1. Working for a Living

 

      When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, the trend for American workers was to stay with one company for many years.  It was not unusual for some people, like my father, to stay at the same company for an entire career… a lifetime.

My father, Ralph, was the perfect example of the loyal employee.  He went to work every day, rain, or shine, healthy or sick, like it or not.  I’m sure his employers could count on him to get a job done.  They would always give my father too many responsibilities, but my father was the type of person who did not make excuses.  He stayed late, skipped lunch, found someone to assign the job to, or did the job himself.  His loyalty, thought Ralph, would pay off in the end.  And, he had been taught it was the right thing to do.

      The company changed hands over the years.  The first owner of the building materials company was a good man.  He built a small paint supply company into a well-known wholesale building materials company and warehouse.  The business had an excellent reputation in Florida and the Southeast.

       My father was in charge of the Purchasing Department.  He was also the supervisor of the “sales counter” where contractors would call and place orders or walk in and buy their supplies. Whenever I visited the office, it was always chaotic and noisy.

      Ralph started working for this company while he was still in high school.  His father was the supervisor in the warehouse and Ralph spent his summers sweeping the floor and helping his father.  After high school, he went into the U.S. Air Force.  As most employers did back in those days, they held his job for him.  He was welcomed back to the company when his four years of service ended.

      He took business classes at night and worked his way up from warehouse worker to sales manager.  He was so good at his job, it just made sense to, “ask Ralph.”  His office was close to the front of the building, near the sales counter and the switchboard.

      The first owner of the company decided it was time to retire and sold the business to a pair of brothers.  Ralph made sure the promises he had been given regarding his own retirement would be honored by the new owners.  He was assured he had nothing to worry about.  Everyone saw how hard Ralph worked.  He would “most assuredly” be taken care of by the new owners.

      Ralph continued to work hard every day.  He was usually one of the first people in the office in the mornings and one of the last people to leave the office in the evenings.  His family and friends considered him a workaholic.  But, to Ralph, it was what he had to do to provide for his growing family.  And this was what it meant to have a good work ethic.

      He and my mother had five children within ten years.  Large families were common in the United States in the 1960s.  Five daughters in one family, not quite as common, but that’s what Ralph ended up with and he did his best to be the breadwinner, bringing home the bacon, so his wife could stay home and raise the girls.

      Mary, my mother, was content to be a stay-at-a-home mom.  It just made sense with five kids.  This was common for white middle-class families in 1960s America.  Most married women stayed home while their husbands supported them.  The white women who worked were usually single, divorced, or widowed, and they had no choice but to join the workforce.  Black and Hispanic low-income workers represented most of the women working during this time.

      As life progressed into the 1970s and 1980s, my mother began to find her own way to add to the family income.  Like many women, she was beginning to venture outside the home, and she decided to take classes to become a hair stylist.  She had her own shop for several years and she built up a nice clientele and a comfortable shop that many people loved to visit.

      My father finally retired in 1998 at the age of 66.  He had worked for this company for 48 years.  He had held several long conversations with the owners about his retirement over the years.  “Don’t worry,” they told him over and over.  “We’ve got your back.”  He knew they knew he had worked tirelessly for them and, although, he would have liked to have seen some kind of retirement plan for himself and his fellow employees, he took the men at their word and kept working his way towards retirement.

      Thankfully, he created his own savings plan “just to subsidize” whatever the company gave him, but it turns out in the end, his own savings plan became his retirement plan.  The brothers who owned the company had come from a wealthy family and didn’t see fit to actually come up with a retirement plan for their employees.

When you’re busy traveling and golfing and such, you forget about things like that, I guess.  The everyday concerns of keeping up with the mortgage and buying food for the family are not in your radar because these things are so easily managed without much thought when you have more than enough money.  Somehow, many bosses seem to be so caught up in their own lives that they don’t really think about the lives of the people who work for them.

      This was the case with my father and his bosses.  I’m not sure if they gave him a watch or not.  But I do know they never did set up a retirement plan for him and he had to rely on his own savings and investments to carry him through.  He even went back to work for another company for a while after he retired.  “Just to stay busy,” he said.

      The partners sold the business a few years later and I’m sure they made a bundle.  It was a thriving business and the last thing I heard, the new owners had built a brand-new warehouse and office building.  The brothers retired in style.  I’m sure they had enough money to travel and enjoy the fruits of their labor.  They probably didn’t even have to stress about taking care of their families financially or ever worry or want for financial resources.  They had made a good living.  They were successful.

      But did they earn their money?   Did they labor for their financial security?  What did they do differently than my father?  He worked hard for many years.  He chose his job over spending time with his family most of his life.  He went to work sick many times.  My guess is that his co-workers probably did not really appreciate him coming to work sick, but Ralph felt duty-bound to be there every day.

      These brothers, like many employers, didn’t recognize the value of any of their employees’ labor in making them successful.  They just considered themselves successful.  They successfully built a successful building materials business, so they deserved all the financial success they enjoyed.

