Employment Under A Microscope

A certain amount of oversight is involved in almost any job. The more important, the more highly skilled, the more successful the position, the lower the degree of oversight. At the bottom rung of the economic and social ladder - the laborers, the maids, the easily replaceable positions - the more watchful are the powers that be, the less secure are the workers, the more personally vulnerable are they to any mistakes made.

When money or similar valuables are intermixed with poorly paid employees, the level of oversight reaches outsized and intrusive proportions. Diamond workers in South Africa submit to body cavity searches after every shift, a humiliation society normally limits to convicted felons or known drug traffickers.

In the United States, low-level workers in finance and banking are closely observed for cash or figure discrepancies. Too many errors lead inevitably to termination. The larger the amounts of money involved, the more significant the mistakes become. A fast food register a few cents out of balance differs markedly from a bank cashier imbalance of several hundred dollars.

The more pure cash is involved, the more difficulty there is in tracing a paper trail of transactions to establish where a discrepancy occurred. I just returned from three days in Las Vegas, the American capital of cash. Surely nowhere else in the country handles the thousands of hundred dollar bills that change hands in that town, to the tune of several billion dollars annually.

For years, in the counting rooms it was one pile for the house, one pile for the government, and one pile for "the boys." Untold millions were siphoned off for the East Coast crime czars. The government hated being cheated of their fair share. The gamblers could care less where the money went as long as they had a fair chance of winning and their play rendered them free rooms, free shows, and free food. It was symbiotic - a mutually advantageous relationship. Any worker foolish enough to try to cheat the uniquely expert cheaters at the top, found their final reward in the unforgiving desert where flesh melts quickly and bone fragments blow quickly away in the beds of long-dry rivers.

Then the corporations moved in and "the boys" faded away into their old street rackets and the burgeoning drug trade. The corporate-owned casinos are no longer in the business of skimming: they can make legitimate returns for their shareholders through the huge returns guaranteed by the house advantage in every transaction. To add to the gaming cash, they moved to ensure a profit in related areas: rooms, food, and shows.

Even the owners and managers, with their accounting-oriented perspective on the world, recognize their vulnerability to greed, cheating, and theft in the huge cash side of their business.

Casino worker oversight, while not yet approaching the body-cavity-search level, is perhaps the most organized and intrusive in the western world. It ranges from dealers clapping and showing open, empty hands, to two or more floor walkers (depending on the size of the jackpot) co-signing on every hand-pay slot win. It involves floor men watching every table bet, box men watching every roll of the dice and its payoff stacks of chips. It requires supervisors to watch the floor men, managers to watch the supervisors, undercover security men to watch both workers and guests, and eye-in-the-sky overhead cameras that can observe and detect every one of a million transactions per day.

Does all this monitoring and second-guessing have an effect on employees? Personal trust is something we rate highly. Talk with someone whose spouse has cheated on them and you will find that the emotional pain has little to do with sex but everything to do with the loss of trust and the doubt that a relationship can ever really survive such a loss. Although secondary to intimate relationships, we would like our coworkers and supervisors to trust us also, as a mark of respect if nothing else.

On the other hand, we are aware that the world is full of cheaters, those who would break any moral, legal, or ethical code if it gave them an advantage in the race for success and financial independence. We want to be trusted to act responsibly and do the right thing but we are just a little reluctant to trust others to quite the same degree.

Close oversight of everyone gives us a certain sense of security - it levels the playing field for us all by rooting out those who would bend the rules to get what they want. We tell ourselves that we have nothing to fear because we are innocent and that will protect us.

Then we read about long-convicted prisoners whose innocence has been belatedly proved by newly developed scientific forensics. We miss a familiar face at our favorite casino and finally learn that the individual left town after an error-inspired accusation of misconduct resulted in termination and blacklisting from the industry.

Where there is cash floating around in generous amounts, there will always be temptations, overzealous suspiciousness, justice and injustice on all sides because the truth is not amenable to scientific analysis and every event has multiple explanations and perspectives.

So we keep on watching ourselves and each other. Those of us who loathe the concept of big brother and snitching on friends, draw back in disgust as we see the need for security invade our lives. We can stay out of the gaming world with its cameras and minutely regulated transactions but how do we avoid the monitoring threatened with every call for customer service or the cookies embedded in our computers to track our wanderings through the Internet?

The cheaters, the scam artists, the swindlers and the frauds have won. It is we, the innocent, who must dwell in prison cells of continuous third degree scrutiny.

Virginia Bola operated a rehabilitation company for 20 years, developing innovative job search techniques for disabled workers, while serving as a Vocational Expert in Administrative, Civil and Workers' Compensation Courts. Author of an interactive and supportive workbook, The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a monthly ezine, The Worker's Edge, she can be reached at http://www.unemploymentblues.com

