Good afternoon! Well, basically it is almost evening, but when the need to blog strikes.... it is best to just get it over with. Let's begin... shall we?
Okay, I am not saying that life and work are perfect. We just don't live in an ideal existence where what we want is there for the taking or even handed to us on a silver platter. Life is hard, work takes effort, and the driving force to obtain what we seek takes determination. With every aspect of life, it takes the desire to push yourself forward. We take chances and hope for the best, but learn from the worst. It boils down to adaptability. Being able to adapt and accept change in order to grow.
I guess the reason I am sharing this thought brings me to remember a statement given to me years ago when I was in Cosmetology school.
"You are the maker of your own success story. Success does not just land in your lap with a pretty bow on it. It takes effort, it takes patience, and it takes skill. Skills can be taught, but only you can utilize your skills to create a successful career. Without effort, patience and skill.... you will not succeed."
That statement (obviously, not verbatim), has been the mantra that has kept me level headed in my line of work. Well, that and being a reasonable person. I have close to 30 years experience in Cosmetology and have been a darn good hairdresser. Sadly, I have also been the best kept secret for most of my clients, so my client base has not exactly been built upon referrals. It has been built on satisfied clients. What seems to miff me into a tizzy these days is the environment I have been working in for these past 10-12 years. I just don't get it.... why is there fewer and fewer people with a strong work ethic?
Over the years, I have worked at various jobs. Working in a hair salon has been my constant. If I was not working full time at a salon, I was working part time. I think it was in my 20's that I ventured away from full time hair salon work and went to part time while I worked in an office for the sheer purpose of having health insurance and a more steady paycheck. Working in a hair salon is a feast or famine lifestyle. There are times you are so busy, you forget to eat and there are times you are lacking things to do that you would rather be at home asleep than sitting at a salon waiting for a client to walk in. In this line of work, especially in a commission based environment, you only earn from your billable services provided. Meaning: if you are sitting around, doing nothing... you are earning nothing. Thus, the concept of feast and famine. It is rewarding work, but it takes a strong person to weather the highs and lows. Sadly, some people lack the strength. Here is what I mean....
I stayed at a salon for several years and struggled to make a paycheck that leaves me with some pocket money. The environment was professional, but not in the same breath. If you were not a huge money maker behind the chair, you are shuffled into the dark corner and forgotten when new opportunities arise. Makes it really hard when your goal is to become one of the money making elite, but ending up being the chump change overflow person. That person that always gets the out of town wedding parties that offer zero chance of getting any repeat business. I know that being part time puts me at a disadvantage, but when your boss knows that you want to build up to a full time status and just doesn't seem to care.... well, then you can guess that achieving that goal is just as possible as digging a well with a pair of tweezers. After several years of loyalty and determination to keep trying... I felt I had to seek a job elsewhere. Sadly, the next place I went to work was just as dismal, but I was determined to keep trying.
Now, not to say that I hate my job, but I hate my situation is a fair assessment. Going from one back-stabbing situation to another would make you scratch your head in disbelief that a person as smart as I am could do that, but here I am.... I have done it again. Luckily, the situation does have potential to put me on more firm ground to build a new foundation of clients. Since my last place of employment did not allow me to keep client records, I have basically started from ground zero all over again. I am proud to say that I have managed to build a good starting point over this past year, but I am starting to tire of the childish antics that happen in the workplace and fear that it will affect my ability to grow as a professional. Especially, when the childish antics are pushing me to react before thinking first. Here is what I am getting at for today's blog post....
I can only guess that a person has a limit to how much effort is put out. I work in an environment that should be filled with driven people that would work in a team-like fashion to not just support their fellow coworker, but to to encourage them to be the best that they can possibly be.... sadly, that is not the case. I work in an environment that consists of people lacking the drive, lacking the passion, and in all honesty.... lacking the ability to be a cohesive team. Some people choose to back-stab and poach clients, others choose to not bother coming in to work, while others have no staying power to weather the lows in client flow with late starts and early leaving. Heck, some cannot commit to a schedule from week to week. Tension is high as management is not exactly managing the situation. Most likely due to becoming tired of constantly trying to wrangle the straying staff and letting them just sink or swim. Sure, the opportunity to build a clientele is there. Heck, I am proof positive of that. It is the animosity that is affecting my attitude. The dull tarnishing the shine of passion for what we do. I just wonder.... when will things change in a positive way? Will it be before or after rock bottom hits? Will it ever happen if this train of destruction continues to pick up speed? And how can we stop the damage from increasing? Heck, how did this even start?
Is it possible that the lack of drive is from lack of consistency? Is it from lack of passion? Is it lack of management? Is it just from exposure to those few toxic people that poison the environment? Is it from the inability to change and grow? I just cannot seem to get a finger on what is causing this in order to fix it, but is it really my job to fix it? I am not a manager, I am not the owner, but I am the maker of my own success. Does that qualify me to put in even more effort to fix this to help the others? Or should I just focus on only my career and not bother with the business that hired me to be part of their non-team-like team? If not.... then, how do I instill a positive work environment when the non-positive forces are prevailing? I do know that in the past, I worked with people that lacked the drive to go beyond what what was expected. Just meeting the basic requirement was good enough for them. I, on the other hand, had a strong work ethic to go beyond the bare minimum. Of course, when it came to growth in an office environment.... I was held back under the thumb of management because I did more than most and never sought out credit for it. In fact, it made management look so good with minimal effort on their part, they just sat back and reaped the rewards. Frustration seemed to take center stage with me and I ended up changing jobs in order to go up one rung of the corporate ladder. When I finally landed in a field that I did well in, I was yet again bombarded with extra work from other departments to pick up their slack. The stress pushed me into a continual battle with panic attacks and general anxiety disorder. In order to get off the Xanax and see clearly, I had to leave what I thought was going to be my dream career and continue with my first passion of doing hair. Sadly, recent events have been making me wonder if I can survive if I keep ending up in less than optimal mental health situations. With the way the economy is.... I have no college degree with work experience in anything beyond being a Cosmetologist (also known as a hairdresser). Sure, I could work in fast food, but even there has the less than driven people moseying around, doing the bare minimum. I would love to be my own boss, but I do not have the capital to do so. Heck, I am not even sure I want to deal with what I am dealing with on the level of being a business owner. I just wish I knew why people are the way they are. I also hope that things will get better for all.
Well, this little release of thought has helped a little. Not much, since I have no solution to the problem that I really have no control over. All I can control is myself, but in a way to accept or adapt to not let the environment get the best of me is going to be a challenge. Thanks for reading!
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