Being employed is probably the most recognised way to generate income. For most
people it’s how they earned their first dollar, and for many people it’s how they’ve
generated income ever since.

There are other ways to generate income though, and the following three chapters
will look at ways to generate income outside of employment. In this chapter though,
we’ll look closely at the Pros and Cons of Employment, and what it has to offer your
kids as they progress into adulthood and the life journey that lies ahead.

One of the biggest factors that will influence your kids’ happiness in life is how much
they enjoy the way they generate income. My best friend’s grandmother used to say
“Boys, if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life!”. She was spoton! So many people cling to jobs they do not love for security reasons, and as a result
they are not happy. For them work is a drag. It’s just something they have to endure
to avoid losing their income and their security.

Employment is a relatively low-risk way to generate income. If you have the right
skills, personality, and motivation, you can apply for and most likely get yourself a
job. You then go to work for a set number of hours per day for a set number of days
per week, and you get paid. You follow that cycle repeatedly, and you’re employed!

However, the downside to employment is that you’re usually told what to do, how to
do it, when to do it, where to do it, and what doing it is worth in monetary terms.
You usually have very little choice or control over these factors. There is a process to
follow, and you must follow it. The lower the skill that’s required, the lower the pay
and the more potential there is for job ‘dissatisfaction’.

It’s really important that you impress upon your kids the fact that having lots of
money does not buy happiness. Similarly, working in a secure job they don’t like does
not buy happiness either. HOWEVER, not having money causes stress and anxiety,
and can certainly lead to unhappiness, so there’s a lot they need to consider!

You can say to your kids over and over again that they should work hard at school so
they can get a good job that pays well, but rarely do those words fall on attentive or
responsive ears. It’s difficult to get kids (and many adults) to overtly think beyond
what they want to do right now.

PLEASE NOTE:- If you have read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, you will recall
that in that book Kiyosaki suggests that working hard at school so you can get a good
job is the last thing you would want to encourage your kids to do, but for the purpose
of looking at the topic of ‘Employment’, it IS valid. We’ll look at other options in the
next three topics.

In an effort to get your kids to think beyond the ‘now’, you might ask the age-old
question “What do you want to be when you grow up (or when you leave school)?”,
but very few kids actually know the answer to that question.

For 20 years I was a high-school teacher. In each year level there were usually a few
kids that stood out from the rest. They would work hard without prompting. They
were motivated and they were usually (but not always), the higher achievers.

What set them apart from the rest of the kids (who just floated along), was the fact
that they knew what they wanted to be when they finished school. They had a career
in mind and knowing what they wanted to do after school made all the difference
when it came to their motivation and commitment to schoolwork, and the way they
related to their teachers.

If your kids don’t know what they want to do with their life, asking them “What do
you want to be when you grow up?” is probably not going to help much at all. Telling
them they need to make a decision is probably going to make them resentful and
even less interested in making a decision, so think twice before going there!

Instead, when you are out and about with your kids you should take every
opportunity to point out people who are at work and ask your kids if they can put
themselves in that person’s shoes.

E.g.
• “Why is that person packing shelves/building that house/repairing that
car/serving those customers, and so on?”
• “Do you think they like doing that job?”
• “Do you think that job pays well?”
• “How would that job fit in with their family life?”
• “How much time off work do you think they would get?”
• “How hard would it be to get a job like that?”
• “What qualifications would they need in order to get that job?”
• “What would be the best and the worst thing about having a job like that?”
• “Would you like to have a job like that?”
• “How would you get a job like that?”
• “What might that job lead on to?”

Doing this will get them to imagine themselves in the various roles of people at work
and start them thinking about what it is they do want to do.

It is my belief that the sooner kids get to experience employment, the better. You
want them to get a dose of reality to motivate them to seriously consider what it is
they really do want to do, and then start seriously working towards that goal.

I said earlier that many parents (and schoolteachers), will tell kids that they should
work hard at school so they can get a good job. As an ‘ex’ high school teacher, in my
opinion high school is highly overrated. I’d go so far as to say that for more than 50%
of the kids attending high school, it’s a glorified baby-sitting service for teenagers
who are too young to work and who do not know what they want to do with their
lives.

It is a perfect fit for those who want to go on to university to become doctors,
dentists, lawyers and so on, but getting good results at school is NOT the ‘be all and
end all’ it is portrayed to be.

A perfect example of this is my son who was totally wasting his time at school in his
senior years (he did not know what he wanted to be). His teachers (who I had
previously worked beside), were telling me he was wasting his time and he was just
not interested in his schoolwork.

So, early in his senior year we made the decision to let him leave school. We figured
he would start looking for a career path. However that was not the case. Instead, he
spent a couple of years working a few shifts a week at McDonalds and playing
computer games for most of the time he was not at work.

You can imagine our frustration!

However, finally he made a change. He moved to the city with a friend and worked at
a different McDonalds store, discovered that that was not what it promised to be,
and after the 6 months rental agreement they had signed up for expired, he moved
back home again.