---

Google News Updated : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:49:19 GMT Fan in Room Seems to Cut Infants’ Risk of Crib Death - New York Times InjuryBoard.com Fan in Room Seems to Cut Infants’ Risk of Crib Death New York Times - 5 hours ago By TARA PARKER-POPE Sleeping in a room with a fan lowers a baby’s risk of sudden infant death syndrome by 72 percent, a new study has found. Study Suggests Fan Use Cuts SIDS Risk in Babies Wall Street Journal Study: Using fan on sleeping baby reduces risk of SIDS San Jose Mercury News U.S. News & World Report - WebMD - USA Today - Medgadget.com all 424 news articles Publ.Date : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:22:40 GMT Frerotte leads Vikings to Monday night victory - FOXSports.com Boston Globe Frerotte leads Vikings to Monday night victory FOXSports.com - 1 hour ago by Alex Marvez Alex Marvez is a Senior NFL Writer for FOXSports.com. He's covered the NFL for 14 seasons as a beat writer and is the president of the Pro Football Writers of America. Frerotte proves mettle against sloppy Saints SportingNews.com National Football League Game Capsules Sports Network Minneapolis Star Tribune - Boston Herald - Philadelphia Inquirer - Newsday all 1,172 news articles Publ.Date : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:39:53 GMT Red Sox roar into AL title series - Boston Globe Red Sox roar into AL title series Boston Globe - 1 hour ago By Dan Shaughnessy Bring on the Rays. Bring on the Dodgers or Phillies if you like. There is plenty of champagne left in New England and Mayor Menino has sent the duck boats to have their tires rotated. Red Sox not taking Rays lightly in next round of postseason MLB.com Red Sox squeeze past Angels, advance to ALCS Washington Post SI.com - ESPN - Boston Herald - FOXSports.com all 3,162 news articles Publ.Date : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 06:49:29 GMT Turkey hits PKK targets in n. Iraq on Tuesday - International Herald Tribune Voice of America Turkey hits PKK targets in n. Iraq on Tuesday International Herald Tribune - 1 hour ago ANKARA: Turkish warplanes pounded suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq for a second straight day on Tuesday, stepping up a bombing campaign after the death of 17 Turkish soldiers in a cross-border ambush. Turkish warplanes bomb 21 PKK targets in N Iraq People's Daily Online Turkish airstrikes target Kurdish rebels CNN United Press International - Aljazeera.net - AFP - The Associated Press all 1,633 news articles Publ.Date : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:30:40 GMT Man with financial woes kills family, self - San Francisco Chronicle Sydney Morning Herald Man with financial woes kills family, self San Francisco Chronicle - 1 hour ago An unemployed financial adviser apparently despondent over his troubles shot and killed his wife, his mother-in-law and three children before taking his own life in a gated community, Los Angeles police said Monday. Video: 6 Die in Family Murder-suicide in Upscale Home AssociatedPress California: Six Bodies Found in Los Angeles Home New York Times CNN - Reuters - Los Angeles Daily News - FOXNews all 557 news articles Publ.Date : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:38:59 GMT Sri Lanka: international probe called into killing - International Herald Tribune ABC News Sri Lanka: international probe called into killing International Herald Tribune - 29 minutes ago AP COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka's top opposition party called Tuesday for an international investigation into a bomb attack the previous day that killed a popular former army general and 26 others. Video: Sri Lanka army closes in on Tamil Tigers - 07 Oct 08 AlJazeeraEnglish Former Tamil rebel fighter named as member of parliament Monsters and Critics.com guardian.co.uk - The Associated Press - ABC Online - Radio Australia all 1,419 news articles Publ.Date : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:19:30 GMT McCain, Obama introduce newly sharp tone amid major news events - Los Angeles Times Washington Post McCain, Obama introduce newly sharp tone amid major news events Los Angeles Times - 1 hour ago McCain intensifies his attack on Obama's past and character, and Obama returns the favor. The tactics may not resonate with voters in a time of crisis. Video: AP Campaign Minute AssociatedPress McCain, Obama unleash another round of attacks Reuters New York Times - Chicago Tribune - Dallas Morning News - The Miami Herald all 4,436 news articles Publ.Date : Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:01:25 GMT RSS Feed Reader More Web Site Traffic

PARLOT::Ebooks, Scripts, Websites, and more...

Adsense websites

Adapting To Change In A Changing World

Have you learnt a new skill or improved upon your... Read More

Searching for an IT Job

Looking for an IT job is one of the easiest... Read More

Skills Make Labor More Valuable

As you know by now, if you have been a... Read More

10 Major Signs of Job Dissatisfaction

The New Year is a great time to analyze your... Read More

Leaders Meet Challenge Heads-UP With Confidence --

Maybe "buck" is better referred to as the Boss' Challenge.... Read More

Learn Some Useful Feng Shui Career Tips

As it does with every main life aspect, feng shui... Read More

Sample Cover Letters ... The Hidden Pitfalls

You can benefit from sample cover letters as they can... Read More

How to Answer The Most Difficult Interview Questions

The following 'difficult' questions are common to most tricky or... Read More

Culture Shock

Today we hear much talk of the 'global village'. People... Read More

The Springtime of Your Career

Rick Jarow, author of Creating the Work You Love, introduced... Read More

Genes and Work Ethic

If you have good genes, you are blessed. If they... Read More

Cross Cultural Interviews

At this moment in time, the increase in cross border... Read More

Business Careers: Keys to Moving on from Retrenchment

You may be astonished to realize that retrenchment may occur... Read More

Searching for an Executive Job

A job search for executives is far less complicated today... Read More

Career Killers to Avoid

Many professionals and managers are so involved in day-to-day crises... Read More

Franchising Offers NO Guarantees --

You have to ask --- IS a FRANCHISE FOR YOU?There... Read More

Does Your Resume Lack Vision?

You're just getting over the shock of having become unemployed.... Read More

Believe And Get Hired

Good things seem to come in bunches, especially in a... Read More

Job Trap; Relationships with Co-workers

Most of us interact with our co-workers on a daily... Read More

Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Career Opportunities for New Graduates

Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Career Opportunities for New GraduatesThis... Read More

Learn a Language for Career Advancement

To learn a language for career advancement is one of... Read More

It Takes Time

The story goes that after one of Ludwig van Beethoven's... Read More

Assess Your Transferable Skills

One of the most important parts of a job... Read More

How To Get A Job Fast

In today's unpredictable economy, the idea of job security with... Read More

Unemployment Survival: Taking Back Control

One of the most emotionally crippling aspects of unemployment is... Read More