Aussie Joy's Life

The other day I had the most interesting conversation with my optometrist about how to find good employees.  A bit of our history… I was friends with his sister during high school and he somehow convinced us to let him and his now wife go on their first date riding my horses!  Evidently it worked… they’ve been happily married for like 15 years so far!

So anyway, every two years or so, whilst doing my eye test we catch up on what’s been happening over the years.  This visit he began sharing about frustrations he’s been having with finding good, reliable staff.  How disappointed he is in the current employable generations ability to show any attention to detail or even care.  And their inability to give a dam whether or not their mistake could actually cost someone else money!

He told me he wished he could do an eye test with a potential employee rather then a traditional interview because it would be easier to discern actually employable qualities then from reading a tarted up resume and asking a few questions.  He said from an eye test, he could even tell whether or not someone was an eldest child and what their attention to detail was like.  I questioned him on this and he used me as an example… He said that when he was testing my eyes he would change the lenses to be only the slightest bit off (either side of the lens that I had first said was most accurate) and I would somehow manage to choose the same one.  He said he’d had some customers choose lenses that where clearly NOT clear… because he’d throw them a curb ball to see if they could actually make a decision!  So watch out… there could be people out there wearing glasses that still can’t see!!!

From his experience most times and oldest child would make a more accurate judgement and generally had a quirky appreciation for details.  He was right… I am an oldest child and I would say I have some attention to detail.  (However, I wouldn’t say any better then my siblings… we’d need to do an eye test to sus that one out!  Lol!)  I certainly get frustrated when I make mistakes that could have been prevented had I noticed… I think I’m either slightly ADD or my ‘people skills’ probably distract me from being as proficient (or as anal) as I could be.

It’s interesting hey… How would you fair if given an eye test to determine your prospect as a future employee? It is sad to think that our generations aperture to work today is far from desirable.  My optometrist has resorted to importing employees from the UK!  Are we being detrimental to ourselves?  We seem to be taking for granted employment as if were ‘owed’ to us.  I’d say I have some US friends who may have thought the same thing once… who are now wishing they had work after months and months of unemployment since their countries relatively unexpected economic crisis.

Think about how you could value your employer today.  And what you could do to be more grateful for your job.  No one is irreplaceable.