Ode To Gordon - or - The Cold, Black Heart Of Corporate Reality

[Pintrepid]

This guy, Gordon, was working at my employer when I was still in high school. He'd been there over 35 years, pretty much doing whatever he was asked, knowing the plant inside and out, seeing managers come and go.

He knew the current set of management was bullshit. Every one of them came in as temps, stuffing envelopes in the hand bindery. They'd gotten into mgmt because this company likes to hear corporatese. All you had to do is talk the talk, and you're in. It's guys like Gordon who actually walked the walk and got shit cleaned up after mgmt.

Then last year, the company as a whole had generally messed up, and, of course, the first thing they do is cut people. Gordon was getting old, and wasn't doing as much as the vultures around him, you know the type, the ones who bitch more than work, and get good people in trouble when it was really their trouble. Gordon got laid off last year.

So what's he gonna do? He turned 60 last year. His wife had medical issues as did his mother, so he had medical bills up the gazoo. He had a rattletrap of a car that billowed clouds of oil when he got to work ... and now he lost his job, with no warning.

That wasn't 6 or 8 months ago.

Gordon passed away on June 24th. He was 61.

And I thought ... Damn! That ain't no way to end a life. Gordon basically gave his life for a paycheck from a company that could care less if he lived or died.

Well, I'm still in that company myself. I feel like Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption, round about the time he'd had just about enough of that shit. "Get busy living, or get busy dying!" Fucking' ay RIGHT!

I'm like Gordon. Getting older. Being asked to run the machines that are total pieces of junk. They make me tired to the point of exhaustion.

Well, it's far passed time to get the hell outta that shithole and flush that shit down the toilet where it fucking belongs! It's gonna be hard to get anything done 'cuz I'm tired ALL the time ... but if I did the work I need to do to change shit, at least I could crash knowing that I'm tired for a REASON! And I WILL get the fuck outta there. BANK on it!

Miss you Gordon ... you tried to WARN me about this place!

[Itchigo]

Been there, that's exactly the situation I had at Marshall's. I had a GM that found I knew his job better than him, so guess who's work I did, in addition to my own? Even speaking Corporatese there didn't help you.

Sorry to hear about Gordon.

[elton]

Shit does happen. Poor Gordon is not alone and I think we all know too many peeps in similar position.

[Druadic]

 

That is sad man. Very sad. Like I've said before; you work as a slave and die as one. The people that work make jack shit and the folks that sit on their collective asses get the big bucks. It's a crock of crap.

Should make the people the fart around in offices and sit in desks get $7.25 an hour and the people that bust their humps get $25 and hour. That is how It SHOULD BE. Unfortunately, the working sector of the world is so corrupt it's not a joke. Those paper pushers are the low life scum of the workplace. Bar none.

My last boss was a real piece of work. No matter where he went in that plating plant his mouth kept running and 75% of what I could hear was garbage. He also had two other POS guys that were "higher uppers" that TRIED to harass me numerous times. Finally I just told them "Put up or shut up. Help me or take off and let me do my job". They didn't like that because they thought it would be funny to screw with me. I screw right back if the occasion calls for it. Treat me like crap, you'll get the same.

Want my respect? EARN IT. I want your respect? I EARN IT. It's the simple rules of human civilization. Not many corporations or bosses even know what it means either. Such a shame - they hang out with their own kind though; brown nosing bums and losers but not the REAL PEOPLE that work.