2000-04-29 - 22:16:33

April 29, 2000

Rover

NOTE opinions here are the opinion of a retired old grouch.

A friend once said to me, "You just couldn't have done all that, or lived long enough to do all that." In a way I guess that is what I would think about someone else's tale of work woe.

Here is what I related to them in a short note: "Oh, gawd - - - - from town to town, job to job, layoff to layoff working whatever job I could get while trying to raise five kids and a wife (still trying to raise her - - maybe it will be a tie.) Being fired from one company due to union organizing, and blackballed and being in deep doo-doo having to do scut work for a long time until I got another decent job.

I think I have been and done most every honest thing thad did not require a brain surgeon or rocket scientist at one time or another.

My ?career? was mainly mechanical, logistical, hazardous testing, tech repping in Southeast Asia. At a late age State Rehab sent me to a tech school for a year to learn electronics as a vocation to avoid the necessity of doing the physical work I could no longer do.

After school I obtained work at Western Electric (manufacturing arm of AT&T), after divestiture we were now called AT&T and now the same thing is called Lucent (a separate entity from AT&T) Same game different name. Hazardous testing being out of my life, I became a circuit pack tester there. I worked there for thirteen years.

A buyout to entice people into early retirement came up. It was a sweet deal for people with five or so years to go to Social Security age. They were offered an additional amount for five years after retirement. I couldn't qualify for that amount, but still was able to retire receiving a decent pension and benefits, retiring at age 69. Of course after the buyout, those left there had to work a bit harder.

In my life I have sat through so many meetings, conferences, and seminars learning that a good part of all the formalities was pure bullshit that the corporation, company, shade tree shop (whatever) was trying to get us to fall for - so that they could continue to do exactly as before only calling it by another name and doing the switchy-per-changy on rules just to add to the insecurity of "we"

All my working life I was a union member where possible. I have read Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" and the fiction of Dickens as well as other reading to understand what we "peons" from ancient times have live with and through. I an familiar with the "Ludlow Massacre" here in Colorado as well as other labor problems in state. Also about labor conditions in our country the "Pullman Strike" and its mistreatent of the workers which caused it. Do I have a cause ? (definition - something to rant about) you're damn right I do ! Having worked so many different jobs for so many different places, I saw the pattern followed by them all - - - their wording might be a bit different, but their aims seemed to be the same.

It was hard for most of us to be on time (having to drive clunkers - couldn't afford better) take few or no breaks, gobble down a brown bag lunch in too few allowed minutes, fight for better pay, better working conditions, safer conditions and STILL do eight hours of work a day with damn little overtime pay for the extra "emergency" hours we had to work.

Timme for me to come down off the soap box now, with the addition of, In my book work is defined as a job well and cheerfuly done, on time with no trouble from either side.

You are so sneaky at asking these two or three word questions that set me to running my mouth off in all directions.

To answer another of your questions from the other day, I have no college, a high school GED but have been a voracious reader and observer of things around me. I never got any medals for any of it but I suuuuure had fun. ----------------------------------------------------------

Guess that qualifies me as an OOB (opinionated old bum), It was too short a missive to go deeply into any of it and I sort of did a quick and dirty job of it for a quick and short note.

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