However, something had changed in his thinking, because not long after that he
applied for and got a totally different job back in the city working in a support centre
for a well-known phone and computer brand. He worked hard for a year and then he
announced he was resigning so he could go on an extended snowboarding holiday.

However, his supervisor told him he was not allowed to resign (she did not want him
to leave). She told him he could have 6 weeks off and then he had to come back! So,
he went snowboarding and after 6 weeks he went back to work.

At the time of writing he is 33 years old and has been promoted so many times he is
currently responsible for overseeing the Australian and New Zealand operations for
that company (in spite of the fact that he dropped out of high school). He works
diligently and will own his own home by the time he is 38.

(I included this story to give hope to parents who are tearing their hair out over kids
who just do not seem to ‘get-it’ when it comes to work. There probably IS light at the
end of the tunnel. Just don’t make it too easy for them to extend the length of that
tunnel and don’t silver line it either!).

Pros and Cons of Employment
It’s unlikely your kids will have thought through all the advantages and disadvantages
of being employed so let’s look at them so you are clear and can articulate them to
your kids well.

What is good about being employed?
• Predictable income
• Predictable hours (usually)
• Possible career path
• Possible security
• Paid Public and Annual Holidays (if you are employed full-time)
• Paid Long-Service leave (if you stay long enough)
• You are free to think about other things after you ‘knock-off’ for the day,
unlike the boss who most likely has ongoing responsibilities.

What is not so good about being employed?
• Lack of freedom to be creative
• You’re told what to do
• You’re told how to do it
• You have little choice over who you work with
• You have to be at work when it’s work time
• You only get time off work when your holidays are due
• You only get paid enough to make you stay in the job
• You may be better qualified and better at your job, yet someone else gets a
promotion because of who they are
• You get to make your employer rich
• If you know there is a better way to do things, you may get frustrated from
not being able to initiate change and instead having to continue doing things
the old way.

After looking at all of the ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of employment, you will notice that
most of the ‘cons’ relate to limitations on your time and income, while the ‘pros’
relate to security and conditions such as paid holidays and superannuation and
little need to deal with the Tax Office and the Government and all of the
regulations and responsibilities an employer has to deal with relating to both.

How to gain employment
Once your kids have reached the point where they want to be employed, they
need to know the process of being offered a job. Depending on the state of the
economy at the time that may be really easy, really hard, or somewhere in
between.

If it’s really easy, it could be as simple as knocking on doors.

If it’s not that easy at the time, you will need to put together a resume that
highlights all of their personal, sporting and school achievements and gives as
many reasons as possible why a prospective employer would pick them over
someone else. You want this to be simple and easy to read and understand.

As a parent you should be collecting the information for your kids resumes for
years prior to them reaching employment age.

It often seems like employers want applicants who are young enough to be paid
junior’s wages but with the experience of someone who has been on the job for
decades, so when you’re starting out with no experience on the job your kids
need to present as an enthusiastic, responsible, reliable and sensible (mature)
person who is keen to learn and contribute.

Being able to present well in an interview is equally important, so you if you are
able to practice an interview with your kids that is great, but if that seems a little
difficult because you’re too close, see if a friend of the family will help out as the
practice interviewer. The more practice interviewers you can arrange, the better. Employment agencies have lists of vacant positions to be filled and it would be advisable to register with one or more of them and to go through their process of  applying for any positions they have available that fit your child’s interests, skills and qualifications. They may be able to give interview and resume tips as well.

Remind your kids that while they may not be able to land a CEO position first up,
taking any job at all gives them the opportunity to start earning a reputation as a
quality employee which will lead to offers of better positions.

An employer may not be advertising a position, but if your child is really keen to
work for a particular employer or in a particular industry, they may be able to
gain employment by offering to do an internship or to work for free for a period
to show the employer they are keen and worthy of employment.

Going above and beyond does get noticed and it does get results!

Helping Your Kids Get Promoted and Earn More
Once your kid has a job, the next important lesson to impress upon them is their
work ethic and attitude. There will most likely be a shock when the 6 hour school
days with 10 weeks of holidays a year gives way to 8 hour work days with 4 weeks of
holidays per year (especially if they take on a permanent job straight from school).

Even if there is tertiary study between high school and work, there may well be some
emotional adjustment for a while as a result of them having to get used to an adult
workload and it could impact their attitude to work, so prepare them by letting them
know how good they’ve got it as a student way in advance.

Telling them how good school is probably won’t do the trick, so without delivering
that message in a moment of frustration where you are likely to deliver a lecture that
goes a bit like this; ‘you wait and see what it’s like when you get a job you lazy little
so and so’. Instead, tell them a number of times at opportune moments in a caring
way about what work will be like and the adjustments they will have to make. That
MAY have a more meaningful impact.