      It doesn’t matter in the game of life that they started out on third base.  Life isn’t fair.  That’s just the way it is.  Some people are born into a family with more money.  It’s not good to envy people because they have more money or are in a different class than you.  Just do the best you can with what you have.  Work hard and you’ll be successful, too.

This is the message workers have been given over the years.  Work hard and you’ll get ahead.  Have a good work ethic and the bosses will notice you and give you a raise and a promotion.  Stick with the company.  Be loyal and dependable and the employer will take care of you and your family.

      But there are big differences between people who make a living with money they already have and people who make a living with money that is earned through labor.  Money that is extra, over and above the living expenses needed to survive is called “capital” and capital can be used to make money.  (“It takes money to make money,” is almost always a true statement.)

People with a little capital may be able to start a small business but small business owners are usually working just as hard (usually harder) than their employees.

      People with a lot of capital may consider themselves working but their work isn’t like the labor of a carpenter, a waitress, or even an accountant.  Their work typically looks more like meetings, lunches, handing out assignments and signing paperwork.  Not to say this can’t be considered “work,” but they don’t usually find themselves counting the hours until time to go home or counting the money to figure whether their paycheck will be enough to pay for their basic living expenses.  And they usually aren’t paid by the hour.

      Working every day without the burden of basic financial survival is a much different way of living than worrying every single day (while you’re working) if the next paycheck will be enough money for you to pay the electric bill, buy your child’s medicine, and still leave enough to buy groceries.

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      But the message of the American system has been… Don’t be envious.  There isn’t a class system in the United States.  It’s all about how hard you work.  If you work hard, you’ll get ahead.    Your work will be recognized.  You’ll be appreciated.  You’ll be rewarded.  Be a loyal employee. Do the right thing.

      Webster’s Dictionary defines “labor” as “Physical or manual work done for hire; to work, to progress with great effort.”  The same dictionary defines a “capitalist” as “Someone who invests in a business.”  In our current society, the person with the capital may actually “labor” less but receive much greater rewards.

      But most Americans have been raised under the same influence of business and capital.  To get the most out of the workers, we have been raised with the mantra of “hard work will make you successful.”  We’ve been taught to have a good work ethic, do the right thing, be loyal to your boss and company, and, put your job ahead of everything else in your life if you want to get to the top.

      These concepts are ingrained in our psyche so much that we immediately think of a person as a loser if they quit a job, call in sick, or don’t work as hard as we think they should.  In fact, even though times have changed so much that few people stay in a job for thirty or forty years like my father did, there is still a stigma attached to workers who change jobs.

I’m one of those people who have worked many different jobs in my lifetime.  Maybe, I did it to rebel against my father who was such a loyal employee all those years.  Or, maybe, I’m just responding to the way our society is functioning in the 21st century.

      I was a rebellious teenager.  I left home when I was very young and I worked in fast food restaurants for my first few jobs.  I had no idea about work, or labor or retirement when I was 16 years old.  I was just doing what a lot of kids my age did.  I was trying to earn enough money to buy a car and rent a place of my own.  In the back of my mind, I figured I would work hard and get ahead.  I was smart enough to realize there was little opportunity for moving up in the fast-food world, so I began to take some typing classes and before long I was working in an office.  My pay was a little better than it was at the restaurants, but it wasn’t enough to live on.  Within a few years, I had married and divorced and was the sole provider for my two little boys.  I was beginning to feel the strain of working day after day, year after year, without ever getting ahead.  In the work world, I guess I only had myself to blame.  I was a single mother who had made some bad choices.

      I received a few little raises.  At some point, in the 1970s, I was making about $7.00 an hour.  But it was never enough to pay childcare, rent, utilities, and buy groceries.  I spent many days skipping lunch because I was trying to make the groceries last until the next paycheck.  Thankfully, my sons received free breakfast and lunch at school.  I don’t know what we would have done without help from the government, as bad as some people feel it is to get government help.

      Through the years, I found many ways to earn a little money.  I worked part-time jobs in the evenings.  I sold Tupperware kitchen products and Mary Kay makeup.  I changed jobs several times hoping that “this one would lead to something better.”

I was a good worker.  I put my heart into doing a good job.  I went to work every day unless I was sick or one of the kids was sick.  I worked overtime when I was asked.  I followed the rules to the best of my ability.  I was submissive to my bosses.  I knew my place.  I was an employee, earning my paycheck week to week.

      “This is just the way it is,” was ingrained in the back of my mind.  I worked this way until I got married again and then, had two more children.  Times were changing and more women were going to work, but for me, I was glad I was able to leave the workforce and stay home with my children for a while.

      We struggled with only my husband’s paycheck, but it was temporary.  When the kids were a little older, I went back to work.

      I also went to a community college and received my associate degree in Criminal Justice.  I thought this would open a new world for me and I might one day be able to earn enough money to help take care of my family.  I never had the desire to get rich, but I was already tired of working so hard and not getting anywhere.  I thought it was my fault for quitting school. 

