esrosedotblog

Labor Day is still a significant holiday for some working people.

I suppose.

When I was a kid, I was a member of a union for awhile. The Retail Clerks International Federation.

As far as I could tell, they collected our dues and that was about it.

Contracts were instituted with the food chains and wages were subject to negotiation.

Today, labor unions are still an entity but not nearly as influential as they were at that time.

Now Labor Day exists in the absence of serious union activity. It has become a time for tired political speeches and a lot of nice talk about the "working people".

I didn't stop working when I quit the union and went to college. I became a middle manager. There have been attempts to organize managers and office workers but most of the action today is pretty meek and mild. Some would say that the unions have been co-opted by management. I would say that the unions just ran out of steam.

When is the last time you heard about a national strike in this country?

Of course, liberal labor laws have helped a great deal.

I started working when I was 14. You had to have working papers. It was some kind of protection. Employers were forced to behave in specific ways for young workers who at that time were the most victimized workers of all. Not too far away from my home, little kids had worked as coal pickers. Virtual slaves.

Now, Labor Day is just a day off for those who labor. For me, it is a day without mail. And some memories.

Also a little sadness that I never got to march on a picket line. I had to use the peace movement and gay liberation as an excuse to get into the streets.

More history at First Labor Day Parade nearly had no music, no marchers

Labels: holidays, work

Teen agers do not work as much or as often than they used to.

It’s Summer, but Where Are the Teenage Workers?

There are a lot of answers to this. It is evidently not a true mystery.

It seems that, today, teens have a lot more options than I did when I was a kid and, what is more, they have other things to do with their time. Like go to summer school. I did not have summer school.

I consider my teen working experience as crucial to any success I had in life. I was able to learn a lot of things that were surprising. One thing, a surprise, is how to pace one's self and not give in to a boss' expectations.

This may seem to be a bit against the grain but it is not. How many people really work full tilt. Only the manic and the ones who cannot keep up.

A harsh judgment, I know.

I had a good time from the beginning. At Williams Drug Store I learned about sex first hand. Around the older clerks who even had some homo-action going, as well as the customers. I worked in the pharmacy and (against the law) managed the contraceptive department. I was also very naive. But later, I was able to use my experience by seeing sex as a regular thing that everyone did. Also that one didn't have to apologize for it either.

Later and for a number of years I worked for my Dad in an A&P Super Market. This helped me learn the ability to keep personal relationships out of the business. Mostly to survive the suspicion of the other workers. I dug in and did the dirty work of mopping and sorting the garbaged produce. I think that I was likable and the other kids found that I was not a snitch.

I knew better and did not want to be one anyway.

I think it amused my Dad a great deal to find that his son was involved in some dubious pastimes. When I went away to college, I came back for one summer but then I was too sophisticated and grown up to return again. Or some shit like that. I grew up. Moved away.

This is a long digression on a simple observation.

I got my working papers at 14, required at the time. I never quit working until I was retired. And I loved my working life.

The stuff I do today with the condo board and all that keeps my hand in. I am a prime employee. Which, incidentally, made me a much better boss. I was benevolent and I also knew where the best hideouts were!

Did I mention that I was an usher and curtain puller at the movies? I hung out in the projection booth, illegal as shit because of the fire hazard. The projectionist was a great guy with loads of stories.

And so on. I will stop now.

Labels: work

I just ordered new checks on-line.

The automation of it is almost hilarious.

But not quite.

It just avoids being a complete pain in the ass and I think that is because they keep improving the queuing and the voice of the fake operator. It seems as though we are getting different people each time.

Another thing is that they have key-clicking sounds as you put in your answers.

I liked this one. It made me laugh. It is arhythmic in the same way my typing is.

Another breakthrough in the robotization of America.

Also, hilariously, the image comes from an article about a guy who was in customer service and talked in a robotic voice.

This is the kind of thing I run into when sailing along the web. Little side stories that are as interesting as the one I am working on.

I laughed a lot over this one. He got into big trouble but you have to hand it to him.

Well, I do.

I understand that customer service is a hellish job and the people who do it invent all kinds of ways to make it fun.

This is one of the great lessons I learned from training middle and up managers in large corporations. People's sense of humor and the ability to laugh is one of the great antidotes to shitty work.

Look. It is work. It is not meant to be fun. But if you can bring fun to it then more power to you. To coin a phrase.

My best workshops were the ones where we laughed a lot. I mean a lot. Even at the stuff I was teaching. Even at me!

Labels: computers, humor, training, work

So, I have a new setup on my desk for the computer.

I bought the Varidesk that I wrote about below. It is working pretty well. Like any new thing it is requiring a bit of adjustment.

I also got a new chair which uses a knew pad so I really kneel to do my work. Much better for my back.

So it will be a bit awkward for awhile but I am getting the feel of it pretty well.

One thing I like is that it brings the computer to eye level. About three inches above the eyes as recommended.

