What Employers are Looking For...

You know, my mother raised me to be a responsible adult. My father raised me to be as perfect as I possibly can. Let me explain how he did that. I cannot tell you how many times I had to do something over again until it was done to his standards. It didn't matter if it was a letter to my grandparents or my homework. Because of that "training," as human as I know I am, I HATE to make mistakes. I (used to) take pride in my work.

Where I work, it is important that we make as few mistakes as possible. Some mistakes may cost someone his or her life. Do not take this lightly. To put it plainly, I am currently employed by a company that handles medical records. Charts that are put into the system that contain more than one patient can cost a life. If the "mixed" patient in the chart doesn't have an allergy that the "true" patient has, the health care professionals could see that it is ok to give a certain medication and find out when after it is too late that there was an allergy. Another more dire mistake is that of a DNR. To any readers who may not know what that is, it is an order meaning "DO NOT RESUSCITATE." I'm sure you can fathom what this means. If the mixed patient had a DNR, but the true patient did not, the health care professionals may not do what is needed to save that person's life.

Keeping all that in mind, allow me to explain a couple of other attributes I think I have. I take responsibility for my actions or inaction. Whichever may be the case. I am also honest. Usually to a fault. I am not, I repeat, I am NOT manipulative. I may be a little blunt and few people seem to appreciate that. I try to do my best at all times. I am determined and if I am expected to get a job done, I WILL get that job done.

However, much to my disappointment, this is NOT what employers are looking for. They apparently want an employee who will take them for all they are worth and only consider her/his self and her/his needs. They are NOT looking for someone who consistently goes the extra mile to make her/his coworkers lives a little easier. I am not the person they are looking for. I would try to be someone other than who I am, but that never seems to work for me.

My question now is, what the...I mean...what in the world am I going to do? Tonight, I feel a renewed energy to find a new job. I have and will apply to three new companies. I am honestly crossing my fingers for the one that will give me a leg up into the accounting field. I am planning to get my Masters in Accounting after all.

Regardless of what happens, I know that I cannot work for the company I currently work for any longer. If it weren't for my husband, I would have been gone already and let come what may. However, at this point, I cannot be the employee they seem to desire. Wish me luck and good will, won't you?

A Billionaire for Five Hours

I was logging off of my Yahoo! account after checking my email. As you may or may not know, when you log off a Yahoo! account, you are returned to the Yahoo! homepage. There they flash different articles of interest. The one that caught my attention was about this man who checked his bank balance to find that he had $88,888,888,888.88 (that is eighty eight billion, eight hundred eighty eight million, eight hundred eighty eight thousand, eight hundred eighty eight dollars and eighty eight cents). CAN YOU IMAGINE?!

So, the end of the article invites readers to imagine what they would do with that kind of money if they owned it for 5 hours. The man who reported the error asked the bank if he could move the money to an interest-bearing account for the time remaining before the error could be fixed and donate the interest to charity. According to the Wall Street Journal that interest would have amounted to $7.3 million. The bank, of course, said no.

I read the article to my husband and he said, "Can we say DEBT FREE?" That made me think of what I would do with that money if I owned it for 5 hours. The ground rule is that you have to return the money and anything you bought with it. But if I could break the rule just a little, I would take a hint from the guy with the original error and move the money to an interest-bearing account. They could have their $88.8 billion back, but with that $7.3 million, I would clear out some serious debt.

Since I am not a philanthropist, I would clear out my debt (the remainder of my two credit cards, my entire student debt through the end of my Masters degree, my car and the cost of my house without making any cosmetic and other renovations (which comes to about $160,000)), my husband's debt, my mother's and my father's debt (no more than $200,000 a piece). Basically, once I cleared the family (mine and his), each with no more than $200,000, I'd start taking a look at other families who got into debt not by being irresponsible, but because of what happened with the economy (and maybe some health issues) and clear their debt. Trying to do this, and including the family, that is 36 approximate individuals and families we could help. And 7.3 million is JUST INTEREST!! Imagine how many families could be helped out of their debt with the $88.8 billion.



Check out the article by going to: "If You Were a Billionaire for Five Hours" by Robert Frank