So far, Becky's new job consists of sitting in a cube, reading pamphlets and the company website. The word around her office is that things will pick up significantly after the new year, but in the meantime she's way bored. Way bored and making more as a temp than I made as a salaried IT guy. Which got me to thinking:
One of the idiotic aspects of corporate capitalism is the inverse relationship between the pain associated with a given job and its corresponding salary or wage. Example: it's much harder and more painful to be a fry cook than to sit in a cube and answer e-mail, but your average fry cook is going to make half or a third as much as an executive assistant. The most egregious case I can think of is that of consultants; men (maybe there are female consultants, too, but I never saw one) with MBAs and a few executive jobs on their resumes who tool around the country charging 100 bucks an hour to "streamline" and "restructure" other people's businesses. Think of the Bobs in Office Space: they show up, they fuck around, they fire a bunch of people.
For a great insider perspective on what utter horseshit consulting in the IT industry is, see this post from Joel on Software.
Becky, being, uh, given to tension, has found the situation at the new job really confusing. "But I'm not doing anything! Aren't they going to get mad, or send me home early or something?" But that, I point out, is not how corporate America works. As a call center customer service rep, every second you're on the phone over the target time counts against you. As a grocery store shelf-stocker, you'd better be stocking shelves the whole time you're on the clock. But as you move up the food chain, less and less in terms of concrete work is expected of you. At my last corporate job we had a guy whose job was, officially, to sit around and think about the company and how it fit into the industry. And he made six figures.
The point is: here in the heart of the neo-liberal economic order (and neo-conservative political order), it's possible for educated kids from a middle-class upbringing to make a lot of money doing next to nothing. And when things are going badly at school, sometimes I think I should. All I've got to counter-balance that notion is a great love of essays and continental philosophy and a few remaining shreds of self-respect and optimism about the role of education.
12.08.2006
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9 comments:
I make the same salary here, sitting at sick people's desks, (The phone rings. I say, "Oh. No, she's not here. ... maybe you should just call back tomorrow when she gets back?") reading your blog, and e-stalking, as I did enslaved by children's books. Picture a luxuriant bath, "Property management, take me away." I heart the man. Congratulations to Becky on arriving at the nexus.
aaaaahhh....Temp jobs. Way back in the day I worked at the litho-ofset plant that printed the wrappers for Karl Budding beef packages. I was paid $14/hr to sit around and watch the machine. There was almost no work involved.
That is until once every three hours or so a kleig horn would sound, and some grimy dude would emerge from the bowels of the press and yell "Clean it, boy"... At that point I had to mop down the rollers with some noxious and highly flammable concoction (no masks or other protective gear). At the end of the shift everybody would waddle over to these tanks of acetone and was the inks off of themselves...Not a good job in any way shape or form.
Temp work...the thinking persons purgatory.
Yo yo C-
There are exceptions to every rule, and I know you meant to mention that. :)
For example, my boss makes a shit load of money and works more than any person I have ever encountered. Ever. Of course, there are always people like him who just *have* to work their ass off all the time, no matter what they make. Its like they *like* working. Its actually like they *cant stop* working. He calls me from the bathroom of his hotel room and talks very quietly so his wife cant hear him working on their "vacation". He also hangs up ubruptly in those situations, too.
Also, I make more money now than I ever have, but I also work harder than I ever have.
Dont get me wrong, you speak the absolute truth, especially when it comes to that place that you and I once worked at (of which we never speak).
But... you know... there are exceptions too.
The end.
Shit, sorry, I forgot to add the caveat (i.e. the "I know this doesn't apply to everyone, some people who make money really earn it, etc.") I'll mention that in the next post.
I was just amazed at the whole phenomenon, especially contrasted with some of the things my friends have done to make ends meet in the past.
I loved temping. Back in college, I used to come home in the summers and make $10-12 to read books at jobs in air-conditionned, lunch-catered places. I remember one summer I read about six books by Kurt Vonnegut, several books I'd always wanted to read (e.g., A Separate Peace, The Fountainhead, both Wally Lamb books and a host of others) and then I got bored and started reading whatever what on the NY Times Bestseller List and Oprah's Book Club selections. I literally had hours to do nothing but read, it was GREAT... and I made something like $4000 that summer =D
On the flip side... I worked for a consulting firm after school, but I did the "real" work behind the IT desk while a bunch of morons like my boss had power trips, made six figures and it seemed like the only thing he did was call people on his cell phone and have lunch or coffee with people. He kissed a lot of client ass but he didn't do much else. Ugh.
My current state of bourgeois comfort is completely due to the fact that J is a consultant who gets paid very well to spend stretches of time listening to sports radio, watching baseball, and hanging out with our critters while "working" from home. I should feel bitter that I get paid almost nothing for working much more than he does, but the free paper and ink cartridge supplies buy me off.
As for temping...it was my favorite job! I once spent 3 months mindlessly typing codes into a billing system while listening to my favorite CDs. Because I was a "temp" no one expected anything from me, pretty much left me alone & paid me.
where are these amazing temp jobs? the only jobs i've had, i've had to work my butt off. I'm in the wrong business.
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