Working for a family-owned propane business was a blast, right? (Pun intended, propane = blast)
While I bear no ill will towards my former employer (and while missing my former customers) I realized that the only favor I was doing for the company was adding to their bottom line. The realization came when I was unloading tile at the company owner's other home in West Texas. This wasn't what I signed up for and ethically I have a problem using people on payroll for personal favors. Sometimes wealthy business owners exploit their staff in that manor. I used to see it with my dad and his employer. That solidified my decision to leave the propane company along with other things like making more money. I make almost twice what they used to pay me now.
My beautiful and intelligent redhead wife has no desire to "put up with stupid people." What she means is that in her world she wants to be her own boss free from the interactions with intellectually inferior people. Although she has received a formal college education, finding a meaningful job where her intelligence isn't insulted every day has become a challenge. Her last W-2 worthy endeavor was at a national restaurant chain where whining crybabies get all the attention and management is fearful of litigious, sue-happy, soon-to-be-former employees. In slave-labor conditions that subject you to third-world wages (two-something an hour) you are expected to serve others with a smile on your face and sharing the drink menu with people who probably have no business going out to eat because they can't afford to tip. She finds more satisfaction with Uber moving people from place to place and venturing out into the online world of eBay and Etsy. It pays more than your run-of-the-mill corporate restaurant chain.
Truck drivers have it worst of all and after fifteen years in the business there are some things that will logically allude me. Why do some dispatchers find it necessary to verbally abuse a driver and lie over and over to get a driver to work when most drivers actually want to work and want to be told the truth? Why is it everybody hates truck drivers until they have something on a truck that is needed by someone? Why do people assume that truck drivers intentionally want to create tumult and chaos when in actually that's the last thing any driver wants to do? It is such a thankless job. When everything goes smoothly it's business as usual. When something goes wrong, even if it is not the driver's fault, everyone wants to blame the driver. Should I even mention ambulance chasing attorneys who like to see dollar signs when a driver gets in an accident?
Who do I really feel sorry for? I feel sorry for the 9-to-5 corporate types who commute long hours to work 8 more hours to commute even more hours just in time to make it to their suburban homes to barely have dinner with the family fifteen minutes before the kids have to go to bed. Truck drivers don't even have it that rough. I feel sorry for the man or woman for whatever reason that has to work two (or more) jobs to pay the rent and utilities while barely being able to put food on the table. I feel sorry for the small town people whose local factory is the best it's going to get provided they can get a job there at all. I feel sorry for anyone who works in food service of any type because you are a wage slave to that particular industry. I feel sorry for those who fell for the 40/40 plan, work 40 hours a week for 40 or more years and get a gold watch at retirement. I feel sorry for the people who do what they have to do in a place they hate and dread because everyone is counting on them and if something happened to them the results could be disastrous.
What about the educated among us? I value education but colleges are really nothing more than places to teach people how to be good employees when it used to be that you went to college to learn how to think. Now it's expected of you to know what to think and anything outside of that could be considered politically incorrect. I'm glad college didn't work out for me because my self-education has enabled me to see things in a different light. For those who drank the Kool-Aid, I hope you get a taste of real refreshing life soon. Please don't tell me that you feel justified in $100,000 of student loan debt while waiting tables in a major city hoping that after 7 years Corporate America will be calling. They won't.
If you are not following your own dreams, someone will hire you to build theirs. Let's start dreaming and visualizing again.
Check out this funny page on Facebook that pokes humor at hating your job. It's run by a friend of mine.
No comments:
Post a Comment