Tag: work

FOX 11: Katie Coombs talks “Uncommon Sense”

RENO, Nev. – Katie Coombs, host of “Uncommon Sense,” announced today that she and co-host Debbie McCarthy have joined the America Matters Radio team, broadcasting live on KCKQ-AM 1180. The show will air on Fridays from 2-4 p.m. Listeners are encouraged to call in and participate during the show.

“I’m excited to start this new journey with America Matters Media,” said Coombs. “The live format is a great way to start a conversation with our listeners and I look forward to creating a kind of “Uncommon Sense” community with all of the great people in Reno and beyond.”

“Uncommon Sense” addresses anything and everything related to families, parenting and children. Coombs and her guests discuss current events and trends and their effects on our society as a whole and our individual families. Through her show, Coombs shares her knowledge and advice with respect to today’s issues, focusing on family values and parental leadership, through the use of common sense.

“With our world moving 100 miles a minute, it’s great to have the opportunity to sit down for two hours and hash out the issues, talk about what’s really happening and how all of it effects us day-to-day,” said Coombs.
In addition to her radio show, Coombs also writes a weekly column in the Reno-Gazette Journal, is a contributing author to “Reno Moms Blog” and Reno Magazine, manages an ongoing blog, and actively engages her listeners in conversation forums through various mediums. Coombs has earned a reputation in the community for her humor on parenting, family-oriented philosophies and current events. With “Uncommon Sense,” Coombs engages her community with interesting guests that offer listeners advice and tips to help with raising a family in today’s diverse world.

Katie Coombs: Uncommon Sense: 20-somethings are entitled at work

An interesting little fact is starting to creep up for those of us in or near their 40s, and it isn’t a pleasant one. We are paying the price for the entitled 20-somethings who are in the workforce, and we have to fight not to raise our own children the same way.

As a business owner, I already have had to endure on many occasions the shortsighted thinking of the 20s crowd who takes a job and doesn’t appreciate the long-term nature of success, the importance of benefits and the concept of loyalty. It is a generation that has been raised to want it all and want it now (if you don’t believe me, watch them use their phones to solve every problem that arises). It is a generation that didn’t have to check out books from the library and has very little respect for anything that takes time to research or analyze. In the workforce, 20-somethings want the big bucks and they want them now.

The problem with this concept is that they don’t have the job skills to demand the big bucks; they only have a huge self-esteem that doesn’t fit in their desks. Those of us in our 40s have to train and retrain, and train and retrain them as they come in and out of positions, which costs us time and a little bit of sanity.

Other business owners I talk to share the same experiences, and are shocked at how often this age group is leaving good long-term career opportunities. Their resumes are full of jobs where they stayed six to 12 months at the most and in interviews, they constantly remark that they left jobs for more money. A temporary high, really. How much more money? Was it worth losing your health insurance? Was it worth losing the match on that 401(k)? Did you consider the people and their commitment to you? Did you consider the long-term upside potential that would have probably paid you way more in the long run?

In the meantime, those of hanging in our 40s have to pick up the slack for this generation. We were a generation raised before the Internet, cellphones and instant gratification. We had to check out books from the library and actually understood the Dewey Decimal System. We had to read and research thoroughly before answering questions. Our answers were based on fact and not just the opinions of others. We didn’t get ribbons for participating and nobody had a teacher who handed out a homework pass because we merely did what was expected of us. We learned that hard work and long-term planning paid off in the long run and we knew we had to work hard, for years, before we could expect the good life.

Now, we are stuck. Our careers are challenged because it is difficult to find young employees who are looking for hard work. This impacts the workplace and makes us work longer and harder hours. Our young children are being subjected to gobs of self-esteem and everyone constantly telling them how amazing they are, and they firmly believe it. They are used to instant gratification and walk around holding thousands of dollars of technology really designed to make them stupid.

The exhaustion we feel from dealing with the 20s crowd and the teenagers is starting to show. We also have parents who are getting older, and they will need our care and compassion. We aren’t the typical sandwich generation because there is no relief in sight. The next generation is not going to take care of us. We are going to have to take care of them.

