Resolutions almost always fail. Most of them are made more to go along with tradition than to make real, necessary changes. And they are rarely backed up by plans. Instead of making resolutions, why not try setting goals for 2022? By now, most of us have heard of the SMART method for setting goals. Created by consultant George T. Doran in 1981, this goal checklist began as a way to formulate goals in a corporate environment. Today, we can use his method to set goals for our art practice, second job, side hustle, or personal interests. 

Specific goals are more likely to be reached. 

One of the problems with resolutions is that they are often vague. “I want to improve my finances” doesn’t really offer anything to work toward. You could be talking about a complete overhaul of your budget, getting an entirely new job, and completely changing your lifestyle and spending habits. Or you could be talking about spending five minutes looking for dropped change and plastic bottles to redeem for dimes. 

“My goal is to have an extra hundred dollars after paying all the bills each month,” or “This January, my goal is to rewrite the family budget to allow us to put $200 aside for our summer vacation in July,” are specific financial goals. 

Measurable goals encourage you to keep going. 

One of the easiest ways to give up on a goal is to lose sight of your progress. Making sure your progress can be measured is one way to keep yourself from losing track of where you are and how much further you need to go. Some goals are measured in an obvious way. If it’s my goal to save $500 in the first six months of the year, I’m going to measure my progress by how much money I have stashed. Other goals aren’t as easy to measure. If my goal is to sing onstage again by the end of July, how do I measure my progress? Will it be measured in the number of people I sing in front of offstage? Will it be measured in the number of songs I learn and rehearse enough to be comfortable performing them onstage? Am I going to set a number of hours to practice each week? 

When a goal is achievable, we are less likely to give up out of frustration.

Making our goals achievable isn’t “politically correct” these days. We’re supposed to tell ourselves and each other that we can do anything as long as we put our minds to it, adopt the right attitude, and never give up. But this simply is not true. Everyone has their strengths, weaknesses, things they’re called to do for a living, things that they can do, but will only ever be hobbies, and things they’re terrible at. This includes people you admire, people who seem like they can do “everything,” me, the person next to you, and you. 

 We also have to take our family, finances, professional obligations, health, and other goals into consideration when setting goals. 

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t dream, or set far reaching goals, just that they should be something we have the ability to do. Someone who has been playing guitar and singing professionally for twenty years, has been in bands, written songs, and played for live audiences could absolutely set a goal of making an album every other year. Their friend who just picked out their instrument yesterday is probably not going to be ready to be a professional musician in six weeks.. 

Keeping goals relevant helps us keep going by making the goal part of something already important to us. 

Setting meaningless goals just because that’s what everybody else is talking about doing is a surefire way to fail completely. If the goal isn’t meaningful to us in some way, we are likely to honestly not care enough to put in the necessary work to achieve it. 

Money saved toward splurging on  a designer bag or coat is likely to be spent before it reaches the necessary amount if the saver does not truly enjoy wearing designer labels. Setting a goal to learn a language simply because your family insists it will help your job prospects is more likely to end in a pile of discarded books and software than language proficiency. 

Time-specific goals, also called deadlines, prevent excuse making. 

Vowing to learn to play the piano, make a new budget, get your house cleaned and painted, or finally get a professional wardrobe put together “someday” leaves an overly easy way out when you don’t do anything. Setting a deadline holds you accountable. If you set a goal to have the living room professionally cleaned and painted by the middle of June, you know you will feel a sense of failure if it’s August seventeenth and you’re still looking at the coffee stains on the carpet and the twenty year old paint on the walls. This wish to avoid that feeling will keep you motivated to keep saving money, clearing out clutter, getting estimates, moving furniture, or any other steps you need to take to achieve that goal. 

Forget making new year’s resolutions. Have you set your 2022 goals yet? 

by Jess Szabo 
Originally published on Artist Cafe Utica 
​www.artistcafeutica.com 


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The “What really happens when you apply to 100 jobs” challenge ended with only 25 job applications, but a blessing nonetheless. Here are my final journal entries of the challenge:
 
 
Day 15: November 10
 
This morning I found out I didn’t get the artisanal cheese job. It does stand to reason, since I do not have years of specialty cheese experience.
 
On a serious note, I put in for another open position at <adult education provider>  as a part-time adult literacy instructor., I applied for a very similar position at the beginning of this challenge, and this is one of the few jobs where I have to say, I don’t understand why they completely ignore me.
 
I don’t mean to sound narcissistic. Most jobs, I can see a reason why I got rejected. The entry level customer service job people don’t want somebody who, on paper, looks like they’re going to have a lot of chances to find something better and quit. A lot of those “writing coach” jobs  require you to have a teaching certificate, it’s not just a “preferred” qualification. (I do not have one.)  Others seem to want somebody who makes their living as a freelance writer. I barely make spending money as a freelance writer. But I would be almost perfect for a job as an adult literacy instructor. It’s pretty much what I’ve been doing for the past six and a half years already.
 
This application also marks the one quarter of the way finished with the challenge point. I have applied to 25 jobs. So far, all I’ve gotten were “interviews” from places that have a bot automatically schedule an interview anytime somebody applies, and one job offer…..for a temporary holiday cashier position at <big box store>.
 
November 11: Day 16: No activity
 
November 12: Day 17
 
Yesterday this challenge was inactive because there was nothing to do. The number of jobs I can even reasonably apply to is dwindling.
 
Last night, I did receive another one of those auto responses, this one from a place looking for someone to basically run the laundry service overnight in a nursing home. And the thing that stands out about it is the title, “Laundry Aide.” I’m noticing a lot of that…job titles that sound like one thing, but actually have the job requirements of a very different job.
 
 November 13-15: Days 18-21
 
These three days can be summed up in one quick entry. Every time I check Indeed, there are fewer and fewer jobs I can even apply for, and the same jobs that I already applied for listed over and over again.
 
