Need a job? Try improving your 'soft skills'
Published May 4, 2002

Truth be told, a bunch of folks would love to sit around with a work-related injury for two years if they could still collect a paycheck.

That's how it was when Michael Buggs fell down on the job. The man hurt his back. But the checks kept coming. And he kept cashing them.

Sounds like a sweet deal.

"It was," Buggs told me, "until I got the last one."

He had to find a job.

It's why some of you read the classifieds first today. The unemployment rate was 5 percent in metro Orlando in March. That was a tad more than the 4.9 percent state average. Nationally, according to numbers released Friday, it's 6 percent.

Is this you? Have you worked the mess out of the classifieds, drawing circles around jobs that look appealing? Maybe you've applied for some.

Nobody has called you back, though.

"Perhaps the reason is they lack the soft skills to find and keep a meaningful career-path opportunity," said Marc Stanakis, executive director of The Jobs Partnership of Florida.

Soft skills?

"It's the work ethic," Stanakis said. "It's the punctuality and integrity and communication and teamwork."

Oh. That.

"It's the things employers expect employees to show up to work with."

Man, that's basic stuff!

"You're making an assumption there, John," Stanakis said.

"We've created a generation that wants something now," said Dennis Barrier, vice president of human resources at Wiginton Corp., a fire-sprinkler company in Lake Mary. People think they're owed something without working for it, he said.

Wiginton has benefited from workers who completed the 12-week course at Jobs Partnership. It's a faith-based program where churches and businesses come together to build people into good workers.

The Bible is the textbook. Local pastors are the teachers. And the students are Jobs Partnership graduates such as Orlando's Michael Buggs.

"Many days I wanted to quit, but I hung in there," said Buggs, 45.

He found work at the Orange County Sheriff's Office. He answers phones and does some data entry in the evidence department. On the job nearly two years, he's stable.

"He's an asset," said Ramiro Nunez, Buggs' boss.

The classes helped, as they did for the 189 who have graduated from the program since 1999. Stanakis said 172 landed jobs. The other 17 are getting more training at tech schools.

Soft skills, eh? I mean, it's one thing to have tangible abilities. But if you can't get along with folks and can't give your boss an honest day's work, then who'll hire you? If you have a job, who'll keep you?

"God is your ultimate boss," said Buggs, who told me he's not really a big-time church guy. "But you know you're working for your employer down here. And you know that for God you're going to do your all and put out your best. So, therefore, your employer is going to be pleased."

Amen to that. And amen for this man's humility. I asked what kind of worker he was before the program:

"Above-average," he said.

And now?

"I rate myself above above-average," said Buggs, still willing to learn.

He's teachable.

The man has soft skills.

You can contact Marc Stanakis at 407-235-1522.
John McCann can be reached at 386-851-7925 - jmccann@orlandosentinel.com.
Copyright © 2002, Orlando Sentinel

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