State: Wisconsin (United States)

If you are ambitious, well educated, have a passion for fairness and justice, want to make a contribution to a better world, run from this job. Government managers will do anything and everything to drive out passion, independent thought, innovation. Ambition is seen as a threat. It is all about the pecking order except when it is about blatant favoritism. Things are done because they have always been done this way. If you want to work for change, do not go here. Too many people get into this field because their parents actually pass down the business to them. Licensing requirements make breaking in tough.

Never work for a family owned printing company

I love what I do, but I have no other life. Doctors have more of a life than someone in retail. No holidays, no funerals, no family time. Malls are open too long. In that past consumers found a way to shop in the structured time that was set and businesses prospered more than they do now. It would be great if we went back to Sunday closed.

Companies want to make more money on less hours for floor coverage, but want Legendary Customer Service. I love to train, but have found that companies talk the talk about training but do not walk the walk. I feel that I never get to fully train and teach assoicates to sell from their hearts and have passion.

I performed an in-depth telephone survey of 10 collegues I've worked with as legal secretaries who have been employed approximately the same length of time I have. I requested their general salary within a certain range based on length of their employment, as well as any employer-provided benefits, i.e. vacation, pension and insurance packages. I also researched and printed my County's wage analysis as well as local private industry wage reports for my area. I approached my employer with a figure I believed was a fair and reasonable raise expectation, due to my in-depth research.

It took a month of discussions, but I was awarded a $5 hourly raise including addl. benefits due to my thorough and professional legwork. If you take the time to research your job description, local industry and County wage analyses, as well as job description and performance expectations, don't be afraid to shoot for the moon and win.

I did.

One of the most frequent criteria for accepting a job is how much money do I make? What are the benefits? What is my career path? All good questions but all may be secondary to quality of life. Family and support structure are often the most important part of being successful in a job. If you have young children in day care, the flexibility to be off when the kids are sick is important. If you have elderly parrents, the ability to be there and help out may be the most important. Without a family support structure, relocating to an area where there is little support may be a critical reason for job success, stress or failure. In 30 years, I have seen this to be the largest reason for people leaving. About 50% of the time when I have hired a relocated individual to an area where they did not have a support structure, within 2 years they returned to where the family support structure was. Make sure when you consider a relocation that you and your family, are committed to the change and are willing to work upon the move to become part of a community. Work is important but what is done after work and the bonds of friends is the most important criteria that I have seen in successful relocations away from the support of family.

Be confident. If you know your job well this shouldn't be a problem. If you love what you do, let your passion shine through. I guarantee your prospective employer will pick up on it, and they may even mention it. Don't be afraid to show how passionate you are about your career.

I am most definitely considering a major move, to

having job security, and a happy home and work environment. I probably won't have the same job, but I'd like one similiar to the one I'm at right

now only full-time instead of a part-time temp-to-

hire position. I am going to demand a pay increase

in order to support myself, a person cannot support themself on $11.00 per hour for only 2.5 hours a day. Any normal person would have to have at least $12.50 an hour, preferably more per hour to live comfortably.

Just make sure your employer realizes that as time goes on you may have health issues that may arise as you get older. My previous employer was not sympathetic to that fact and as I approached menopause I became continuously tired only to learn that I was extremely anemic and I

was lucky to have been able to get out of bed at

all! Because of this I was denied full-time em-

ployment twice, merely because I was late coming in to work by only a matter of minutes each time. Had I known how anemic I was I would've asked for a medical excuse from my physician. But,it was only a couple of days prior to my hysterectomy that we learned of my anemia, after those full-time positions had already been given to two of my co-workers they didn't feel it was appropriate to go back and take those positions away from them, but, they most certainly didn't promise me the next full-time position that became available either. A couple of years had passed and we ac-quired a different supervisor and I had to start all over. To work within the department I was working in meant working in an environment of unequality, whatever the senior employees decided were the rules within that department was usually verified by the supervisor and there was no changing her mind, no matter how unfair the rules were! Too bad no one had the guts to report them

to the Labor Review Board for the State of Wisconsin.

Be positive always, as it is contagious.

I'm plan on trying a petition to see how far it will go.

Management is always saying they can't afford to pay you more. It's part of their job to keep costs down. But when they are faced with losing a valuable employee, the cost to recruit, hire, relocate and train a new person are huge. Many times employees who stay in they same job get behind in salary.

Go ahead and find a new job, get an offer and accept it. Don't tell anyone (in your company) you are looking, everyone will leak information. When you turn in your resignation be prepared, they may wish you luck and show you the door. If they really need you, they may want to deal but not if anyone in the company knows about it. Always wait a day before telling your offer. (Tell them you need to think about it) If they talk about staying, it's your turn to make the deal. Ask for a raise, a title change, parking spot, better office. But don't get greedy, they can't give you a better office if they don't have one. Also, be prepared they may let you go when they don't need you anymore. If the deal works out, just tell your other employer you changed your mind. If the deal falls through, then you have your other job. It's a gutsy move but often worth it.