Week10 EOC : My Dream

I am going to express my dream in sequential order, so it sounds a little more attainable. First and foremost, my dream is to begin a blog. But not just a regular blog, I want to have a blog that looks like a magazine site. I am going to find a web designer that sees my vision. My boyfriend is a photographer so we are going to collaborate on the visuals.

I am going to turn my 19.5K followers on instagram into my blog readers. The blog will be about mostly fashion, with a hint of lifestyle and beauty too, because that represents who I am. I am going to build this blog with passion, which is why it is going to be successful.

From the blog, I hope to branch out into youtube, hopefuly making profit from these eventually. I want to be an influencer. I want to be successful in what I love to do. I want to do fashion for a living, I believe this education is what will seperate me from the self made.

I cannot tell you ultimately what I am going to end up doing. My dream, is to love what I do, and do it for a living, successfully. I call success being able to live comfortably from your career. When I say comfortably, I mean being able to spend on what I want, while still paying my bills. That is my ultimate dream. I cannot tell you what I will be doing, but I know I will have an amazing brand by then.

Week 9 EOC: The Apartment

The apartment showed a lot of quid pro quo situations. In fact, the whole movie was based on quid pro quo situations.

From the Latin phrase meaning “this for that,” quid pro quoharassment occurs when one person asks for either expressly or implied sexual favors from another person as a condition of that person’s employment or advancement or to prevent a tangible employment detriment.

An employee was being used for his apartment in return for keeping his job. His apartment was being used for inappropriate situations, like having affairs with the elevator girl. The poor elevator girl was offered a raise, if she went on a date, but she was already secretly dating the boss at the same time. 

Week 8 EOC: 9-5 Workplace harassment

From the beginning, the entire movie is about workplace harassment. "Harassment is unwelcome conduct based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information." A lot of the events in this movie were unprofessional. The boss was leading by example, and harassing his secretary. I will add a side note that the secretary was not dressed pretty appropriately for the job, but that doesn't mean that there was any reason she should have been treated that way. 

" Managers must understand what sexual harassment is, how to prevent it, and how to respond when it is reported."  The floor manager wasn't effective when it came to handling harassment. She was an alcoholic and she didn't talk to her employees appropriately. She was rude to them, and when she heard the rumors on the floor, she didn't stop them. There were rumors about the boss too, and these weren't ever stopped in fact the floor manager instigated them. Not to mention she eventually went on to plot against her boss and act inappropriately. 

Going back to how the boss acted, he referred to his employees as " my girls". That is not in the least way professional. He also deceived his secretary into going on a business trip that was actually not a business trip at all. "From the Latin phrase meaning “this for that,” quid pro quoharassment occurs when one person asks for either expressly or implied sexual favors from another person as a condition of that person’s employment or advancement or to prevent a tangible employment detriment."  He kept all of his employees in a position where they felt like they owed  him anything he asked for, in order to keep their job. 

BOC Week 8: 5 + 5 soft skills

Sales oriented: Having been both a sales associate and a manager, I know what it takes to get the most out of a sale. I know it all starts in the scheduling, in the product, in the customer service. But ultimately, this all serves one purpose, and that is to make numbers. If you don't make numbers, you don't get payroll, you don't receive product. It's all correlated and I understand that.

Self motivated: Received two promotions while with the same company. Once in management I worked hard to create recognition for myself within corporate. I also created a large clientele base, for myself, which I was known for. This clientele base helped my sales, as well as boosted the well being of the store.

Problem solver: When confronted with upset clients, or clients that needed exceptions, I was the one who had to resolve the issue on the spot. Thinking on the spot, solving problems last minute, is what separates a leader from a follower. Scheduling became one of my major duties, and scheduling is a huge puzzle of problem solving.

Critical thinker: Making the right decisions means thinking critically. Not just what is in front of you, but what could happen in the future, preparing for other things,having common sense. Things like these are hard to teach, but you also have to know how to decipher them when hiring.

