Monday was a long day in what turned out to be my last day of employment at my job. Unfortunately, I can’t lay the blame for this particular development at Obama’s feet, but rather, I fault my own increasingly intolerant disposition towards this dysfunctional trend of eroding integrity and intelligence so many in our Country seem content to spiral down into. So much seems so ass backwards anymore since the days when I viewed the world through the eyes of a much younger, more selfishly self-indulgent, and ignorant me. Before, things that would have been deemed unacceptable in a work setting and gotten your ass shown to the door, now are accepted. For whatever reasons, be they a base apathy or basic fear of possible litigated reprisals for whatever perceived slights or discrimination, real or imagined. Just more of the subliminal intended consequences of political correctness basically as far as I’m concerned. Maddening!
I refer to my job. But it’s not the job itself (I enjoyed my work), so much as a lot of the people around me I could do without. I tried keeping to myself in my area where I worked for a Cabinet and door manufacturing company. I would show up about 45 minutes to an hour early before start time each day, setting up (off the clock and on my own time) to prep my machine for dying cabinet doors, panels, and frames a variety of colors using only two colors of dye kept in their own respective 30 gallon tanks, which I would fill up each morning before beginning. These colors were brown and purple. With brown dye I would color some cabinet pieces either Chestnut or Mocha depending on the order. With the purple dye, it would be either Brandy or Burgundy. To achieve the desired color scheme depended on the speed of my run line and the number of coats each side of the cabinet piece required. At what had previously been considered a 2 man job before I was hired, I had been doing now by myself for the better part of the last 4 months. There’s a lot more to it (the poor ventilation of fumes and persistent rattle in my chest I’d developed in the past couple of months not withstanding), but I’m getting off the beaten path of my intended narrative here, so allow me to refer back to my previous statement when I said how a lot of the people at my job I could do without, and the whole point of this commentary to begin with…
Among the regular employees at my job, the company would also bring in from out of town a number of ‘Temp’ workers to fill vacancies in various departments where needed. Nothing against Temps (I use to be one and likely will be again here shortly), but there was a definite sub-culture several brought to the job with them, which centered a lot around ‘particular’ proclivities that have no place in a work environment. Especially when it has an adverse effect on their job performance that extends beyond just them to effect other co-workers as well trying to do their own jobs (such as happened to me that very morning with the little Temp pothead who worked the run line adjacent to mine, but that’s another story). Several of them you could just look at and tell. Take it from someone who use to be one. Harsh, but true. Some didn’t even try to masquerade this fact (like the little Temp pothead who worked along side me) and were even boastful about their habits during break time in huddled conversations with others of their caste. Nothing against what folks choose to do (as I indicated, I use to be a frequent partaker myself -just not prior to or during work hours however- tapering off over the years, until finally deciding one day that enough was enough, tossing this habit out the window of my van unconsumed as I was driving down a rural highway not so long ago), but it’s just part and parcel of this erosion our Country is experiencing. In my defense regarding the little Temp pothead, this is a younger guy who had recently told me during a discussion as he was giving me his two thumbs up review of the movie, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, how he liked to learn his history from such movies. Seriously. This detail he revealed after he had asked me in relation to the content matter of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which side had won the Civil War. I cite that as exhibit ‘A’ in the case of this deliberate dumbing down of America I’m sure several of you have heard discussed about frequently over the years that appears to be taking place, but that’s a conversation for another day.
This isn’t about the recriminations of pot users however, other than to cite their consumption as just one of an innumerable host of other symptoms of an even larger epidemic we’re all suffering from as a Nation. It’s about the overall decline too of our standards. Of what once use to be shared principles and values. Of a vanishing work ethic among too many that’s contributing to this dysfunctional trend eating away at our collective society from the inside out. Things I didn’t take time placing much of an appreciable premium on when I was younger, as I was too busy chasing skirts, partying, and doing ‘my thing’. Consequentially, the subsequent lessons that followed in the intervening years since have left an indelible impression on me and have given emphasis now to a phrase I’d heard once a long time ago I’m sure some of you might be familiar with: “Youth is wasted on the young”.
As a young child, I was raised and taught to be better than how I chose to live as a young adult. Not that I was incorrigible or a complete tool, but the seeds had been planted in hard ground tho’. Due to a lot of extenuating circumstances, but looking back I will say that by comparison to what many of these younger generations have either experienced or are experiencing, my life growing up was play day at Disney Land in contrast. Sorry, I’m track jumping here in my train of thoughts…
….The whole intention of this commentary was to illustrate in particular this inverted standard of a declining work ethic I’ve observed burgeoning for awhile now throughout the work field that’s kind of similar in its composition to the definition of “Ineptocracy”, in which: ~ a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers. ~
I guess what I’m saying is, has anyone else noticed in whatever line of work you might happen to be in, an increasing occurrence where the least productive or useful at their jobs, are the ones who seem to get away with no end of Bullshit? One example in my circumstance I’ll cite here being this married gal (a regular employee whom, according to her estimate, had been working at this company for the past 12 or 13 years) that would bring my work orders to my area via these large carts they were loaded onto after she would process their arrival from another part of the plant, spraying the parts edges their designated color according to the order and depending on the style of cabinet frame, panel, or door. Part of her job responsibilities also included blowing off accumulated wood dust that would be considerable by the time they arrived to the paint room where we were located, before bringing the work orders over to me so I could then dye them and get them sent on over to the stain area.
