literature

Two Things I Can't Do

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Literature Text

One of the things
about working minimum wage,
is that many of your superiors,
feel the need to constantly put you in your place-

because there's the deeply-entrenched stigma
that if you're working dead-end past the age of 30,
it's rock-solid proof,
that you've obviously failed at life.

especially if you're a white male,
with his mystical, inherent privilege,
and you don't have the requisite nice house, car,
the 3.4 kids, and the loving wife.

And every self-appointed 'expert',
many of whom began their lives on third-base,
will say that success is your own choice:
there's plenty of jobs out there!
Are you too proud or lazy for minimum wage?

After all, no one starts at the top-
you've gotta work your way up!
But they've never actually tried it for themselves-
and refuse to believe that every new ladder you step on,
you'll never get above the bottom couple of rungs.

And you can say 'til you're blue in the face:
I've been working minimum wage my entire life,
I think that's more than ample proof
that lazy or proud isn't the appropriate theme-song,

Of course then, the conversation
turns around to a perceived lack of ambition,
because apparently, anyone who actually has it,
will not be stuck at minimum wage for long.

They'll always find a way,
to impress with mad-skills, work ethic,
or the education,
they got at College,

The problem is never external,
but always internal:
that's accepted,
pop-psychology knowledge!

And apparently, economic factors,
have nothing to do with it,
and neither do things like
offshoring, outsourcing, and downsizing.

You just gotta hustle harder,
and be willing to sacrifice more,
and above all,
see these challenges as exciting!

And another career-limiting factor,
is never having the 'right' answers,
or even more fundamental than this,
the ability to strategically lie.

But I understand my biggest failings,
which have stifled my progress,
and I'm not afraid
to look them directly in the eye-

because two things I simply
do not have,
are the ability to perform magic,
and the skill to read minds;

though a surprising number
of my immediate supervisors,
seem to think those are basic attributes,
that I should use all the time.

And it goes without saying,
that when it gets to that point
they simply cannot accept,
the answer I'm forced to give them:

If I really could perform
either one or both of those feats,
do you think I would need
to do this for a living?
This is yet another introspective, didactic-screed piece, and I struggled for a while to try and get just the right tone for it.

For a bit of background: Anyone, who has worked a certain number of minimum wage jobs in their lives, eventually comes to understand a few, basic truths about living and working in that particular socio-economic bracket. The first is that all the pop-psychology platiudes and bromides (to deliberately use every Randroid's favourite expression), that the 'experts' like to spout about 'starting at the bottom, and working your way up', are essentially false in the current economic and societal climate.

The hard, and brutal fact of things is that for every 'started at the bottom rung and pulled himself/herself up by his/her own bootstraps', there are a hundred others, who simply never get above the first or second rung of that proverbial ladder. Of course, those same 'experts' are generally just as quick off the mark to state that the inability to climb that ladder is nothing but your own fault: that you're not ambitious enough, or you're not willing to sacrifice enough, or you're simply just lazy and weak-minded, I've seen and experienced more than enough to know that there's plenty of other factors at play, too.

Indeed, any realist can see that that is the case.

Nevertheless, even with all of that said, most minimum wage jobs I've had have filled the basic need of not being unemployed, and on welfare, and for most of them, you can understand and accept that they are what they are.

But then, sooner or later, you will eventually find yourself in a minimum wage position, where you're forced to discover some of the nastier truths about that particular socio-economic stratum. Especially, when you're made to understand that you're seen as disposable and easily-replaced, and every single work day is an exercise of constantly demonstrating why the supervisors need you in the first place. At its most extreme, you sometimes find yourself put into positions, where you seem to be expected to have the ability to perform magic, and/or read minds.

Even more extreme than this, is the Catch-22 of: "I expect all my employees to take initiative and not need to be told what to do!" followed closely by (and sometimes in the very same conversation): "Don't do anything unless I tell you to do it! I'm not interested in what you think. I don't pay you to think! I pay you to work!"

A couple of times, I've been so exasperated with that sort of nonsense that I've fired right back with: "If I could perform magic, or read minds, do you think I'd need to do something like this for a living?"

Luckily, I've only had a few jobs that were as bad as this...
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Finaldistance23's avatar
This is beautifully written.