[Jobs] FW: Wise words

Wed Feb 7 09:18:50 CST 2007

________________________________

From: Kavulak, Elaine 
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 8:54 AM
To: Altman, Jeff; Bartling, Becky; Barton, Renee; Brandt, Jan; Brown,
Bill; Brown, Kathy; Bruegman, Sherrie; Buresh, Amy; Buresh, Betty;
Buresh, Shane; Carlow, Connie; Coffman, Nancy; Coleman, Kelly; Daly,
Connie; Davis, Mary; Deaton, Robert; Djernes, Shawn; Ervin, Glenn;
Flearl, Nancy; Floyd, Fatos; Green, Mitch; Harris, Terry; Hill, Daniel;
Hoff, Angela; Husseini, Sahar; Jesse, Deanna; Johnston-Rauterkus,
Denise; Juarez, James; Kavulak, Elaine; Laursen, Candace; Livingston,
Cheryl; Mackey, Larry; Newman, Robert; Peery, Valerie; Poff, Cheryl;
Rains, Mike; Richey, Jeremy; Robinson, David; Rodriquez, Josephine;
Roos, Larry; Schmitt, John; Schopen, Nicole; Servan, Carlos; Shankland,
Robert; Strunk, Randi; VanZandt, Pearl; Ward, Donald; Wilmott, Dorothy;
Wurtz, Jean; Zimmer, Cindy
Subject: Wise words

This is an e-mail I received from a former client.  He said that I could
share it with everyone and that he did not mind if it was used for
seminar material.

________________________________

From: Mike Jolls [mailto:majolls at cox.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 8:46 PM
To: Kavulak, Elaine
Subject: RE: Phone call

Elaine
 .......... 
As far as getting over to see Fatos, . . . .  I don't mind speaking, and
in fact, I would love to talk to some people and try to motivate them so
they can see some of the same benefits I've experienced.

Regarding the promotion, thanks for the congratulations.  You'll recall
that I was very down about how the railroad was treating me, getting
raises, promotions, etc...  This last year, I tried a new approach, and
it worked.  Since I finally found an approach that worked, I'd like to
share this with other blind people.  I get the real impression that
being in the workforce for blind peple is difficult because of
preconceived ideas that normally sighted people have.  I believe these
ideas are so important that they need to be part of the training a blind
person receives.  It's not good enough to just provide the skills to
allow him or her to do the job, but ideas should be given to the blind
person to tell him how to look at the job, what types of things to do,
so that he or she can become valuable, and so that the company will not
treat him as a second class citizen.  Anyway, here are the ideas that
worked for me.  If you think they have merit, let me know.

Tips for blind people in the workforce

#1. Pick a job you genuinely enjoy and can do
Obviously, this didn't apply to me this year because I was already in
the job.  However if you're entering the workforce, select a career in
something that you can do despite your disability and one that turns you
on.  You'll see why in a minute.

#2. Try to understand your limitations in doing the job.
In my case, my limitation was that I was slower than other people in
reading things, and my job puts me in front of a computer monitor or
reading technical material most of the day.  Since using my vision to
read is my basic problem, and because reading is fundamental to the job,
I needed to understand the inpact that my disability would have in
performing the job and competing with others.  It's one thing to realize
you're slower than others, but it's completely a different matter to
quantify and put a number on that problem.  If your boss tells you he
can't reward you because you're slower, you need to determine how much
slower you are.  In my case, I always knew reading the computer screen
or reading printed materials was slow for me, but it took me 20 years (I
guess I'm a slow learner) before I timed my son reading a book and
realized he took 2 minutes to read a printed page, while I took 6
minutes.  That meant it took me 3 times as much time to do the same
task.  Only then could I realize how much more time it took me, or how
much harder would I have to work to keep up with my normally sighted
peers.  When I realized that, I said .. "no wonder people are getting
ahead and I'm not".  It was at that time that I started looking for some
way to abandon reading print if I could.

