Looking for Work

Yeah, yeah, yeah; you’ve heard this line before – ‘I’m looking for a few extra bucks, but don’t want to quit my day job!’ – but it’s true for a lot of people. Especially those people who have a calling and do it well. The assessment of ‘well’ is not a self-assessment but one from many others.

The story: retired and now 74; decades of working with organizations helping them perform better and achieve their better potentials. Most of this work was with nonprofits (the intentional kind, focused on doing good in the world). Along the way this work found a lot of soul in others and myself. Did this work while employed by nonprofits designed to help the other nonprofit clients. Eventually opened my own consulting business and performed that for over 20 years. In retirement, I continue similar work as a volunteer for SCORE.

Before retiring, I suffered three convergent health issues. Thought I was a goner so tidied up my affairs and retired. Two years later medical routines stabilized my conditions and I survived. Now eleven years later I’m doing very well health wise. Even regained stability and walking better. So I am mobile and able bodied; old and crinky with pains, but able.

My mind is as agile and eager as ever. I write a blog daily, serve 200 SCORE clients each year, work with another 120+ workshop attendees annually. I serve on committees and fulfill executive roles, writing minutes and white papers, too.

We live on social security benefits. Tough but doable. We pay for needs, not wants. No cash reserves at all and all income is matched to the outflow. The budget is tight and medical bills are challenging us currently. Veterinary bills, too. Love the dog but she is gaining on us age wise. No room in the budget for this expense. Family and friends have helped us through this currently but we can’t count on that.

So, the need to find part time employment is real and present. I’ve been offered $12/hour to drive for a retirement home; I’ve been recruited by Lyft and Uber to drive for them. That’s it. No one seems interested in hiring ‘institutional memory’ talents, and organizational development skills with practical experience. This isn’t a full-time gig being sought; maybe 20 hours per week with project hours added as needed. Something able to be juggled in with my current commitments so I can continue doing my volunteer work. I think this should be worth a lot more than $20/hour, but that’s all I need.

I’m looking for someone to hire my talents, not my hours.

If you know of anyone looking for someone like me, let them know about me, and let me know about them. I will praise you vociferously for such help!

The larger issue is this: America has a lot of talent that is wasted because employees like neat and tidy procedures, formulas and routines. Our free enterprise system, however, was built on making the best use of all resources while performing profitable services and delivering needed and wanted goods. Resources includes people. Assets reflect the value of an organization’s people, but you won’t see any dollar value associated with such. The fact is simply this: businesses and nonprofit organizations deliver value through their staff and coordinated effort. Ideas, inventiveness, people skills and a host of other intangibles make this possible. Why is this so easily ignored by so many people?

Organizational development is a career field. It helps organizations reach their potential by using mind power intelligently and people even better. The people are the ones with the minds!

They deserve to be compensated accordingly. Anyone interested in a mind for hire?

October 26, 2017