The specific issue I had with this female co-worker (the inappropriate sexual innuendo she would insert into her banter with me at times in our interactions being the least however- I mean the woman was a behemoth. When she grinned, it revealed a greenish algae of some kind growing on her front teeth along her gum line. Yeah, that was definitely NEVER going to happen), but rather in her beginning a few months ago to bring work orders to me still caked with dust that she basically neglected to clean off. My job was extremely physical, as some doors and panels could be quite large and awkward by their size to handle. I’m 6′ 5″, and I would run doors that were both wide and literally a good 2 to 3 feet taller than me, and (depending on the breed and density of the wood) could be weighty to handle. Initially I let it slide. But as this situation progressed, I determined I had plenty in the way of my own work to do at my job without having the added benefit of doing her work too, as I’d begun noticing she didn’t have time to do her work, but she sure had plenty of time tho’ I’d observed to stand around and gab in her area with other certain employees who were renowned for contributing further dysfunction to this environment with their own intrinsic drama and instigating style of pot stirring and trouble making. So as time went on and this issue continued (even despite after my having addressed her courteously about it more than once- another worker dealing with the same issue with this same woman had even gone to the supervisor themselves, but to to no avail-), I was getting pissed. This is only one other example to convey a further understanding at the pervading sense of dysfunction saturating this place.
Of course it doesn’t help when you have an apathetic supervisor with an established track record among senior employees of basically turning a blind eye to the crap going on, essentially enabling it, and thus allowing it to thrive, but boy, bust your ass at your work and put up with all of the ridiculous crap until you just refuse to put up with it anymore, and who do you think gets handed the shit end of the stick? After 7 months worth of ridiculous crap, that’s what finally happened to me on this Monday afternoon during the last hour of the work day. After a long succession of unresolved grievances (with the few I’ve mentioned here being the least of them and which, in my opinion, there was absolutely no excuse for in their continuance had there been qualified leadership demonstrated), I just had had enough. Diplomacy and tact kind of went out the window as I blew a gasket. At one point the boss and I were practically nose to nose in each others faces, and by the time the smoke had cleared, I had pretty thoroughly established what I thought about his ability as a supposed supervisor along with providing explicit navigational directions as to the exact location where he could put his job before grabbing my coat to walk out. The funny part is, after all was said and done, as I was leaving, he called after me and said, “Chad, don’t bother coming back tomorrow.”, and at that point I genuinely had to laugh when I turned back to look at him and say, “Charlie, I already planned on that when I told you you could shove this job up your ass!”
My job had come to feel like having a front row seat to everything I see go on in our Country every day. A systematic breakdown of the rational in deference to the absurd! No leadership worth a damn to be found anywhere! Everyone talks a good game, but when it comes down to the rubber hitting the highway, the tires blow out. It’s just insane, and I’m fed up with insane having become the new ‘standard’ and definition of normal in our Country nowadays by the driven narrative of lunatics whose cheese has slid completely off their crackers. I see America being systematically and purposefully brought to ruin by the duplicity of this piss-ant in the White House, his comrades, and their Plantation full of pasture grazing sheep and Useful Idiots!
What I don’t see is any substantive resistance to the anarchy and chaos they represent by anyone so many look to as the opposing leadership of the GOP. This has reiterated to me the simple fact I’ve heard expressed that it wont be Government to fix what’s broken in our Nation, but rather US! We the people! After all, it was the people who had determined their resolute course of establishing our Independence in the beginning! Is there enough of them left in our genetic makeup today to ensure we remain the vanguards of our own destinies, or do we surrender everything to those whose primary subversive ambitions are conquest through political tyranny and judicial fiat? I’m not sure at what point exactly in our Country when we began this exchange of evil for good, but I am certain that transformation has been made astoundingly revealed by this unprecedented disgrace having wormed his way into the Oval Office under such suspect circumstances, with no one in Washington apparently having the testicular fortitude to question them!
And while I’m not advocating for folks to go to their respective jobs and have sporadic meltdowns, I will say tho’, that all it takes for the unacceptable to flourish and dig its roots in deeper is with our own silent acceptance and acquiescence.
Yet as I woke up this morning without a job to go to for the first time in a long time, I wasn’t anxious. I sure as Hell wasn’t depressed. If anything, as I got up shortly after 5am and put on the coffee, it felt like a noticeable weight had been lifted, which has only benefited my clarity of purpose. I’ll be back to work soon earning a paycheck again. Why stress out over a given? But in the meantime, I patently refuse to be silent and acquiesce to this orchestrated and deliberate attack on our Country by those whom I wouldn’t piss on if they were on fire to put ’em out.