Day 22 November 16, 2021
 
This is the day the challenge ended. There were no more steady wage or salary paying jobs that I could even feasibly apply to, and I needed to find some side hustle, second job, or other income source.
 
 
December 22, 2021: How it ended
 
The “What really happens when you apply to 100 jobs challenge” ended on November 17, 2021, but the ending had begun to take shape around a week earlier.
 
Tutorme dot com looked like gig work. Looking over their site, it appeared that working for them meant you had the same job as someone who drives for Uber, delivers for UberEats, DoorDash, or GrubHub, or shops for Instacart. You just offer online tutoring instead of rides, restaurant meal delivery, or grocery shopping and delivery.
 
Something…the Holy Spirit…just kept telling me to apply anyway. At first, I resisted. I had to be misinterpreting the message. Making money tutoring online seemed impossible. That’s why I made that rule for the challenge.  I kept picturing myself working all week and coming away with a dollar. But I just kept getting the message, that little voice that you know is coming from your own thoughts, but feels like a loving parent talking to you, uring me to “Go on…apply to work as a tutor for this company.”
 
When I prayed about it, I got an even stronger answer…yes…apply. That time, I listened, brought the challenge to a close, and applied for the gig work.  By November 17, I was hired, set up, and ready to give the gig economy a shot after all.
 
I earned my first paycheck on November 26. It was $117.00. My second check on December 3 was for $93. On December 10, I earned $64. The following week, on December 17, I earned my final paycheck for my first full month, $45. I’m rounding of course, but my first month’s income from Tutorme was around $318. I went back just to earn some extra cash and am expecting a deposit today or tomorrow for $17.60. This brings my 2021 total to $336.27.
 
Earning more would have been possible, but I purposely put tutoring on hold for the year before I reached $400. Once you earn $400, you have to claim it on your taxes. And while I have no problem paying taxes, I am not at all prepared to file freelance income taxes for 2021. If you only have taxed wages, you can file for free at my income level. If you have freelance income, the fee is around $100. I will be fully prepared to pay that next year, when I tutor as a steady side hustle, but the end of 2021 was a trial period for me.
 
Looking at those numbers so far, online tutoring looks like a strong source of extra or supplemental income. It’s a way to bring in some money to pay that one bill that’s still left after you budget the income from your main source. That $336.27 could be somebody’s electric bill, grocery budget, or the amount they need to put aside for school expenses throughout the year or an emergency fund.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I would like to wish everyone a Blessed and Merry Christmas, and thank all of you for reading the “Library 315” section of Artist Cafe Utica throughout the year. I hope you come back for one last article of 2021, about setting goals for the new year, on December 31. In 2022, look for more about online tutoring, additional challenges, and more free content for and about Utica artists.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

In part three of The Challenge that Failed in the Best Possible Way, we finish out the first two full weeks of my “What really happens when you apply to 100 jobs?” challenge.
 
 
Day 8 : November 3:
 
The jobs I can even reasonably apply to are dwindling. I didn’t even apply to any jobs today, and simply checked my applications and updated my list of jobs.
 
Day 9: November 4
 
The only job I could even apply for that would fit into the rules of this challenge is for a spa receptionist at the nearest casino. I would have to either arrange to use the Call a Bus service, or make one heck of a side income to honestly accept something like that, because it is something like a forty mile drive from me.
 
So far, I’m up to 17 jobs for the challenge. I have still only gotten an offer to work as a temporary cashier at <Big Box store>. I didn’t even get an interview on the two jobs that I would actually take as second teaching jobs.
 
Day 10: November 5
 
My day started with working my real job, teaching writing to adults online as an adjunct English instructor. But my day of this challenge started with a rejection letter from <well known cell phone company>.
 
One of the reasons I have trouble getting job offers from entry level jobs is because it looks like I have too many options. They want people who would appear to have no choice but to keep working for them. They want kids with no previous job history and no education they can take someplace else. They want adults who have never worked, and would have trouble getting another job for a very long time. They want retired people, because althrough they would have the skills and experience, there is still so much ageism in our society, once it’s clear that you retired from a career, it’s hard to get re-hired back into it.
 
My resume, with my graduate degree, more than a decade of experience in two fields, and an active multi faceted career in a third, looks like I can just go out there and get a desirable job anytime I want. That is clearly and obviously not true, as second teaching jobs do not even appear to be opening up right now, but that’s the way the corporate types who read my resume and cover letter see it.
 
The second notable moment of this challenge today was a rejection letter from one of the jobs I actually wanted. This is just an experiment to see what job hunting is really like, but I do also have my eye out for second teaching jobs, and this was one of them.
 
I also received a second “just for the challenge” job rejection. These are starting to sting.
 
 
Day 11: November 6
 
Today I made it through one fifth of the challenge, with my 20th job application. It was for a breakfast bar attendant at a nice hotel in town. They demand one year of restaurant experience. For a breakfast bar attendant. That would be the person who takes the empty self-serve pans back to the kitchen, puts the full ones out on the bar, and keeps the dining area the guests use clean. People with a year of restaurant experience can go get jobs as servers and actually make decent money through tips.
 
Day 12: November 7
 
It has been less than two weeks, I’m only up to 21 submitted job applications, and I am already running out of jobs I can reasonably apply for. I even applied for one yesterday and got immediately rejected, because I can’t tutor both English and math.
 
This is a similar problem to what everyone who applies to work at <national chain restaurant mentioned before> is going to encounter; they want somebody who can do the work of three jobs, for low pay.
 
November 8: Day 13
 
I just put in for a temporary holiday job cutting and wrapping cheese for< a specialty food store.> They actually asked me how many years experience I have working with specialty cheeses, and made me take a management skills test to finish the application.
 
