by Rob Negrete

Created on: February 20, 2009   Last Updated: March 11, 2009

The public perception of any job starts with employees performing the job. How each employee behaves and appears tells an onlooker a lot about who they are. As an employee, you are representing the company; you carry the company's image whenever you are viewed as an employee.

Maybe you hired some movers when you last moved. Maybe you offered them a beer. Maybe you offended them when you did that. Do you think it is a good idea to give alcohol to the people you are trusting to transport your belongings unharmed? Do you think they are a bunch of drunks who work for beer? These people just became victims of someone else's ignorance. Movers have a tough job to do. Just because they generally don't have a neat, pressed uniform does not mean they take their work any less serious than anyone else. Most people don't realize what they must do to ensure that your property doesn't get damaged.

People generally see them as uneducated, unintelligent grunts who do manual labor. The reason for this is mostly because of appearance. When it comes to that kind of work, or any other "dirty" job, there is no way to clear up that perception. There are some movers who are careless and sloppy. This does not mean that all movers are that person. That goes for any profession.

The human mind likes familiarity. When we see someone behave a certain way, we expect everyone else with similarities to that person to be the same way. We see people who are dirty and sweaty and we think less of them. The only way to change this is to actually be in that line of work.

There are instances, of course where you may have a certain viewpoint on a certain "class" of workers that changes. Most of the time, it takes an exceptional individual to change someone else's view on that profession.

Some people don't like police officers. They don't like them until they need a police officer's help. When someone comes home to find their home has been broken into, they call the police immediately. They are glad to see a cop that night. When someone is lost in a city where they have never been before, who do they always ask for directions? A cop.

In some cases, employees of certain professions are looked at in a certain way because of the nature of their job. In other cases, it takes a few individuals to give someone a bad experience to change their view. Sometimes it takes an exceptionally courteous and intelligent person to turn them around. The only way to change anything is to change ourselves first.

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