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[00:00.00]60 Learn from a Model
[00:05.25]When young people get their real jobs, they may face a lot of new confusing situations.
[00:13.98]They may find that everything is different from the way things were at school.
[00:21.08]It is also possible that they will feel uncomfortable in both professional and social situations.
[00:30.56]Eventually, they realize that university classes can't be the only preparation for all of the different situations
[00:41.77]that appear in the working world.
[00:45.27]Perhaps the best way to learn how to behave in the working world is to identify a worker you admire
[00:54.49]and observe his behavior.
[00:57.73]In doing so, you'll be able to see what it is that you admire in this person.
[01:05.36]For example, you will observe how he acts in a trouble.
[01:11.89]Perhaps even more important, you'll be able to see what is his approach to everyday situations.
[01:22.05]While you are observing your colleague you should be asking yourself whether his behavior is like yours
[01:32.45]and now how you can learn from his response to a different situation.
[01:39.50]By watching and learning from a model, you will probably begin to identify and get good working habits.
[01:51.57]61 Flexible Time
[01:56.48]Both late sleepers and early risers find the fixed hours of a nine-to-five workday a problem.
[02:06.30]Now there is an answer that seems to please them both.
[02:12.28]Employees of some businesses, orga-nizations and govemment agencies in the U.S.
[02:20.38]are adapting their work hours to suit their individual needs.
[02:25.24]It's called "flexible time" and it means, for example,
[02:31.12]that employees can start working at any time during the first three hours their office is open
[02:39.32]and leave after completing their required daily working time.
[02:44.65]Early risers can begin work at seven a.m., finish at three and still have daylight time for shopping,
[02:56.85]picking up children at school, or recreation.
[03:01.58]Late sleepers need not report for work until lO a.m., but they must stay on their job until six in the evening.
[03:12.47]Says a bank official in Boston, Massachusetts, "Our employees like the system,
[03:19.65]and slow-movement has been actually disappeared.
[03:24.20]Few people are absent, turn-over has dropped markedly, and productivity and morale have risen."
[03:34.23]62 Different Purposes of Working
[03:39.79]Careerists are people whose self-image is determined almost exclusively by their jobs.
[03:48.44]Virtually everything they do is designed to advance their careers.
[03:54.58]They are defined by their jobs.
[03:57.74]When you meet a careerist at a party, he immediately tells you his occupation.
[04:04.69]Take away a careerist's job and he doesn't know who he is.
[04:11.32]He loses his identity. His life is seriously out-of-balance.
[04:18.32]This particular disease is called careerism.
[04:23.11]Workaholics may or may not be careerists.
[04:28.64]Workaholics al-so spend most of their time and energy on their jobs,
[04:35.41]but there may be different reasons for their work pattern.
[04:40.35]They may not even identify with their jobs.
[04:44.89]Work may simply be an escape, an effort to avoid dealing with life.
[04:52.23]On the other hand, a worka-holic may love his job
[04:57.56]and simply become addicted to the plea-sure of doing it and doing it well.
[05:03.96]Careerists may not even like their jobs.
[05:08.90]In fact, they may not even work that hard.
[05:13.21]They may spend most of their time on organizational politics for advancement.
[05:20.57]Careerists are not so much into work as into seeking identity through their jobs,
[05:29.09]their career advancement, and the symbols of success.
[05:34.63]A workaholic may be working to help others or to support a noble cause.
[05:44.24]If we are working on projects we see as important to social transformation,
[05:51.03]it is easy to become obsessed with the project and let other areas of our lives slide.
[05:59.24]We must all strive to avoid this pitfall.
[06:03.62]Managers must be alert to both careerists and workaholics, recognize the differences,
[06:12.43]and seek to help both move in the direction of wholeness.
[06:19.56]63 An Engineer's Necessities
[06:24.84]All engineers need a knowledge of mathematics and physics, no matter what their special field of work is.
[06:35.65]Most young people who wish to be engineers begin studying these sub-jects early in high school.
[06:44.11]An interest in mathematics and physics is essential because every engineer must work with these sci-ences.
