Ways to Ward off the One: Cost Benefit Analysis

You come in for a lunch interview and sit across from a fellow interviewing you for a job. He tells you all the funny stories about the company, while glossing over the important details. From his charismatic presentation, he makes it sound like a fun place to work, but that's not why you would take a job. You have needs that this position is supposed to fill.

"So how much does it pay?" you ask.

He becomes surly as though you should be thankful for the honor to work for him, "it doesn't pay. You'll be expected to continue working to support yourself, and of course, the company."

"What is the job?" You ask skeptically, but in hope that maybe the position is still moving in the direction that you want to go with your life. He details how you will be expected to cook, clean, do the accounting, taxi, nurse him when he's sick, and put your life and health at risk to produce their product. You speak to other people who have worked for this company and they say how it sounded great until you started working for them and if you complained, they would retract all your benefits.

How likely would you be to take this job? Be honest, you probably would not want it.

Say you are looking at two houses. One is a fixer upper that will drain all your available resources, and the other is ready to live in, efficient, and takes care of itself. Which one would you choose?

The fact of the matter is, relationships are work on both sides. The work doesn't stop after you get the job, it starts after you get it and it requires constant maintenance. If you want to have a happy relationship, there has to be something in it for both of you. There has to be some sort of emotional compensation for the efforts contributing to the partnership that the two of you form. Relationships are an investment that both parties expect to see some return on and have a certain amount of protection. This is why marriage was originally considered a contract, but more on that later...