Employment During Downturn

       While the recession, or downturn negatively affected millions of people nation wide, many people maintained, or flourished in these bad times. I have three examples that play out different scenarios during the recession, and I feel as if they all led to good things in the present. It was extremely hard to find a job that met the requirements that many employees were looking for during this period. The economy and job market was so unstable and unpredictable that a safe and stable job was what everyone was looking for. With that being the case, there was so much demand for jobs that positions became quite difficult to find.
       One of my good friends dads was laid off during the recession, and it changed the entire dynamic of their family. The house that I used to enjoy to go to became a somewhat depressing place to be. There were arguments quite frequently, and everyone was just moody when I was there. I talked to my parents about what was going on there, and they told me that he got laid off, and that their family was having a really tough time dealing with the situation at hand. It is understandable, because he had a great job for years and years, but the company just had to make cuts and let him go. Everything in life has some relation to money, so all of their decisions became a little bit harder, especially because this family had two kids in college at the time. It becomes hard because this family was so comfortable for the entire time that I have known them, and all of a sudden student loans become a realistic decision, which is something that I know my friends dad did not want to force on his kids. It's tough to see someone close affected by something like this, because it wasn't his fault, and he had no say in the matter. After a couple of years of struggle, he finally found a stable job, and the family that I once knew and loved, started to bounce back from their downturn.
       The second scenario that I want to touch on is the idea of maintaining some stable job during this recession. My father did just that, but was stressed out and annoyed with all of the adjustments that he had to deal with. He had a group of workers who worked underneath him in various situations, and he was advised by his boss to let some of them go. So my dad had to let go guys that he had become very close with over time, and he had to keep the ones that produced the best work. Needless to say, firing one of your friends and coworkers is a tough thing to do, and the stress of this situation led to my father having a heart attack. My dad survived the attack and had a procedure to unclog over stressed arteries. While my father pushed through the bad time and maintained his pay, while supporting our family, he pushed back his emotions. Just recently, he quit his job with his previous employer, and took a job with a different employer, because he was sick of the stresses that came with his old job. Not only is his new job better, but it is also closer to where we live, so the bad situation that he once had to deal with became blessing in disguise.
       The third scenario deals with the idea of owning your own business during a recession. My best friend's dad owns his own investment firm in Chicago, and he didn't take hit at all over this period. I believe this has to do with the close ties that his company forms with all of their clients and partners. The company literally feels like a family, and the recession did little to take anything away from that feeling. I do not know too much about their financial maneuvers and such, I do know that my friend's dad has been doing quite well, and it seems as if the recession was a non factor for him.

Incentives

       There incentives all over the place when it comes to making personal life decisions, but one of my personal experiences that I have with incentives relates to one of my former jobs when I was younger. From age thirteen until age eighteen, all of my personal money came from refereeing soccer games. A first year referee in the area that I live in gets paid around twelve dollars for a "house" recreational league match. There is incentive to continue your refereeing career past year one to gain the option of refereeing travel matches (these matches paid eighteen dollars, and were only ten minutes longer than the house matches). The next incentive was the three year pay increase. After being a referee for three years you become a senior referee, which allows you to become a head referee, rather than just a sideline referee. This bump up in position also came with a bump in pay, so a house match paid twenty dollars, and a travel match paid twenty five. Basically, incentives of money or salary made it much easier to continue working as a referee rather than finding another job. The other incentive that this situation relates to is the idea that the incentive to climb the "job ladder" within a company can really affect performance.
       When discussing incentives in regards to school, the type of class that I think of would be a large lecture course that does not monitor attendance. Many students (inlcuding myself) can be lazy from time to time, so a class that does not monitor attendance could lead to absences from class. Right there, the incentive to sleep, rather than listen to a lecture might cause you to miss class on a repeated basis. What I have found out is that these types of classes are really not beneficial to students who skip class because the whole process of the class is thrown out. What I mean by that is students are supposed to attend lecture, listen, process, and attempt to comprehend what the professor speaks about. If as a student you decide to miss class, you miss out on this process, and will likely attempt to cram before tests and get by like that. This might lead to a worse grade than you could have possibly received had you attended lecture more often. So in essence, a student who has no reason to attend class, may not. If this student decides not to attend class on a regular basis, he/she might struggle. Incentives are important in keeping people in check, or doing what they are supposed to do. In this case some sort of monitoring of attendance would lead to an incentive for students to attend lecture, which in turn would lead to better grades (incentives guarantee performance).
       When it comes to school and risk aversion, I think getting things done early reduces risk for me as a student. I can procrastinate from time to time, but I have made a concious effort to get homework and studying done early, rather than waiting until the last minute to do so. My performance usually suffers when I wait until the last minute to get things done, so I have incentive to avoid risk and uncertainty by taking care of business early. Another example that I can think of where I attempt to avoid uncertainty and risk in regards to school is when I keep up to date with class materials on a regular basis rather than having to catch up later in the semester. Cramming before tests leads to bad grades for me, and I find that by keeping up to date in my classes makes my performance better, as well as my grades.