During the last few weeks the most important thing I learned in this class was about the research resources in the library. I have never had to do any upper level research like this for any of my classes. I found the information to be very interesting and useful. I do quite a bit of research on my own about topics that I am interested in like sustainable building practices and renewable energy. I plan on using the resources in the library to study those topics more in depth. It seems to me like a good way to filter out all of the junk that you come across while doing research on the internet. It also seems fairly easy and the information seems accessible. I enjoyed the presentation we received in the library. It was something that I wish we would have got during earlier classes. This is my last semester so I won’t be able to use it as much as I otherwise would have been able to.
The other thing we learned about is pay scales. I found it interesting because of a situation that recently happened with my sister. She was working here in Salt Lake making around 40,000 a year working with a company that sells advertising space. She then moved to San Francisco and got a job doing the same thing but she is now making 80,000. This was partly because a couple of companies really wanted her to work for them but also just the cost of living is so much greater. The difference is pretty amazing just based on where you live.
We also had an interesting group discussion on minimum wage. One of the other students in my group worked as a waiter and made only about two dollars an hour. He was making about ten dollars an hour for doing the same thing in California. The restaurant industry justifies paying two dollars an hour because they say that with tips it evens out and the waiters make enough. The problem the student expressed was that the pay didn’t always even out because sometimes the restaurant was really slow and they wouldn’t make any money. Also, while it was slow they were asked to clean and tidy up the restaurant for two dollars an hour. This de-motivated the waiters at the restaurant. Also, some of the waiters weren’t scheduled to work during the time slots when the restaurant was busy. This made it even harder for the employees to make enough money. We discussed in our group that the restaurants around here should probably pay more money and if not, they should set up some sort of compensation plan for the times when the restaurant is slow.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
HRM blog post 5
Blog Post 5
Last week we had a good group discussion about feedback. During my internship over the summer I never really received any feedback. I was always kind of curious as to how I was doing. I wasn’t usually given too much responsibility so it was hard for me to judge myself on how I was doing. I learned through the reading that most companies usually do feedback once a year. Since I was only going to be at the company for 3 months this yearly feedback would not apply to me. My boss did sit down with me alone once and he asked me how the internship was going but this was more of a job satisfaction interview rather than a performance review. So the internship ended and I never really got a feel for how he felt about my performance. I had to have him fill out a sheet from the school for the internship. I got it about three weeks after I got done with the internship. On that sheet he reviewed my performance. He put a lot of things in the areas where he thought I could improve. I wish he would have told me these areas to work on while I was there so I could have improved those skills while I had the chance. I am now worried that he won’t give me a very good reference if he gets called by some other companies that I apply for. I felt like my boss didn’t care too much about what I did and wasn’t too concerned about my performance. This was probably because he knew I was a temporary hire but the reason I was doing the internship was to improve my skills and learn. I wish I would have asked him for feedback on how I was doing every couple of weeks while I was there.
In our discussion group we talked about how often people should be receiving feedback. Someone in our group received it weekly at one of her jobs. This was because it was a sales based job and it was kind of like a motivator for the position. We came to the conclusion that feedback should be given as often as needed depending on the position.
We also had a group discussion about job rotation. My uncle works for a hotel. He was rotation through the different positions to better learn all of the aspects of running the hotel. This was to put him in position to be the general manager of one of the hotels eventually. Well when the economy tanked he got stuck in his current position which is lower than where he previously was. To me this is unfair. I think that the hotel should move him back up to his previous position or at least raise his pay back up for the time being. In our group we discussed that there might be a more effective way to help people learn all of the aspect of a certain company rather than just rotating around. We thought some shadowing and training could probably accomplish the same end result.
Last week we had a good group discussion about feedback. During my internship over the summer I never really received any feedback. I was always kind of curious as to how I was doing. I wasn’t usually given too much responsibility so it was hard for me to judge myself on how I was doing. I learned through the reading that most companies usually do feedback once a year. Since I was only going to be at the company for 3 months this yearly feedback would not apply to me. My boss did sit down with me alone once and he asked me how the internship was going but this was more of a job satisfaction interview rather than a performance review. So the internship ended and I never really got a feel for how he felt about my performance. I had to have him fill out a sheet from the school for the internship. I got it about three weeks after I got done with the internship. On that sheet he reviewed my performance. He put a lot of things in the areas where he thought I could improve. I wish he would have told me these areas to work on while I was there so I could have improved those skills while I had the chance. I am now worried that he won’t give me a very good reference if he gets called by some other companies that I apply for. I felt like my boss didn’t care too much about what I did and wasn’t too concerned about my performance. This was probably because he knew I was a temporary hire but the reason I was doing the internship was to improve my skills and learn. I wish I would have asked him for feedback on how I was doing every couple of weeks while I was there.
In our discussion group we talked about how often people should be receiving feedback. Someone in our group received it weekly at one of her jobs. This was because it was a sales based job and it was kind of like a motivator for the position. We came to the conclusion that feedback should be given as often as needed depending on the position.
We also had a group discussion about job rotation. My uncle works for a hotel. He was rotation through the different positions to better learn all of the aspects of running the hotel. This was to put him in position to be the general manager of one of the hotels eventually. Well when the economy tanked he got stuck in his current position which is lower than where he previously was. To me this is unfair. I think that the hotel should move him back up to his previous position or at least raise his pay back up for the time being. In our group we discussed that there might be a more effective way to help people learn all of the aspect of a certain company rather than just rotating around. We thought some shadowing and training could probably accomplish the same end result.
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