The other thing is that my nearsighted glasses don't quite make the stretch but the bifocals do. I may need a new prescription, well, it is not prescribed. A new set of nearsighted glasses at the store.

I won't make any rash moves.

I can feel it in the knees after about three hours but I do not have to kneel. I can move it around. I can stand up.

The varidesk, well, varies. It can go up and down. If I want to stand, it is easy enough to raise the computer up a bit.

Labels: computer, work

The Varidesk came today.

It is very nice.

But my feet hurt.

I will have to get used to it.

The idea is to do more standing when I work at the computer.

My son in Australia got one and recommended it.

I can see why.

I worry that I sit too much but I do not want to stop using any part of my computer.

I am hoping that this is an answer to that dilemma.

Labels: work

DREAM JOBS

It has been many, many years since I had a real job. In an office or a company.

But I still dream about it.

The most usual dream, which I had today, is that I return to my first job out of college. The engineering office of the late great Acme Markets in Philadelphia. I just take over my old job which was, actually, mostly doing nothing.

I was brought in because my boss wanted an MIT guy around. I didn't know that at the time but that is my conclusion.

There were "plans" for my future in the operations wing of the company. Bakeries, canning operations, dairy.

I think that I was a chess piece being played with the other managers.

It is not important.

In the dream, it is as though I have been in exile. Some of the same people are there. The job is still as indistinct as it ever was.

I go up the elevator, down a hall and there is my desk. Untouched. I have been away for awhile. There is some inconsequential paper work. I sit and attend to it.

I am happy to be there but also feel, as I did then, that no one else knows that I am there. Or cares.

I was attached to various senior guys from time to time. I would have an occasional project of my own. I would visit plants. I did inspections of all the plants once a year because no one else wanted to do them. I loved that part. Snooping.

But, it is wearing when you have nothing to do.

I never really got an evaluation.

Towards the end, they sent me to outside training. It was life changing. They sent me to one of the early T-Groups.

I got it. I was never the same again.

I left when I was 26 and went back to Massachusetts where I got a real job in operations. Fulfilling.

After that, I got into management training, made useful partnerships, learned the trade and started my own company.

Why do I keep returning to this first workplace? I think that it is the incompletion of it.

I never got anywhere. It was almost like Kafka. Or what I think Kafka wrote about. Inconsequentialness.

But that is only one part of it.

What I got without, almost, knowing it, was a keen observation of work, of company life, of how people work together, how hierarchy creates suffering. A world of insight. All recorded.

When it came time, all this observation would pour out into aspects of training for people who felt empty or directionless. To give them power.

Not only that, the T-Group experience stayed with me to such an extent that I partnered with a T-Group pioneer to take those ideas further into a more practical realm.

Without realizing it, my first years were seminal. The learning I had laid in my lap was incredible.

But, still. It is unfinished business for me. I go to work, I find my desk and there is still nothing to do.

I have had a charmed life and one of the charms was to get a job at the beginning which was so totally non-engaging that I had to find my own way and make something of it.

I am obviously still doing so.

Labels: dreams, life, work

REGRETS

Someone from my deep dark work past emailed me today and asked me to write "something" for his new book.

I haven't talked to this guy in maybe 20 years except when someone from the old place would die or do something outrageous. Mostly die. Maybe three times.

Here is what I wrote back.

Congratulations on forming your own enterprise.

I wish that I could be of some help to you but there are two things to block any participation in the content.

1. When I left the business, I left the business. At first a lot of people wanted me to read articles, review books, comment on their ideas and so on. I had to decide that I would do zero work of that kind. Mostly out of loyalty to my own goals of retirement. It is an honor to be asked to comment on someone's new position, write a reference for another one, contribute to a research project. But no is no and it means no. Not now. Not anytime soon. Never. No way. I am out of the loop. Done. Forever and ever, amen. Part of this is that if I did it for Bill then I would have to do it for Sol and if I did it for Sol then Betty would want a similar thing. So. It might surprise you to know that it really felt good to do this. So good that I kept doing it until, quite a bit sooner than my ego would have liked, people quit asking. Over time, 15 years now, I find that whatever pipes I had have rusted out and don't carry a team building or work relationship idea more than four feet before it all leaks out. One more thing. Don't forget this one for yourself. I have not worked in all that time. Not work work. Not on a team. Not in an organization. None. Nothing. I have had no research and no way to keep up with things. Which means that I have not read the literature, have no idea about what the work climate is at this time (what I hear it sounds quite grizzly) and fear that any thought I might have would sound like Ichabod Crane returning after a long sleep. So. No.

2. I signed on at (my own company still running and in good shape) to give my full service and energy to the efforts of the company and to no one or no thing else. Conflict notwithstanding, ownership having passed, this has not altered. This is a contract which I would never break whether I could do it or not. My partner (name) and I got fucked over by enough people who had no such scruples that I could not do this even if I could do this but, see #1, I can't.

It is great to hear from you and to know you are having a whack at running your own technology down. I wish you the best.

This is where someone else would say "if there is any way to help you out let me know" but, I have pretty much knocked that one out.

