The Finish Line*

The Finish Line

The rocking chair money has arrived.

While I basically left the Wage Slave Plantation in 2008, I still had to eke out an existence. I did it with no State help, refusing CA Unemployment Benefits even when I was able to collect. Some might question that decision, but I'm living an independent life and not a Ward of the State.

I qualified for those benefits by working a few payroll jobs out of the union hall. When the local boys can't fill the job requests they filter down to likes of me, "the traveler", even though I have lived in the jurisdiction for 8 years. I got several jobs this way and milked them for all I could. These contractors didn't get much work out of me and I can proudly say I ended my electrical payroll career getting fired on a double time Sunday in the middle of the day.

I worked off my truck being helpful to my customers. Older, likable folks I hardly charged for my services, others I charged a lot because of their bad attitude. It was a word of mouth, business card promoted type of work, sometimes it rained jobs but I also enjoyed the droughts. Always paid my taxes like my fellow citizens Amazon, Google and Exxon do. I'm my own worse Boss, but I survived.

As a young man starting in 1979, I joined a group that was full of life. We worked hard, drank hard, played hard. We built buildings, big ones. The apprenticeship wasn't easy. The trades are difficult, the people are difficult, and electricity is dangerous. So are ironworkers dropping their spud wrenches. There were a lot of traditions I was supposed to go along with and I found that difficult, like showing up for work on time. Once the journeyman's card arrived, I felt as if I could go anywhere and do anything electrical to earn a living - and I did. From nuclear power plants to installing data systems, I did it all. Paying off three mortgages, raising 3 children, putting them through college, our family benefited. I carried a cockiness and confidence, down right arrogance sometimes, everywhere I went. We all did, the trades do that to you. You are as good as your last day of work, separation and rejection are an integral part of the business. Being nice wasn't a job requirement, but doing your job was.

I went through the class of the first woman taking an apprenticeship. A nice person, I bet she had a fine career, I'm sure it was tough in a lot of ways. Affirmative Action paralleled my whole working life. I learned to take second shift calls for minority contractors so we could fix the work of the day shift at a better rate of pay. I learned to understand that an address in the city or a lack of penis or a skin color allowed one to step ahead of me in line waiting for a job that's what my white privilege got me. Being 'union' finally meant Hooray For Me. The Federal government made that happen. No disrespect to many women in our local but the joke was, "she knew EEOC law, sexual harassment law, workers compensation law but she didn't know Ohm's Law."

Some of the characters I was in daily interactions with defined my attitudes about work and life. I think of them most fondly, us working and battling shoulder to shoulder for the rank and file in internal local struggles, and enjoy the occasional phone call from a long ago friend. My heart does nosedive when I see one of their names on the 'Less Donkeys, More Hay' memorial list the local puts out monthly.

After 25 years in construction, I thought it time to pick up a maintenance gig and glide out gracefully from the hard work world. Was I ever wrong. I was hired at a major university and thought I had gone to heaven. Change light bulbs and ballasts, push my cart around surrounded by co-eds, an easier experience I couldn't find. Parachuting into a gang of 15-25 year veterans, forever the 'new guy' and getting played on long time feuds and personal hatreds, it was a toxic place to work. I had no experience with office politics short of punching someone in the nose. I also had to deal with a time clock which I never had to before. That piece of of workplace life, so familiar to some, was a psychological hammer used against all of us. I really missed my independence.

I lasted exactly three years and left with my hair on fire. I lost my confidence, my ability to see anything without anger, my love of my fellow workingman. It was a low point in my life. To be fair to those miserables I left behind, my personal life was filled with alcohol and emotional abuse. I am responsible for my words and actions, nothing happens in a vacuum, but they were some rotten sonsofbitches, mostly. Some of the worst people I ever worked with and I worked with some real assholes. So began the Escaped Wage Slave blog.

CAUTION: ADVICE

Do what you love and love what you do. Never put up with jerks, put-downs, or authority insecurities. Learn what you need and practice it for yourself. Don't pretend to 'love your job' when you don't. Work is joy, if it isn't, make it joyful. There are a lot of people out there that need your help. If your job is to make someone else a lot of money, let them do the work. Helping others is your job.

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The Invisible Rainbow*

https://escapedwageslave.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-invisible-rainbow.html

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Professor Doom

http://professorconfess.blogspot.com/

8 Reasons Not To Go To University

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/electrician-shortage-six-figure-salary-job

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David Yamada

How we bash every vocation

“Oh those lawyers…”

“Oh those CEOs…”

“Oh those contractors…”

“Oh those politicians…”

“Oh those doctors…”

“Oh those pro athletes…”

“Oh those cab drivers…”

“Oh those accountants”

“Oh those bureaucrats…”

“Oh those public schoolteachers…”

“Oh those sales clerks…”

“Oh those reporters…”

“Oh those social workers…”

“Oh those investment bankers…”

Have you thought about how many vocations are subjected to easy put downs starting with “Oh those…,” followed by a story? I have done so myself, and I can’t promise that I won’t do it again. (This, coming from the lips of a lawyer!)