[06:54.56]Students preparing for engineering college should also study chemistry,
[07:02.16]mechanical drawing and other science subjects that are offered.
[07:07.60]A good command of language is important because engineers must be able to talk and write clearly.
[07:16.92]A knowledge of economics, history, and other social sci-ence subjects is also helpful.
[07:26.25]To best fulfill their duties in society,
[07:30.46]engineers need to know not only how to do their work but also how their work will influence other people.
[07:41.27]They need to be able to help make decisions on many problems.
[07:47.41]Engineering college usually takes few years to complete, al-though some schools give five-year courses.
[07:58.22]After finishing a year or two of college, an engineering student begins to concentrate on a special field.
[08:07.94]Part of the student's time is spent in the class-room, and part is spent in the laboratory doing experiments.
[08:17.89]In some schools, students spend part of the year studying and part of the year working in their chosen field.
[08:29.68]64 Advantages of a Job Interview
[08:36.21]Nowadays, when a person is hunting for a job, there will always be a job interview,
[08:43.96]through which the interviewee and the interviewer can know about each other.
[08:50.29]Therefore, I think that the job interview has many advantages.
[08:56.45]During the interview, the interviewer lets the interviewee know something about the job,
[09:03.87]such as the wage,
[09:06.32]the working conditions and chances to get promotion.
[09:11.21]Then the interviewee can decide whether the job is really suitable for him.
[09:18.29]Besides, the job interview is also a good chance for the in-terviewee,
[09:24.74]because he can impress the interviewer by showing both his ability and his confidence.
[09:33.44]He can tell the interviewer in person about his educational background or his working experi-ence.
[09:43.00]Thus the interviewer can figure out whether he is the right person for the job.
[09:49.92]In addition, the job interview will do good to both the inter-viewer and the interviewee.
[09:58.62]By means of interview, the intervie-wee can find a good job and the interviewer can find a suitable person,
[10:08.60]if both of them make the best of the job interview.
[10:15.76]65 Mid-career
[10:20.36]"Life begins at forty" is more often an expression of hope than a statement of fact.
[10:30.49]But it has the ring of truth for a group of mature women at the University of Pittsburgh
[10:38.64]whose professional lives are really just beginning.
[10:43.66]A former housewife, who is seeking a Ph D. and teaching at the university,
[10:51.99]had received the highest student evaluation in the university's history.
[10:58.86]A mother offour, who never had a policy-making position in previous part-time work,
[11:07.35]is now deputy director in the department of planning for the city of Pittsburgh.
[11:14.66]And another woman, who without a college degree has trouble finding a good job,
[11:22.81]had been accept-ed as the first woman professor at UCLA's Graduate School of Management.
[11:31.96]These successful professionals are all graduates of a unique program
[11:39.43]designed to help mature women prepare for positions in public administration and planning.
[11:48.99]The "mid-career" scholars fit no mold.
[11:53.77]Many saw their child rearing years growing to a close and wanted to find a productive, useful career.
[12:04.06]Some, unexpectedly forced into the role of family provider by a divorce,
[12:11.82]needed training that they had not thought necessary when they were younger.
[12:18.14]Other women in the program were eager to join because they had had no chance to go to college in their youth.
[12:28.33]One, for instance, who had hoped to go on to graduate school,
[12:35.98]put her efforts and money in-to helping her younger sister get an education instead.
[12:45.57]66 Is Failure a Bad Thing?
[12:51.61]Failure is a common thing in our daily life, or rather, it is part of life.
[12:59.78]Even Edison, for example, the inventor of the light bulb,
[13:05.08]made hundreds of models that had failed before he found the right way to make one.
[13:12.58]When we play games we cannot avoid being beaten by others.
[13:19.16]And there are times when we fail to do more satisfactory work.
[13:25.22]So failure happens naturally and almost everyone of us has experienced it.
[13:32.80]However, there are different attitudes towards failure.
[13:38.39]Some people lose heart and some even collapse in failure.
[13:44.79]They think the world is at its end.
[13:48.45]Some people don't take failure seriously and they just let it be.
