Bits and Pieces

Fair Compensation: work from home? Travel required, lots of it? Working with the public directly? Outdoor or indoor work sites?  Many jobs do not require face to face meetings or close proximity in an office setting. Phones, yes. Computers, yes. Zoom and other electronic ‘meetings’, yes. Many jobs require great amounts of travel as regions are covered by sales representatives and product demonstrators. Building personal relationships with customers, clients and consultees, means much personal attention, a lot of it in-person.

Salespeople have outputs upon which they are compensated. Salary plus commission is common. Same is true for sales support people who labor from home covering large regions and nationally assigned representatives. Their outcomes are measured in calling stats, customers served, order volume and sales volumes. They are often compensated with salary and commission. Other folks working from home are paid by ‘the piece’, that is, items sold, subscriptions written, questions answered, problems solved. These are measured by computer data bases.

Workers at home can flex their own schedules and often must do so due to handling several time zones. They can wear casual clothing and save money. They can eliminate most if not all commuting expenses. They do put more wear on their home and its furnishings. Then again, those workers are home to care for young children, supervise older children, arrange and receive home repairs and deliveries.

There are many positives about working from home. Fair compensation is still needed. They can easily learn another company’s products, services and organization and work for them. Housing prices are cheaper when locating the family farther from normal commuting distances. This is great for family finances. It is also good for softening housing prices overall.

Companies gain as well. Fewer support staff in their offices means lower demands on office space, utilities and real estate investment. Paperwork is embraced in computer systems and databases eliminating tons of filing equipment, space and people needed to access the data. Computerization is cheaper for just about everyone.

Gifts to Charities: one person cannot solve all observed problems. One person cannot control change or poor outcomes. However, we all can join in supporting the many charitable organizations that do the work we support, help the people we ache for, and develop solutions to many social problems. Yes, there are government programs for many of these, but we now know that government relies on private charities to actually get the work done. Government agencies parcel out money to those charities. Those dollars go only so far. Charities rely on private donors to make up the difference.

Are you in the know on these charities? Do you have favorite causes you deeply care about? If so, find the organizations that mirror your concerns, and donate regularly to help them. Better yet? Volunteer your time and talents to support them further.

July 12, 2022

 

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