This is becoming an absurd pattern.
 
 
November 9: Day 14
 
Break day.
 
 
It must have been the cheese wrapping job application that wore me out enough to need a day off. Overall, this portion of the journal shows that the “all these jobs are available, people just don’t want to work,” claim is flimsy at best, and is in many cases, completely unfounded. The jobs are posted. They are not necessarily available to anyone and everyone who needs or wants to work.
 
Any  job is going to have reasonable requirements. Anyone seeking to fill a position is going to need someone who meets the basic qualifications to do the job. Rejecting my application if I applied to work in a garage or for a home repair service would be completely reasonable. Not only do I have no skills or training in that area, I’m more than a little dense when it comes to that type of intelligence, and would have a difficult time learning how to repair appliances or work on cars in the first place, never mind reaching a professional level in it.
 
But the longer this challenge went on, the more it became clear that many employers are….well….asking people how many years of experience they have with fancy cheese.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

What really happens when you set out to apply to 100 jobs in the post-quarantine, “nobody wants to work” era? In the first few days of the challenge, the answer seemed to be “a lot of rejection letters and a reluctant offer of a few weeks of temporary customer service work from a manager who seemed intent on wasting time sulking over an applicant who could not work on Saturdays instead of filling the role with somebody with the needed Saturday availability.” Here is what happened as the first week drew to a close:
 
 
Day 4: October 28, 2021
 
Once the temp job at <Big box store>  decision had been made and the application withdrawn at the end of the day yesterday, I continued applying for jobs in the fields of customer service, basic office work, education, and writing.
Right after college, I worked for eleven years as a receptionist. During those years, I gradually grew from an amateur to a professional writer, earning a Master of Arts degree in Literature and Creative Writing, and starting a career as a reporter. I was a reporter for twelve years overall, but since I was freelance, I would say I have a solid ten years of experience. One of the gaps in those years was filled with a nine month job as a Walmart Greeter and Cashier. During those nine months, I made the decision to shift my career to creative writing, general freelance writing, and writing teaching. Six and a half years ago, I began teaching writng skills to adults at an online university. Three years ago, I narrowed my freelance writing down to writing for and about the arts.
One of the jobs that would revive my long ago customer service career would be a dishwasher and busser at <seafood chain restaurant>.  That is certainly something that would be a reasonable side job for me. I have all those years of experience in customer service, and cleanliness has always been a priority with me. When I was a receptionist, I added “cleaning lady” on to my duties myself simply because the tiny lobby, office spaces, and restrooms in the place were filthy and they needed somebody. (And no, the owner did not increase my pay or offer any compensation. His own wife spoke up about it. He glared at both of us and ignored her.)
At first, <seafood chain restaurant> looked like it might be much more straightforward. Their listing on Indeed says “Dishwasher and Busser.” That’s a reasonable combination. It would be your job to clear and sanitize the tables and wash the dishes you collect for future customer use.
Once I filled out the application, I received a notice that they’d looked over my materials and wanted to continue the process, but I needed to go on the company website and fill out their official application form.
That’s when I got a good look at the complete job description. To be fair, they do have it posted on Indeed, but it isn’t visible unless you open up the whole listing rather than using the quick apply function.
Reading the full job description, you learn that not only will you be responsible for keeping the tables cleared and clean, washing the dishes, and performing the other light kitchen tasks one would expect of the dishwasher, like keeping the kitchen area clean and helping to roll silverware, you will be responsible for cleaning the restrooms, taking out the trash, and doing maintenance on the grounds as well.
Somehow, I doubt the person who takes this job is going to be getting triple the hourly wage, but they should. That’s three jobs. Clearing tables right after guests leave, sanitizing them according to today’s increased standards, keeping the dishes washed for the customers and the kitchen staff, keeping the kitchen area clean, and helping to prepare items for table setting is a dishwasher/busser job. Cleaning the rest of the place, including the restrooms, and taking out the trash constitutes a job as a custodian. And the person who maintains the grounds is well, a maintence person. Depending on the size of the restaurant, the busser and dishwasher might be separate jobs too, making that four distinct jobs. But let’s be generous with the large corporation and say that’s one job, and they’re only asking someone to do the work of three while being paid for one.
 
Day 6: November 1
 
October 29, 30 and 31 were a weekend break from the challenge.
 
Today, the first alarming observation is that some of the job titles and ads are a bit misleading. I submitted an application for “Community Support Staff” for an organization that serves disabled people. The job ad sounded like you would be helping groups of people with activities in the community, or doing office work or other front of office tasks to help people get out into the community. But the test they gave me asked a bunch of nursing and patient care questions. I didn’t finish, because I have never even thought about entering that field and didn’t know the answer to any of the questions. If they need somebody to provide that type of care, they should be looking for someone with at least some background in home health and nursing, not somebody they need to use a little online quiz to screen. I could have looked up all the answers, presented myself as skilled and ready to provide care, gotten the job, and shown up as well…me…somebody with no real idea how to provide home health care or the slightest knowledge of nursing.
 
In terms of progress in the challenge, it’s the sixth day I’ve worked on it, and I am up to fifteen job applications. Fifteen job applications….and the only interest anyone has shown in me is to offer me a temporary position as a cashier at <Big box store>. They didn’t even offer me a real, permanent job there, just a few weeks of work helping out over the holiday season.
 
Day 7:November 2, 2021
 
One of yesterday’s applications was to <a pizza chain>, for the position of Hostess. The response came so immediately, I knew nobody read my application. It was an automated response to anyone who turned in an application.
 
And the response was annoying, to say the least. For the rest of the evening and into this morning, I have been absolutely bombarded with both texts and emails demanding that I schedule an interview immediately.
 
