KCSpeaks

  It is hard to spend time speaking about work and jobs without talking about what is probably one of the largest employers in the entire world. This employer has so many people, working directly for the organization, and hundreds and thousands of subcontractor worldwide. Christmas is a massive employer and so many people probably don’t even realize they are employees of a holiday. I understand that Christmas is a religious holiday and the goal of this is not to take away from the Christian symbolism behind the holiday. This post is to focus on the hundreds of jobs created and worked because of this one holiday.   The management at the top of the organization is highly confidential in nature, yet despite the important role the management plays in motivating and setting the scene for the season, they take no direct salary or benefits. Rather they subcontract to so many people to get the job done, on time, in order to meet the delivery expectation of December 25 th . In my w...

I would love to find an old magazine or newspaper article from before electricity was standard to see what writers said about it. Did they think it was good, bad, or did they even think it was a worthwhile topic? As I write this, I have many items using electricity in my presence, from the computer to the lights. I am totally dependent upon it. I am so thankful my home has electricity and so does my office. All of the modern conveniences I use rely on electricity.   To get the lights on and to keep them on, there is a small army of people behind the scenes making it happen. The electric company in my area is private company. It may be owned by the government in your area. The number  of workers directly employed by the company are huge. There are workers in the offices coordinating, billing, and dealing with customer issues. There are field workers – from engineers to people who keep the power grid maintained.   The power company also contracts with other companies and ...

   Fall is in full swing now and all across my region, there are so many harvest fairs and carnivals. I look forward to my local fair each year and I am not alone. So many people have fond memories of time at the fair, with rides, games, special events, music, and you cannot forget the food. Most of the food is over the top big, fried, or sweet. So many people following diets pack up the routine for a day and go for it. Everyone who attends is looking for a good time. In my town, the annual fair has a carnival with rides and games. This carnival put on by a carnival of people who come to the town, set up their rides, and games, operate them, and when the fair is over, they pack up and move on to the next town. When I walk through the carnival, I see people. Not just the children enjoying merry go arounds and Ferris wheels, but the workers. I see these workers as the forgotten faces of the carnivals. Their job is to ensure everyone has fun and stays safe on the rides or ...

                           Vincent Van Gogh to Theo Van Gogh - Message in a letter I had the privilege of going to see an immersive art exhibit called Beyond Van Gogh. This exhibit took the life and career of Vincent Van Gogh and brought them to life, to get the experience so you could feel like you were inside the paintings. As a lifetime art appreciator, I enjoyed this experience. It did get me to think more about art and how it has influenced the world of work. Those of us in the workforce world, and maybe many parents of children looking to make a career of art, are probably thinking how most artists are impoverished, and few ever achieve the level of success necessary to support themselves while still alive. All true when you think of art in the traditional sense, a painter creating and selling a painting, but there is a budding world of art out there that has nothing to do with creating pictures of bowls of fr...

As a frequent driver, every so many miles it’s time to take the car in for an oil change and to have everything checked out. Auto Mechanics are like car doctors, making sure the car is running up to speed the way it should, diagnosing issues, and trying to fix and heal car woes. Good mechanics are hard to find and anyone who has a good mechanic knows and trusts their judgment and expertise. I have been a repeat customer of my mechanic for many years, so it is not uncommon when I am in the shop to strike up a conversation with the mechanics. In the past, my mechanic has told me how hard it is to break into the profession now and how a Master Mechanic is hard to find. He said that with the increasing technology in cars, it is almost impossible for many people to learn auto mechanics by tinkering and new cars require advanced education in the technology in order to fix them. As a workforce professional, I completely understood the car repair business is subject to the same pressures as an...

