Dadio has embarked on his literary war plan, "Operation: Lame Employer Shouldn't Piss off a Guy who Buys Ink by the Barrel."
One of my lame new norm America employers has totally broken my spirit. They don't care about their employees, make no bones about lack of empathy for said employees, and basically celebrate their own bad behavior. It's all so necessary for a new-norm America.
It's the Governor Scott Walker, Congressman Paul Ryan, Senator Ron Johnson, and Gubernatorial Candidate Mary Burke, quad-fecta new-norm Wisconsin Soviet-esque work scheme.
In the interest of disclosure, ol' Dadio is in no way a flaming union Democrat. Just the contrary fair reader. If anything at all, Dadio is a flaming free spirit Libertarian. A political and philosophical bent more often associated with Republicans.
Like I say, "Shouldn't have pissed me off." Bad behavior is bad behavior.
The new norm now not-so-new-norm part-time, non-benefited, work place does not function well if an employee stays longer than 15 months. It is at 15 months that the employer has the dilemma of trying to justify not even a nickle pay increase. The, too-busy-with-new-productions excuse for no breaks or no lunch times, no longer holds water by the 15 month mark.
With the realization of no hope, employees too dumb or desperate to flee before 15 months begin to reciprocate with minimum wage work out-put.
A truly disturbing trend is all too familiar. Seeing a couple young workers come through now and then that actually have a spirited outlook is not disturbing. But, over and over again, seeing their faces drain of hope by the end of the first week, is unnerving.
The employer has little tricks to nudge these stubborn and desperate workers out: They will tinker with work hours like a dope dealer trimming shards off a brick of has```hish with a razor blade; they will harass employees if they see them by the vending machines, if there are even any vending facilities at all; they will keep the employees standing throughout an entire 11 hour shift; they will forbid employees from bringing food or liquid to the work station, yet not let them go on break; they will forbid lunch and say it is just the nature of the business; they will complain if the employee goes to the restroom; they may confiscate work locker space; they will schedule the employee seven days a week, but only totaling 25 hours, and thereby wrecking the whole week for little pay; they will administer rules on a Seventh-Grade rubric as in requiring only baby-bottles allowed for drinking water; they will not call low-level supervisors, "supervisors," but rather "operators," thereby obfuscating responsibility; management will never have an information meeting; they will not fix broken work tools like jacks thereby making workers struggle with heavy production material; yet, high-paid mechanics who are pals of management will wander around with no tools and grins on their faces with the blessings of said management; the same management will hire their children, pals, and relatives, and promote them over you; and, said management will come out to the production floor now and then, grinning, telling stories, move a product a bit, and vanish back into the office bunker.
But, the aforementioned management will never discuss the reality of the desperate situation.
Once the realization of no-hope is absolute, the employee will start missing days, coming in late, stop pitching in, and probably start voicing discontent. Good workers are transformed into bad workers; and, management will pounce on the paradox. It is only a matter of time before said employee vanishes.
These jobs and employers lean on the excuse that these types of jobs are just temporary. They say, "People move on as they move up." But, there is no moving up in the new America. Many people, especially older people have to work these types of jobs for years.
Employers know workers have become conditioned to except this abysmal life. Many workers enter their 30s and have never had a real full-time job. New convoluted norms and mores (culture) blame the workers for their failure. It is a dandy strategy.
If you see yourself in the above essay, slip on the glass slipper, it will probably fit. But, your prince will never show up.
People who shower before work in lieu of after work have no idea what I am talking about. What side do you fall on?
I was writing a book about breaking workers' spirits. "Broken Spirit," found on cooldadiomedia.com and plunked on its own page. It all got tripped up about six months ago when I went 75-percent blind. Then, the Go Daddy Internet people who I do a lot of work with, changed their portals and I have had to move 7000 essays, pictures, and postings to Google BlogSpot and WordPress.
Be all that as it may, the new American work culture is so bleak, it's collective bad behavior just jumps right out of its own pants like projectile diarrhea. You'd think current employers would want to hide, camouflage, and obfuscate their latest shenanigans. Nope, it's low hanging fruit in this era of trying to survive as a worker.
My current employer of nine years has not pinched out a pay raise of even a nickle since 2007. Some of my co-workers were in Fifth Grade then. Turn-over is rampant. No pay increases, no breaks, no lunch, no benefits. The work crew changes over every five weeks. I usually look up from the production line and count a dozen people who have only been on the job for a couple weeks. Then, there is me.
Hours and hours of re-training new workers that will not stay longer than a month. It costs the product, it costs the customer, it runs off older surviving workers like me, and it is....., insane. All along the way, my employer crosses the fingers and hopes they will never have to give me a penny of pay increase for the trouble.
What's wrong with me? Why don't I quit too? Two-mile commute; my blindness has not caused my employer to even flinch; no one has been interested in hiring a guy with 50 years of work experience and three college degrees for awhile. At least in Janesville, Wisconsin, anyway. I might as well be an ape on a tire swing as far as Janesville is concerned. Janesville..., a tired city fraught with service jobs, nepotism, and a destroyed industrial base.
Where's this essay going Dadio? The good readers ask.
