Blue-collar new norm America: Dadio's handy manual to break workers' spirit - The 15 month employee longevity rubric

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? 

Another Labor Day in an American economy slow boiling its workers and people

Another Labor Day in an American economy slow boiling its workers and people.  

I popped into the Labor Fest in Janesville, Wisconsin, on Sunday.  It was once a huge affair. And, it's always free to get in.  Always free bands. Of course, beer and chow is always a la carte - got to keep the lights on some how.  But, even a couple years ago, well into the throes of the Great Recession,  the event was a multi-day vibrant laid-back fellowship.  It is always held on the grounds of the Labor Temple on the south side of Janesville off Center Avenue.  

But this year I was shocked.  The event was relegated to one day.  The huge food tent was gone. The hugh main stage was gone.  There was a beleaguered beer tent, and a couple taco wagons.  Beer was three dollars a 12-ounce can.  I passed and headed to one of my haunts that serves up 16-ouncers for a buck.   

I wanted to participate. I wanted to have a good review to report to the banal reader.  But, I can't paint lipstick on this starving pig.  The collective new-norm American mission to destroy the American worker and the Middle Class has been a resounding success - jobs sent to China; a culture of underemployed; and, an American work force relegated to scratching for low-paying service and part-time jobs.

Right under everyone's noses, the simple celebrations and once reliable American middle class that enjoyed them, have both been nuetered.  Mission accomplished.  We are in trouble peeps...., 

..., peer past the social media blur and just look at what is left of your own town and neighbors. 

Janesville, Wisconsin, "new norm" underemployed prison city with invisible fence of steel.

2 July 2014

Janesville, Wisconsin, "new norm" underemployed prison city with invisible fence of steel.

I moved to Janesville, Wisconsin, back in 1992 for a year after re-settling in Wisconsin from Texas. I moved to Madison, Wisconsin, forthwith; then, just south of that capital city to rural Green County.

My mother's cancer brought me back to Janesville in 2000..., been here ever since. Life has a way of doing that to a guy.

Mom grew up in Janesville for the most part. Moved away for years; then, moved back from my dad's farm in her retirement. Her own dad worked for Janesville's infamous GM plant. She worked for the city's famous Parker Pen company. Both gone..., GM packed up in 2008-9 in the Great Recession. Parker left in the Misery Recession of the late '70s and early '80s. And gone too, all the satellite industries that helped facilitate the two cap-stone companies and their family supporting jobs. What's left..., part-time service jobs. If that.

People here work crappy jobs as best they can. Many have silently fled..., slowly but surely. Not everyone can flee. I am 60, have health issues, and own a house. Hard to pack up and leave like one is 18 again. That leads to another variable.

What is left for commerce in the once industrial city is three-fold...., and disappointing at best, disturbing at worst. The number one industry if you will, is health care (sick people). Number two industry? Public schools (Taxes). Also, number two facilitates Janesville's biggest export..., its children after graduation, to other cities, states, and countries to find jobs. And the third industry? Well of course it is taverns and fast food (drunks and fat people).

When one is forced to work part-time, non-benefit jobs to get by, they start to slowly be deconstructed. They don't get sick-time so they work sick. They don't get vacation time so they never get a rest. They are essentially slowly destroyed. They never have enough money to make even the most basic life-style really work. There by, they slowly get in a rut of not having the seed-money to escape.

With gas at nearly four dollars a gallon, even a recon trip to a more vibrant state to scope out the potential could cost 600 bucks in gasoline alone. An untenable amount, for a person only making 165 bucks a week..., a 1978ish paycheck actually. And that assumes of course..., they even have a car any more.

People are trapped in a weak service economic self-fulfilling nightmare. Janesville's newspaper of record recently lords in an OpEd piece, that these low-wage jobs are entry jobs and people don't stay in them long - there's no reason to raise the wages.

Excuse me, but people don't stay in them long because the jobs are horrid with no dignity and their bodies are wrecked. And, people may leave those jobs if they are lucky and can actually escape Janesville. Others, like people over 50, tough out these jobs to make the few bucks they can. The "older ones" are not allowed to participate in Janesville's culture unless they volunteer their efforts for free. They..., when they try to keep languishing for that inadequate wage, are often deemed losers, by the normative driven owners of the message, like the local newspaper. Yet, those same struggling workers are sung praises when they volunteer for free.

Detecting a pattern? See an inept and misguided conspiracy of taking advantage of an already unfortunate economy? Can you notice the gleeful opportunists' use of the unintended consequences wrought by outsourcing our economy to third-world countries?  We have become a third world country ourselves.  Hey, we even like soccer now too.  A great subject for a subsequent essay.

But today, this is Janesville. A poster child if you will, for the dirty secret of America's and Governor Scott Walker's new economy. Don't let the handlers of the "official message" con the good people of Madison and the rest of the fair state into thinking everything is hunky-dory down in good ol' Janesville. The happy-talk message can get out of the invisible fence of economic decay...,

..., but, what is left of the workers are still imprisoned behind it.