tidy girl in messy job

Betty is 19 and found her first job through an agency which put her on a course in coding and guaranteed her a placement. Unfortunately the placement turned out to be a square peg in a round hole type job - it was a bad fit for her.

"I'm a tidy girl and this is a really messy job!"

"I've been in this job for three months now and I'm still technically in training," says Betty, "but there’s no designated trainer, nobody knows what they're doing - although everyone claims to know it all - and there’s nothing in manual format to standardize the work."

She has been bombarded with information from co-workers - much of which conflicts, or is totally unnecessary - and because she is prevented from doing her job properly she feels miserable and incompetent.

"My mom tells me not to despair," says Betty, "but I didn't expect a job to be anything like this. Most of my co-workers are very much older than myself but I am not experiencing reverse ageism."

"On the contrary," says Betty, "the company and staff bent over backwards to make my commencement pleasant."

"There was a week-long induction program that had me learning the detailed history of the company from its inception in 1898 right through until the present time," says Betty.

"I also got to formally meet every single person in the company from the CEO to the janitor," says Betty, "and I was shown around every nook and cranny in the building in order to familiarize myself with the various departments and what they do."

Exhausted from this exercise, Betty was eager to settle down in her job and get some work done in peace and quiet in her second week on the job.

However, peace and quiet escaped her. In stark contrast to the detailed induction program, her on-the-job training was woeful.

"There was absolutely nobody in charge of training and absolutely nothing documented in writing to give me an inkling of what was going on," explains Betty.

"The two guys on either side of me took me under their wing." laughs Betty. "They were so helpful - but one told me to do this, the other told me to do that. And when I asked a third guy what I was supposed to be doing, I was then told something completely different from what the first two guys had told me. And then all of the guys came over and put in their two cents worth!".

"Everyone was so helpful," laughs Betty, "but the place is crazy!"

Betty is sorely confused and overloaded with useless information.

She would start on something and someone would come over and say: 'No, you do it this way.' Then as soon as she had changed what she was doing, someone else would come over and say: 'No, you do it this way'.

Given this sort of on-the-job training anyone would soon go quietly, if not loudly, insane, and Betty couldn’t understand what was going on.

"The guys are not being deliberately obstructive," explains Betty. "They are all laid-back and don’t seem to care that nobody is in charge and nobody really knows what they are doing."

Being a tidy sort of girl who likes to have everything in order and be in total control of her work, Betty could not believe that after three months on the job she was still none the wiser because nobody really had a clue what they were doing even though they all somehow managed to fill eight hours a day doing something.

She describes the place as complete and utter bedlam and is in the process of quitting and looking for another job.

"Next time around," laughs Betty, "I am going to make sure that I have written into my contract who will be training me, how long the training will last and whether work practices are consistent and detailed in manual format."

"I'm the only one having a problem coping with lack of structure and consistency in the workplace," admits Betty, "so I guess it's a classic case of being a square peg in a round hole."

"I'm looking forward to finding a nice square hole into which I can fit," laughs Betty, "but my mom wants me to give the job at least two years."

"I told her that a job isn't like marriage," explains Betty. "I made no vow to stay with it forever and since I'm starting out in life I want to be learning and doing something constructive so that I can get ahead. At this job, I'm going backwards and feeling incompetent. That's why I've made up my mind to move on."

brazening out a bad fit

Vivienne is 43, a millionaire's wife working for pocket change, and she was selected from 165 applicants for a basic team position in a large, high profile organization. Co-workers whose friends had been rejected for the job are, understandably, hostile to her and make it plain that she's a bad fit for the position.

"Most of the applicants were single mothers desperate for a decent job," explains Vivienne, "and when it became known that I was a millionaire's wife with grown-up children, and only wanted the job for fun and a bit of pocket change, the mood in my team was black."

"I work with very poor women," explains Vivienne, "and I guess they just don't like working with a lady who looks like a million dollars - and can afford to look that way. They call me a rich bitch."

"I believe I was selected because I would be a great asset to the company image-wise," says Vivienne, "but everyone tells me that it was unfair to select me because I wasn't the most qualified or experienced applicant."

The advertisement for the position emphasized qualifications and experience and mentioned absolutely nothing about appearance, so everyone wanted to know why Vivienne was given preference over single mothers who had worked hard to gain qualifications and experience and desperately needed a better paying job in order to improve themselves and the lot of their children.

"It's true that the income I receive from this job will be spent wholly on beauty parlors, clothes and shoes," confesses Vivienne, "but I see no reason to feel guilty about spending my money on looking good."

"My spending habits are keeping beauticians, hair-dressers, garment and footwear manufacturers and retailers in business," explains Vivienne, "so I see no injustice in giving me the job even though I was not only one of the least qualified and experienced of the applicants but also the least needy of them all."

"There's talk that I got the job because of a bit of string-pulling at the top," laughs Vivienne, "but I didn't. My husband doesn't play golf with one of the directors and my luncheon companion is not one of the wives of one of the directors."

"I am well aware that thousands of single working mothers, through divorce or unexpected pregnancy, are often left with the sole responsibility of raising and financially supporting their children," says Vivienne.

"I am also well aware that these women are desperate for a decent job and yet are often forced by their vulnerable circumstances into accepting menial low-paying jobs, totally incongruous with their education and experience."

"It is far too facile to say that women like me are taking jobs away from the women who need them," says Vivienne.

"It was a management decision to give me the job. I did not pull strings to get it and if my co-workers want to vent their spleens they should do so to management, not me."

"I have grown up children living independently," explains Vivienne, "and it's quite likely that the company simply saw me as a good employment risk."

"Everyone knows how working mothers, especially single mothers take time off at the drop of a hat when their kids are sick or something is happening at their schools," says Vivienne. " I don’t pose that sort of risk."

Vivienne is also very stable emotionally. Nothing fazes her - she believes that stress is very aging and avoids it like the plague - and in that respect she is a good balance for a team of younger and poorer working mothers who are easily stressed and prone to sickness.

And, of course, Vivienne is well presented.

The women on her team chuck together whatever clothing is clean and relatively uncrumpled in the mornings. Vivienne, on the other hand, looks like she has a maid lay out everything for her. No creases, no crumples, no color clashes. Everything is perfect.

And while the rest of the women can only find time to smear a bit of lipstick on breakfast egg-stained lips, Vivienne has time for a total make-up routine.

And hair?

"Well, one of the women on my team was seriously thinking of affecting the look of a Moslem woman so that she can wear that wonderful scarf that hides everything," laughs Vivienne

"Yes," says Vivienne, "I suppose I put the women on my team to shame in many ways. My hair is glorious. Even when the wind blows it, it looks perfect. But I look at it this way - I am a role model they can aspire to. I am not a threat."

"I am a fun lady and I do my fair share of work - and the other women do like me, albeit begrudgingly," says Vivienne, "and I take with a pinch of salt their remarks about my being exceptionally vain and shallow."

"They tell me that I should stop play-acting as ‘Barbie the Working Girl’ and go back home to Ken so that my job can be given to a woman who really needs it," laughs Vivienne, "but I just tell them 'tough'!"

"Until employers are made responsible for social problems by being forced to give preference to the needy," says Vivienne, "I feel that I have every right to the job."