A Number of General Observations of the Working World

​A Number of General Observations of the Working World
or
​A List of Things You Must Know Before Entering the Workforce as a Young Kid/Adult or Something Else
​Part 6
51-60

51. Temperament of the beast
From time to time you will be working with a team/crew/squad and see how that dynamic it is in order to reach goals etc. this is good to know how to work with other people but there is a downside. There is always a bad crew. A crew that will make your work life hell.
Most crews will be good and help you out in your job. However most crews require time to immerse and get to know one another. This is the period to make or break you. It is the test to see if you are worthy. If you are deemed worthy, you will be invited to after work activities like after work drinks, parties, holidays and life celebrations.
If you are not deemed worthy then you are in a world of hurt. No one will want to work with you, no one will be willing to teach you anything, no one will be willing to interact with you and you will be shunned and ridiculed either to your face or behind your back.
This has happened to me many times. I’ve been in great crews and I’ve been in shit crews.
A great crew will become your friends you can even become life long friends out of them. Shit crews however will make you leave that place or transfer away from them because they make your life hell.
If you can make a good crew, make it on a friendly level and at a good skill level, open to teach and inspire each other. There has to be a structure of leader, manager, NCO (Non Commissioned Officer or the teacher of the crew, grunts and newb. Everyone must help everyone. The leader and manager must be able to do all the others jobs and their own if needed. Unless specialists are required just be generalists.
The newb is the most important person in the business. Why? They are the future of your industry. If they have a great experience they will be inspired to do the similar either in the business in the future or in their own business in the future.

52. Arseholes are like opinions, everybody got to have one
Like the crew, management is another beast.
Managers that manage people are great because that is what they have to do.
Managers who try to lead in an area they have little idea about, leads to the path of damnation.
Under opinions, we thrive or we die.
I’ve worked under managers who were amazing managing everything and did a little leading when they saw fit.
I’ve worked with managers who were way in up over their head and lead when they shouldn’t of.
Great examples were my retail days… and in kitchen.
At retail there was a period of head managers changing; the first due to pregnancy, the next was a stand in and the one after that was new from a merge. This was the manger who was brought in for his experience in another similar company to streamline the profitability of the store. This was where things started to unravel. For the first time in the 2.5 years I was there, by the manger’s opinion it was decided to open on a public holiday that the store was usually shut. On a public holiday that I opened the store, all registers were manned with either hungover or sleep deprived team members. The problem was that hardly any customers came through the store at that time. After an hour, the manger sends all the casuals home. An hour after that all hell broke loose. Customers everywhere. Not enough registers open. Constant calls “for all available team members to the front”. Managers and register trained team members all on registers only leaving to deal with customers asking questions in their new specialist areas. Manager asks us to try and call back all casuals they sent home, we are too busy doing all the logistics required because now it’s myself and my second running the refunds desk while making sure cash pick ups are occurring as are breaks for the register operators. The manger called them all. None could return. Manager calls the afternoon shift to come in early. The best they can do is an hour. Manger calls casuals not rostered on. None can make it as they have previous plans. The morning crew stayed later and the overtime plus double time and a half for all personnel present devastated the profit margin let alone the estimated profit. When I was finally allowed to go home, I looked to my afternoon opposite number and asked if I needed to stay. They said go. An hour later they said come back. Several night casuals didn’t show up. The manger had left for the day and the next manger knew what was going to happen and was ready for it. A hell of a long day that I’ll never forget. Upper management was not happy with the conduct but did take it on board as a major lesson for the future.
The other instance was my half an hour job. Two months before under a new front end manager, I had applied for the weekend off. I was going to a friend’s birthday at the horse track. A month before I applied for leave for the same weekend. Two weeks before I applied for leave on the same weekend. Leave approved. The day of, I was called to come in as the controller of the close was sick and no one else could close or were not trained in the other half of close. I had to close after several hours partying at the racetrack with friends, I had things lined up but all plans had to be postponed so I could close the store on my day off. I got back to the party but the people I had lined up to see were long gone. Still had a good night though.
The other example was in my kitchen days. Went from one manger to another, which was fine as I had a section chief. The new manager refused to listen to the advice and experience the section chief that was hired. It’s expensive to open on public holidays, where is the advertising for these big days, we are trying to keep costs down, we need more people, we are not the bar and many more things that eventual broke not one but two leaders. One quit, the other no longer kept the roll as the promises made when he was hired were broken.
Why did I spit this out? When some people have experience of runny companies and hire someone for their experience only to shut them down constantly, what’s the point of being in business.
It’s an opinion that everyone has: Managers should manage, Leaders should lead.
A leader manager is what you want.
A manager leader is what you’re going to usually get.