#3. Learn alternate skills that will allow you to eliminate the
problems. Once you figure out where your problem is, learn alternate
skills so you can do the task in a different way so you can do it
faster.  Over the last two years, I learned two things that I think are
helping me go faster.  Jaws and Braille.  I did this to remove the
dependency on my vision that I have.  The Jaws is much faster to listen
to than read the print on the screen, and I believe Braille will
eventually be the same.  The thing I did this last year was to use these
two skills as much as possible, and not depend on the sight any more
than I had to.  The boss said he thought I was going a bit faster too.
This is something you're going to have to figure out yourself, although
you might also be able to go to a rehab counselor and see what alternate
skills they can suggest.  As far as being blind, there's been enough
experience to know that Braille and Jaws are two good things to
investigate.  Ultimately though, doing this is up to you.  Don't depend
on others to tell you what to do, because they'll just give you some
platitude like "just do your best", or they don't know, or they don't
care.

#4. Prepare to work harder and perhaps more than 40 hours per week. Your
goal here is to complete tasks in the same time as a normally sighted
person, so that your boss can't hold your disability against you.  If
you know how long the boss will give you to finish the task, and you
know that given the tasks, it takes you 3 times (as in my case) longer
to do the task, then you know you'll have to work more hours in a day
than a normally sighted person to complete the job in the same time as
they take. For example, if it takes 40 hours to do a job and you require
3 times as long, it will take you 120 hours to do the job.  Assuming you
work 60 hours a week, it will take you 2 weeks to complete the task.
You then see why I said to learn alternate skills, because these skills
will allow you to do things faster, which means it will minimize the
extra time it takes you to do the task.  This means if you do have to
work extra hours, you won't have to work any more extra hours than are
necessary.  This is also a good reason to truly like what you're doing.
It will make working extra hours less burdensome.  The bottom line is
that if you have a disability, you should expect that the disability
will mean you're going to have to work harder, or more time per week, to
compete with normally sighted people.

#5. Complete tasks by the schedule
Do what it takes, work more hours per day, whatever, so you can complete
the task by the scheduled target date.   If you don't, your boss who is
responsible for the task looks bad, and so will you.  If you do require
more time to do the task, and you have learned how much longer it will
take, and your boss will agree to give you that much time, then that
will be good.  Make sure you ask for as much time as you need so the
boss knows what it will take you, then complete the job in the time you
promised.  Doing this, this last year, was one thing the boss said
really helped me.  This of course depends on the fact that you know how
the disability will impact the time your require, and the fact that the
boss gives you that much time.  If not, then you ask him when he wants
the task done, and then figure out how many more hours you'll have to
work each day to work your number of hours in the allotted time he gives
you.

#6. Look for opportunities to make things better.
If you see a problem in a process, and you can suggest a better way, and
then do it, the bosses will realize you have the company's interest in
mind.  Also, if you can make the process more efficient, the boss will
realize that less time spent doing the task will mean more work done and
will eventually mean money to them.  You may not be in a job where you
can do this, but if you are, try to take advantage of this.  In my case,
I saw that a couple of processes I worked on could be made better if we
changed the way they were done.  I approached the boss and told him, and
he said to go ahead.  I finished these as promised, on time.

#7. Do things without being asked.
On some of the items in #6, I saw the problem, fixed it (sometimes
working on my own off hours) and then presented it to the boss.  I
explained why I made the change, and how it would improve things if we
changed the process.  He said I was thinking of the company while still
getting my other work done.

#8. Document what you do
You need to be able to prove at the end of the year what you did, and
how you improved things, or how you made money for the company.
Identify those things you did outside of work, the extra things.  Make
yourself look good.

#8. Money Talks!!
In my work last year, I found a couple of items that by doing, I saved
the company over $1,000,000.  Not to bore you with details, I saw where
the company could regain about $1,400,000 if they simply did one thing.
They liked it, I told them about it, they regained money they didn't
know about. I was the hero.  Believe me, money talks.  Not only can you
talk about how you can get more money in, but you can look into
minimizing the outlay of cash in the first place.  And after all, what
is a company in business for?  The obvious answer is to make money.  A
relative I know who worked for the same company I do told me a copule of
years ago... "It's always been about money.  The person that can make
money for the company is the valuable one.  The person that just does
their job and does nothing else can be replaced.".  I asked my boss
about this after my review and he said, "That will always be true...
that was good advice.  Just keep it up and things should go a lot better
for you , just like this year."