So what?

I’m not 100 percent certain what the “takeaway” points are from this, but let me give it a shot:

First, if a vocation has a poor reputation, there often are elements of truth behind it. (Believe me, I get it when people complain about the legal profession.)

Second, regardless of whether the negative characterizations are fair or unfair, their prevalence is making us very cynical toward our fellow workers. And a lot of us may be tossing these bricks from some pretty big picture windows.

Finally, if we want to improve the world of work and the products and services we all provide, then we need to ask hard questions of ourselves, our vocations, and our attitudes. 

They Are Working For You

Have The Decency Not To Die At Work:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Marketing-Serotonin-Defici-by-Dr-Stuart-Jeanne-B-100713-513.html

However most animal testing of new antidepressants is based on the "learned helplessness" model and involves submitting mice and rats to traumatic stress levels of stress. In the most common experiment, mice are dropped into a large vat of water and the researcher times how long they keep swimming before they give up. After taking a dose of Prozac, they swim longer before giving up.

I'm Just Saying...*

"How would you work with rude people?"

I was actually asked that in a job interview once. I answered, "I'd kill them with kindness." They seemed to like the response because I got the job. I realize now they were protecting their payroll jerks.

If I ever got that question again, I'd answer, "I wouldn't. I'm not working in a hostile workplace. I suppose I'd give the person a chance, everyone has a bad day, but the second time I'd make a written report to HR, the steward, whoever, and not deal with him (and it's always a him it seems) or her again. I will do all in my power to be respectful and kind to my coworkers. I demand the same."

I wouldn't get the job.

Employers have too much time invested in their jerky workforce. It's just too easy to control a "team" when all are bickering and lashing out at each other. A group respectful of each others talents and limitations working together doesn't need management. The Boss doesn't care about your morale. He (and its almost always a he) would rather see you beholden and miserable. Then you jump when snapped at. That's a good worker. It's even better when the jerky workers police themselves.

When someone is complaining about not being appreciated, it's not about being appreciated. Listen, the person isn't liking the process of creativity. Everything is difficult getting to the final product. There is no cooperation, no helpfulness, no friendliness in the drudgery towards the final product. Nothing to lift your spirit to get through another day. People and their rotten attitudes and petty power plays aren't worth it. That goes for all inter-personal relationships.

This rotten system demands miserable people to man its stations. To groom new miserable people to replace them with a new turbo-charged misery. This gives the blamers at the top all the excuses they need to secure their jobs. Happiness, contentment and satisfaction is the last thing wanted as it is unmanageable, as you can't talk sense to young lovers. Your job demands misery and internalized the better. Die at your desk, they will say good things about you.

I hear from everyone I meet how they hate their jobs, then the next sentence is justification on how they have to put up with "the bullshit". These conflicting emotions is what is leading to unwanted stress, heart attacks, strokes, bad life style choices all leading to bad health. First work gets you sick, now the modern employer doesn't even feel a need to offer the care to fix you. People are lined around the block to receive the misery offered and they are so happy to get it.

Striving for a better world begins in your own mind; being brutally honest with yourself and the conditions around you, your internal emotions and appraisal of the people you are with. I suppose working through the problems is possible to change the people around you with your kindness, but how much of a supply do you have when your kindness is considered a weakness to be taken advantage of? Getting off on the right foot in your relationships is what drives the experience and keeping the high ground. It is difficult not be dragged into the muck.

Daily Meditation*

I do have the power to use hurtful words. I react to strongly and spontaneously. Thinking things through gets lost in the perception of an attack on me. Being clearheaded is a moment by moment effort. It's too easy to lash out. I apologize to everyone I have hurt with my words, and there has been many in recent times. In so many ways I see myself making progress in emotional development, then fall back into the old patterns of addled thinking. I'm learning, I'm striving for a peaceful existence. I let little things bother me to the point of pain and rage. I think I'm monitoring it, I have to believe these instances are getting fewer and farther between. I do know my nature isn't to hurt those around me. I do have a goal to be a better person. Why are we put on earth - to be a better person or to be a better worker? So much of our better nature is lost on the job site. How to hold your head high and have your spirit secure in the arena of office politics takes training in emotional intelligence. I'm a late, but willing, learner.