53. To assume I presume equals doom
 Sweet mother.
By the dragons below, take me there.
Assumptions are a horrible thing in work.
Don’t assume anything is done or will be done if it is not in your control.
Why?
Assumptions are just that. Assumptions!
When you work in a kitchen, NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING!
In many instances I have been in or caused have nearly lead to me leaving for the day and possibly not coming back. Best example: Christmas Functions.
Now everybody knows about end of year/Christmas/thanks for an amazing year/lets blow off steam/holiday break functions that start as early as November and finish in January. Staff of businesses go out to let off some steam as they wind down work for a short break between the Christmas and new year period. This however is a nightmare for unexperienced staff who are thrust into roles well above their ability. In a kitchen, as in all business, you need stock to sell. Functions don’t help in that way as they add to a burden on top of business. At the time I was ordering food for service only on a Sunday as kitchen is closed until the following Wednesday but the rest of the venue is still open. Functions sheets come in and usually order them for the day before or the day of as a worst-case scenario. I didn’t know that you order function food separately and to be delivered on the day before. I assumed that the deliveries would be on time and the food would be there ready for me to cook before they were to be served. Of the 60-day period, five would be late because the food was ordered on the same day instead of the day before. Later on, the head chef and myself were dealing with a child function that had food. As it was on a Saturday afternoon we both assumed that the delivery for the function and the regular delivery of stock would be there when we arrived for work, which is the usual case. It wasn’t the case. Our assumption had failed us, as we had to work with what we had to make this kid’s party awesome for our assumptions failing us.  When the delivery finally arrived, training of a new delivery driver was the reason, the food on the fly was sent out.
So if you assume, prepare to meet your doom. Or at least hedge your bets!

54. Love something
If you have seen a resume or a how to write a resume you will always see a “hobbies and interest” section.
Why?
It tells your employer that you have something to do when you’re not at work and that it could help you be employed. For me, a passion of mine is photography another is capoeira.
I has always loved cameras however I could not afford to buy a camera and let alone the film for it! Yes I am a dinosaur who started photograph with a camera with film. I drove my family crazy with candid shots at birthday parties and social events, however when the prints came back the shots people enjoyed most were the candid ones. Once digital cameras rolled round I got my first DSLR in 2006. I shot my capoeira career with it until I bought two more newer, more functions and updated cameras.  With the newer cameras I could shoot video and that led to a new career using graphic design, photography, videography, website and coding job. The latest camera is even better with its wifi transfer capabilities having photos ready to go in a matter of minutes for social media than waiting on downloading and posting from a computer. This camera has paid itself off with moonlighting gigs as a club photographer, capoeira events, family get togethers, job site photography, holidays, function, food and dozens more to make the list even longer. As for capoeira? It has added to unknown strength lifting heavy things at work.
So why find a hobby or interest? It could lead to getting a job, promotion, new role, diversification of a pre-existing role or entirely new career in the company you work for.
Trust me, on having something else to do than just eat sleep work repeat is a lot better for your mind and body and soul. This can change if you pursue a family life but you can always continue or return.

55. The day you stop learning is the day you die –Michael Scott
My capoeira master has taught me many things that I have known him. How to move, how to kick, how to block, how not to get hit, distractions, diversions, strategy, flow and more but its his philosophy that brings the fire in his eyes. Born and raised in Brazil, he has done capoeira nearly all his life which brought him to Australia and taken him all around the world. He has been on TV, performed on stages in front of thousands of people and taught kids all about capoeira. I will always remember him for his philosophy is “that even though he is a Mestre, the highest belt in the Capoeira School, he is also a student”. He learns from his students and fellow capoeiristas and never stops learning. As a student, we see our Mestre be able to take on others and mestres like he’s played them all his life. One of my professors, told me that on many occasions he has seen our mestre do a move that he’s never seen let alone thought our master could do. My school is taught two things: the basics and individual style.
So what does this have to do with this list?
Nothing!
Everything!
You can master photoshop, indesign, illustrator, word, excel any other form of computer apps and programs but what does that give you? A title? A team to lead? A new position? Retirement?
It gives you nothing and yet everything. You have experience and skills that you can teach, pass on but most importantly learn more! Why? You don’t stop with one job, you keep at it until you are physically unable to do anymore.
When do artists stop? Usually in death. Why? Because they have lived a life of what they loved doing or to the time they could afford to do it. Artists’ legacies are usually an unfinished piece that is either the most expensive thing at an auction or returned to by others blessed by the estate to finish.
When Michael Jackson died, thousands upon thousands of unreleased songs were discovered. From all this material, several albums could be made.
Never stop learning kid. You do and you’re dead.
“Only in death does duty end” – Imperial Guardsmen’s Uplifting Primer

