You'd think employees would really step lively in such an uncertain time, with mass layoffs everywhere and unemployment approaching double digits.
It ain't necessarily so.
It doesn't seem to make much difference. It appears a goldbrick is always a goldbrick, and screwing off goes on regardless.
A friend of mine works the overnight shift at a local marina. Not the greatest job in the world, he admits, and there's a lot of dead time. But he's raising a family from this gig, he does have benefits, and he enjoys what he does. He finishes up at around 7 a.m., but it's anybody's guess whether he'll really break out of there at that time. It seems the day crew consists mostly of college-age folks, and it's not easy to get a college person to be in an upright position at that hour. I know of what I speak here; I was that way at that age. But his relief is often late or absent, and it's a crapshoot whether these folks will actually call in first.
His wife was telling me about him working another unscheduled, extended shift the other day, and I suggested there's something wrong with that picture.
"Some folks don't have jobs and they will work," I said. "These people have jobs and don't work. Maybe they ought to trade places."
I shouldn't kick, though. I was on a reduced schedule for a few months, and thanks to someone blowing off a job, it looks like I may be back to 40-hour weeks. And, I think I can put my mind to rest about further cutbacks at work; this did give me more anxiety than a grown man needs.
A caveat: Nothing's official, so I'm not counting my chickens right now. My household budget is still pitched around my old, post-cutback numbers.
It goes something like this: We have four gate clerks on the job, plus a fifth who is on a semi-permanent leave of absence. Of these, only one was working 40-hour weeks. One who works the closing shift, is a 30-hour man, but that's his choice because he has a second job. The other two (I'm one of them) are on 30-hour weeks; enough to keep the benefits active. Plus we have a load planner, who decides which containers go on the next train.
Anyway, the load planner had been doing her level best to lose her job. This week, she pulled a no-call, no-show two days in a row, meaning legally that she had abandoned her job. The full-time gate clerk slid into the load planner's slot, and the other two (again, I'm one of them) are getting a lot more hours. I'm helped here because I show up ready to do my job every day, which kind of stands out in an industry where people will "lay out" for just about any reason.
Meanwhile, I can breathe a little easier. We've had a few other cutbacks, and some of the yard employees were laid off. Of the gate crew, I'm the one with the least seniority, so of course every time the ax fell somewhere I'd feel the breeze from it. But my department has already been cut practically to the bone.
There's scuttlebutt the other gate clerk may come back off permanent perpetual leave in a week or two, so as mentioned there's nothing official in my standing. I do have an edge, though. That person (who has seniority over all of us) had raised goldbrickery to an art form.
Although I have this tendency to worry about things, and even invent a few new anxieties if everything's looking good, I can probably go about my job without thinking of the ax.
It ain't necessarily so.
It doesn't seem to make much difference. It appears a goldbrick is always a goldbrick, and screwing off goes on regardless.
A friend of mine works the overnight shift at a local marina. Not the greatest job in the world, he admits, and there's a lot of dead time. But he's raising a family from this gig, he does have benefits, and he enjoys what he does. He finishes up at around 7 a.m., but it's anybody's guess whether he'll really break out of there at that time. It seems the day crew consists mostly of college-age folks, and it's not easy to get a college person to be in an upright position at that hour. I know of what I speak here; I was that way at that age. But his relief is often late or absent, and it's a crapshoot whether these folks will actually call in first.
His wife was telling me about him working another unscheduled, extended shift the other day, and I suggested there's something wrong with that picture.
"Some folks don't have jobs and they will work," I said. "These people have jobs and don't work. Maybe they ought to trade places."
I shouldn't kick, though. I was on a reduced schedule for a few months, and thanks to someone blowing off a job, it looks like I may be back to 40-hour weeks. And, I think I can put my mind to rest about further cutbacks at work; this did give me more anxiety than a grown man needs.
A caveat: Nothing's official, so I'm not counting my chickens right now. My household budget is still pitched around my old, post-cutback numbers.
It goes something like this: We have four gate clerks on the job, plus a fifth who is on a semi-permanent leave of absence. Of these, only one was working 40-hour weeks. One who works the closing shift, is a 30-hour man, but that's his choice because he has a second job. The other two (I'm one of them) are on 30-hour weeks; enough to keep the benefits active. Plus we have a load planner, who decides which containers go on the next train.
Anyway, the load planner had been doing her level best to lose her job. This week, she pulled a no-call, no-show two days in a row, meaning legally that she had abandoned her job. The full-time gate clerk slid into the load planner's slot, and the other two (again, I'm one of them) are getting a lot more hours. I'm helped here because I show up ready to do my job every day, which kind of stands out in an industry where people will "lay out" for just about any reason.
Meanwhile, I can breathe a little easier. We've had a few other cutbacks, and some of the yard employees were laid off. Of the gate crew, I'm the one with the least seniority, so of course every time the ax fell somewhere I'd feel the breeze from it. But my department has already been cut practically to the bone.
There's scuttlebutt the other gate clerk may come back off permanent perpetual leave in a week or two, so as mentioned there's nothing official in my standing. I do have an edge, though. That person (who has seniority over all of us) had raised goldbrickery to an art form.
Although I have this tendency to worry about things, and even invent a few new anxieties if everything's looking good, I can probably go about my job without thinking of the ax.
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