What is the most important aspect about your job?
(1) Salary
(2) Job satisfaction
(3) Job security
(4) Fringe benefits
(5) Working hours
(6) Promotions
(7) Location
(8) Travel
(9) My boss
(10) My colleague
Sample answers
(A) Work is just that, no matter what it entails: performing some repetitive task in order to make money. But the one variable that makes or breaks any job is the people one works with. If an esprit de corps develops among the employees, even a boring or arduous task seems almost like fun. But without that spirit, simple or interesting occupations alike become tiresome.
(B) One of the best jobs I ever had (at least at the time) was also my worst-paying one. I was a lifeguard. I was nineteen and lived at home, so I didn't have any real expenses. I worked long hours most days, from mid-morning until dark, and had some unpleasant job duties to perform to keep the pool clean. And I admit that I didn't much like giving swimming lessons to little kids every morning. But the rest of the day I got paid for sitting around in the sun, flirting with pretty girls in skimpy bathing suits, and occasionally blowing my whistle. What a life!
Speak your mind
1. Do you enjoy your job? Why or why not?
2. Do you take pride in your work?
3. Are you satisfied with your salary?
4. What is the ideal occupation? If you don't have it, why not?
5. Are you happy with your supervisor and colleagues at work?
6. Is anything wrong with a wife making more money than her husband?
7. Do you believe some jobs are more prestigious than others? Why or why not?
8. What determines occupational prestige?
Speak your mind helpers
1. Do you enjoy your job? Why or why not?
(A)
I love my job! I've been doing it for twenty-seven years, and it has always given me tremendous happiness. No two days are ever the same, and there are always new challenges to solve. The only way to resolve them is to work closely with other people. This is not always easy to do, of course, but progress is always noticeable even if not immediate. And the feedback I get from success is the best part. Oh, by the way, I'm a teacher.
(B)
]‘ve had lots of jobs in my day, but the one I have now is absolutely the worst. I don't seem to f/t in at all. Everyone else has been there a long time, and the cliques have already formed without me. The boss is a slave driver who is never happy with my performance, even though I know that I’m the most productive person in the department. But this isn't the worst part. I know that if I had this same job with another company, I'd get 20% more pay. I'd like to quit, but I don't have any money saved up. So I guess I have to grin and be0r /t until something better comes along.
2. Do you take pride in your work?
(A)
There's no longer anything new about my job. It is all very routine now. I can do it half-asleep. I learned long ago that doing a job in an acceptable, professional manner is all that matters. Doing it enthusiastically doesn't mean anything. So I save my energy for private matters that are of more interest to me.
(B)
If we don‘t take pride in our work, what's the point in doing it? Our jobs take up more time in life than anything else except sleeping. Sleeping is necessary but a waste of time; but work is an opportunity to excel at something, to make up for the time lost at night. I'm always glad to throw myself into any new project and take joy in accomplishing it.
3. Are you satisfied with your salary?
(A)
I thought I'd be quite content with my salary when I took the job. But in the context of
my expenses, it really is not at all adequate. I don't think my firm understands how much money I have to spend merely in order to do my job properly: things like new clothes and equipment I had to buy to use at home. I'm hoping for some reasonable compensation, but if I don't get it, I'll look for some other work.
(B)
No one is ever satisfied! The richest person in the world still wants more money. So, in that sense, of course I'm not satisfied. If someone offers me a raise, I‘ll take it. | won't say, “Sorry, I have all the money I need.” On the other hand, realistically speaking, I think my salary is fair for the kind of work I perform. And it's enough to pay my bills and support my family. So I don't have much to complain about.
4. What is the ideal occupation? If you don't have it, why not?
(A)
Being a creative artist, writer, or musician would be the ideal job. These people don't put in nine-to-five jobs. They do what they most enjoy, to meet their own interior needs. So, in the truest sense of the term, they work for themselves. But by so doing, they also work for all the rest of us. Most of them don't make much money, but a few become fabulously wealthy and famous. If I had the talent, that is what I'd like to do.