The whole automated/bot responses and even in some cases, interviews, discourage me from even pursuing the job. In a way, I get it. They’re thinking about hiring you to show people where they’re supposed to sit and pass around menus. This isn’t anything anyone actually wants to do long term. People who want to build a career in the service industry are there to work their way up to server, so they can start earning decent tips, and then up into management. People who just need some money, just need some money. They’re going to quit as soon as something they actually do comes along. It’s not like I’m on the short list to be running one of their departments for the foreseeable future, and they should be taking me out for lunch or drinks to see if I’m a good fit.
 
That said, the message “We can’t even be bothered to actually glance at your application, now jump out of your chair and come running to us for an interview,” does not exactly leave a potential employee with a good impression of a potential employer.
 
 Keep reading the “Library 315” page of Artist Cafe Utica for more about the challenge.
 
 

On October 25 of this year, I began a social experiment. No letting the person in front of me decide what I eat for a day, ordering one item at every fast food place, or going to the worst rated business in my hometown. Instead, I challenged myself to see what happens when you apply to one hundred jobs in the  post-quarantine, employers claiming “nobody wants to work” era.
 
The challenge, happily, ended when I got so bored with it, I decided to violate one of the rules and apply for one of those “gig economy.” jobs like Uber, DoorDash, GrubHub, and Instacart. Only without a car, all but Instacart Shopper is out for me, and they are not hiring.
 
Needing to stick strictly to online gig work, I put it to tutor for a website called “TutorMe,” which turned out to be a great opportunity for me to earn money doing some of the work I am called to do…teaching writing and related skills.
 
Here is just some of what happened up until the day  I received the offer to work as an independent contractor through TutorMe:
 
Day 1:
 
To launch the challenge, I applied to six jobs. Two of them are in the literacy and writing teaching category, and are jobs I would love to work. The other four were jobs that may not involve work I feel called to do, but are jobs I could do, based on my eleven years and nine months of experience in customer service.
 
One, <Big Box store>, invited me to submit a virtual recorded interview. The interview offer came so quickly, it has to be an automatic response to anyone who applies. The position they would consider me for is an unspecified temporary holiday job.
 
To complete the interview, I had to watch a recorded interviewer ask a question, then record a video of myself answering it. Nothing…and I mean nothing…upsets me…makes me nervous…and flat out lowers my confidence more than having my picture taken or being filmed, and watching myself while it’s happening makes it ten times worse. I would literally rather go onstage in a swimsuit or other revealing outfit, give a speech to a large crowd, or take a test in my worst subject.
 
People think I’m being dramatic, displaying false modesty, or even teasing or playing around with them when I tell them this, and ask them not to take my picture, show me a picture of myself, film me, or make me look at myself on video. I am not. I have stopped speaking to people because they wouldn’t back off and leave me alone about videos and pictures.
 
To get through these five videos, I unfocused my eyes and intentionally sat in some weird lighting so I just looked like a blob to myself and didn’t have to actually look at a clear shot of me on video. Then I answered each question quickly and submitted my videos without playing them back.
 
The people watching them will probably think I’m high. And the only answers I could think of involved my six and a half years experience teaching adults and the ten years I spent as a reporter before transitioning to teaching. So even if they do realize I was just uncomfortable on camera, they’ll think I’m lying about not being a reporter anymore, and just assume I’m there undercover to break some big story. I expect my first rejection letter of the challenge within the next day or two.
 
Day 2: October 26, 2021
 
<Big box store>  actually accepted that video interview. Honestly, it makes me wonder who they turned down.  I have a phone interview scheduled for tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. I’ll be at work at my real salaried job, my teaching job, at that time, but it will be a good time to take a break. I should have most of my work done.
 
Right now, I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do if they offer me a job.
 
Day 3: October 27,2021
 
 On Wednesdays, I schedule semi-breaks. That is, I make sure my laptop is open and the university (where I have a salaried teaching job) webpage is on the screen at all times in case a student needs to speak to me during office hours, but I take a break from all the other work I’m doing at the time, such as grading, participating in the discussion board, writing lessons, or writing and sending outreach.
 
On most days, semi-break time is spent checking in on the freelance writing portion of my career, doing a quick chore, checking on Callie, checking the news, etc. Today, it was filled with a phone interview from <Big box store>
 
At first it seemed as though they weren’t interested in me because I didn’t have Saturday availability, but in the end, I was offered a temporary cashier and other front of store duties position. The next step was to send me authorization to carry out a “consumer report” on me. This means they want to check my credit history in addition to looking for a criminal background. They may also want to check my social media.
 
There’s really no need to waste the background check people’s time. Temporary cashier at <Big box store> is not a job I would take as a side gig. It would force me to rearrage my whole schedule only to end in about seven or eight weeks.
 
And then there’s the money. The pay is $15.00 per hour. According to the paycheck calculator website, Paycheck City, I would clear $715 per check if I worked 30 hours per week and got paid every other week. That only comes to $357.50 per week. And that’s before you deduct those expenses that are supposed to be “optional” that often are not. No, you don’t “have to” buy drinks on your break or lunch on your lunch period every day you work, but when it’s faster to go to the snack bar or deli than it is to dig your sack lunch out of the fridge in the break room….if somebody else hasn’t eaten it by the time you get there….you wind up doing that. I’d wind up taking an Uber to get there and home at least once per week. When it came down to it, I would be spending a lot of hours working at <Big box store> simply to enable myself to keep working at <Big box store>.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Come back next Friday to learn how the next few days of the challenge went…
 
 
 
 
 

​As more and more people both search for jobs and quit jobs to become independent workers or entrepreneurs, we are forced to take a closer look at the world of work overall. Traditionally, work has been approached purely as an obligation in America. The attitude has been, “You take any honest work you’re offered, and you give your all to that work, no matter what. Work exists to earn a paycheck, not to please you.” Today’s culture tends to promote adopting the exact opposite view. “I don’t have to do anything unless I enjoy every minute of it. It’s all about me, and if something is not pleasing to me, I not only should, I am entitled to simply walk away.” But for most of us, reality is somewhere down the middle. We understand that bills must be paid, commitments and contracts must be honored, and even the best jobs have their unpleasant parts. But we also understand the harm that can come to us if a workplace is unsafe, exploitative, or otherwise abusive.
 
