TOW#552 — There’s no work!
Wherever I go, whoever I talk to, they all (OK I won’t say all, but most)
complain that there’s no work. I mean in terms of jobs and employment.
They usually say unemployment’s high, the economy’s weak, young people
can’t find work, the state has to create the right conditions, and so on.
I’m not saying that the state shouldn’t be doing something, I’m not saying
that the economy’s booming (especially with this new situation) or that
employers are a bouquet of roses and that it’s easy to work or get a job in a
Macedonian company. But, I simply want to ask, will any one from the
working-age population in Macedonia point the finger at themselves and
perhaps blame the person in the mirror first, before blaming others?!
If there’s no work, what are those people doing in the cafes all day?!
If there’s no work, why is it so hard for companies to find young people for
internships?! (and even those who have to do an internship as part of their
studies, look for owners or companies they know and who’ll simply say that
they did their work experience even if they don’t show up).
If there’s no work, then why is finding good staff the main problem of most
(from my experience and from talking with others) managers and owners at
the moment?!
If there’s no work, why is our economy doing so badly!?
We’ve recently been looking for people for some positions. In the past few
weeks, five young people (who by the way don’t have jobs) turned us down.
One of them even started working, but after two days said he found it very
difficult and gave up.
I really don’t understand what’s going on with our young people!? They
complain there’s no work, and at the same time they do nothing to change
it. They prefer to complain and whine, and wait for their parents to hire
them or get a job through political party connections, rather than to get
down to some serious work and build their professional skills on their own.
The biggest problem I’ve noticed among young people is the so-called
Dunning–Kruger Effect (you can read more on the Internet). It’s essentially
an experiment conducted by these two psychologists to examine the
relationship between self-confidence and knowledge/skills in young
graduates. The results were astonishing! Everyone had a high level of self-
confidence, despite the fact that their curve of skills and knowledge was
below average. This means that young people have developed high self-
confidence, without anything to really support it. So then, you can imagine
their attitude and behaviour when they start looking for a job or get a job.
If we all worked like true professionals, with quality to back it up, our
country’s economy wouldn’t be at this level, but we’d be Switzerland. My
position is that if you were to open a corner shop here, and you ran the
business properly, you can become very successful. Or, if we were to
constantly nurture and develop the most important characteristics for a
professional: responsibility, competence, self-initiative, curiosity for
knowledge, organisation, commitment, detail, ethics, collegiality and
developing a positive (I can) attitude, you certainly won’t have a problem
finding the best job or achieving the best results in any area of your
professional career.
I’m yet to meet a business owner who’s fired someone with excellent
characteristics and who performed well, or someone who’s got all the
qualities and who companies aren’t fighting over to grab.
That’s why I say that the key is with you/us. If we strive every day to be
better than we were yesterday, our future is in good hands.
Wishing you success with the changes to come,
Petar Lazarov
Member of the Team
MACEDONIA-EXPORT Consulting
*If you want to read the original interview follow the link.
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