Kakahead

Listen… do you smell something?  I detect air most foul, with sadness and hardship springing therefrom.  O woe are we who toil all our lives; reaping not much for ourselves but yea our labours doth weave silver and gold fabrics for our masters.  Our reward is to toil yet another day.  And lo, toil we must; lest we be cast off.   And if we no longer fulfill The Purpose, we shall be cast off anyhow.

For we are the worker ants, and they are the Anteaters.

Say what?

OK I’ll quit speaking in code.  Our economy is supposedly in a recovery of sorts, but it’s difficult to convince all the millions of unemployed.   Here in Michigan, we seem to have an extra helping of job loss.  Isn’t that special?   We’re experiencing quite a bit of change; and unfortunately that means that companies are restructuring or even going out of business.  Manufacturing still exists here, and with the advent of alternative energy innovations, new opportunities are on the horizon.  However, they are slow in coming; and in the meantime many are faced with losing their jobs or at the very least working for less money and trimmed down benefits.

Recently, the folks where I work were called into a meeting and given some details of an upcoming reorganization.   Between 65 and 80 people will lose their jobs; and more may follow later.  Other meetings were scheduled but a “verbal threat of violence” was uttered and those meetings were postponed.   Mind you, none of the particulars of the meeting came as any surprise to us.  We all knew business was bad and that changes were likely.  That doesn’t take the sting out of it.  And conversely, tough times are not an excuse for making threats or being abusive.   It doesn’t make such behavior OK, but fear makes icky, and icky makes people react in ways they normally would not.

A bit of a Déjà vu for me; I’ve been laid off before.  It wasn’t the end of the world, but it wasn’t exactly the easiest eight months I had to deal with either.  I had the gamut of emotions:  sadness, depression, apathy, anger.  Fortunately for me I also surrounded myself with positive people; who cheered me on and helped me through it.  And I know it sounds corny, but I learned that I really did have Someone Upstairs looking out for me (when I let Them).  In other words, with a little help from my friends I managed to connect to my God and received an inner peace that told me I would get through it.

Because I’ve “been there, done that,”  I have been trying to be upbeat and think out loud to my friends and coworkers.  I say really silly things like, “my wife is a nurse and works with quadruplegics.  We don’t have such problems… things could be much worse.”  Or else maybe I’ll bring up the fact that “everyone here is talented, we just need to learn how to translate that into a good resume.”  Doesn’t seem to help much.  When I was laid off, I was told that I needed to draw upon my strengths in order to “make myself marketable.”  At first, that seemed a rather disgusting notion.  “After all these years, THIS is how I get treated?”  I thought to myself.  Many of the folks who will lose their jobs have never worked anywhere else.  I can only imagine how they feel.

I can’t seem to find my magic wand; so to my dismay I won’t be able to fix our sick economy.  Nor will I be able to change the age-old system of the haves vs. the have-nots.  Rich people are in control.  The rich stay rich, the poor become more numerous, and we worker ants get to pay for it all.  Although it seems like complete information bombardment, the media are keeping us in the know like never before.  So, with a little luck and some persistence, maybe we can work together and effect some change for the better.

It takes effort and awareness, but I believe we all have a duty to be ever vigilant and speak out where we smell foul air.  I’ve said it before:  the strongest vote we have is how (and where) we spend our money.  Rich people need to be held accountable for the kind of businesses they run.  Face it, if it were not for US spending OUR money, they wouldn’t be rich.  Pretty sad state of affairs when we have more millionaires than ever but food banks can barely keep up with the need.  As Dr. Seuess’s character The Lorax said, “but business is business and business must grow, regardless of crummies in tummies you know.”

A few months ago one of the marketing guys (who is several years younger than me) told me, “you know, anyone who thinks the CEO doesn’t care about our jobs is just wrong.”

It only took me a microsecond to respond:  “It’s kinda like when the mafia does a hit on your brother.  It’s nothing personal, just business.”

Nobody told me there’d be days like these…