How can we possibly change this? The 20s crowd is going to have to face a harsh reality. They will ultimately lose their jobs to people in their 50s who understand loyalty and hard work. We are going to have to let them fall and go back and learn the hard knocks. They will have to work hard like we all did and want for things rather than just get them.

Our younger children still can be saved from this cycle if we back up from the current system and start over. Children don’t need to have technology in their hands at all times. We need to stop them and make them build forts or go outside and run around and be social. They need to be exposed to hard work and chores so that they appreciate how things get done.

We must stop catering to them, or those of us in our 40s are ultimately going to crack under the pressure. We must focus on ourselves in healthy positive ways, and realize that our children don’t need constant extracurricular activity to be happy and healthy. We can stop this train if we admit that we are on it, and stop acting like those of us in their 40s really can carry the burden of society on our own.

Life Defined

We all believe we have stumbled upon moments in our life that define us or define the meaning of life.  We try to learn from them and often times we are humbled by them.  If we are willing to learn and grow as people, these moments shape us and help us realize what is truly important in life.   We drop the drama and silliness of our youth and become truly productive people that are reliable and trustworthy.  Our children, parents, friends and spouses can count on us when we grow from these moments.

For me, until I reached February 18, 2014, the most defining moment of my life came the day my daughter Hannah was born nine weeks premature.  I knew she was going to be born early.  I knew we both had a risk of losing our life that day.  I have never looked at life the same after holding a four pound infant in my arms that had already shown a desire to just be alive.  You can’t spend time in the ICU watching babies fight for life and not learn a lesson.  If you leave that room and ever act petty again you have missed an opportunity you will never get again.  Watching parents say goodbye to a newborn that doesn’t survive gives you depth you didn’t know you were capable of.

I never truly believed anything could touch me more than those days in the ICU.  I matured in a way that you almost don’t want to even though my daughter survived and is a thriving and healthy 10-year-old.  I never lost the message and still look at her with the same amazed look as I did watching her fight for oxygen in those first days.  I remember leaving the hospital with her after a month in the ICU and feeling like no other day could ever teach me more.  On February 18, 2014 my newest nephew was born into the world.  He carries with him a name that means so much.  His middle name is my brother’s – a man I have tremendous respect for.  He started his life over and found the love of his life and had another child at the age of 43.  No regrets.  No questions.  And he is already in love with his son.  His first name Jonathan gives him very important initials.  JK.  A man we lost to a horrible accident 2.5 years ago and is still greatly missed today.  And then there is the defining moment.  Jonathan’s grandfather, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given nine months to live almost four years ago, was able to hold his grandson.

We went and picked my Dad up at his house and had the opportunity to help him into the car and up to that nursery.  As a family, and by family I mean my mom (who is his ex-wife), my husband, my kids, my sister, my brother’s ex-wife, and all of Jonathan’s maternal side sat together and watched one generation say hello to the next in the most profound example of the circle of life.   I wasn’t just struck by the moment itself but also the people in it.  There was no hostility about divorce or lives that went in different directions.  My mom and my step-mom were there together and whatever happened between them in the past was of zero significance in the moment they welcomed new life while also painfully knowing they were saying  goodbye to the older generation.  There was no discussion of failed marriages or disputes that may have caused them.   There was just Jonathan.  And all of us.  And a moment that only the heart can capture.  A camera just tells the story frame by frame but not tear by tear.  My son and my older nephew were overcome with emotion and stood there two men not afraid to express their true feelings.  I love that they feel comfortable doing that.  They don’t know it now but that expression of emotion will define them one day as well.

As I write this, my nephew is still in the hospital waiting for his mom to go home and my dad is being visited daily by hospice.  It is a roller coaster of emotions and most of them are amazing and defining.  It strengthens everyone involved and reminds us once again what is truly precious in life.  All of the buzzing around us is just noise – simple and mostly useless noise.  The heart is what matters.  Love and hope.  Life and death.  The rest is just the minor detail that fills in the gaps between the moments that truly define your life.  My advice to my own children is to not over live in the noise but to instead wait for the opportunities to show who they really are when life calls on them to shine.

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