How Altruistic Are Stockroom Clerks, Anyhow?

My 16-year-old son found himself unexpectedly unemployed after holding an office job for a year.  He wants pocket money flowing again, so he's trying to find a summer situation which will carry over into the next school year if he's lucky.

Today he went on a local supermarket's web site to fill out an application.  He asked me for advice about the legal type questions, and then it got really interesting.  After he chose the kind of job he wanted (the overall support tasks -- stock, janitorial, collecting carts, servicing the can/bottle machines, etc.) he was asked to answer a long series of personality evaluation questions -- how much do you agree with this statement, etc.  I have taken this kind of questionnaire before, but I've been working in a professional environment for over 25 years.  Examples:

• "I put other people's feelings and desires before my own."
• "Most people want to quit their job more than the boss realizes."
• "Most people would use a company credit card to buy personal items."
• "Unfortunately, I would probably have to change jobs again within one year."
• "Most people make mistakes and I would have no problem making mistakes on the job."
• "When given a task, I would always seek to do it the way I see fit."
• "I take pride in performing to the best of my ability."

I guess they want to see whether the answers correlate together to make a common personality type, and whether they think it correlates with the type of job sought.  I sure hope they remember that the applicant is 16 and doesn't have many choices available to him.

The best part:  he had to stop before it was complete so he could leave for driver's ed, so he'll have to fill most of it out a second time.  Sigh...

Nothing Comes for Nothing

This Cryptoquote actually appeared in Wednesday's paper -- July 4, 2012 -- but I haven't gotten around to posting it 'til now.  There are plenty of ways to express this as a terse generality, since freedom is but one example of a desirable and important result in life.  I'll forgive the outdated reference to "men" from the 1700s of course...

Those who expect to read the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.


Thomas Paine

No Good Deed, Part Two

I'd written a post a couple of months ago about spraining my ankle when heading to volunteer at a soup kitchen.  Pure irony, of course, that I got "punished" for it, unless you believe in divine intervention, but even at that moment, it would've been kind of ridiculous since the soup kitchen is in a church.  

This morning I read a news article which indicates a deliberate instance of someone's being punished for doing a good deed.  A young lifeguard dared to run over and assist in the rescue of a swimmer who was just outside his patrol zone.  The swimmer was ultimately fine, but the lifeguard lost his job because he was perceived to have risked the safety of the people in his own zone.  Two other lifeguards quit in protest of management's decision.

Maybe if our society weren't so punitive and judgmental and litigation oriented, more people would step forward to help others on general principle.  Fear of "Good Samaritan" lawsuits has stopped many people from giving assistance to injured strangers.  Fear of becoming a crime victim has deterred many people from stopping on the side of the road to see whether someone could use a hand changing a tire or calling a tow truck or possibly even an ambulance.

Back to basics would be awfully nice.  This is Pollyanna, signing off.