Salute to Spouses Blog

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Teen Angst and On the Job Troubles, One in the Same?

I have a pre-teen. And the attitude is beginning to appear.

Why? I don’t want to. I don’t have to. Whatever.

All the typical teen vernacular is tumbling out as well.  

‘Why do I have to?’ is the most frequent. Why do I have to do with the coach says, what the teacher says, what anyone says?

So I thought about it.

And decided there are five things you will learn in high school that absolutely stay the same on the job. And this is why you have to.

  1. Sometimes you have to do it the way the teacher/boss wants it done. My son got the math problem right, but the teacher marked it wrong. He didn’t show all his steps. I turned in a report to my boss last week that I had to rewrite because I didn’t outline it the way she wanted. He didn’t show all his steps. When the boss/teacher/professor wants a job done a particular way, sometimes, you just have to hush up and do it that way.
  2. Cliques exist in the office too. Thought everyone would sit happily together at the lunch table now that we are adults? Nope. Some offices still operate on high school-like politics complete with cliques and the cool kids. The difference? Hard work matters here. Keep your nose to the grind, work hard and you will stand out and get the attention of the person who matters most, management.
  3. You will have to work in a group with people you don’t like. With people who don’t pull their weight. With people who may do their job incorrectly. And it’s going to stink. But unlike school when you can petition to do your own project or just settle for the lower grade and bring it up later, at the job, you need to find a way to get along with your co-workers and get the project done and done well. This time, it’s not a grade on the line, it’s your paycheck.
  4. You will have to do things you don’t want to do, don’t like to do, in every job, on nearly every level of experience. You will have to do the dirty work, you will have to complete the boring tasks you will have to do the hardest part of the job. There is no getting out of it or mouthing off to the boss. If you call in sick, it just means you have to do double tomorrow. Like that paper you don’t want to write or the gym class you have to take to graduate, you just have to do it. Get over it.
  5. You will get it wrong. You can’t be perfect all the time. The point is to continue to learn, improve and get better at what you do. Be willing to take responsibility and realize you were wrong instead of arguing that it was someone else’s fault, or that you didn’t have enough time to complete it or that you were tired from the band concert the night before. Acknowledge the mistake, learn how to fix it and continue to do better.
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