care industry not suitable,some of the most uncaring people I have seen have been nurses(stress...not all are!),often because they become immune to suffering seeing it day in and day out,or is it their way of handling it?
Which fits in with what the op is saying,not appropriate for the job,the amount of caring you give to a person should not be evaluated on how much you get paid.I have been paid minimum wage,worked 60 hours a week in the care industry but still been able to be caring,as I know many others do,
VVVVVVVVVVV | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/6/2009 5:13:17 AM |
I have seen have been nurses(stress...not all are!),often because they become immune to suffering seeing it day in and day out,or is it their way of handling it?
Perhaps it because they are exhausted and not paid enough to care enough and they project their hostilities of not feeling cared for on to the patients and also, like you say, if they see suffering on a daily basis there is the tendency to get immune to it. I guess that's why soldiers get immune to killing and seeing suffering too. | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/7/2009 1:08:13 AM | Rather than re training into something else more suitable people tended to stick with what was safe
Yes, I think people are encouraged to simply "stick with it"
I decided when at school that i should go into accountancy, the career advisor advised me on what course to take, although she actually got it wrong so i ended up not as a proper accountant, but i did gets accounts work although now i'm finding it boring and have decided to retrain as a hair dresser and people don't like it at all.
I wonder wtf it's got to do with tm but they all love sticking their noses in | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/7/2009 7:34:27 AM | Yep, i am not a people person. I like individual people but not "people" if you get what i mean.
In my job i have to do a hell of a lot of customer service and people often compliment me on how well i get the job done and how they wish they had come to me first to get their problem solved....
I used to be terrible with numbers as well. Then i landed a job in accounts
Thing is, i'm excellent at it now! | |
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| Inappropriate skills for the job
Posted: 7/7/2009 8:13:02 AM | I'm a painter. I don't like schmoozing. I have a distinct distrust and dislike of galleries. I'm cr@p with names and I'm never in the right place at the right time.
I'm doomed.
H.x | |
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