56. If it looks easy, it must be hard
This should have been further up the list but meh.
I am a sucker for the easy looking things in life. Like many other people in the world, we think we can do something that we saw, try it and fail or our end product is not what we thought we would end up with. Photography, capoeira, cooking, graphic design, videography and pretty much all of my hobbies have ended up like this.
If you have a look at influencers on Instagram, those who have made their following from nothing have done it with grit, spit and their own two hands. The other type of influencer is the celebrity who just transferred across doing the exact same thing but in a mainstream traditional way first.
Now a great influencer will make everything they promote look easy because there is a psychological trick to this: they can do it, so can you. Many offer courses that you can pay for to learn how to do what they did. The thing is are you ready to work your arse off to get to their level and be exactly like several thousand more trying to one up on each other to elevate themselves just like in nearly every other form of business that exists.
Same thing with photographers, anyone can take a photo now with a phone but can they create the art of photography that can be transferred to large print and not suffer from quality distortion?

57. Influence-der
So you want to influence the masses huh?
Good luck.
It is one of the hardest jobs to do.
Why?
Because it looks so easy!
Writing this piece has been an on and off project for years. Since 2017/2018 and in all that time I’ve seen the rise and rise of the influencer. Before Instagram became the norm, Myspace made stars. Once discovered many moved to twitter back in the days of 140 characters giving their two cents. With more memory, better functions, audio visual stimuli and an entire world as the audience, apps stripped the desktop programs although did cross platform viewing. This gave rise to the influencer.
Now influencers are nothing new. The rise of the author, the radio star, the movie star and the influencer has just changed over time. An example of this is Japanese ads. The hottest A-lister available for a product shot and ta-da you have an ad campaign. Same in America, throw and A-lister on it and you got big sales. Another example is the Chinese cinema industry, throw an American A-lister in the production and you have east and west money returning the investment. And another is the American cinema industry, co-produce in China with Chinese locations and actors and you get released in the Chinese market with a higher return on investment.
In 2020 in the matter of months things deteriorated rapidly internationally. America was on the brink of war, Australia was burning then flooding, America was going to impeach a president and then the repeat of history; global pandemic.
Now until this point in time an influencer could be paid to travel the world, look hot, take photos, eat exotic foods, spruik products, work out, help out the local population and an infinite amount of other ways of being gods amongst their followers and make money. They could make and break venues. The superstar influencers could even charge a premium to sell products let alone attend events. To get to these numbers you had to be like superstars or better. You got a million followers? Nice work, but are you getting paid for your influence? A hundred thousand followers? Nice work, but are you getting paid for your influence? You got ten thousand followers? Talk to me when you have over one hundred thousand.
So what happens when a global pandemic breaks out?
Airports are shut down. Planes won’t fly. Cruise ships are left to fend for themselves on the high seas. Countries locked down. No fly zones. Quarantine for fourteen days minimum. Essential workers only. Non essential businesses closed. Social distancing.
The world was on a war footing: the thankless work that everyone took for granted is essential, while the arts, entertainment and frugal products are not, so all funds must be pouring into the war effort.
This left many influencers without an income stream.
If you make money off war, you’re scum. If you can’t make money off bounty hunting you’re an idiot – arms dealer, Porco Rosso
Just don’t be like the influencers who ask for money so they can travel the world and continue living a fake life style that they can’t afford yet they make it look like they can.
 
58. Brave new world
On the 10/5/2020 when this was first put to paper (typed but you get the idea), I read an article that pretty much changed my philosophy.
America is reconsidering itself as a superpower.
An opinion article but valid in the scheme of things. For over a hundred years America has been a super power. From the First World War, the Second World War, the cold war, Korean war, Vietnam war, Gulf wars and the war on terror, America has led the fight in military might.
In order to be the best, you have to be cheap. Spend money to make money. Make cheap, sell high, make profit.
This is historical as slaves were the foundation of free labour in ancient times. Then in the west, including all the colonies, slavery continued. When slavery was abolished around the industrial revolution it moved on to child labour. Reforms changed this for the better but this made manufacturing goods expensive. This moved to cheaper offshore manufacturing. Home-grown businesses couldn’t compete with the volume and prices shutting down most internal production. You can’t forget the penal institution of using inmates for labour as well.
Then COVID-19 came along. China shut itself down. Italy shut itself down. Spain shut itself down. Australia shut itself down. The world shut itself down. Then America shut itself down.
The entire world was not prepared for a pandemic. With nearly every cheaply mass produced manufactured goods made in China and Asia, the tens of thousands of infected and the thousands of fatalities will probably revolutionize the west to once more start production to become self reliant once more.
What’s gonna happen when this dies down? No one knows as the previous similar pandemic happened a hundred years ago was documented poorly as the world then was similar to the world now: not prepared at all.
So keep your eyes and ears open.
Be flexible and learn more than one skill. It could mean the difference of life on the street or life on easy street.
 