Abusive behavior in the workplace is often called “workplace bullying.” While we typically associate bullying with children and teens, it can exist among adults too, and the workplace is a common setting. Here are just a few more of the myths we hold on to about workplace bullying.
 
“Workplace bullying” is not real. It’s just a way for whiney, entitled people to get their way.
 
The term “workplace bullying” refers to a situation in which someone at work uses positions of power to intimidate, sabotage, humiliate, deceive, frighten, or control someone else at work. It does not include everything that happens at work that you might not like, or isolated incidents where a supervisor or colleague is less than pleasant. Some do misuse the term, but just because some people use a term incorrectly does not mean the real problem is nonexistent. People declare themselves “triggered” when they are in fact annoyed, upset, disgusted, saddened, discouraged, angered, sickened, irritated, or discouraged. While this can be unpleasant, it does not mean that people who suffer from PTSD due to extreme trauma do not experience flashbacks in response to certain stimuli (The correct usage of “triggering” and “triggered”.)
 
That coworker who insists upon holding loud personal conversations on the company phone, not caring who else has to do their work, is not a workplace bully. Neither is the office curmudgeon who is snarly and generally unpleasant to everyone. But if someone is positioning himself outside the door of one coworker hoping to sabotage the person’s business Zoom meeting with that phone call, or the supervisor makes a point of being warm and welcoming to everyone but curt and rude only to the two people who work under him, that is workplace bullying.
 
“Workplace bullying” is just a politically correct term for someone being an everyday jerk.
 
Workplace bullying goes deeper than simply working for or with your standard, everyday unpleasant individual. These people can certainly make you miserable, but the workplace bully engages in deliberate, targetted behavior designed to exert an inappropriate level of power over another person. While the workplace jerk may snap at everyone who says “Good Morning,” the workplace bully will make a point to only snap at a select few people, in view of a crowd of higher ups, just to watch the target slink away in embarrassment. The everyday jerk will do all he can to make sure he’s the center of attention in meetings and allow nobody else to be heard. The workplace bully only prevents her targets from participating, or hides the announcement from certain people to make them miss an important meeting.
 
If you just ignore the workplace bully, they will stop doing what they do, and leave their target alone.
 
Bullying is done so that the bully can feel powerful in some way. A bully who is ignored is more likely to step up their efforts to feel powerful at the expense of other people rather than accept being ignored and find something else to do. Ignoring the person, or at least ignoring the bullying behavior, may indeed be the best course of action. But it will not be a sure fix for the bullying. Nor will it solve the problems the bullying may cause.
 
Someone who regularly hides files and folders from a certain coworker in order to embarrass him in meetings will not likely stop if people just pretend they don't notice. The "charge" they're getting is coming from watching the target's embarrassment later, so neither confrontation nor making a point of pretending not to realize it was them is going to change their behavior. 
 
The rest of the staff or other group can solve the problem by banding together against the bully.
 
This plotline makes an inspiring novel, play, or movie, but it almost never works out as seamlessly in real life as it does in a story. For this to be effective, absolutely everyone who comes in contact with the bully in a professional capacity would have to agree to a plan to cope with the bullying behavior, and do their part. But we all know real people don’t function that way. In real life, there is always going to be that person afraid to speak up and possibly become the next target, or get demoted or fired. There is always going to be that person who enjoys soaking up some of the limelight the bully gains when they abuse their targets. And there are always going to be people who simply do not care enough to do anything about it. Thinking the target only has to make everyone aware of the situation and ask for their support and assistance is nice, but naïve, idea.
 
The bully has low self-esteem. If you prop up their ego a bit more, they won’t need to bully anyone.
 
Author and San Diego State University Professor of Psychology Dr. Jeanne Twenge has written extensively about narcissism and bullying. Twenge often argues that narcissistic, bullying people do not need to learn to love themselves more. They need to learn respect for other people. Contrary to popular belief, bullies actually love themselves very much. They love themselves so much, in fact, that they think their need to feel powerful, admired, feared, or whatever charge they’re getting out of their bullying behavior, supersedes another person’s right to simply do his or her job or go about their day in peace.
 
All workplace bullying can do is make you feel bad. It can’t really hurt you or your job.
 
Being the target of a bully in any situation does much more than just give a target a bad day. Bullying worsens workplace stress. Excessive stress can play a factor in worsening heart issues, depression, anxiety, energy levels, and focus. It can make it difficult to impossible to complete the tasks of a job, leading to decreased productivity.
 
Workplaces that ignore or encourage workplace bullying can earn bad reputations among potential clients, employees, or contractors. This of course can lead to a shortage of people willing to supply the labor, services, or goods the company needs to function.
 
Although it is not as openly discussed as workplace issues such as low wages, unreasonable job requirements, lack of benefits, and sexual harassment, workplace bullying is a serious, but often misunderstood issue in today’s places of business.

​While the common narrative seems to be that jobs are everywhere but nobody wants them, the suggestions for side gig work are the same things we’ve been reading and hearing over and over again for the past several years. Articles on job advice websites continue to recommend driving for Uber or Lyft, filling out surveys, and signing up to do things like walk dogs on Rover dot com or offer babysitting services via Care dot com.  Almost none of the content is different. They just change the title of the article to suggest that these opportunities are going to take off in the coming year.
 
