Damn The Man

My Beef This Week

I just got back from California (which is why this blog is late). Another job interview. This one went much better than the one with Mr.Un-nebulous (see below). I’m keeping my fingers crossed; maybe I won’t have to sell my soul to The Man after all. Maybe it will just be a different “man.” Only time will tell.

My dad laughs at me because I view each job as a stepping stone, as a place to learn and kill time until the next job. I have no more loyalty to the company than it has to me. His generation pictured getting out of school and having the same job for 35 years and then retiring with a pension and a gold watch. Times have changed. After 20 years at the same company, NAFTA changed everything for my father and all his plants were moved to Mexico. My father was out of a job for the first time in his life. He moved to another job, same thing happened after 5 years. Out of work again. Now he’s working as a polymer chemist for a group of people he hates and can’t WAIT to retire. He finally concedes that I might have a point. The corporation has no feelings or sense of obligation towards its workers, and any sense of obligation you personally hold towards it is completely one-sided. Don’t get me wrong, not all corporations are spawns of Satan, but very few are the bastions of good that are depicted on TV commercials.

The last company I worked for targeted employees who were about to collect pensions. Those that were less than 5 years from retiring were sweating it hard. They were being picked off for the most minor infractions. One for refusing to use a company provided cell phone (it turns out they were tracking their employees that way http://www.accutracking.com/). He kept it at his house and used his own cell phone, which he wrote off on his taxes. He thought he was saving the company money.

Unfortunately, companies are entities with the rights of people but have no scruples. That means they can try to impose their viewpoints on you, the employee, so that you can keep your job. Which means that I’m going to look for a new job when I feel like I’m being asked to sell out. So to me each job is a stepping stone, not a way of life. This just means I have to have a good investment portfolio and plan really well for retirement. My dad, who first laughed at my viewpoint and told me no one would hire a job-hopper, is now experiencing what I spoke about…he’s being asked to sell out, and now he’s looking for a new job. So now we’re a family of job-hoppers, but at least we’re not sellouts.