[13:54.95]Some others believe that failure may be a way towards success and so they can learn much from failure,
[14:04.75]and therefore see the light of hope through failure.
[14:09.42]In my opinion, what really counts is not failure itself,
[14:15.41]but what we think of failure and do after failure.
[14:20.24]As long as we don't give up and in the meantime learn something from failure,
[14:27.66]we'll certainly turn failure into success.
[14:31.68]Always keep it in mind that "failure is the mother of success."
[14:41.69]67 Sense of Responsibility
[14:47.80]I grew up in a small town.
[14:51.93]My father raised chickens and ran a construction company.
[14:57.28]I was barely I0 years old when my dad gave me the responsibility of feeding the chickens and cleaning up the stable.
[15:08.70]He believed it was important for me to have those jobs to learn responsibility.
[15:15.98]Then, when I was 22, I found a job in Natchbill at a country music sub-club called "The Natchbill Palace."
[15:29.52]I washed dishes and cooked from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and then went on stage and sang until 2:00 in the morning.
[15:42.73]It wasn't long before I became known as a singer cook.
[15:49.39]I had been rejected so many times by record companies that it was hard not to be discouraged.
[15:58.72]One night, a woman ex-ecutive from a company named Warner Brothers Records came to hear me sing.
[16:08.52]When the show was over, we sat down and talked and then she left.
[16:15.91]I said to myself it was one more rejec-tion.
[16:20.90]A few weeks later, my manager received a phone call-Warner Brothers wanted to sign me to a record deal.
[16:32.42]Soon after, I released my first record in June, 1986. it sold over one million copies.
[16:43.78]My best efforts had gone into every job I ever held.
[16:49.40]It was the sense of responsibility that made me feel like a man, knowing that I had done my best filled me with pride.
[17:01.78]I still feel that way today, even though I have become a well-known singer.
[17:11.99]68 Competition and Cooperation
[17:17.79]Competition is common in every field of life.
[17:23.77]For example, the Olympic Games are the most famous competition in the
world.
[17:31.45]In the four-hundred-meter swimming race, the swimmers plunge into the water at the signal.
[17:39.68]Each swings his arms and legs and tries his best to be the first.
[17:46.53]Also there is the competition for jobs, for promotion, for customers, and so on.
[17:55.88]We can say, in a certain sense, competition stimulates people's interest in work
[18:03.87]and helps society to go forward.
[18:07.14]We often find that competition goes hand in hand with co-operation.
[18:13.77]Take, for example, volleyball match.
[18:18.01]The members of the team cooperate with each other.
[18:22.45]One serves the ball.
[18:25.19]Then another passes the ball to a certain height
[18:29.89]for a still other to hit it over the net while the other members try to block it on its return.
[18:40.10]It requires good teamwork to win the game.
[18:44.31]While we advocate competition, we cannot forget cooperation.
[18:50.92]Human beings are social beings. No one exists alone in the society.
[18:58.21]If you want to play the game well, you have to play with others.
[19:04.32]You have to cooperate with your playmates.
[19:08.37]From cooperation we get mutual help and understanding.
[19:14.69]With cooperation the world is progressing at peace and harmony.
[19:21.67]69 The Successful Interview
[19:28.04]To be successful in a job interview, the applicant should show certain personal and professional qualities.
[19:39.01]Inasmuch as the first and often lasting impression of a person is decided by the clothes he wears,
[19:48.13]the job applicant should take care to appear well-groomed and modestly dressed,
[19:56.36]avoiding the extremes of too elaborate or too casual.
[20:02.26]Besides care for personal appearance, he should pay attention to his manner of speaking,
[20:10.59]which should be neither ostenta-tious nor familiar, but rather straightforward, accurate, and friendly.
[20:21.67]In addition, he should be prepared to talk knowledge-ably about the requirements of the position
[20:29.66]for which he is applying in relation to his own professional experience and interests.
[20:38.83]And finally, the really impressive applicant must convey a sense of self-confidence and enthusiasm for work,
[20:49.67]factors which all interviewers value highly.
