Looking Forward to the World of Work Text: Chapter 1

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Looking Forward to the World of Work Text
Chapter 1
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A Working Attitude

• By
• David Agnew and Jim Wendell
• Arkansas State University

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Objectives

• Define New Career Terms
• Give reasons why people work
• Explain differences between a Job and a
  Career
• State reasons why a positive attitude is
  important
• Describe how school courses and school work can
  affect a persons career and life

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New Career Terms

• Job - being employed by a person or company to
  perform certain tasks and being paid for the
  work.
• Occupation - the type of work in which a person
  is employed.
• Career - work done over a period of years. You
  will probably have many different jobs in your
  career.

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New Career Terms (Cont.)

• Goal - an objective or target to be reached by
  directing your thoughts and energy.
• Attitude - a persons outlook on life - either
  positive or negative.
• Self Concept - a personal viewpoint of ones
  self-worth and abilities.
• Work Ethics - a set of values based on hard work.

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Then There That Four Letter Word, Known as
Work
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What is Work???

• Hard to define - over 30 lines one dictionary.
• Most definitions state useful, productive
  activity and the labor by which a person earns a
  living.
• On average, one will spend 30 or 40 years working
  full time during their adult years.
• By developing a positive attitude towards work,
  you can be someone who has a happy and fulfilling
  life .

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Work is

• Productive activity resulting in something
  useful.

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Why do People Work -besides to make money

• People like to be with people.
• People want to be fulfilled.
• People need direction and purpose.

Source Text
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Working to Meet a Need

• Economic
• Social
• Psychological

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Survey Answers to Main Reasons to Work

• To have money for necessities
• To have money for luxuries
• To be with other people and make friends
• To feel good about myself because I am
  accomplishing something worthwhile
• To feel good about myself because I expand my
  skills and knowledge through my work
• To feel good about myself because work gives me a
  sense of identity

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Job or Career?

• Not the same thing
• Compare to friendships you have
• Job - similar to a casual acquaintance that you
  didnt care to know very well and wont spend
  much time with
• Career - like a best friend a big part of your
  life and you want to keep knowing and learning
  about all your life

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Job - a group of work tasks you agree to
perform for an employer. Usually an
agreement to be responsible for work that the
employer agrees to pay you for.Occupation -
group of jobs involving similar tasks
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Difference Between Job and Occupationusing an
example of a grocery store clerk in two separate
stores

• Both have the same occupation - grocery store
  clerk
• However, these are different jobs because of the
  different job duties in each position. In one the
  clerk might be responsible for gathering grocery
  carts and sweeping the floors and in the other,
  the clerk might have responsibilities of checking
  customers out.

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A Career is Work you do over a period of
years. Total of all the jobs you will ever have.
Example - An Education Career can consist of many
jobs such as aide, teacher, principal,
superintendent
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Planning a CareerRalph Waldo Emerson The reward
for a thing well done is to have done it.

• Set a personal goal - something you want to
  obtain and will work to achieve.
• Has a definite direction
• Has a thought-out plan
• Contains many steps
• Requires hard work
• Takes time

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Planning a Career (Cont.)Comparing Career
Planning to Mountain Climbing

• Both require planning to advance in the most
  productive manner
• Decisions need to be made for successful
  completion of both
• Aimless wandering in either may result in much
  activity with little or no gain toward the
  desired goal

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Possible Career GoalsYou might dream of

• Owning a fishing cabin in the mountains
• Workshop with tools
• Solving mysteries, understanding scientific
  problems, or acquiring knowledge about a specific
  topic
• Inventing new products
• Writing a novel
• Owning your own business
• Going into politics

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Advantages of Career Planning

• You have more control over your life when you
  plan ahead
• Your income may increase faster because each job
  will be higher on your career ladder
• You will more likely be working in your area of
  interest
• Each job may give you new skills and experiences
  for preparation to the next advancement step
• You may be able to focus on reaching your most
  important goals that you have established for
  yourself with the least amount of distraction

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Attitude - Your Basic Outlook on Your Lifes Work

• Perhaps the most important factor in your job
  success
• Usually influenced by parents and other adults
• Helps to develop a good work ethic - a set of
  values based on hard work using the belief that
  work is good, productive, and contains certain
  joys and benefits.
• Could help to avoid a bad work ethic - a set of
  values based on the beliefs that work is always
  negative and a necessary evil where one must do
  only the minimum amount of labor to survive.
• Self-concept - ones self image concerning your
  feelings about your own worth and value

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Attitude Attributes

• POSITIVE ATTITUDE
• Smiles constantly
• Seldom complains
• Listens to others opinions
• Willing to change for the better
• Will admits mistakes
• Seldom makes excuses
• Seldom criticizes others
• Considerate of others
• Likes working with people

• NEGATIVE ATTITUDE
• Seldom smiles
• Complains often
• They are always right
• Stubborn - refuses to change
• Blames others
• Always makes excuses
• Criticizes others
• Thinks only of self
• Anti-social behaviors

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Your Work Ethic Where did it come from?

• The protestant reform movements in Great Britain
• Came to America with Pilgrims and others.
• Part of the religious movements of the late 1700s
  in the U.S.
• SocietyTV, Movies, magazines, etc..
• Parents, teachers, church, community
  organizations.
• NEED

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Attitudes toward work has evolved over time

• Industrial revolution first great drain on the
  traditional rural and agrarian society and it was
  a different kind of work.
• Electricity of the 1880s led to lighted
  factories.
• Sabbath Schools for children to learn to read in
  the early 1800s who were being over worked by
  factories.
• 1872 National Labor Reform Party formed
• 1878 Socialist Labor Party founded
• Child labor laws begin to emerge mid to late
  1800s

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Attitudes toward work has evolved over time,
Continued.

• Agricultural advancements (Mechanical, Chemical)
  released workers from the farms.
• The Great Depression 1930s
• 1938 Congress passes the Fair Labor Standards
  Act, which establishes the forty-hour work week,
  the minimum wage, and bans child labor in
  interstate commerce
• Study done in the 60 and repeated in the 80s
• Generation X

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Work has mixed perception in society today

• People seem to want to Get out of work
• work smarter not harder
• Let others work for you
• Mans work is from sun to sun but a womans work
  is never done
• Eat sleep go fish
• Work in song. Take this job and ______,
  Working 9 to 5,
• Make hay while sun shines
• Work your fingers to the bone

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What is a Good Work Ethic?

• Being one time
• Doing your best
• Using your resources wisely
• Listening and following directions
• Thinking through what you are doing

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In Summary

• What is work? What is a job? and what is a
  career?
• What are the reasons people work?
• Why is it important to plan a career?
• Why is it important for one to have a positive
  attitude towards life and work?
• What are the attributes of a positive attitude?

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The End