How Fucking Hard Is It To Get Fucking Laid Off In A Recession? Part II
Actually really easy, as it happens. I knew it long before it happened, construction workers are worse than a sewing circle when it comes to gossip. Not only that but one only had to look around to see that there were too many carpenters and not enough work to go around. So they fished us out to other jobs where there was no work and then laid us off in small groups as opposed to one big one. I sometimes think that I should be grateful for the extra two and half days, which I am, but I am also annoyed at the habit of fishing guys out just to lay them off. Personally I'm happy to be laid off. This last weekend I thought about it alot and the fact that I hadn't been laid off since I came back to work when I was 22. There was the temptation to be pissed and just show up for my last job (which was interior work) with my concrete harness and bags on. In the end I went and bought a new tool belt and leather suspenders (occidentals, fuckin' sweet). I knew I was getting laid off, but I wanted to go out like I came in, with my head held high and giving them the best I had. Fuck them, that was for me.
There can be no question that there has been both in terms of quantity and quality, something lagging for quite some time from this blog and even from my comments on other blogs. I remember back to when I was 21 and working on my first dam. I worked with a Texan named Rex who was also an apprentice at the age of 56. For the majority of his life he had worked in factories in Texas. We carpooled together about an hour each way everyday. I asked him one day why was a man who should be looking at retirement eyeing a new career, in construction of all fields. I don't remember why he chose construction but I will always remember what he said in terms of why he left the factory. He said something about the fact that in the factory he felt like an onion where everyday they took another layer off him. He felt that they would just keep taking until there was nothing left and then simply throw him away. So he fled while there were still a few layers left. I don't think I've ever respected a man so much just for running away.
These last few months I've felt like that proverbial onion. So while I've never been unemployed I think I can manage, we'll see.
4 comments:
In 1949-50 Dad was invalided out of the London police, aged 33. His incapacity was earned by reckless tackling on the soccer field, greatly helped by a botched cartilage operation in war-time Cairo (which didn't stop him playing cricket into his late 40s). The Police offered a cash lump sum or a minimal pension: he took the latter (when he died, aged 87, it was producing more per month than the lump sum offered).
So we left London to take over my grandmother's country pub.
Within hours of removal, he was approached by the husband of my mother's school-friend. An extra pair of hands was needed on a major painting job.
... So Dad began a new career as a painter, on a lighthouse on the North Norfolk coast.
No sooner was the job complete when it rained. They'd used the wrong paint and it all neatly slewed off.
... So he became a clerk in the civil service, on the local USAAF base.
When he finally retired, aged 65, he could boast he had never been out of work. His life, from the age of thirteen, when he went as a boy with the local builder, had included being a gardener's lad, lackeying round the local Big House, serving an apprenticeship on steam locomotives, the Metropolitan Police in the first London blitz, a Chief petty Officer on lend-lease PT boats, running a pub ...
He could be an evil toad; but we loved him.
One door closes. Another opens.
It will, too, for you, Zach.
Keep smiling. Keep blogging.
Good to hear you aren't too upset, but I hope something else turns up soon.
Malcolm,
I appreciate the support. I was listening to National Public Radio and one of the presenters was recalling when he was fired from his first job in broadcast. His boss told when firing him that until one is fired, one never knows whether or not one has a career or fluke. I thought alot about those lines before my layoff. I think I'll keep plugging away at construction for now. I think one of the main reasons so many guys sit on the bench for so long is that the contractors always say, "we'll call you back as soon as we get some work". Both parties know that it's mostly a lie but we keep believing that the contractor values us enough to call us back. It's not until six+ months pass that guys start to really look around for other work. I must admit that I did work for a good contractor, but a contractor none the less who always viewed me as a man hour (even if they liked me).
I'll keep plugging away as best as I can.
Garibaldy,
Thanks.
Keep us posted. It's good that you're so - relatively - positive. But as Garibaldy says, the sooner you have something else the better.
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