59. Baa baa black sheep
For the majority of my life, my mother and father constantly asked me to be normal.
What is normal? Where everyone else in the world conforming to the expectations set upon them by the masses of their piers.
Why did I revel in being me, an individual in a sea of normal? Because it made me, essentially, me. It opened my mind, found things that I found fascinating and threw me into groups of people that I am proud to say are my friends while looking back most of them probably wish they didn’t meet me. Why? Because I revel in my individuality! However I keep it hidden most of the time.
My best example is my heritage: 100% Colombian born then adopted and raised as an Australian with a genetic family heritage from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. So where do I be normal? I can’t, because I have no real ties genetic to my “Anglo” life at the same time I have no real cultural ties to my “Colombian” life. Multiculturalism has helped, but being Latino raised white in Australia didn’t. A psychological study in motion, nature v nurture in a nutshell and more, one of the few who goes against the stream. Seriously, stroll down the path of researching internationally adopted, nationally adopted children compared to biological born and raised children psychology and you’ll be in for a treat. It’s a bit dark and messy but enjoyable if you’re into it.
Why am I divulging some of my life here? Because you should just be you when you discover who you are. You can be a sheep if you want or you can be a wolf in sheep’s clothing or you could be a wolf or be a toucan.
Generation Y and the generations after can freely embrace their individuality and share it with the world to meet similar people. They were raised by not only their parents but their government to be the next generation leaders.
On the other side you have those born and raised as sheep.
Being a sheep isn’t bad, but it’s not good either.
As a sheep no one sees you, no one knows you. You are the crowd. You follow the masses wherever they are directed.
Four legs good, two legs bad – the sheep, George Orwell Animal Farm
In this classic tail of woe and psychology of communism a group of animals come together and create a communist utopia of everyone being equal over throwing a farmer and creating a utopia.
Four legs good, two legs better – the sheep, George Orwell Animal Farm
By the end of the book the actual beast of communism is brought to bear. The leaders see themselves better than their underlings that they have subjected to a utopia but see themselves more than the people that got them there with problems disappearing turning into the thing they once overthrew.
So why all the sheep talk?
Fall inline you’ll be fine.
Break the rules and you could be the new king.
Normal is the standard. You can be the standard or be above the standard. It’s the mavericks we remember, not the masses that fell in step behind them.
Success is commemorated, failure merely remembered. – Space Marine Librarian, Dawn of War
So follow the crowd or lead the crowd or hide in the crowd. Wherever it goes, you’ll find your people who will welcome you with open arms. If not just keep  moving forward.

60. Don’t believe everything you hear and see
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Nothing lies like a photo.
These two sentences were told to me in 2005 at Sydney University during pre-HSC (High School Certificate) History examination preparation course. Both sentences still resinate in my ear till this day. The example used: a World War One photo of soldiers marching beside a tank on an offensive. Why was this a lie? Armoured warfare was designed to have tanks clear the way with infantry in cover behind before fighting in the trenches cleared, during WW1 however many photos were taken well behind friendly lines for propaganda purposes.
With so much social media based on lies, slight of hand, FIGJAM (Fuck I’m Good Just Ask Me) it is hard to find the full truth of each post. The best example of this was the flat tummy tea craze. Many companies started giving their products to superstars and influencers to spruik the product. Many did. They were paid to do this but the way they talked about the product but didn’t disclaim this fact to their many followers. This devolved into the creation of #ad to notify followers that this product announcement/praise of product was an ad/advertorial. The next best was FYRE Festival.
FYRE Festival was entirely based on a lie. The customer can hire a celebrity via an app to appear at events, this was the FYRE app before diving into a festival to launch the app. All of it was a lie. Millions of dollars were spent on a flop of a festival’s marketing and promotions that were not on the island advertised, not with the people advertised, not with the bands advertised, not with the accommodations advertised and not with the finance flashed. The backers have been in a class action lawsuit that also included the incarnation of the face of the app. The entire glossy, classy, sexy, sensually, high financially and social media backed exercise destroyed lives and reputation of nearly all those involved.
If it looks too good to be true, it’s probably a lie.
Don’t forget there’s always photoshop...