I've Started
Began the job yesterday.
As far as work goes, it really wasn't bad. The workers said I did a good job and they seemed to like me. The management was pleased with me. Old co-workers who were already there greeted me like a long lost friend. It seems pretty good when I say this.
Yet at intuitive level something is very wrong. I have been puzzling over it since yesterday asking "What is bothering me about this?"
I was just out for a walk and it hit me. There was no joy in the plant. Everyone did there job without talking or laughing. Even in boot camp there was laughter and joking. You don't want a factory to be a playground, yet when no one ever laughs or cracks a joke, something is almost inhuman. Even in the breakroom a lot of the employees just sat and stared at the wall. It is a very depressing place.
That and the surveillance cameras everywhere.
I will work there as long as I have to but I will continue looking.
As far as work goes, it really wasn't bad. The workers said I did a good job and they seemed to like me. The management was pleased with me. Old co-workers who were already there greeted me like a long lost friend. It seems pretty good when I say this.
Yet at intuitive level something is very wrong. I have been puzzling over it since yesterday asking "What is bothering me about this?"
I was just out for a walk and it hit me. There was no joy in the plant. Everyone did there job without talking or laughing. Even in boot camp there was laughter and joking. You don't want a factory to be a playground, yet when no one ever laughs or cracks a joke, something is almost inhuman. Even in the breakroom a lot of the employees just sat and stared at the wall. It is a very depressing place.
That and the surveillance cameras everywhere.
I will work there as long as I have to but I will continue looking.
posted by shoprat at 8:10 PM
11 Comments:
I know how that goes... sadly. I don't care how serious your work is... you have to be able to enjoy it somehow.
Hmmmmm. That's odd, Shoprat. Does management have a rule against talking or laughing? If so, you definitely need to keep looking. If not, perhaps you can bring some laughter to the employees. Sounds like they could use it!
That is weird. It may have just been a temporary mood. I guess it's best to keep looking if it doesn't get better.
Good to be working, in any case.
But I hope you get the real cherry job you're hoping for...
Have a great Sunday!
I hope it improves. The days can be awfully long with not laughter.
Shop: what does the company do, that it feels required to place cameras throughout? Is it the kind of place where internal "shrinkage" is endemic?
Additionally, this is a comment not just on THAT job but on businesses in general -- businesses that fear the lawsuit and work at the point of a lawsuit pike -- those that have been successfully sued on prior occasions. Sexual harrassment, discrimination, promotion and hiring suits and the like, not to mention ADA suits, environmental suits, have most medium-to-small businesses on edge these days, and rightly so. It's not too far from the point where the only businesses to succeed shall be the ones sufficiently MASSIVE to ABSORB the horrendous "costs of doing business" in our contentiously-litigious society. We have managed to zero-out our business and work environment where we cater to those "sensitive" lowest common denominator waifs and milktoasts and perennial VICTIMS who live to be offended in any setting. So yes, I would say we as a country are in the process of doing our level best to remove most any amount of humor, fun, interest or HUMANITY from our working environment. And all because, well, you know why.
Additionally, I salute your determination to move on if something further presents itself. Many studies have conclusively shown that workers will stay at a job or in a business where they feel a part of a team, an INVESTED piece of the WHOLE, a VALUED member of the mission -- and that those feelings or perceptions are MORE important than a wage in and of itself.
If work is torture, if you're agonizing over your job on a daily basis, it affects most every other aspect of your life. Do WHAT you must WHEN you must.
BZ
Glad you got something in place.
Hope you find something even better.
I know that they put camerras in the breakrooms, bathrooms, and shop floor of the new Jeep plant in Toledo to keep people from goofing off. Personally, I don't understand why you should have to give up your basic human dignity just to be employed. The gov't can't do this stuff but an employer can? "Well, you're free to not work here". This is partly why I have turned on Republicans, because they treat working people like serfs or pions who don't deserve any dignity.
I hate to break this to you Tim, but the owner of this plant is a major player in the State Democratic Party.
I think BZ hit the nail right on the head. Having worked in a casino security department whose responsibilities included investigating every company employee incident that might have even the most remote chance of turning litigious. We were also ultimately responsible for all safety venues, etc.
One thing I can add is that the determining factor in the casino's successful defense against fraudulent or overstated lawsuits, on a number of occasions, was videotape (casinos, as we know, are a cam-rich environment).
The era of the surveillance video-cam is barely in its infancy. It's a rapidly growing industry, and I mean,growing, so if anything we can expect to see more of them in the workplace.
I hate to break this to you Tim, but the owner of this plant is a major player in the State Democratic Party.
Touche! to Tim. :-)
There is a reason the Bible says, "The Merry Heart doeth good like medicine."
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