Archives for the Month of December 2006 on Patricia Schwarz's Online Journal
Final Class
In my opinion, the last class was important. It was good to hear what everyone appreciated or liked about the course. I was surprised by how many people enjoyed writing the Individual Learning Plan. I said that I enjoyed the overall atmosphere of the class. The discussions were a nice change from the usual lecture based classes. I thought the Mock Interview was a very good experience because it taught me how to be a more appealing candidate.
Individual Learning Plan
The Individual Learning Plan looked impossible to complete. I had to break the assignment apart and take everything one step at a time. I realized that the plan actually forced me to plan the next few years of my life. Although I did not want to do the paper, I did appreciate the outcome. This is how I feel a lot of students feel about college in general. College students work very hard during their four years, but when they get out they are better people for it.
Firing an Employee
Firing an employee can be very political. There are many reasons to fire a person. There are also many reasons not to fire a person. These include race, religion, and sex. If a person is fired for any of those three reasons, the company is in danger of being sued. I think it is common that people are illegally fired. This is why companies must be sure that they leave that part of the contract general and open to interpretation. This will allow lots of different situations to be acceptable for firing.
HR Simulation
The HR Simulation was a useful experience. I saw direct correlations between things that I might not have noticed before. For example, the more my team increased wages and benefits, the employee morale would increase. Another less obvious example was that when accident rates increased, employer morale decreased. My group would make a lot of mistakes, however, we would sit down and analyze why things would happen. I think the project should be continued in the following classes.
Tom Mendola
In class we discussed the Tom Mendola case. I was assigned to defend Mendola. This was a hard task because I thought Tom was wrong. Tom was informed that he was not doing his job by his supervisor. If I were Tom, I would have improved as soon as it was expressed to me that I was not performing satisfactorily. During the discussion, I could not effectively defend Tom. My only defense was to suggest that he get counseling or other outside help. Tom is after all only seventeen. He needs more guidance to help him with the transition from high school to a full time job.