Kelly wrote:
(b)is probably primary. I once asked my ex-fiance, a delivery truck driver, why he worked so damn hard. He confided that he hoped that maybe someday someone on his route would offer him a better job or recommend him to someone else.
The fast food worker friend I mentioned? Her daughter got an after school job in a law office. She jokingly said, "Hey, maybe he'll see how great you are and take an interest. Pay your college tuition or something." It was a joke, but I think it was a serious hope/wish. -----------
This startegy may not pay off for many, but in my experience it does work for some:
When my sister was 12, she got a babysitting job for a woman who ran an educational supply store. The woman liked her so much that she hired her to work part-time in the store until my sister went to college, and she also paid most of the tuition so my sister could go to one of the most exclusive private girl's schools in L.A. That's not shabby.
In the hi-tech company for which I work, the young man who worked in the mail room was visibly very competent and articulate, after a few months, my manager asked him whether he'd be interested in a technical writing job. This would have meant tripling his pay. He declined; he was planning to get a teaching job.
I've had a few managers who recognized the quality of my work and who bent over backwards to give me every kind of raise/reward possible -- sometimes off the books, like long (unofficial) vacations or letting me write my dissertation on the job. But most managers were quite happy to rip me off for everything they could and give nothing in return.
I'd say it's important to know who to show your best side to--not in terms of who they are on the food chain, but in terms of what kind of people they are -- character. Sometimes the rewards aren't immediate, but like, if you lose your job you can call half a dozen people for leads to other stuff and they will come through.
Joanna