Finding a second salary or wage earning job that brings you as little stress as possible remains the most secure option for earning supplemental income to help with holiday expenses for the 2021 holiday season, or to reach a goal or have a little extra in the coming year. But the process of finding and securing these jobs has undergone some noticeable changes over the past year and a half.
 
Auto responses and interviews by bots are increasingly common.
 
Submitting a job application on indeed dot com often generates a congratulatory message letting the applicant know that the company is interested in moving forward with their application. While this would be great news during job searches of the past, today these messages arrive before anyone at the company would have time to even open someone’s cover letter with the click of their mouse, never mind read the cover letter and resume and make a decision. Rather than indicating interest in you as a potential employee, these responses let you know the person in charge of hiring is not at all interested in reading over your credentials. They want you to call, or in some cases, come into the place of business, as a first step in the hiring process, not the second or third.
 
Being asked to complete an online skills test in customer service or other skills related to the job, or being asked questions by a bot before scheduling an interview also seem to be used more and more by employers.
 
Job requirements have grown more demanding, even for entry level and other low wage jobs.
 
There is a meme circulating on Facebook titled “This is the problem.” The text consists of a copy of a job ad for a part-time, entry level position at a preschool. According to the ad, they are looking for someone to accept the responsibility of caring for and teaching a room full of very young children on their own for only ten dollars an hour. And the creator of the meme did not even select one of the more extreme help wanted ads out there. It is not uncommon to find job ads asking potential employees to combine the work of two or three jobs for a single minimum wage. One local ad, for a temporary job cutting and packaging a single item for holiday party trays and gift baskets, asked how many years of experience people had with that single item as a screening question.
 
Entitlement and “professional victimhood” seems to have gotten a promotion to management.
 
Entitlement and “professional victimhood,” has been a problem for many years. Kids are given participation trophies and awards for behaviors that would have once been considered common decency, and they grow up to be adults who expect raises and promotions at work simply for showing up at the office. People are raised to believe that nothing should ever displease, inconvenience, or upset them in any way, and they grow up to call the manager because a store clerk didn’t smile at them, or worse, call the police because somebody who doesn’t look, think, or live exactly like them has something they’ve come to believe should be theirs and theirs alone.
 
In today’s job market, many in charge of hiring have embraced this mentality wholeheartedly. Managers hang signs lamenting that “nobody wants to work” or they need patience and understaning because they are “short-staffed,” as though anyone jumping  to take any job they offer is persecuting them.  One hiring manager responded to an applicant’s marking themselves unavailable on Saturday not by taking on the responsibility of filling the job openings with people who can cover all shifts, but by begging the applicant to change their own schedule because they, the manager, really need someone to come in on Saturday.
 
Job seeking has always had its challenges, and finding work you can do in addition to the main work of your career can be especially difficult. Hopefully, knowing a bit about what to expect can help make that a little easier for those seeking work for the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022.

All professional artists do not have low incomes, but many do know what it’s like to struggle financially. If we do not personally have difficulty making ends meet, we probably know someone who does. In addition to the financial issues themselves, those who live on low incomes must also fight against myths about their finances and their lives overall.
 
Myth: People who are poor are only poor because they make bad choices when it comes to work and money.
 
Reality:  The amount of money you have is the result of a wide variety of factors coming together. And while your own behavior does indeed play a large part, it does not alone determine your wealth. The amount of money your family of origin has, the place you were born, the time you were born, your physical and mental health, and the educational opportunities available to you are just some of the factors that determine your financial situation. Singlehandedly ruining your own finances is possible, but it’s certainly not the only way a person might be classified as “poor” in terms of financial resources.
 
Myth: People with low incomes  do not work.
 
Reality: During the recent quarantine, we learned that we cannot survive without the people who stock grocery shelves, ring up our purchases at the grocery store, prepare our restaurant meals, and deliver everything to us. Most of these jobs are among the lowest paying in the country, despite demanding so much of those who work them. According to a November 21, 2020 article by Michael Sauter in USA Today, the middle class in New York begins at $30.797 per year. Someone working forty hours per week, for four weeks every month, and all twelve months per year in a $15.00 per hour job in customer service is going to earn $28,800. That means this person will  work full time, and still not be able to earn a middle class income.
 
Myth: Poor people live lives of luxury provided by government programs and charity handouts.
 
Reality: While there are individuals who know how to “work the system” and use social programs in ways they were not intended to be used, it is both unfair and incorrect to assume that individuals who behave this way are representative of absolutely everyone who has ever used them. There are mid-level corporate employees earning upper middle class incomes who embezzle funds and cheat clients too, but that does not mean everyone you see working in these positions is doing so.
 
Myth: Those who complain about not having enough to live on are just entitled and narcissistic. They don’t want to work because they think they’re too good for all the available jobs out there.
 
Reality: There is a lot of narcissistic entitlement in our culture today. It is all about me and what I think and feel about everything, what’s most comfortable and convenient for me, all the time. Perhaps the most striking examples of this sense of entitlement are those who think that just because they own or manage a branch of a major corporation, they’re entitled to other peoples’ labor. They list jobs that would not allow a potential worker to pay their bills, but would also prevent them from working a second job to make ends meet. They then play the victim when people are not lined up around the block begging to work for them. Someone who has two months of living expenses in their savings account and no paying work is going to need to spend those two months treating finding work that will pay their bills as their full time job. If they took a job that required them to work full time, but only brought in a small portion of that amount, they wouldn’t have time to continue searching for a job they could actually afford to keep.
 
Myth: Poor people could solve all their money problems if they just learned to budget better.
 
Reality: Budgeting is important, but you can only budget the money you have. When someone’s income runs out before their most basic needs are met, no skill in budeting is going solve that problem. If you have $1,000 to live on every month, you can’t budget your way out of your landlord raising the rent to $1,200.
 