-------------- next part --------------
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From:
Kavulak, Elaine
Sent:
Wednesday, February 07, 2007 8:54 AM
To:
Altman, Jeff; Bartling, Becky; Barton, Renee; Brandt, Jan; Brown, Bill; Brown, Kathy; Bruegman, Sherrie; Buresh, Amy; Buresh, Betty; Buresh, Shane; Carlow, Connie; Coffman, Nancy; Coleman, Kelly; Daly, Connie; Davis, Mary; Deaton, Robert; Djernes, Shawn; Ervin, Glenn; Flearl, Nancy; Floyd, Fatos; Green, Mitch; Harris, Terry; Hill, Daniel; Hoff, Angela; Husseini, Sahar; Jesse, Deanna; Johnston-Rauterkus, Denise; Juarez, James; Kavulak, Elaine; Laursen, Candace; Livingston, Cheryl; Mackey, Larry; Newman, Robert; Peery, Valerie; Poff, Cheryl; Rains, Mike; Richey, Jeremy; Robinson, David; Rodriquez, Josephine; Roos, Larry; Schmitt, John; Schopen, Nicole; Servan, Carlos; Shankland, Robert; Strunk, Randi; VanZandt, Pearl; Ward, Donald; Wilmott, Dorothy; Wurtz, Jean; Zimmer, Cindy
Subject:
Wise words
This is an e-mail I received from a former client.  He said that I could share it with everyone and that he did not mind if it was used for seminar material.
From:
Mike Jolls [mailto:majolls at cox.net]
Sent:
Tuesday, February 06, 2007 8:46 PM
To:
Kavulak, Elaine
Subject:
RE: Phone call
Elaine

..........

As far as getting over to see
Fatos
, 
. . . . 

I don&#8217;t mind speaking, and in fact, I would love to talk to some people and try to motivate them so they can see some of the same benefits
I&#8217;ve
experienced
.

Regarding the promotion, thanks for the congratulations.

You&#8217;ll recall that I was very down about how the railroad was treating me, getting raises, promotions, etc&#8230;

This last year, I tried a new approach, and it worked.

Since I finally found an approach that worked, I&#8217;d like to share this with other blind people.

I get the real impression that being in the workforce for blind
peple
is difficult because of preconceived ideas that normally sighted people have.

I believe these ideas are so important that they need to be part of the training a blind person receives.

It&#8217;s not good enough to just provide the skills to allow him or her to do the job, but ideas should be given to the blind person to tell him how to look at the job, what types of things to do, so that he or she can become valuable, and so that the company will not treat him as a second class citizen.

Anyway, here are the ideas that worked for me.

If you think they have merit, let me know.

Tips for blind people in the workforce

#1. Pick a job you genuinely enjoy and can do
Obviously, this didn't apply to me this year because I was already in the job.

However if you're entering the workforce, select a career in something that you can do despite your disability and one that turns you on.

You'll see why in a minute.

#2. Try to understand your limitations in doing the job.
In my case, my limitation was that I was slower than other people in reading things, and my job puts me in front of a computer monitor or reading technical material most of the day.

Since using my vision to read is my basic problem, and because reading is fundamental to the job, I needed to understand the
inpact
that my disability would have in performing the job and competing with others.

It's one thing to realize you're slower than others, but it's completely a different matter to quantify and put a number on that problem.

If your boss tells you he can't reward you because you're slower, you need to determine how much slower you are.

In my case, I always knew reading the computer screen or reading printed materials was slow for me, but it took me 20 years (I guess I'm a slow learner) before I timed my son reading a book and realized he took 2 minutes to read a printed page, while I took 6 minutes.

That meant it took me 3 times as much time to do the same task.

Only then could I realize how much more time it took me, or how much harder would I have to work to keep up with my normally sighted peers.

When I realized that, I said .. "no wonder people are getting ahead and I'm not".

It was at that time that I started looking for some way to abandon reading print if I could.

#3. Learn alternate skills that will allow you to eliminate the problems. Once you figure out where your problem is, learn alternate skills so you can do the task in a different way so you can do it faster.