Strong Relationships: retained a large clientele, hosted successful events. Maintained a reputable place in a company throughout 7 years. That has to be a really strong relationship to not have been swayed to go to another company.

Week 7 EOC: Profile Statement

As a professional with 7 years in the retail industry I have developed strengths in customer service and clientele. Having retained one of the most extensive client books within my company, I am known for excellent clientele relations.  Proficient and educated in merchandising and styling through knowledge and execution of floorsets. Result driven individual, self motivated in reaching sales goals. Fashion forward, trend setting, influencer with known results in expanding business through social media platforms.    

Week 4 EOC: Discrimination

“Clear and complete job descriptions are useful for recruiting and screening possible new employees” (402).

I think that no matter how fair one wants to be when hiring, Image is always going to be a factor. However, I think that the quote above says a lot about the hiring process. If one is expected to maintain a certain image, then it must be outlined properly in the job description so people know what they are signing up for.

“The more accurate job descriptions are the more protection an operation has against employee claims that may arise from performance disputes” (403). Like the book says, no one can claim that they are being treated unfairly, or being asked anything out of the ordinary if it is in the job description. This is basically what they do in the Las Vegas nightlife, when they hire bottle servers as “models”. They cannot sue and say that they are being discriminated against if they gain 5 lbs, because they are hired with a certain image and are outlined to maintain this image.

“Asking people to apply in person is a legitimate way to screen. However, this practice cannot be used to avoid considering anyone based on race, age, disability, national origin, gender, religion, or any legally protected traits. This practice may expose the operation to discrimination claims” (414). I know from experience, that walk-ins definitely play into discrimination, because I’ve seen it happen. When someone walks in to ask for an application, you automatically judge their appearance, because that’s the only thing you know about them, is their image. So now, before you even know their qualifications, you have already decided if the answer is yes or no. Race, age, and origin can all be assumed from the moment someone walks through the door.  

Week 3 EOC: This Charming Man

“Promoting diversity helps fulfill legal requirements and allows managers to better defend against any claims of illegal discrimination”(385).

This movie was the prime example of a lack of diversity. In fact, in this film, we saw how work places attempted to ensure that there was absolutely no diversity. Anyone who was not Swedish was treated differently. Beginning with the job agency, who’s answer for anyone with a foreign name was initially “no” about job positions. They were already not doing their job by not getting them a job. Mostly everyone in this movie had feelings of racism, except Amanda, but Amanda also seems to be the only one who had a real education, which proves to me that feelings of racism stem from ignorance.

“Stereotypes are beliefs about particular groups that assume all members of that group are the same.”(386).

The amount of stereotypes in this film were perfect to explain how stereotypes work. There were so many preconceived notions about Mr. Hasan. There were jokes made about what “they” ate, and didn’t eat, assuming that Mr. Hasan was Muslim. There were so many feelings about people who weren’t Swedish being dumb. In fact, Amanda, was picked on because she was not a city girl, meaning she was a dumber, uglier version of a Swedish girl than the city girls. At the end of the movie, the main character ends up falling for her anyway. It is funny to me that the one who is stereotyped as the “ dumb girl” is the smartest one, who doesn’t feed into all of the stereotypes.

“Discrimination is the act of treating persons unequally for reasons that do not relate to their abilities, including race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, and mental or physical abilities.”

The bar tender was the first to discriminate, against everyone. He made terrible, vile jokes against anyone who wasn’t of the Swedish race. It is a shame, that at the end of the movie, he even ended up hurting Mr. Hasan while mentioning racial slurs. Had he been in America, and had he been charged, he would have faced extra charges for simply making racial slurs. It would be considered a “hate” crime.

Although this movie is like a satirical version of what racism and discrimination is, there really is nothing funny about it in real life. It happens here, and even if people want to claim they don’t discriminate or stereotype, it’s not true. It happens everywhere, it happens here.