Human nature says that we’re all tuned in to WiiFM (what’s in it for me), in most of
the things we do. Not many people would go to work if it wasn’t for the income they
receive. We’d probably all like to be so well off that we could volunteer our talents
and time, but reality says that we need to be paid. So it’s OK that the primary
motivator for our kids going to work is the income.

However, if you can impress upon them that while earning money is great, they will
get far more from working if they look at employment as a two-way street which
they can either embrace or reject.

If they embrace it they will: –
• Turn up for work early
• Do more than is expected of them
• Learn all they can about the company they work for
• Learn all they can about the structure of the company they work for
• Familiarise themselves with the role of all the people in the company
• Find out who are their competitors and learn all they can about them
• Learn about the competitive advantage of the service or product they help to
deliver
• See themselves as a valuable part of the whole operation
• Be constantly on the lookout for opportunities to solve problems at work and
support fellow workers
• Be constantly on the lookout for opportunities to develop new skills and take
on more responsibilities whether that is with their current employer or a
different one.
• Save and invest some of their income each week with a forward-looking plan
for their money.
If they reject it they will: –
• Turn up just in time to clock-on (or later if they can get away with it)
• Watch the staff who have been at their workplace for years and learn from
them how to work for 6 hours while being at work for 8.
• Do their job begrudgingly like it is punishment for not having won lotto on
their 18th birthday.
• Resent being given menial jobs to do such as cleaning the lunchroom
• Take no interest in the company they work for
• Use the problems that exist at work to grumble about work and the people in
authority above them
• Have no idea or interest as to why their company’s product or service is better
than the competitors (They may not even know who the competitors are).
• Be at the door ready to leave right on knock-off time
• Phone in sick to sleep off the effects of too much partying the night before a
workday.
• Spend all of their pay before the week is over and complain that they do not
get paid enough.

It’s extremely important that you do everything you can to help your kids start work
with a positive work ethic and attitude because once habits have formed, they
become really hard to change. You want their habits to be positive ones right from
the start!

As an employee, besides the money they will earn, your kids will get to learn new
skills that they can use for the rest of their life. They should see employment as an
incredible opportunity to get paid to improve their skills and knowledge. Even the
mundane repetitive jobs can bring learning.

If they are reliable and embrace work by adopting the first list I gave above, they will
develop a reputation as a reliable and trustworthy person who is far more likely than
others to be promoted to higher duties (and higher income), when positions become
available.

Pros and Cons of being an Employer
One of the best ways to help your kids to get clarity about the decision to be an
employee is to consider the option of being an employer.

Why you might want to be an employer.
• Pursue something that really interests you
• Potential to earn more money
• Pay someone else to do the work you don’t want to do, don’t have the skills to
do, or don’t have the time to do
• Freedom to make the rules about how things happen at work
• Flexibility over work times
• Ability to collaborate with other businesspeople to create more income
opportunities.

Why you might NOT want to be an employer.
• Potential to earn less money and maybe even go broke
• Govt imposed rules relating to employee conditions and employer obligations
(such as paying superannuation).
• Tax Office regulations and requirements – You become an unpaid tax collector
who has to report and pay company tax and employee’s income tax to the Tax
Office regularly.
• Dealing with conflict between staff members.
• Keeping up to date with Workplace Health and Safety rules and making sure
your workplace meets the requirements.

Summary.
There is a lot for your kids to consider. Of course, it’s not a case of them having to
make an irreversible decision on the spot as to whether they want to be an
employee or an employer, i.e., to be someone who gets told what to do or someone
who tells others what to do. It will take time for them to get clarity on these matters.

However, if they know what their options are and what is possible before they
embark on their working life, they will most likely achieve much more and make
better choices.

If they have never been presented with anything other than the idea of being an
employee who clocks on at 8 and knocks off at 5, and who spends all of their income
each week, only ever being a consumer, it will be a lot harder for them to do
anything other than that!

The Value of Personal Practical Skills
People who have few practical hand skills or understanding of how things work
will pay for repairs to be done that they could fix themselves if they had the skills and
the knowledge. Encouraging (or enrolling) your kids in courses where they learn hand
skills and how to carry out common home repairs could save them heaps of
money over their lifetime and make them better employees.

The more your kids know about how things work the more they are able to think
creatively, coming up with new ideas and solving problems. One of the biggest
negative’s I can think of in relation to the amount of time modern kids are spending
looking at screens, is how little time and opportunity they have left to develop ‘real’
and worthwhile hand skills, and to learn how things work.

Toys like Meccano (yes it still exists) and Lego Technics offer the opportunity for kids
to develop dexterity and hand skills and to learn how things work, as well as creating
their own working ‘creations’ that help expand their mind.

By the time they reach adulthood your kids should know…
• What career they want to pursue
• What jobs they need to work in to learn the skills that will help them to get to
the career they want faster
• What educational qualifications will help them to achieve that career
• The responsibilities of being an employee
• The responsibilities of being an employer
• The pros and cons of being an employee
• The pros and cons of being an employer
• How to be a great employee who is upwardly mobile
• How things work