He Helped His Friend Get Promoted By Getting His GED

About 15 years ago I was working at a manufacturing plant. One of the guys on my station had been working there for 4 years as a temp already, while I was hired from temp to full time in just 6 months.

I asked him why he hadn’t been moved to full time by now and he tells me it’s because he doesn’t have a diploma or GED. He has two kids at the time, and a third child on the way.

I considered scanning in my GED—you know, photoshopping it to change it to his name and photograph. I knew I could’ve made it easy for him to get the job, but I knew it would be illegal and it wouldn’t be right.

So instead, I enrolled him into night classes. God knows I had the money for it and I’m not the kind of person to blow it all on booze or expensive tech. On free days, I would help him study for his exam. It wasn’t hard—it was just high school stuff, after all—and he had the chops to get his GED. He just hadn’t had the motivation or anyone who cared about him.

Three months later, he sat for his GED exam (it was just in time) and aced it.

He took a copy of his newly minted GED certificate to HR one morning after being a temp there for ages and told them I’d helped him get to where he was. He was hired on as a full time employee within two weeks.

Working 4 years as a temp while everyone else around you keeps getting hired on full time (which gave a 3 dollar per hour raise, insurance, paid time off, sick days, paid holidays, etc) is messed up. I had to do something to help him, especially since he had two (soon to be three) children to provide for.

So I’d say I did good.

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