July 16, 2006

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  FEATURED GROWNUPS BLOGRING TOPIC POST: July 2006

  
  

  
  

  Tell us about something you experienced growing up that children today will never know - due to advancements, technology, progress - and how it may effect them (what won't they learn, what could be the ramifications or what could it save them from)... if you are from the NOW generation Tell us something you have heard we did without that you really love and enjoy

  
  

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   When kids suddenly become adults, and are forced to enter the working environment, things have changed quite a bit from how they were when I grew up in the late 60s. Now young adults seem to have little choice but to canvas the malls and business centers to see if they can secure a mcjob in foodservice or retail. If you're lucky, and have good grades, then perhaps you can obtain work in your chosen field, but so many tech jobs that exist now didn't back then, and even though a young man or woman might eventually choose a first job relating to their career, this wasn't usually the case when I was growing up. The best way to enter the workplace when I was young was through a family friend, who hired the youngster to clean out the store, or some such early non technical or service job, during summers or after school. The pay wasn't good, although the hours usually were. The first job didn't necessarily need to be a career. Mainly, a first job trained the youngster in the first steps of business acumen. Usually this job amounted to sweeping and cleaning, and was not really vital to the existence of the business at hand. Now these "auxiliary" or "training" jobs have all but disappeared from the business landscape.
  

  Even though I didn't grow up in a "small town", El Monte was a suburb of Los Angeles, and as such, had it's own business center, and was and is a separate city from L.A. I studied to be a teacher when I was in high school and college, and eventually, my plans were to go into the education field. During the summer between my junior and senior years, however, I wanted to have some extra "spending money" and so my mother and I began asking around before the close of my junior school year, for some kind of small job to gain me some extra money through the summer. Although I don't have children, and have not been personally involved with starting any young people on their paths to a career or occupation, from what I can gather from most of the jobs I see held by young people today, they have to enter an almost cut throat world of business right off the bat, with rules, regulations,  aptitude tests, and introductory periods. Mother was friends with a woman who worked in a three day old bakery, and I got my first job sweeping out the bakery on Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon until four. The job didn't "exist" until I entered the position. And it probably didn't exist afterwards, until the woman who ran the store crossed paths with another student who wanted a job for the summer.

  
  

  I didn't 'need' the job. They call the younger generation today the "entitiled generation" used to getting their own way and having disposable income much younger. Some familes I'm sure are still just as strict as mine was in the 60s, and the only "disposable income" I ever received was an allowance for doing "chores" around the house. My "chores" were mowing the lawn, taking care of the garden, and taking out the trash. My "job" at the three day old bakery was a lot like my "chores". Probably my mother's friend swept up when needed, and hosed down the parking lot in front of the store to clear it from detritus. Me taking the "job" alleviated these "chores" from her workload.

  
  

  A three day old bakery is not that "busy". It's a clearing house for bread and cakes that have stayed too long on the market shelves. When the vendors restock the market, they bring the leftovers to the three day old bakery. The one in which I worked was owned by Interstate Brands, and the shelves were stocked with all manner of Hostess products. When I showed up for work, at noon, the morning drivers were in the midst of dropping off their three day old stock. There was a rule that workers in the store could eat as much of the product as they wanted as long as they turned in the packaging for inventory reasons. I ate a lot of "free" Twinkies, Cupcakes, HoHos, and Zingers while I was there. I would help the drivers dispose of their stock. After the warehouse area was cleared, I swept up, and then in the afternoons, I hosed down the parking lot in the front of the store. It wasn't a very taxing job at all. Quite fun , actually.

  
  

  The "change" between "then" and "now" would be that now I don't think young people have a liesurely chance to experience the real business world, meeting real workers and engaging in actual "work" which is needed but not extremely so. The workplace today treats an 18 year old and a 10 year veteran similarly. Back then there were lots of chances to "learn" before being pitched in a place of business where one had to produce or perish. In my case, learning was in an environment where I was basically a "janitor" but could ask questions and learn about the industry in which I swept up the floors.

  
  

  This kind of introduction to the workplace occured in many small towns throughout the early history of America's growth. One could apprentice in a store, sweeping and cleaning, and learning the ropes, and then graduate to sales clerk, and eventually even rise to the ranks of manager. As the "mom and pop" stores disappeared, and as individually franchised three day old bakeries and other similar businesses disappeared, it became increasingly difficult to find this kind of introduction into business for the young. I believe I was incredibly lucky to gain my start in this way.

  
  

  The summer didn't last too long, even though I was only working two afternoons a week. I walked to work, which was on the corner of the next street over from where I lived. I had a "time card" just like the other workers, and I "clocked in" and grabbed my broom. I have always been the kind of person who likes to "find work to do" if there is none scheduled, and I even cleaned up corners of their warehouse which hadn't been touched in years. The manager of the shop told my mother later that I was a really good worker. When I got a job at Ole's Home Centers as a box boy after high school ended, my first "real" job, I received a recommendation from the woman who ran the three day old bakery.

  
  

  For some reason, technology has seemed to speed up the world, and the changes which have happened in the past few decades as I grow up and older seem to be taking our children's childhoods away much sooner. In the past, our introduction to adulthood was gradual, and we learned along the way. Now adulthood is jammed into children's lives with amazing suddenness by the culture, and the "age of information."

  
  

  Sometimes I think it was better in the old days, when you could plan your life while liesurely sweeping out the back of the three day old bakery, and gobble quite a few Twinkies in the process.

  
  

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  If you are visiting my site through the Featured Grownups Blogring for the first time, or even if you've been here before and haven't seen my latest "Video Blog" please check out the post immediately preceding this one. The future of blogging is here, and I'm trying to construct at least one VideoBlog a month. Also thanks to Denise (p8indme) for supplying a link to my Video Blog on her site.  MFN

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