In.The.Black

Alright, it’s been a little while since I wrote a new article and something I saw today really had me perplexed; I just had to write about the situation. People talk about minorities and the “Digital Divide,” (where people don’t have adequate access to technology to compete academically or professionally), well I think that it may be just the opposite! Some uses of technology causes people to be considered unprofessional. Maybe this is what “divides” some people from jobs. I called a friend of mine the other day to see how his job search was going and I was greeted by a Lil Wayne callback tone. He just got a Blackberry or Palm 800 or Samsung Instinct (I cant’t remember) before he lost his job and went wild with all the ringtones. When he finally answered, we talked about life in Alabama and how the cost of living was going up, etc, etc. While we’re shooting the breeze a thought hit me. I asked him if he had set his callback tone for just his friends or if he had it set on default. When he told me he had that set as his default, I nearly fell off my couch! People: if you’re in the process of job hunting (which many of us are) don’t have callback tones on your phone. There is no guarantee that your potential employers have the same taste in music or the same sense of humor that you have. I can imagine the Human Resources director calling my friend and “forgetting” to leave a message after hearing about Lil Wayne’s exploits and street cred. Come on, let’s be foreal. This is an example of how seemingly harmless tastes can get in the way of being professional. Use “plain” ringtones at work, or just put your phone on vibrate. Technology is a necessity these days; it’s helpful and lets you be creative in many different ways. However, technology can also work against you when it comes to things like this. For instance, if you work in a J.O.B. (JustOverBroke) that gives you access to a computer, don’t access pornography or sexual content on it. Chances are, the virus protection and spyware protection software wouldn’t let you anyway, but folks- just   don’t   do   it.

Sometimes it’s not the color of your skin or your age that keeps you from being gainfully employed; sometimes it’s just plain arrogance. If you walk around all day being mad at everyone else and saying that “people just don’t like me and I’m not going to change who I am. They’ll just have to deal with it,” then you probably won’t go too far with that attitude. At some point in our careers, people realize that you have to play to corporate games. I know plenty of people from the office that don’t dress, look, or act the same after work hours…White people, at that. Why do Black people get so offended when someone asks you to be traditional and to abide by company policies? I can see if they told you that wearing your hair in a natural state (twists, locks, etc) was unprofessional- that’s discrimination. However, there’s a fine line between being tolerant and allowing employees to be unprofessional. Saggy pants are not a style for the workplace. If you want to wear that to your place of employment, then you can go stand on the corner and put ya feet to the street. If you want any type of decent paying job, chances are you’ll be asked to change your attire to match your position. At this point, you may be thinking well I’ll work for myself. Nope, sorry. Do you think you’ll get a lot of clients looking unprofessional? People judge others by a number of things when they are considering purchasing your goods or services- attire is one of them! If you look unprofessional, chances are your business venture won’t succeed. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule and you’re welcome to point them out. For now, people. Let’s think beyond the “race card” and work on practicing professionalism. You’ll find that the better you present yourself, the better people will treat you. Shoot, turn off those call tones and you may even get a job interview.

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