Over the last two years, I learned two things that I think are helping me go faster.

Jaws and Braille.

I did this to remove the dependency on my vision that I have.

The Jaws is much faster to listen to than read the print on the screen, and I believe Braille will eventually be the same.

The thing I did this last year was to use these two skills as much as possible, and not depend on the sight any more than I had to.

The boss said he thought I was going a bit faster too.

This is something you're going to have to figure out yourself, although you might also be able to go to a rehab counselor and see what alternate skills they can suggest.

As far as being blind, there's been enough experience to know that Braille and Jaws are two good things to investigate.

Ultimately though, doing this is up to you.

Don't depend on others to tell you what to do, because they'll just give you some platitude like "just do your best", or they don't know, or they don't care.

#4. Prepare to work harder and perhaps more than 40 hours per week. Your goal here is to complete tasks in the same time as a normally sighted person, so that your boss can't hold your disability against you.

If you know how long the boss will give you to finish the task, and you know that given the tasks, it takes you 3 times (as in my case) longer to do the task, then you know you'll have to work more hours in a day than a normally sighted person to complete the job in the same time as they take. For example, if it takes 40 hours to do a job and you require 3 times as long, it will take you 120 hours to do the job.

Assuming you work 60 hours a week, it will take you 2 weeks to complete the task.

You then see why I said to learn alternate skills, because these skills will allow you to do things faster, which means it will minimize the extra time it takes you to do the task.

This means if you do have to work extra hours, you won't have to work any more extra hours than are necessary.

This is also a good reason to truly like what you're doing.

It will make working extra hours less burdensome.

The bottom line is that if you have a disability, you should expect that the disability will mean you're going to have to work harder, or more time per week, to compete with normally sighted people.

#5. Complete tasks by the schedule
Do what it takes, work more hours per day, whatever, so you can complete the task by the scheduled target date.

If you don't, your boss who is responsible for the task looks bad, and so will you.

If you do require more time to do the task, and you have learned how much longer it will take, and your boss will agree to give you that much time, then that will be good.

Make sure you ask for as much time as you need so the boss knows what it will take you, then complete the job in the time you promised.

Doing this, this last year, was one thing the boss said really helped me.

This of course depends on the fact that you know how the disability will impact the time your require, and the fact that the boss gives you that much time.

If not, then you ask him when he wants the task done, and then figure out how many more hours you'll have to work each day to work your number of hours in the allotted time he gives you.

#6. Look for opportunities to make things better.
If you see a problem in a process, and you can suggest a better way, and then do it, the bosses will realize you have the company's interest in mind.

Also, if you can make the process more efficient, the boss will realize that less time spent doing the task will mean more work done and will eventually mean money to them.

You may not be in a job where you can do this, but if you are, try to take advantage of this.

In my case, I saw that a couple of processes I worked on could be made better if we changed the way they were done.

I approached the boss and told him, and he said to go ahead.

I finished these as promised, on time.

#7. Do things without being asked.
On some of the items in #6, I saw the problem, fixed it (sometimes working on my own off hours) and then presented it to the boss.

I explained why I made the change, and how it would improve things if we changed the process.

He said I was thinking of the company while still getting my other work done.

#8. Document what you do
You need to be able to prove at the end of the year what you did, and how you improved things, or how you made money for the company.

Identify those things you did outside of work, the extra things.

Make yourself look good.

#8. Money Talks!!
In my work last year, I found a couple of items that by doing, I saved the company over $1,000,000.

Not to bore you with details, I saw where the company could regain about $1,400,000 if they simply did one thing.

They liked it, I told them about it, they regained money they didn't know about. I was the hero.

Believe me, money talks.

Not only can you talk about how you can get more money in, but you can look into minimizing the outlay of cash in the first place.

And after all, what is a company in business for?

The obvious answer is to make money.

A relative I know who worked for the same company I do told me a
copule
of years ago... "It's always been about money.

The person that can make money for the company is the valuable one.

The person that just does their job and does nothing else can be replaced.".

I asked my boss about this after my review and he said, "That will always be true... that was good advice.

Just keep it up and things should go a lot better for you , just like this year."