ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601260011
SECTION: ECONOMY PAGE: 13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS HENSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
Call it the "Thank God It's Friday" philosophy.
Or call it the disgruntled employee syndrome.
Everybody knows someone who complains their way through each day's work. It may be us.
A trip to the mall or the grocery store or the bank can net an earful of just how awful someone thinks his job is. A teller might tell you how much she hates her boss. The bag boy might unload some work-related baggage while he's packing your trunk.
Witness these following actual incidents, comments by the average Joe or Josephine to the valued customer:
A checkout person says, "If I were you, I'd take my money to another store; our stuff is cheap."
The delivery service driver says, "I got another complaint about a busted package, but I figure they don't pay me enough to care, you know?''
A car salesman who explains his philosophy on money, to a couple he is trying to sell a car to, by adding, "I figure people are either going to stick it to me, or I'm going to stick it to the next guy, right?''
Then there's the complaining co-worker. The person in the next cubicle may be photocopying an "I Hate Mondays" Garfield poster. Or maybe taping a postcard that advertises a fictitious movie called "The Job That Ate My Brain" to a computer terminal. In plain view of higher-ups.
What are these people thinking?
"I guess there are complainers everywhere," says Marjorie Skidmore, a job service manager in Roanoke with the Virginia Employment Commission. "But, complaining about your job in front of a customer ... to me that's a big no-no. There's a real loyalty that, when you take the check, you keep your mouth shut."
She says there is a difference between the casual comment and the chronic complainer. "We all have ups and downs," she says. "Maybe we dread a task we have to do that day.
"I think a disgruntled or difficult employee almost has a death wish. They're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, absentee rates are probably higher, the quality of their work is off."
The solution should be simple, says Skidmore. If you don't like your job, quit it and get a different one. "The idea that someone would get up every day and go to a job they just hated would be terrible," she says.
Sometimes the answer isn't so cut and dried, however. "If you've got a job, and rent and a car loan to pay off, it's hard to just quit," she says. But the bottom line is more than just a monetary one. "If people don't like the job they're in, some will stay and be miserable," Skidmore says. "And then they end up being not very good employees."
The best plan is to make an inventory of your interests, and find a job that matches them. Still, the job world can be hit or miss. Skidmore started out as a teacher. "I thought that's what I wanted to be," she says. "It got so I was dreading it, though."
Skidmore believes she's living proof that a career change can brighten your outlook. "I love my job," she says. "But I still like the weekends."
LENGTH: Medium: 63 linesby CNB