Membership cards

So stores are now into offering you membership cards or asking for your e-mail so you can receive coupons.  My work offers a membership card, but you have to pay an annual fee of $25 for it.  While working I have had some insight on membership cards.  One customer said she doesn't think its right to pay us for shopping at our store.  Another customer said she doesn't even support membership cards that she has to pay for in order to get discounts.  One of my coworkers asked me if I was a customer if I would buy a membership card and I said no.  My reasons are because I shouldn't have to pay to get a discount.  I think that since I am a loyal customer I should get the membership for free.  If this were to happen I think we would get a lot more business.  I have a membership from pesmart and the reason I got it is because one it saved me a lot of money on my purchase, and two it was free.  I buy all of my pet supplies from them just because they always have awesome deals going on for there members.  Anybody would be insane to not sign up for free member cards.  More examples are albertsons preferred card, and smiths card.  They both are free and not only save you money in the store, but also depending on how much money you spend in their store you can get three cents off per gallon of gas or more.  I love this because gas is expensive and any time I can save I will take it.  I guess I'm just trying to say that if stores had free member cards more people would visit their store and spend more money.

Truth vs. Lies

     So how do you know what you read or hear is the truth?  Honestly with all of the political campaigns going on right now it's hard to know a truth from a lie.  To me its hard to believe anything you hear today.  Things you read in a magazine one week is different the next week.  Political people say things just to please the people and then once they win they don't do anything they said they would do.  What just happened to telling the truth and doing things that you said you would do.  It's all about money and that is all that matters.  Who ever pays the most gets the story.  It is a disappointment to think that you can't trust anyone anymore.   

Ethics

Ethics are the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group.  When you think of ethics it applies to everything you do in life, whether it is at work, home, school, or anywhere else.  I was watching a movie the other day and it had a scene in it where one of the workers got an opportunity to be in a higher position at work.  This position would give him a raise which him and his family desperately needed, but there was a catch to getting this job.  The manager said that if he wanted to be in this position he had to do one thing.  There was a shipment coming in the next day that was suppose to bring 17 crates and he told the guy to write down that only 16 came in because he had ideas for the extra crate.  This was a hard decision for him to make because he really needed the money, but he knew it was unethical.  When the manager asked him what he was going to do he told him that he wasn't going to lie.  The manager stood up and shook his hand and offered him the job.  He wanted someone he could trust to be in that position.  So what would you do if you were in his position?  A lot of people are affected by these decisions lately and some even get fired for wanting to do the right thing.  It definitely sucks to know that the world we are in now is okay with lying and most of the things people do today are unethical.  Think about politics  they all lie in order to get ahead of there competitor.  What happened to people trying to win by telling the truth?  So you choose are you going to be ethical or unethical in your next decision you make.   

America: At it's finest

So while working I decided to pick up a MAD magazine and started reading the article an article they had in there called "The 50 worst things about America."  Some of them were either funny, random, pointless, or actually good points that needed to be made.  I picked up on three points that I thought were very interesting and also very true.  Number 4 was, "Our national obsession with cosmetic surgery, which somehow equates "growing old gracefully" with paying to have someone give you a shiny, bloated ham face with humongous lips."  This statement is very true especially with all of the stars doing it just to keep them looking young so they can still be paid to be in movies or commercials.  When did being the way you are made be such a bad thing that you have to go and change yourself to look like someone else?  In many years to come we might not be able to know if the person sitting next to us is real or if they had some sort of cosmetic surgery done to make them look that young.  Number 5 was, "Not only does America have the best medical facilities in the world, but we also boast the largest number of citizens who can't afford them."  This is very interesting for me to grasp, but I know that this is very true.  We have awesome hospitals to go to when we need them, but if not many people can afford them is it such a great idea to keep doing what were doing?  The prices for certain treatments are ridiculous and yes most people do have insurance, but what is the point to have health insurance if you can't afford the medical bill after insurance covered the percentage that they cover.  I honestly think there needs to be a better way of handling this.  Do we really need to charge outrageous prices just so the doctors can make big bucks?  Our country is greedy and all they think about is the money part of things and not how they are actually helping people.  Now don't get me wrong I do know there are hospitals out there that run off of donations like St. Jude's and that not all doctors are just in it for the money.  Our government needs to figure out better ways to lower the costs on medical care.  Number 10 was, "Electric companies that encourage you to protect the environment and "go green" by signing up for "paperless billing," while they continue operating old, outdated carbon belching, coal-burning plants."  This is a very good point made in the article.  A lot of business' are turning to paperless billing because it not only saves the business money, but it also helps the environment, but we are still damaging the environment with places like Exxon who has refinery's emitting this stuff daily. 

