Susan’s Life Lesson No. 2

You have a right to ask for what you want.

You may not get it, but you have a right to ask.

My son took a summer job with the understanding that he would work 20 hours/week.  This would allow him to enroll in summer school at the same time.  At first everything went fine.  Then some of the staff got sick.  There were other staff who would have been happy to increase their hours, but the management didn’t want to pay overtime.  So instead, they increased my son to 40 hours/week.  After two exhausting weeks, he finally spoke up.  But instead of saying, “I would like to work 20 hours/week,” he said, “If it’s all right, I would prefer to work not more than 30 hours/week.”  Sure enough, they gave him 30 hours/week.

I told him “Here’s a lesson I have learned from experience.  You have a right to ask for what you want.  You may not get it, but you have a right to ask.  If you don’t ask, how is anyone supposed to know what you want?  You should never feel awkward about asking for what you want.”