| Most of you graduating today will be
employees all your working life, working for somebody else and for a paycheck.
And so will most, {{U}}(21) {{/U}}not all, of the thousands of other
young Americans graduating this year in all the other schools and colleges
across the country. {{U}} (22) {{/U}}has become a society of employees. A hundred years or so ago only one{{U}} (23) {{/U}}every five Americans all work was employed, i.e. , worked for somebody else. Today only 20% of Americans are not employed but working for themselves. And{{U}} (24) {{/U}}fifty years ago "being employed" meant{{U}} (25) {{/U}}as a factory laborer or as a farm hand, the employee of today is increasingly a middle-class person with a{{U}} (26) {{/U}}formal education, holding a professional or management job requiring{{U}} (27) {{/U}}and technical skills. {{U}}(28) {{/U}}, two things have characterized American society during these last fifty years: the middle and upper classes have become employees; and middle-class and{{U}} (29) {{/U}}employees have been the fastest growing groups in our working population-growing so fast that the industrial worker, that{{U}} (30) {{/U}}child of the Industrial Revolution, has been losing in numerical importance{{U}} (31) {{/U}}the expansion of industrial production. This is one of the most profound social changes any country{{U}} (32) {{/U}}. It is, however, a perhaps{{U}} (33) {{/U}}greater change for the individual young man{{U}} (34) {{/U}}to start. Whatever he does, in all{{U}} (35) {{/U}}, he will do it as an employee; wherever he aims, he Will have to try to reach it{{U}} (36) {{/U}}being an employee. As an employee you work with and through other people. This means that your success as an employee will{{U}} (37) {{/U}}on your ability to communicate with people and to present your own thoughts and ideas to them{{U}} (38) {{/U}}they will both understand what you are driving{{U}} (39) {{/U}}and be persuaded. The letter, the report or memorandum (记录) the{{U}} (40) {{/U}}spoken "presentation" to a committee are basic tools of the employee. |