Best wishes will have to suffice.

Labels: work

HOW I HAVE LABORED

It is Labor Day.

It has largely lost its significance as a day to honor labor, both organized and not. A pillar of our democracy. The working man and woman.

Now, everyone works and thinks they are labor. Blue or white collar. And they are right. The old idea that blue collar workers were the oppressed is over. Now everyone is oppressed by the system. Pay levels have plateaued over two decades. The gap between the rich and the less rich or poor is greater than ever.

But, it I worth a pause for me to remember that I have always thought of good work as a sacrament.

I don't think that is too high flown a word.

It is a spiritual goal. To be a good worker among workers. To do my part.

This is how I was brought up.

My Dad was the example and he dragged me from being a kind of whiny little bitch to man up and become a worker.

Disciplined.

In the old days you couldn't work until you were 14 and you had to have "working papers" and everyone, everyone, got them. And went and got a job.

Now, you could say that, at that time, there was a bit of exploitation of the young to work but the new laws prevented too much of that.

My first job as a movie usher was actually illegal. It was night work but I think we fiddled the time cards.

It was 25 cents and hour and three hours work.

We cleaned up before the show, pulled the curtain open (when did they stop doing that?) and cleaned up after. If people came light we walked them down the aisle to show them the seat. You had to have your own flashlight.

I loved it. I saw every movie shown there and the theater was in a resort so they had a different film every night. Four or five nights a week.

What about school work? Well, I did it. I was the valedictorian of my class. It couldn't have been too bad to work nights and see movies.

At one point, I considered becoming a licensed projectionist. I could have done that. Funny. You almost had to be an alcoholic to do the work. I was qualified but just didn't know it.

My second job was in a drug store. I scraped bottles, stocked shelves, bagged the Kotex because, at that time, it didn't come bagged and I guess now it doesn't either but it was embarrassing to see on the shelves. Or something. Once I was manning the cash register at the prescription counter and a guy asked me for Trojans". I knew what they were but I was not allowed to admit that I did.

I learned a shitload at that job. There were kids living there for the summer who worked the fountain and other stuff. Older kids. I mean 18 to my 14. I had my first gay experiences there. Of a sort.

I worked at another place, a gift shop, the same year on off days. The guy was a bastard. He would leave the place and go off somewhere and then blame me if anything happened. There was no business. That was my fault too. He tried to get me to quit. He flattened my bike tires. Other shit. I made him fire me.

I was a bit of a punk even then.

Then, the best job. I worked in my dad's A&P weekdays during school and summers. We were a resort so I was needed. I did everything. My Dad was a great mentor. He had others supervise me but he was always in the background. It is the very best training for life work that I could have had.

My Dad quit school after 8th grade to work and he got this food market job and became a manager.

He knew the ropes. I learned at his feet.

I belonged to a Union! Teamsters affiliated. I went to meetings. It was sort of fun.

When I went to college, I worked my way through. Student dining staff. I became the Head Captain. Great. I also cleaned dorm rooms and worked behind the desk of the dorm complex. Switchboard. Mail. Great.

I don't want to make this a job-a-logue. It is just that my early work experiences formed me. Gave me aspirations. Taught me how to be with people. Retail. My god.

Labor. Great. Happy Labor Day.

Labels: work

LOST ARTS

Dave sent this.

We used to see a lot of this kind of thing. It is nice to see that there are still guys who are dedicated to working on arcane things that have nothing to do with the 'net, investments, politics, the environment and, perhaps, even a social life.

This is a "hon, I'm going down to the cellar" kind of thing.

I know that people still write shit on grains of rice but that doesn't even approach this.

Take a look for yourself: Pencil Tip Micro Sculptures By Dalton Ghetti.

I am astonished by the wide range of pencil stubs.

I always used a Scripto HB or soft lead. No woods. He would have a tough time carving the Scripto lead. It is so soft that you have to write with a light hand. It goes on like a paint brush.

I adopted this from a guy I worked with when I was in an Engineering Department of a big company. I capped that because that is the way my friend John saw Engineering. He had endless systems and standards for his personal work and the Scripto #2 lead or HB was one of them. I still have some leads left over from my Scripto years which were supplanted by my Flair years which were followed by my Waterman fountain pen years. I am now a Uniball gel man, a ball point that flows like, well, #2 lead.

I learned and adopted a lot of John's stuff. I adored him. He was in his forties and I was just out of MIT. He was the first guy I met in my job that I respected.

It should be said that everyone else hated his ass. He was a prick, actually. But not to me. He beat people over the head with his superiority. But the stuff was good.

Another thing I remember is his penchant for asking people where they got their "facts" and demanded that they cite competent authority. This really pissed people off especially when, as was almost always the case, that the person was just expressing a bias or opinion and had no fact base.

So, I also learned, not to hit people over the head with my superiority. If any.

I am rambling way off the point of this piece. It was the sculpture not the lead that got us into this.

Labels: fun, work