(B)
People g/one various occupations, such as athletics or politics. But, actually, any kind of job can be “ideal” if it entails the opportunity to grow with it. One starts off at the bottom and has to learn how the job works at that level. Gradually or quickly, one masters those skills and goes on to more demanding ones. As the job grows in difficulty and responsibility, one gets promoted and earns more money. No matter how far one goes, there are still new things to learn, step by step. So, for any job, the s\y is the limit in terms of success and satisfaction.
5. Are you happy with your supervisor and colleagues at work?
(A)
I have a new boss, so I don't know yet. My colleagues and I are discussing the situation, but we haven‘t formed any consensus yet. Our old boss was a great guy. He knew his business and how to inspire his people. In my opinion, he was always fair. So I hope the new one will do well, but it's hard to imagine anyone doing it better.
(B)
There are a lot of new people in my office. None of them seems to know what to do or how to do it. So far, none of them has revealed much of his personality; they are all too busy struggling to keep up to do much socializing. Workdays are just one new headache after another, since I not only have to do my own job but theirs as well, and none of them seems very eager to change this situation. It would serve them all right — and my boss, too, for hiring them — if I just decided to up and quit.
6. Is anything wrong with a wife malting more money than her husband?
(A)
Men still have their pride. For millions of years, they have had to sacrifice many of the enjoyments of life in order to protect and tend to their families’ welfare. Women stayed at home to make the men's hardships worthwhile it. This system worked well for a long, long time, but with the rise of the independent woman everything is falling apart. Kids are running wild, and as women become more and more like men in their attitudes, men in turn are becoming less manly. I don't like these developments at all.
(B)
The family income is the mutual possession of the entire household. It does not matter who adds the most money; in the end, everyone benefits from it equally. If the wife (or husband) does not have an income, he (or she) nonetheless contributes to the well-being of the family. But if they both work, the family does better. It is silly to think in terms of competition in u co-operative enterprise like a family.
7. Do you believe some jobs are more prestigious than others? Why or why not?
(A)
It might be nice to believe that all jobs have equal dignity and worth, but it simply isn't true. A plumber is never going to have the same prestige as an architect, even though they are both highly skilled, well-paid, and in the same occupational field. However, please note that I am not saying the architect is a better person than the electrician or has any special privileges; but the jobs are widely different in terms of status.
(B)
Perceptions of prestige vary greatly. The Mongols assigned a status to every position and placed poets below prostitutes, while other societies have put their national poets on a pedestal above all others. Even within the same culture, status-ranking is variable. In the United Kingdom, there is strong class consciousness, and the members of the working class want to preserve their special identity. They dress, talk, and play in ways that are distinctively their own, and they generally want their children to get good working-class jobs rather than aspire to any of the professions that belong to the other classes. So, it is not so much a matter of prestige as it is appropriateness.
8. What determines occupational prestige?
M: What are you reading?
F: A movie magazine. I'm just checking up on how my favorite stars are doing.
M: You mean what movies they are making, so you know what to look forward to?
F Well, I guess I'm more interested in how much they make and how they live and who they're making love to.
M: Why is any of that important?
F: It's just something to fantasize about, since I know I'll never lead that kind of life.
M: The celebrities in that magazine are nothing spec ia1. They just get a lot of attention, but they don't do much that's important. They don't build anything. They don't discover or invent anything. They aren't working on the problems of world hunger, peace, or justice. All they do in life is look pretty.
F: But they have a lot more prestige and money than any scientist or politician. Or, for that matter, religious leader or poet. Certainly, a lot more money and prestige than a teacher or nurse. So, what's so important about being useful? Obviously, being a star is more important than anything else.
M: That's what's wrong with our worth. We don't reward the ones who do the most for us. Our fantasies are preferable to our real lives. If this continues, life will degenerate instead of progress, because the people who can make a positive difference won't have any incentive to continue. And then our fantasy lives will become even more important as an escape from the dreary drudgery we find ourselves trapped in.
F: See, that's why these celebrity lifestyles attract our attention. We want better things, but we can't have them. But we can dream about them, and sometimes, if we work hard, we can make these dreams come true. But i1 we don't have any idea of what the “good life” is, how could we ever aspire to it?
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