I tried to get my summer grass-cutting/general maintenance bullshit job back at the Village of Bethlehem a couple days ago, and basically got rejected. I was actually very suprised to say the least. It was the perfect job, at least for me. I can accept rejection, it's usually uneventful, except when there's bullshit attached.
See, I went in to get my job back about a month or so ago, and was told to come back. I was told that they were only hiring two people this summer for help, and as of then I was second in line. Why no job? Well, because the mayor had an "obligation" to one of the people that had worked there longer than I had. If that kid wanted his job back, he had the seniority. That's understandable, so I waited awhile and finally called and found out that said kid did not want his job back. I dropped in a couple of days ago, and that's where the fun began.
All of a sudden, I'm his "third consideration" for the job. Where did this mysterious second person come from? And why was I not given the first come, first serve consideration? I never asked. Asking would mean that I cared, or that it bothered me, and honestly...I'd rather just bitch about it on here and go on with my life. I know, pathetic.
There are a few reasons why I was rejected that deal with some things that happened the previous summer, and IMO, it makes this situation all the more hilarious.
My wages. See, Bethlehem doesn't have enough money to throw at 3-4 people looking for a summer job, unless they pay less than minimum wage. The three people that I worked with last year were all making somewhere in the $3.50 range, possibly even a little less than that. I was making $5.15 unbeknown to all of them, and the road/maintenance crew. Keep in mind, this is a full-time, 8:00-4:00, 40 hour a week job. That's $200+ a week, and I didn't have to work on nights and weekends. A perfect job for a college student.
When I went in, the mayor was like a damn broken record about the "screwing around" that went on last year. The only problem is, he doesn't know that his actions were what drove me to sit on my ass more often than I worked. For the first few weeks that I worked there last year there was a different mayor that got voted out. Mayor McCheese was a cool old man that had a better grasp on the reality of the work we were doing and the money we were making. Not to mention, he was the one that hired me for $5.15/hr. I would do a job or two in the morning, take it easy, do a job or two in the afternoon. It was great. I could load up my car with everything that I needed and go out on my own. He was notorious for saying things like "When you're done with that, don't come back." (Meaning, go home and still be counted for an 8 hour day) McCheese definitely believed in quality over quantity.
The new mayor was the exact opposite. Trust me, I wasn't stupid enough to not expect some kind of change, but this mayor had no respect for our job at all. Under him, we basically worked ourselves out of a job. We would do as many jobs as quickly as possible in the morning, and as many as quickly as possible in the afternoon. It's not cool when you're sweating balls by 10:00 in the morning. Take into consideration that the other three were making Mexican sweatshop wages of about $3.50 an hour, and you get a better feel for how all of this was going.
We were also under constant surveillance. If it wasn't the mayor rolling up in his new Ford Mustang, rolling down the window and giving it a "How's it coming?", it was the road/maintenance crew. Before we never really saw them during working hours. They might drop off some supplies if we needed it, or pick us up when we were done, and that was it. Shortly after the transition period to the new mayor it became their new job to keep a constant eye on us. Whether it was direct orders, or if it was due to people that were afraid of their own job security passing the buck, I don't know. As soon as we were done with one job, one of the big white trucks would show up like clock-work and we would be whisked away.
On top of all of this, he was extremely stingy with our hours. Our hours were under close watch and anytime that wasn't spent working was docked from our pay. This is reasonable at any normal job, but you have to consider the work we were doing versus the money we were (or weren't) being paid. You can probably go out and get paid roughly $30-40 to cut one decent sized yard, and mind you, we weren't doing ordinary work by any stretch of the definition. We were mostly cutting extremely steep banks or doing jungle-thick weedwacking jobs that no sane person would go near. I was getting paid around $41 dollars a day for doing at least 2-3 of these types of jobs a day, and the other three were making about $28. So, if you realize that had we been independent workers we would be making about $120 or atleast $60 a day, you realize how absolutely ridiculous this was getting.
I actually think that it would be a natural response to, at some point in time, say "screw this noise." Which is exactly what I did. Instead of driving by to pick us up and take us to the next job, they would come by and see us sitting on our asses under a nice shady tree, not lifting a finger. It was inevitable.
Obviously, with all of that, I (in particular) pissed some people off. So, sitting around the lunch table soon became an unpleasant experience. And, what do I do when I'm provoked? I talk shit. And, I would have to say that the road crew didn't appreciate it very much, and there's no doubt in my mind that a select couple of them cried to the mayor when they found out I was coming to get my job back. Keep in mind these are 30-50 year old men making several more $'s an hour than myself, but generally just as lazy and useless, that somehow became so concerned about my job and how fast I was working. It's funny because the Head Honcho of them all makes roughly $15/hr and does nothing. That's not a figure of speech, I literally mean he does nothing, zilch, nada. He drives around in his truck, doing nothing but wasting gas. And when he gets tired of driving around, he hides somewhere and sleeps in the truck!
I always make the mistake of giving people the benefit of the doubt and start with a clean slate. Had I remembered how absolutely unpleasant it was to work there under the new mayor I probably would have never went to get my job back in the first place. If I wanted to work under overzealous manager-types I would have gone back to Wendy's or Kroger. Looks like I miss out on the beautification of Bethlehem's guardrails this summer!
Did I mention not to vote for him?
He did it.
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Posted at 11:00 PM by Brandon
-Stanley Cup Play-Offs '06