Myth: Financial freedom is available to everyone. The poor can just sign up to work in the gig economy and solve all their money problems.
 
Reality: People who work in the gig economy are selling their services. In order to make money, there has to be a market for those services. A poor person certainly could sign up to drive for Uber or Lyft, shop for Instacart, or deliver for DoorDash, if they had the means to own and maintain a car. But they would still have to get customers in order to make money. Gig work is an option for some people, but it is not a sure path out of financial difficulty.
 
These myths can make excellent material for our art work. Protagonists can struggle against them. Antagonists can perpetuate them. They can serve as the building blocks for an excellent short story, novel, play, or film. But they can only do damage when applied to real people who struggle to get by in the world.
 
 
 
 

When it’s not much better than the “University of Facebook”: avoiding sketchy training and academic programs
 
For many, coming out of the quarantine and returning to some semblance of normal life means re-evaluating our professional lives. We are looking for new performance venues for our music and readings, new day jobs, second careers, and side gigs. Some of us feel called to return to school or some other form of training and education as part of that professional shift. But all schools are not equal. Here are just a few signs that the program you are considering might not help you reach your professional goals.
 
The program is not recognized by the profession you’re entering, or in the case of an academic degree, a regional accrediting body.
 
For technical and career training programs, always start with the career you want and work backwards. Learn which professional organizations and agencies approve credentials for your field, and narrow your search to schools and programs that meet their standards.
 
If you are seeking an academic degree, regional accreditation is the bare minimum measure of quality. Earning a degree from a school that is not regionally accredited is about as impressive to potential employers as watching a bunch of videos on YouTube or getting your information from facebook memes. In other words, it isn’t.
 
They aren’t promising to hire you, but they’re guaranteeing their degree or program is a direct path to your career goals.
 
As hard as this may be to accept, training and education is not a guarantee of future employment or improved business. It can certainly help, but unless you’re working with a program or business that explicitly guarantees this program ends with an offer of employment at this specific company, nobody, not even an Ivy League university, can guarantee you will get the job you want, or any job, simply because you completed their program.
 
Emphasis is on how easy and convenient the work of the program will be.
 
Persuading potential students, especially those older than the traditional “college aged” students, to choose them over their competitors by mentioning that the work can be done without sacrificing paid work or family obligations is common practice among training and education programs of all levels of quality. Simply mentioning that their classes are online, and can be accessed at any time during the day does not mean the place is a diploma mill. But beware of any training or educational program that wants you to think you can simply pop in and complete a few easy tasks and earn certification or a degree.
 
If you’re entering a field that requires specialized technical training, you are learning a whole new profession. If you’re entering an academic program, you are immersing yourself in a field of study. These things are supposed to be hard. They’re supposed to be time consuming. Putting in the time and effort is a large part of what leads to the expertise in the field at the end of the program.  Would you want to hire someone to do work they prepared for in the easiest, most convenient way possible, or someone who cared enough about the work to devote real time and energy to train or learn to do it well?
 
Feelings sound more important to the admissions staff than learning.
 
Promising the program will “boost your confidence” or “help you on your journey” is not a red flag in and of itself. Training and educational programs are trying to attract people from two generations whose educations have been greatly influenced by the self-esteem movement. Their potential recruits, people whose money they need to keep going, are used to things like participation trophies, “trigger warnings” on books because words in them might upset some people, and safe spaces to protect them from the ideas of people more liberal or more conservative than they are, so some of that is likely to be part of their sales pitch, no matter where you go.
 
It becomes a red flag when this seems to be all the program is about. If you’re looking for a quick way to feel good about yourself, looking to pay your money, set aside a little time, and have everyone tell you how much you deserve this, how amazing your results are, and how fun it is to have you there….and little else….what you’re looking for is not training or education, but a retreat or a spa.
 
There is intense pressure to hand over your money right away.
 
The terms “for profit” and “not for profit” applied to a university refer to whether the school is owned by a corporation, not whether they want money. Every job training program, college, and university in the world is there to make money, and they will be making money from your enrollment, whether you have full financial aid, and they’re getting the money from government programs, wealthy alumni, and organizations outside the school, or you’re paying for everything with your own income.
 
It’s the “sign up for our program today for three easy payments of $19.99” approach that should alert you that something is not right about the school. Look out for admissions staff that wants to sign you up the minute you send out that first inquiry email, including pushing for a credit card number to pay for admissions fees or start the first class. Even a program with open admissions is going to want people who are fully aware of what they’ve signed up to do. If they’re practically enrolling you based on an email from you that read, “What type of program is this?” look elsewhere.
 
Back when I was a reporter, I contacted a well-known for-profit university based in Minneapolis, hoping to write a feature about for-profit universities. The staff person I talked to immediately began making an admission file for me, and sent emails designed for a new student who needed to register and pay for classes for days before I finally convinced them that I was not a potential student and to close the file. While I am not printing the name of the school, it’s one I would not work for and would not attend classes in, based on that interaction.
 
They claim to be the only path to reaching your career goals.
 
When researching potential next steps in my own education, I had the following exchange with an admissions representative from a school I will call “Internet University.”
 
“My career goal is to eventually teach at a college or university. I was looking into your doctorate in Education with emphasis in adult education.”
 
“Yeah,” the admissions staff member said, “In order to teach at a college or university, you pretty much need a doctorate in Education with emphasis in adult education.”
 
I’m being deliberately vague on the exact degree and specialization to avoid exposing the school, but the staff member was trying to convince me that in order to even be considered for the job I wanted, I needed their exact degree.
 
Approximately nine years after that conversation, I have been teaching writing composition courses to adults for six and a half years at a different university based in a different city from the one referenced above. And I hold a Master of Arts in my subject, Literature and Creative Writing, from Goddard College. Earning a terminal degree, whether that be an Ed.D or a Ph.D. in my field, or a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing or Interdisciplinary Arts, would indeed be an improvement in my credentials, but their specific degree was far from the only path to the job I wanted.
 
