Summer Tourists

The past few days were spent making like a tourist. Mary and I finally managed to coordinate our calendars, and by leveraging the holiday on Monday, and adding a couple of days following America’s paean to workers, we pieced together four days/three nights of what was our summer vacation, 2014.

American workers take fewer vacation days than anyone else with an advanced economy in the world because we’re the only place where workers aren’t guaranteed paid vacation time. Nearly ¼ of all U.S. workers get no paid holidays or vacations at all—I would fall into that category, residing in free agent nation. Another survey indicates that Americans who accrue paid time off only take half of it on average. Continue reading

Do You Have the Knack?

There is a narrative that says that the dawn of the 21st century has brought significant changes to our structures of work and economics. I won’t dispute that, but I’ll also say, the old way of doing things is still firmly entrenched and pushing against the status quo requires considerable effort and savvy. Even then, swimming upstream is hard.

Social media regularly serves as the 21st century’s equivalent of snake oil. Broad claims about the “new frontier” often reveal, when you look beneath the veneer that The Who were right; “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” Not always, but often enough to know that things still are oriented to a certain way of conducting business. Continue reading

Check Your Technology

Technology is ubiquitous in our lives as Americans, and pretty much the norm throughout the western world. Some believe that it has the capacity to cure all that ails us; others harbor sentiments about it akin to Martin Luther’s feeling for the devil, when he turned and threw his inkwell at him. Whether you love, hate, or are ambivalent about technology, it’s here to stay. Complaining about it won’t change anything. Continue reading

Free Agents, Roller Coasters, and Pushing Past Failure

Hop on the roller coaster--the ride is just fine!

Hop on the roller coaster–the ride is just fine!

There is a myth that successful people have some kind of special advantage. Perhaps they possess a special “success gene.” That last sentence might seem fatuous unless you regularly hear the litany of excuses that people make about why they regularly fail to deliver, or worse, say things like, “it’s easy for you.” So why do some people succeed, and some people, exceedingly? Continue reading

Candy and popcorn

When I’m working a seasonal assignment, it’s for one thing and one thing only. “Show me the money, man!” Perhaps that’s why I’m sensitive to efforts to turn work into a carnival, or something approximating “Romper Room.”

Let me start out by saying that I’ve never been much on employers plying me with non-financial incentives. I’m not overly covetous (I don’t think) and I’ve had jobs that paid shit for wages in my past, but living in the U.S. of A. takes some ka-ching to keep a roof over your head and wheels beneath you. As much as I enjoy cycling, I can’t see the practicality or the feasibility of a business trip from Portland to Presque Isle by bicycle. Continue reading

Dialing while drunk

Last night was the second in a series of what will be nine contiguous nights chasing the moonlight as a seasonal employee on assignment. I’ve been doing this work just long enough now that I’m able to really focus on the callers, as well as my surroundings, and less on the technical components of navigating the order fulfillment system. It’s what I refer to as “being in the zone,” at least when it comes to being an order taker. Continue reading

Back in the saddle

Being out of work felt like employment purgatory, some kind of in-between state betwixt work and permanent slackerdom. Fortunately for me, this state was short-lived and I’m happy to report that as of yesterday, I’m back in the fold of gainful employment. Actually, I’m on a roll, as it looks like I’ll be working not one, not two, but probably three jobs, or at least managing three disparate income streams. Continue reading