It's the little things that finish a guy off. It's what the Nazis, Communists, and Fascists did and still do. They took and take away the simple lives of the Jews, free spirited peoples', entertainers, arts culture, and countless other groups and their simple pleasures one by one. Eventually, they even took and take away the aforementioned beleaguered people's lives.
What a leap of connection it is then, when I mention that Human Resources came to me today, actually sat me down in a formal "sit-down," and took away my small work locker.
"Dadio!," you fair readers gasp. "Comparing a surrendered locker to the Holocaust?" Hear me out fine readers. It's the lowest end of tyranny. What's left..., they going to come and kill my kitten next?
After nine years of me having the same small place of respite to park a needed tool or two in (my own tools by the way), keep a soda bottle, and hang up my keys, room must be made to appease all the nieces, nephews, friends, and relatives as they come to work through the revolving employment door. They will work for a couple weeks, embarrass the management class they are related to, then move on, vanish, and/or miss work and get fired. Maybe, even get in a fight or two.
Really..., my locker? Just when I think they could not possibly have anymore tricks to break a blue-collar spirit, I never in a million years thought of confiscating a simple small work locker.
OK, after all these years, my good employer seems to want me gone anyway; so..., what the fuck! Their whole shtick falls apart if workers stay longer than a year and a half. These employers are just a microcosm of a greater pandemic of un-empathetic work places in the abysmal Janesville and Wisconsin and American, work culture.
Game on then good employer. The last straw has been laid on my back. "Cry Havoc and let Slip the Literary Dogs of War."
Just one caveat to those who have fired a lame work culture shot over my bow.
Never piss off an old man that buys ink by the barrel.
Note: This blog "Blue-collar new norm America: Dadio's handy manual to break workers' spirit" - book version Category is a work in progress. These original vignettes are being edited for book form. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Broken Spirit Page for an ordered chronology of the book vignettes (chapters).
John Torinus has been pontificating from on high for years about the Wisconsin economy; he has positioned himself as an apologist for said economy; and, even acts as a facilitator of a rotten Wisconsin economy. Been doing it for years..., and, mostly in an impotent, monotone. He seems to have a free pass on media portals. Be that as it may, several years ago I commented on one of his essays found on WisOpinion.com. It was during the collapse of our economy in the "Great Recession." It must have been around 2009 or so..., long after the real start of the economic decline for most of us. He was prattling on about retraining workers bla..., bla..., blaa..., or some such similar myth that would surely fix the wrecked economy. I responded that no amount of retraining will fix the phenomena of America discarding its 50 year old seasoned workers for new cheap frontiers in China.
Torinus replied, "Let's talk." He never recontacted me.
John Torinus is still at it. Like Rush Limbaugh, who you can tune into anytime and hear hints of the same rant he had decades ago, Torinus too, just keeps shoveling the same theme over time. His latest masterpiece: " Enough with campaign bickering on job creation . "
In his latest banal offering, he meanders on about Governor Walker's hapless 250,000 job pledge and candidate Mary Burke's tactic of sniping at it. He talks about how job repair is a long term effort and beyond just promises and sniping about them. He then goes on to casually quote the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) which discusses how sending jobs to China may just have been a failure regarding our economy. Disturbing, considering his own company sent jobs to China over the long term. And, Walker's effort has been abysmal, and Burke's own company sent jobs to China. Seeing a pattern here?
The above trifecta ain't fix'n jack.
Torinus talks about how Wisconsin is 37th in job growth like it is new news. It is a bleak reality that us who are languishing in the underclass, gave up on a couple years ago.
In a follow up comment, he calls for talking up our eclectic Wisconsin weather to say:
"My own view is that we can keep a good percentage of the young hot shots [in other words snow boarders] if there are great jobs here. [but John, you sent your great jobs to China] Most people move for careers, not the place. Look at the people flocking to North Dakota for energy jobs." [John..., the beleaguered souls flocking to North Dakota are..., desperate folks, hoping for one last chance.]
The above diatribe relates back to my complaint about Torinus years ago - he is singing the praises of young hot shots while discarding seasoned older Wisconsin workers - hypocrite.
Torinus calls for action and the creation of committees to fix Wisconsin rather than Gubernatorial campaign bickering.
Unable to resist jabbing ol' Torinus in the literary eye, I wrote him a comment:
"Moving a giant segment of our economy overseas, fighting perennial wars, and twice and possibly trice electing the most contentious Governor in decades, has destroyed an entire layer of Wisconsin life, culture, and its people / workers. I find your casual chit-chat about it disturbing at best. There is an entire sub-culture in Wisconsin that lives the truth. To this huge sub-group, health care (sick people) is our number one industry now. The export of our children after graduation (education) to better states and countries for work, is our second industry. Our third dominant industry is fast food and alcohol (over-weight people and drunks). And the fourth estate is the economy of government supplemental income (child support, food stamps, unemployment, disability, and social security). Wafting through it all for years has been non-benefit, service industry, part-time work, for said huge sub-culture. You guys can pontificate from on high, but to many of us locked in this hell now probably for the rest of our lives, your words are hollow. I would not move a company or risk moving to a state for a job with such a long-term institutionalized bleak timbre and economic template."
I am sure ol' John does not lose a minute of sleep regarding his apologist role now nor back when I called him out five years ago...,and if history repeats itself as it always does..., five years from now..., Torinus will still be merrily singing the same tired tune.