Jumping into a new training or education program quickly may be tempting, especially when job hunts become frustrating. But just like any major professional decision, choosing a college, university, or training program should be done carefully, with thorough research.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Fall 2021 is a time for job hunting for many of us. New opportunities to play music or read in person again can mean new projects to fund, new instruments and computers and other career necessities to buy. The recent lockdown has left many behind on our bills. Or, we may need a break or a treat, and just want to save up some extra cash to fund that.
 
Driving around town and watching the news, we get the impression that these jobs are so easy to find, you can simply send out an email or walk in the door, and find work, but the actual experience of searching for a job is still daunting. Intimidating requirements, form rejection notices that arrive almost as soon as the application is sent, and low salaries for the work described are still a part of the process.
 
Adding to the confusion, some of the jobs you see listed are not really jobs at all. They aren’t scams, in that it is not impossible to make money, but you are not working for a paycheck. Here are some of the signs that the job you’re applying for is not actually a job.
 
One of the “perks” is the ability to set your own schedule and your own fee.
 
Many remote work jobs, even those that pay salaries, allow you to set your own schedule within their needs. If you teach at an online university, the students’ papers are due Tuesday at midnight, and the grades are due on Friday at midnight, it is up to you whether Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday is grading day, but one of those days needs to be spent grading homework. But when you’re offered the opportunity to completely set your own schedule and your own fee, you’re not truly being offered a job.
 
Companies that allow you to set your own schedule and your own fee are offering you the opportunity to market yourself as an independent worker through their website, usually for a portion of your income as a sort of rent.
 
Many tutoring websites operate in this manner. Hiring you simply means giving you a tutor account on their site. Potential students will then see your tutoring page, and have the option of hiring you as a tutor. If you charge $30 per hour, you may actually earn $20 for each hour you tutor, as the remaining ten goes to the website for the space on their page, use of their platform, and the publicity being associated with them brings to your tutoring business.
 
The word “freelance” is in the job description.
 
The term “hiring a freelance…” does not truly make sense, and is used mainly so that people looking for freelance workers can post on the job boards. When you see a job listing claiming to be “hiring a freelance” something, what they are really doing is looking for an independent worker to hire for a single, specific project or series of projects. They are not offering a position with their company.
 
On the surface, this may seem like no big deal. If you’re hired to give music lessons to kids online, or tutor college students in math, or act as a virtual assistant to someone for four hours per day, five days per week, for a six month term, you’re going to be doing the same work, and the same amount of work, whether you’re an employee or a freelance worker.
 
It becomes important, turns into a very big deal, at tax time, and when those six months are up. No matter how devoted you are to a company, if you are a freelance worker, they are still your client or customer, not your employer. You are your own employer, meaning you have to deduct money from your own checks for taxes. It is also very likely that once the project ends, the company that hired you will no longer need you. You will still be a freelance tutor or teacher or virtual assistant, but you will be one without a paying project to work on, meaning no income.
 
“Potential” income is listed.
 
When there is no base salary or wage, only “potential” income, you are looking at an offer of a commission only sales job.
 
While this technically is a job, unlike the freelance listings, it is not a job in the way we typically define the word, as a situation where you do a certain amount of work that produces a specific result and get paid a certain amount for that work. You will only be paid a percentage of what you manage to sell.
 
The most well-known example of this is multilevel marketing. These companies file paperwork listing you as an independent consultant, meaning that for tax purposes you are in the freelance category. They present it as having your own business. You do not. You have a commission only sales job with that multilevel marketing company.
 
These opportunities are often presented as having unlimited income potential, but your income is actually limited by a lot of factors, including the market for the product, the market saturation of the product, the market for competing products, the amount of time you have to devote to the work, the amount of energy you have to devote to the work, and the amount of money you have to invest in your sales goals. While there is something like a 97% chance that you won’t, you still might make enough money in an mlm to pay all your bills and live all your dreams. But you also might earn absolutely nothing, and even wind up losing money.
 
Other commission only jobs are not typically this slanted toward failure, but your income can and will fluctuate from nothing, especially when you first start out, to whatever your specific circumstances brings.
 
The place “hires” continuously.
 
Many YouTube content creators who cover working from home seem to miss this sign. You will often see YouTube videos encouraging you to apply to a certain company because they are “always hiring.” And while it may be true that they are always looking for new people, they are probably not hiring in the traditional sense of the word.
 
A business who never seems to stop looking for people to join their team is likely to be offering freelance work, rented workspace, or commission only sales work, rather than steady traditional employment. Even the world’s largest corporations only need so many staff members to fill each role.
 
They expect you to bring in….or have…a lot of your own materials.
 
Any job is going to expect you to have things that are common to several jobs; access to the internet if you need or want to work from home, clothing appropriate for the workplace, a car or other reliable transportation to and from offline jobs. But if you are expected to use items or services specific to a particular job that you would be unlikely to be able to use anywhere else,  an employer typically provides them for you. In order to teach online as a faculty member of a university, I was expected to have consistent access to the internet, but the microphone headset I needed to record lessons before the school switched to Zoom was mailed to me at no charge. Offline jobs may expect you to wear dark jeans or black or beige pants, but they will provide you with shirts featuring logos, name tags, and other items you would not be able to wear anywhere but at work.
 
When you see a job that  expects you to furnish a large amount of career specific items yourself, take a closer look at the job description. They are probably looking for an independent contractor who already owns these things for their freelance business.
 
 
Taking any of these types of jobs is not a sure path to failure and financial loss. They are not hoaxes or scams. Just make sure you’re clear on your relationship to the company, your responsibility at tax time, and the way you will be getting paid before you agree to take the job.