With all of this said I believe that if wanted our generation can change this for the better.  We need to be not only street smarts, but also be aware of things going in on in our country.

The 50 worst things about america. (2012, June). MAD, (515), 46-52.    

Communication

Okay most of know that communication can be very easy and also very hard.  Most of us communicate with text messaging and with that comes along all of the abbreviations we made to make it that much faster.  For me I got all caught up in the abbreviations and when I would type up papers I caught myself using my so called "text" language.  Now I decided to actually spell out all my words when texting.  For me I believe that face to face communication is the best way to get a message cross, especially if it's important.  At least for me I can better understand someone better when I am talking to them face to face and I can read their emotions.  Emails can be effective, but most people don't check their email every minute of the day like they do their phone.  When I look around there are kids that are 8 years old carrying around newer cell phones than I have.  With this you have people getting so used to communicating over phone that when they grow up they aren't used to talking to someone face to face.  This makes applying for jobs and interviews extremely hard for people.  If you have something important to say it should be face to face.  Other than that to me it seems just like you are scared to see the persons reactions, plus with emails and texts you can have a long time to think about the words you need to say.  Communication is the key to success.  Without it there is no way to get anybody's point across.

Tattoos, piercings, and business professionalism

There are many different thoughts on tattoos and piercings showing in a job.  So what happens when the generation we are in now loves getting tattooed and pierced and doesn't really think to much about the placement being able to be covered.  I have piercings and a tattoo, but i have them in places that I can hide and if needed be I can take the piercings out, but what about the people who have sleeves?  Depending on the job they have they might always have to wear long sleeve shirts to work so no one can see them.  My opinion is that I believe people should have the right to express themselves, but to a point.  There are some people out there who have inappropriate tattoos that I wouldn't want showing in a company that I owned or managed.  Don't get me wrong I love tattoos and looking at them, but I believe that in certain circumstances they need to be hidden.  I used to work for a restaurant that was a family restaurant and they had strict rules.  Those rules included on one set of piercings aloud on your ears, no facial piercings and no tattoos showing.  From that job I worked at other restaurants and businesses that didn't care how many piercings you have as long as they were clean and we didn't play with them while at work.  They were also fine with some tattoos as long as they were huge or distracting.  People like my parents or relatives don't like that people who are at a job have a bunch of tattoos showing and one my relatives even has an employee who does have sleeves but he has to cover them when he comes to work.  Business professionalism is all about how you present yourself so it makes sense as to why some businesses want you to cover up your tattoos and not have facial piercings in.  The down fall though is that sometimes when you go in for an interview and they see all of your tattoos and piercings they automatically start judging you.  Instead of listening to you in the interview they are now distracted by all the things covering your body.  So when getting a tattoo or piercing realize that there is a possibility that you will have to take them out or have them covered.

It's called respect for a reason, right?

Everyone's heard of business professionalism, but do you think it actually works like that.  Unfortunately for most people it doesn't.  You expect that there would be respect and professionalism at work, but from experience there isn't.  While on the floor at my work the managers were talking to us about what the plans for the day were and after that they started going off about another manager.  Not only did this shock me, but it made me mad because its not right.  This isn't the first time something like this has happened.  Another manager took a call on the floor that should have been taken in the office especially since she talks very loudly and everyone in the store including the customers could here.  When I work for a place I expect there to be professionalism and respect for each other.  When this happens it makes people wonder that when were not around are the managers talking badly about us.  I believe that when you have a problem with someone or how something is being run you go and talk to that person you don't just bitch about to everyone else.  With this going on you just keep going around in circles with everything.  This situation throws respect out the window which isn't fair, but yet it happens all the time.  So is there such thing as respect in a work place anymore?