Participate or get out. Twenty-nine unemployed men and women glance warily at each other. Sykes is talking fast, dishing out the reality of the workplace his students hope to enter. I've got a pit bull, a Rottweiler, and I will pay you good money to clean up after him. The class erupts in mumbled protests.
Chairs scrape on the basement floor as the students shrink closer to the walls.
There is no such thing as a bad job. Any job is a toehold, the Strive program teaches. So take it. Now, with states struggling to put more welfare recipients to work, the debate over attitude has been resurrected and redefined. Those that don't move half of their caseload into jobs within five years will be docked millions of dollars.