We Work Too Much in America

I don't know who invented the five day work week, but I'm still looking for him/her.  We work entirely too much in this country.  Work days are getting longer and vacation days are getting shorter.  By law, every country in the European union receives at least four weeks of paid vacation.  In the U.S., the average amount of vacation time in the private section is just 16 days. 

Austria is said to have the most time off with 22 paid vacation days as well as 13 holidays per year. 

Although rested employees may not always translate into higher productivity, it does go a long way towards how happy your they are.  That counts for something, right?

Well, probably not if you own a business.  The only way most companies feel as if they can compete with others is by working the stew out of their employees.  And if you think that it's bad now, then just give it another decade or so because the U.S. has slowly gotten worse over the years.

Back in the early 80's, it was not uncommon to see most businesses closed on a Sunday.  Especially in the South.  Sunday was once a day for families to be together. Outside of a pharmacy and a gas station, you really didn't find too many businesses that were open.  Until someone decided that if they opened on Sundays then they could get a leg up on the competition.  Cha-ching.

The same can be said for holidays.  Thanksgiving is probably the most family-oriented holiday in this country.  I remember families coming together and everyone relaxing after a huge meal.  Now interrupt it for "Good Friday" sales (on Thursday).  Gone are the days where families could enjoy each other's company and/or get some relaxation.  Now they have to interrupt that holiday because someone has to be at work to prepare for the stores to open that evening.

Businesses thrive and make money.  Quality family time suffers. 

And the only thing most businesses love to do more than making a dollar, is making two dollars.  Unless you're Chick-Fil-A.  That's a business that still thrives despite being closed on Sundays.  They think that allowing an opportunity for families to be together for at least one day during the week is more important than money.  Imagine that!  But, for every Chick-Fil-A there's 100 businesses like Walmart who are pretty much open 24/7. 

America doesn't care if you're overworked and underpaid.  After all, what are you going to do about it?  Vote for someone other than a Democrat or a Republican?  LOL!

Are Online Job Sites A Sham?

Something just isn't right about the job market.  There's something extremely different about it now in comparison to 5+ years ago that's not sitting well with me.

I lost my full-time job of five years back in January 2013.  It was the best job I'd ever had in regards to the pay and the people I worked with daily.  I had a cool, yet effective, boss and some of the greatest co-workers a guy could ask for on any job.  However, a "financial decision" was made and 50 people lost their jobs.  Two months later we all got to read about the CEO of our company getting a $29.9 million dollar compensation (up 37% from the previous year).  He could have paid everyone in my office $100,000 a year for two years and still had roughly $20 million left over.

But, that's not my gripe (although I felt the need to mention it - LOL).  I don't think that anyone should be required to share their money.  But, I do think that it's morally wrong to take food off of people's tables so that you can turn $13 million into $30 million.  But what does this country care about morals anyway?  That's a blog post for another day.

I'm wondering about the job market itself and how employment rates are down yet opportunities are still not there.  When I searched for a new job I found so many openings, for which I was qualified, on multiple websites.  According to the e-mails that I saved with each online application, I applied for over 200 jobs in a three month period and only received five phone interviews and three in-office interviews.  This doesn't even include the times in which I applied for jobs in-person. 

How could there be so many listings yet so few responses?

After the first 50 or so non-responses to my online applications, I got some help from a friend and changed up my resume.  I did get my first phone call after doing that, but it was just that.  A phone call.  I continued to fill out applications on multiple sites and not get any responses aside from generic auto-emails.

I've never had a problem getting jobs in my life until last year.  Since January 2013, I've only had one company contact me about a job doing in what I'm most experienced in.  I didn't even reach out to them.  They contacted me!  Unfortunately for me that job was in South Carolina and I had no desire to move.  Luckily, I finally had someone give me an opportunity to work for them, but wasn't in the field of my previous experience.  

What are these online sites doing?  They're supposed to make it easier for people to get a job.  It's one thing to be turned down after an interview, but to not even get an interview?  I'm not bragging, but my resume isn't all that bad.  I have a wealth of experience in a lot of different fields.  I've been promoted in three of the last four full-time jobs in which I've had.  I've received performance bonuses at every single full-time job I've had since 1995.  Every one.  I've only missed work on my full-time jobs on two occasions since 2002 aside from three bereavement leaves (grandmother, mother, wife): when my late wife found out she had been diagnosed with breast cancer (2002) and when I had tore my patella tendon and required surgery (2011).  So, I'm efficient and reliable.

Are online job sites a scam?  Are they marketing your information to other sites and quick-fix educational institutions?  I don't have an answer and maybe some of you out there can shed some light on the subject.  I'm starting to think that the reason there are so many job sites online is because very few of them are on the up-and-up.

Do you think that online jobsites like Monster, Indeed, or CareerBuilder are scams?

Facebook No Longer About Families & Classmates

Is Facebook pulling the wool over my eyes?

Have you noticed that you rarely see a lot of status updates some of your friends leave? Facebook appears to be filtering them to add more advertisements.

The exposure of my Talk 2 Q Fan Page has been reportedly reduced to 1-2%. That means that out of my 358 fans only an average of 7 of them will see my updates on their timeline when I post.  7!  So, when I work my tail off to promote something, I have to have a lot go right in order for more than a handful of people to see my promotion.

As for the other 98% of exposure, it probably goes to places like Nike (who paid big money to have over 17 million Likes). This also contributes to why you sometimes see the same post showing at the top of your timeline as a "Recent post" despite the fact that it's hours old. It's because Facebook appears to be directing paid traffic to you first before anything else.

What was a site for seeing photos, updates and videos has now turned into Spam Central. Looks like I'll be using Google+ more and possibly dissolving my fan page. SMH.

Do you think Facebook has "jumped the shark?"