Let them go….
One day a father and son walked into my office unannounced. The son was looking for a job and so his father had accompanied him to the job search. So I asked the father to sit, while the son stood (I only had one seat). After the father had finished explaining to me the ‘issue’, I turned to the son and asked him how old he was. He was 26, actually, it is the father who responded to this question.
What upset me so much about this incident was the fact that the son sat there comfortably as his father responded to each and every question I asked. I eventually had to ask the father to leave while I continued the conversation with this guy. I never hired him in the end for two reasons; he was not qualified for the position he was seeking and secondly, I felt he needed time to grow up. He was still ‘too young’ to get into the murky world of employment. How is it possible that a serious 26yr old man can allow their father accompany them to an interview and let them do all the talking when he was not deaf or dumb? What will he do if he gets into trouble at work? Will his father come to speak for him or rescue him?
I believe that any man or woman above the legal age of 18yrs old should be able to express themselves properly and as such, should be able to step into any organization and explain what their problem or desire is. One of the things hurting us in Kenya is that we believe that in order to get employed, we need someone to speak for us, to connect us to the hiring person. There is nothing wrong with referrals, however, when you get to interview level, atleast prove yourself, prove to them that you are qualified.
To the parents, it’s important to emphasize to your children that life is rough and that’s the truth, whether they choose to believe it or not. Handling your children like eggs is not helping them and that’s because what you have achieved now has taken you years to build. They too need to build their own and so they will have to weather all those storms as they move up the ladder. Stop accompanying your children for interviews, it is not group work. Let your children grow by themselves, and pray for them while at it.
Intresting piece
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