[20:53.93]The job seeker who displays these characteristics,
[20:58.97]with just a little luck, will certainly succeed in the typical personal interview.
[21:08.53]70 How to Survive in a Fire
[21:15.79]Many people now live or work in very high buildings.
[21:21.49]It is often not so easy to get away from these buildings in an emer-gency.
[21:28.23]So how to survive in case of a fire is a question concerning all those involved.
[21:36.41]No one knows for sure when a fire will happen, so it is extremely necessary to make preparations before a fire starts.
[21:48.94]Check the fire escape in advance and make sure that you can find it in
the dark after lights have failed.
[21:59.00]Find out where the nearest fire extinguisher is and read the instructions to learn how to use it.
[22:08.35]Don't lose your head if unfortunately a fire breaks out.
[22:14.78]First, telephone the fire department immediately when the fire just gets started.
[22:22.30]Take care not to be overcome by smoke, which, containing carbon monoxide gas, can kill you quickly.
[22:33.48]Cover your face with a wet towel and avoid getting in the smoke.
[22:39.36]Don't get in an elevator, as you may get trapped if the electricity fails.
[22:47.35]Lastly, it is of great importance to try to hang something out of the window
[22:54.33]to attract attention as a sign asking for help.
[22:59.84]In short, if you make preparations beforehand and take pre-cautions in the fire,
[23:07.96]you will have more chances to survive in case a fire really breaks out some day.
[23:16.48]71 If You Are Shy, You Are Not Alone
[23:24.26]Are you afraid to raise your hand in class even when you know the answer?
[23:32.39]If you are, most people would say that you are shy.
[23:38.01]If you feel shy, you are not alone.
[23:43.13]Nine out of ten people are at least a little shy.
[23:47.75]But however shy you are, scientific evidence seems to show that it isn't your fault.
[23:56.21]You may have been born that way.
[23:59.71]How do psychologists measure shyness?
[24:04.18]One way is by observation.
[24:07.94]They keep detailed records of people's actions,
[24:12.46]like how often these people speak to others or how long it takes someone to say hello to a stranger.
[24:23.38]Another way to measure shyness is to ask people questions.
[24:30.04]The test only takes about ten minutes.
[24:33.96]It asks questions like: "Do you like going out a lot?" and "Do you have many friends?"
[24:45.27]People must answer either yes or no.
[24:49.92]These questions can predict how people actually behave in social situations.
[24:57.16]Suppose the test tells you that someone is shy, chances are good that person will act shy.
[25:07.47]When scientists measure shyness, they are really comparing degrees of shyness.
[25:14.50]In other words, when researchers say people are shy, they really mean they are more shy than others.
[25:26.00]72 Color Effects
[25:31.79]At the University of Kansas art museum,
[25:37.12]investigators tested the effects of different colored walls on two groups of visitors to an exhibit of paintings.
[25:47.36]For the first group the room was painted white; for the second, dark brown.
[25:54.70]Movement of each group was followed by an electrical system under the carpet.
[26:02.12]The ex-periment revealed that those who entered the dark brown room walked more quickly, covered more area,
[26:11.92]and spent less time in the room than the people in the white environment.
[26:18.45]Dark brown stimulated more activity, but the activity ended sooner.
[26:26.31]Not only the choice of colors but also the general appearance of a room communicates and influences those inside.
[26:37.21]An-other experiment presented subjects with photographs of faces that were to be rated in terms of energy
[26:46.53]and well-being.
[26:48.67]Three groups of subjects were used; each was shown the same photos, but each group was in a different kind of room.
[26:59.20]One group was in an "ugly" room that resembled a messy storeroom.
[27:06.07]Another group was in an average room--a nice office.
[27:12.24]The third group was in a tastefully designed living room with carpeting and drapes.
[27:19.81]Results showed that the subjects in the beautiful room tended to give higher ratings to the faces
[27:27.57]than did those in the ugly room.
[27:30.91]Other studies suggest that students do better on tests taken in comfortable, attractive rooms
[27:39.43]than in ordinary looking or ugly rooms.
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