      My world changed again when I went through another divorce and found myself the single mother and sole provider of four children.  Trying to hold it all together making $9.00 an hour as an entry-level probation counselor was depressing.  I kept telling myself this job was just a steppingstone for something better.  I needed to “put in my time.”  I would get some experience in the Criminal Justice field and soon it would pay off.  After all, I was earning more money than I did in my office jobs.  With my associate degree in Criminal Justice, I was making more money than I had ever made before.

I had been working for twenty years except for the few years I stayed home with the kids.  It was just starting to hit me that there isn’t much difference between $7.00 an hour and $9.00 an hour.  Working forty hours, I only made $80.00 more a week after earning my degree.  That’s over $300 more per month, but the way prices were going up, I was still always behind on paying for my basic living expenses.

      “I just read that it takes at least $10.00 an hour in a 40-hour job to take care of a home and family,” the single parent counselor at the college told me.  She was trying to encourage me.  She thought I should be getting settled in now that I had my degree and soon, she wanted me to transfer to the university so I could really increase my earnings.

      I did go on to the university later, but not before I began to have an awakening about money and finances and work and labor.  I began to see that maybe; it’s not just about how hard we work or the education we pursue.  Maybe, there are other concepts at work here.

      Maybe, we’re all so busy earning a living that we don’t have time to think about these concepts.  And, that idea that we don’t have time to think about the systems we live in, is one of the biggest problems.  Maybe, not having time to think is keeping us bound up in systems that are not working for all of us.

It took me many years to sort out these thoughts.  I also began to see labor and employment differently when I met my current husband, Andy, who had been going through his own awakening about labor in this country.  I chose to study more about these ideas when I went to the university.

      My kids are all grown now and working to survive in different ways.  Gone are the days when you commit to a company for an entire lifetime.  Andy and I blended our families as best we could when they were teenagers and young adults and each one of our six kids has struggled to find a balance between working your butt off for low pay and working at something that will be somewhat satisfying.

      Low-paying jobs are plentiful in today’s economy.  When someone says, “If you want to work, you can find a job,” they are right in a way.  There are still those fast-food restaurant jobs and they now pay about $8.00 an hour.  You can still go to school and raise your pay a little, like I did, or you can work part time jobs in the evening to make ends meet.

 

                          

 

 

 

 

 

      With Andy and I and our influence, each one of our grown children have at least had a “heads up” about what awaits them in the work world.  We would have loved to have been able to send them all to college or help them get started in some way like the parents of kids in families with money, but that has not been possible.

      We’ve been able to give advice, but not much in the way of financial help because we are still struggling today in our sixties.  We were hit hard by the Great Recession of 2008.  Unlike my father, I was never able to force myself to be loyal to an employer who did not appreciate me, and I was never able to set up my own retirement plan.

      I lost my “good job” in 2009 and have only been able to find temporary jobs since then.  Temporary jobs are another way the job market has changed.  Temporary work or contract labor saves the employers’ money and negates any real responsibility a company has to an employee.  As a worker, it’s hard to be loyal to someone you feel is only using you for their own benefit without any thought to your well-being as a person.

      In the old days of American manufacturing, when people like my father worked for a company for an entire lifetime the idea was that the company would take care of you in exchange for your service and dedication.  Companies offered benefits like health insurance for you and your family.  Bonuses and incentives were offered.

      But most of those companies and the concept of a symbiotic relationship with your employer are things of the past.  Not that some company owners were not selfishly reaping most of the benefits for the lucky few at the top, at least they tried to hide it because greed was still considered wrong.

      Today, they say openly, “This is the way it is,” “If you don’t like it, you can find another job.”  Today, if you don’t fit the mold of the worker they want, they can either fire you or make your life miserable until you quit.  And they wield this power in ways that are unfair and even cruel.

      During the first “Obama election” one of my daughters wore a small campaign button to work some days.  It said, “Women for Obama.”  My daughter was working in an office of a medium-sized business in a small rural town in Florida.

She worked with people who were mostly voting for Senator John McCain and many of them had campaign paraphernalia on their desks and bumper stickers on their cars.  She mostly kept to herself, but she did get the idea near the end of the campaign that some people did not like her button.  Some of her coworkers had been making sure she knew they were not voting for Senator Barack Obama.

      On November 5th, the day after the election, my daughter went to work at 8am as usual and was called into her supervisor’s office within a few minutes.  They told her they were “letting her go” because they didn’t have enough work for her to do.  She knew this wasn’t true.  She had been there for over two years and had been trained to do a lot of different jobs.

She had never been fired before and at first, she was devastated.  “How could they fire me?”  she asked me.  “I worked hard for them.”

      I thought she had to have a case for wrongful termination, and we should call a lawyer, but when we looked online, we found out that there is no law in Florida (or in most states) to prevent an employer from firing you just because they don’t like your political views.

      It was another understanding for me about the relationship between labor and capital in this country, and although, my daughter ended up “finding herself” and finding another job that she likes so much better, it reminded me that there needs to be more discussion about labor and capital, and workers and employers and what it means to be working for a living.