My normal routine involves completing any food shopping at the grocery store, but in the summer, my town has a weekly farmer’s market. This is an opportunity for the farmers who grow the food to take advantage of being able to sell their locally grown food to hungry people. My first instinct was to make a comment on this being the go-to place for vegetable lovers, but the farmer’s market has grown from just a roadside type produce stand to so much more. Besides the colorful array of good-for-you vegetables, there are vendors selling lots of non-produce items. There are locally made baked goods and treats for humans and even pet foods. Some local craft vendors have also decided to sell their wares and now there are handmade soaps, pottery, and clothing. Nothing screams summer to me like a farmer’s market. Although there are so many other vendors now besides produce, I would not have made it to the market without the hard work and dedication of the actual farmer. To have actual pro...

Like so many other people in the world, I am a member of a health and fitness center, a.k.a. a gym.   The facility I belong to is a large facility and employs many people from trainers to maintenance folks, and customer service staff. The gym I belong to has a childcare area for people with young children to get babysitting services while they are working out. They also have a pool and lifeguards on duty. This is working out for the members of this gym. This is work for the staff of the facility that keep the place running at long hours of the day and evening, so people like me can be exercising. Fitness as an industry is huge and I could probably write all day about the people it employs. Some of the people at my gym work there as a second job or side job from something else. There are people teaching elementary school during the day and yoga at night. Some of the staff work multiple part-time jobs at different gyms in their specialty. Although it employs many people, finding pe...

I am fortunate to live in a state with a ton of historical sites just a stone’s throw away. One of my hiking adventures took me to a little-known  state park called Camp Columbia, in Morris, CT. Besides the hiking, this current state park has a history tied to work. The park was once owned by Columbia University,  and it was where engineering students once visited in the summer months practice land surveying in the 1800’s and military training during the World War I years. A much more robust explanation of the history can be found on the state’s website at https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/State-Parks/Parks/Camp-Columbia-State-Park-Forest . Columbia University has long since left property, having trained many students in the skills needed for their jobs and now it is a place of recreation for state residents. How interesting to visit a place where people once learned the skills necessary for work. The park was a camp for the University and not a traditional classroom. This summer c...

  Where I live, road construction stops during the winter months due to weather. The ground freezes and it is not uncommon to see snow, sleet, and ice. The weather and the frozen ground all make road construction challenging. Yet, here we are in the early days of spring and the season is just getting started as temperatures increase. It will not be uncommon for me to be driving the non-winter seasons and hit some road construction, even on the weekends or overnight. The spring temperatures and weather conditions have made walking more pleasant too. On the side of one of the walking trails I frequent there is a construction company. They have a large yard where they store materials and equipment when they are not in use. I gaze at this area of materials and equipment each time I am on this particular trail. What struck me on this walk was the large pile of traffic drums, the bright orange striped barrels, that are used create a barrier around a construction area. The traffic dru...

February is in the heart of winter and nothing brightens the mood more than Valentine’s Day. Whether you have someone to love or are just loving yourself to the fullest, it is hard to ignore the reds and pinks in the world around you. Valentine’s Day is a huge business. From candy, flowers, cards, and date night fun, this holiday keeps the economy super busy. Where I live, if you want to see flowers in February, you will have to get them from the florist, mail order, or grocery store. It is too cold to grow your own this time of year. It takes a small city of people to get those flowers to the store. It is hard to ignore something that keeps so many people employed. From the floral department at the large store or local florists, the retail side is just one small part of the industry. Before they were artfully arranged to entice me to buy them, they were grown and shipped to my industry. February may seem like a strange time to think about agricultural workers, but to make it to th...

New Year, new day for blogging. I wanted to try something different this year and focus on my relationship to work. I think everyone in the world has a relationship to work through themselves or others and this year, I wanted to showcase how I function in the larger world of work and my community. Let 2022 be the year of #thisiswork.     I drive to work daily in my car since public transportation is non-existent for my area. This means I visit the gas station a couple of times a week to put more gas in my car. Although this is not the most exciting part of my week, the hope the price of gas going down a few cents does get me excited. My regular gas station is on a pretty main road and has a little store. There are couple of different workers I sometimes see if I go in to make a purchase. Most of my visits though involve me completing my entire transaction at the self-service pump. If I lived in another state, I might not be pumping my own gas or the station might be larg...