Good morning, and welcome to Sunday at Greatful Moments. Today, we’re doing something a little different. We’re starting over. Because as things happen in my life and home more times than not I start something and it gets lost.
The things my family has been going through was to important not to share as they can be #teachingmoments for families. Join me as we move forward on a series from a few weeks ago, about teens, young adults, employment, entrepreneurship, and what happens when a job doesn’t turn out the way you expected.
With everything happening the way it did I got off track, I added ideas, I lost a few pieces along the way, and before long, the series became much bigger than I ever intended but I knew that was the Lord showing me what I had to share was important.
So we’re doing what we often have to do in real life. We’re going back to the beginning. We’re revisiting the series, reorganizing it, and starting fresh. And this time, we’re giving it a new name:
When Plan A Changes: Real-Life Lessons for Teens & Young Adults. This isn’t going to be a series where we pretend we have every answer. Actually, quite the opposite. This series is being created because our family is learning some of these lessons right now.
Sometimes a young person gets a job and everything seems to be going well. They receive good reviews, get praised by their supervisors, learn the job, make friends, earn a paycheck, and start feeling like they’ve found their place.
And then something changes. Maybe they lose the job. Maybe they’re suspended. Maybe they’re waiting for an explanation. Maybe they don’t understand what happened. Maybe they receive a letter that says something they don’t understand.
Maybe someone tells them they can’t return to a workplace. Maybe they’re waiting for someone to call them and they never do. Maybe there paycheck stops while there car payment, insurance, phone bill, gas, and everything else keep going.
And suddenly, Plan A isn’t Plan A anymore.
That’s when you need to know what to do next. This Series Is About More Than Getting Another Job We’re going to talk about what happens when employment doesn’t go according to plan.
We’ll talk about asking questions. We’ll talk about keeping employment records. We’ll talk about talking to HR. We’ll talk about understanding what a termination letter actually says. We’ll talk about unemployment and what happens when your paycheck stops.
We’ll talk about applications, references, résumés, interviews, and following up. We’ll talk about accepting help from your parents without expecting your parents to do everything for you.
We’ll talk about budgeting when your income changes. We’ll talk about spending money when you don’t know when your next paycheck is coming. We’ll talk about Plan B. We’ll talk about gig work and entrepreneurship.
And we’ll talk about something that may be even more important than any of those things: Learning how to advocate for yourself. Because eventually, Mom and Dad can’t make the phone call for you.
They can’t sit in the HR office for you. They can’t fill out every application for you. They can’t answer every question for you. They can encourage you. They can help you. They can tell you what questions to ask. But eventually, you have to ask the questions.
One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned through our own experience is that walking away from a job doesn’t mean you should walk away without answers. If someone tells you that you were terminated for poor performance, you need to understand what that means.
What performance? What happened? When did it happen? Were you warned? Was there documentation? Are you eligible for rehire? Does the decision affect your ability to work somewhere else?
If someone tells you that another person made an accusation about you, you need to understand what is actually being said and what process exists for responding to it. If someone tells you that someone will call you and that call never comes, you need to follow up.
And if you’re given an opportunity to talk to HR, don’t simply say, “It’s over. I’m done.” You may never want to work there again. That’s okay. But the answers may still matter for your future.
School can teach you mathematics, history, science, English and countless other subjects. But there are also lessons that often don’t appear on a report card. How do you handle your first difficult workplace situation?
What do you do when your boss says something you don’t understand? What paperwork should you keep? What happens when your paycheck suddenly stops? How do you apply for another job?
What happens when you submit an application but leave out important information? When should you ask for help? When should you handle something yourself? How do you know whether something you’ve been told is actually true?
How do you move forward when you’re angry, embarrassed, frustrated, or simply tired of dealing with the situation? Those are real-life lessons. And those are the lessons we’re going to explore here.
This Is a learning series, not a Judgment Series because we’re also going to be careful about something. When you’re in the middle of a workplace situation, you don’t always know the whole story.
You may hear one explanation from one person and something completely different from someone else. You may have questions that nobody has answered yet. You may believe something happened one way and later discover there was another part of the story you didn’t know.
So we’re going to separate what we know, what we were told, what we don’t know, and what we still need to find out. That’s an important lesson, too. Don’t assume. Ask. Document. Follow up. Find the facts. Then decide what to do next.
So, good morning and welcome back to Greatful Moments. We’re starting again. We’re going to revisit the articles we’ve already created, identify what still needs to be written, and move forward one lesson at a time.
Some of these stories will come from our own experiences. Some will be research. Some will be practical guides. And some may begin with a question that someone in our family is trying to answer right now. Because sometimes the best way to teach a lesson is to learn it ourselves first.
If you have a teen or young adult who is working, looking for work, thinking about starting a business, or trying to figure out what comes next after a job doesn’t work out, we hope you’ll follow along.
Plan A may change. That doesn’t mean the story is over. Sometimes it simply means it’s time to make a new plan. Which is why there is a plan b and sometimes even place c or d. Just don’t give up.
What Would You Like Us to Cover? Have you ever had a young person lose a job and not know what to do next? Did they know what questions to ask? Did they know what paperwork to keep?
Or did you find yourself standing there thinking, “Okay… now what?” Tell us about your experience in the comments. You may have a lesson that another parent needs to hear. Welcome to When Plan A Changes — a new Greatful Moments teaching series.
Grateful, Thankful, Blessed.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates