Hard Work

There is a myth floating around about Americans ability to "do work" that looks at the number of hours worked compared to other countries, the focus on jobs and professions, and the innate ideological "frontier" type rhetoric that assumes that American's are self made "hard workers".  Simply put, that those that work hard are destined for success in America.  This of course is a fallacy as there are myriad factors, both social and individual, that play in.  Perhaps a more constructive way to examine the individual's role as a worker would be to look less at what an individual themselves contributes in effort, but more at what or who their contribution is for or on - how targeted, well-placed, and strategic their efforts are.

If a person wakes up in early in the morning and finds a job to do around the house and works hard at it until it is completed successfully they can sit back at the end of the day with satisfaction of a good day, that they worked hard and accomplished something.  This is the same if a person wakes up, gets themselves ready for, and then heads to work at office jobs, construction jobs, as project managers, engineers, retail, whatever.  These individuals go to work where success is measured less in terms of the effort put in, but through daily affirmation from colleagues/customers, in upward mobility, future career standing, etc.  While hard work may gain them this affirmation, it is not as much about how hard they work, but rather by how specific and strategic they work.  Both of these people have put in a solid days work.  But our society values one more than the other.  Working at home is not a paying position, thus does not carry financial value in the same way as work for pay or with a career orientation.  It is not just that you work hard, but what you work at and what the outcomes of those jobs are.

It used to be that a person could live off of the land and work done anywhere had a value in terms of satisfying life's needs.  You produced your own sustainable existence   That is no longer the case for virtually all of America and much of the world.  We now live in a "capitalized" world.  Our society is no longer based on "use-values" but strictly on "exchange values".  And the means of this exchange is based on money.  You have to make money to be able to exchange it for things even to barter with (or you can use debt, but that is another story, and still requires monetary capacity to obtain debt).  Thus if being able to have things is paramount to success and even more so to survival, whether you are a hard worker or not does not matter.  It is in fact whether you are the "right" kind of worker.

The capitalist system is based on capital being distributed throughout a local area, the globe, whatever and finding the cheapest or most efficient way of producing marketable things.  This capital - or the ones that control this capital - have power in this situation and can dictate what needs to be done both on a macro scale and in individual projects (companies), and jobs.  Thus if "the boss" or "the man" tells you this is the way something has to be done, or what needs to be done, then that is what is important, that is where your value as a worker comes from and where your value as a business asset lies.  It is not in your ability to work hard, this is a secondary factor.  For if you work hard, but do not do the job the way it is asked to be done, you are not a good worker.  You may be given some respite if they saw that you worked hard, but you will not find long term success if you keep doing the job "wrong" or for the "wrong" people, i.e. not the way the powerful capitalist reigning over you deems "right".  Therefore if you want to be successful, it is not about working hard, but continually doing what you are told and then working hard at doing it the way you are told.

This differentiates a lot of people in our society.  A hard worker does everything with a sense of drive and pride in their "productive output" whether their "job" is for "the man" or simply for themselves, their family, friends  whoever.  They approach even the mundane task with a sense of urgency and care that is guaranteed to do a decent job that doesn't cut corners or leave things undone.  A strategic worker works hard when it benefits them directly, and slacks off when it doesn't benefit them.

The problem here lies in that the strategic worker is one that will garner success in the capitalist system.  They do what they must to move forward in the capitalist system, yet may lack the integrity to move forward in another system.  Yes integrity is a strong word.  But isn't putting a genuinely solid effort into everything you do about the integrity of what you are as a human being?  When no one is watching do you cut corners, do you work hard?  When it "doesn't matter" financially or socially do you "work hard"?

No our society isn't made up of hard workers, it is made up of "strategic" workers.  They work when they must to move ahead - or simply survive - in this society.  There are plenty of workers that are actually much harder workers than so many other people but end up with little to show for it in material terms, lagging behind others of perhaps more questionable effort and principle.  The hard worker works hard at everything, and gains satisfaction from the mirror - not the pocket book.

This is even further exacerbated if they work hard in some capacity that runs against the social grain; that someone works towards altering the flow of the capitalist torrent.  Then no matter how hard they work, they are virtually guaranteed "failure" (as per our neoliberal societal measures).  There is no money in changing the system, no matter how hard you work at it.  It is inherently contradictory for a system not to maintain itself, to not self-perpetuate itself through its own unique and intricate system of social and cultural mores, rewards, and controls that maintain and expand upon its own unique status quo, its "equilibrium".  In Capitalism it is wage-labor, career success.  We also wrestle with religious and social factors, nationalism, prejudism, sexism, classism, etc.  But logically, any agent that works to change a system will not inherently be rewarded by that concurrent system unless that current system is in fact change itself.  That actor is bound to struggle and in our society today that individual is bound to be looked at as someone that "can't just put their head down and work hard".  That can't just "fit in and do as their told".  No, maybe they can't do that, but it is because the concept of a hard worker and "putting your head down" does not take into account what they're working on, only that someone in a position of (currently) Capitalist power deemed to be important.  If you're not working hard for them, as they want, you are looked at as not being a hard worker.  This is however so tremendously far from the truth.  Hard workers work hard no matter what they do or why, not just because they are told to or it strategically benefits their broader interests.  It is simply the way they do things.  If only our social and economic systems could perpetuate hard honest work over strategic shortcuts that don't bare as nice a reflection in the mirror...

A Job Clearing House

The more jobs one applies to the more one realizes that the system is set up for us to fail.  I recently started approaching my job hunting in a different way.  I was simply looking at opportunities through various media sources and searches, but then more recently I started focusing more on networking type of opportunties, volunteering, etc.  My chances suddenly looked up.  People tell you about jobs you might not have found otherwise, maybe you even have conversations with people about them.  They'll "put in a good word... blah blah blah".  But then what?  I still have no interviews.  Friends, family, acquaintances, professionals, etc.  It doesn't matter how qualified I am.  Companies have hundreds of applicants to hire from, if I don't have the job title on my Resume/CV, ten others might, and probably do.

This is one of the foundations of capitalism - a 'reserve' labor force.  That is why they always say that 4% unemployment is actually good for the economy.  This 'excess' puts the strength at the negotiating table in the hands of the producers rather than the laborers.  This keeps wages down, as if one person doesn't want that job for that wage, there is always another one that will.  Think sweatshop labor in the developing world, they'll take what they can get just to have a job - no matter how suspect the conditions are.

So... what can be done to better employ others while we wait for 'systemic evolution'?  I had a thought the other day about how the job search process could be aided.  As the current problem is that the people that you are applying to really have no clue of who you are or what your work capabilities are (other than the two pieces of paper that you sent them), why not find a way to neutrally evaluate people.  A clearinghouse of sorts that could act as an evaluator of personal ability for prospective employers.  A way for them to 'know' more about you specifically, the things that don't necessarily fit neatly into bullet points on a piece of paper.  It is people, not experience, that get jobs done.

I guess the bottom line for me is that my experience doesn't fit nicely into a cookie cutter.  I have lived in many places, had many different jobs, and studying a quite a few different things.  But I don't have the step by step employment history that seems to be desired.  Does this mean I am not capable of doing the job or even perhaps doing it better than others?  Of course not.  As a friend of mine said, "I can't believe that these people I work with have jobs and someone as capable as you does not."  But that's the system we live in.  Everything is subjective and specified.   Gone are the days when you would walk into an office, shake a person's hand, and deliver your resume.  They see you, they interact with you for a moment, they get a sense of 'you' - not the narrative you.  Everyone interprets things differently and one piece of paper is never enough to sum up a life's work.  

So how about it?  What if there was an neutral agency that would evaluate people and give them a score or evaluation of some sort to show there current day capabilities.  There could be an interview process, resumes, recommendations, whatever. This would give everyone the chance to be 'interviewed'.  To become more than a piece of paper.  If a person can never sit in front of someone and state their case as a living breathing human being, how can they ever differentiate themselves from others?   

Dear Miss Social Worker

So this is a letter that I hand delivered to the intake worker at the Dutchess Country  social services building following my application for social assistance.  I also emailed it to 20 representatives in the area that covered this office and my local officials.  I got two email responses and one phone call.  One was genuine, one was canned, and one was a boot-strap motivational speech.  Democracy at work, and our prejudices and social services programs at hardly working.

Dear Miss Social Worker,

On Tuesday I applied for Temporary Assistance with Dutchess County Social Services and was rejected. I understand that I do not meet the criteria and accept that judgment whole-heartedly. Any issue with this should surely rather be taken up with my congress person and legislative bodies. However, what I have a tremendously difficult time accepting is the way that you seemed to approach both me and my application. Yet still, I do not write this for me, but for everyone else that comes in your door looking for help and that you will probably approach the same way.

I thought that you were rude, inconsiderate, assumptive, and downright judgmental, without bothering to know me or anything of my situation. Yet you presumed to, and treated me as if I was automatically trying to take advantage of the system just by walking in your door.

Upon being told that I was not eligible, I asked: “so what other services are offered for people in my situation?” Your response was: “So you are asking me what we can do for you?” I was a bit taken aback, as it seemed kind of accusatory, and responded “I... guess so.” To which you responded in what I took as a very unhelpful and almost aggressive tone “What you should be asking is what you can do for yourself.” Wow!  Let me tell you what I've done for myself and why you shouldn't treat people that are exactly what the programs you provide, and tax payers give you a salary to provide, are supposed to help.

For over ten years I have been working, gaining business experience in management, marketing, fundraising, writing, research, and development all over the world. Educationally, I am at the end of a second masters degree.  The first of which is from the 30^th ranked university in the world, and the second is in Sociology and Anthropology – of which poverty is one of my main focuses. Since I returned to the US in late spring/early summer, I have applied for many jobs I feel that am well qualified for, only to not even be given an interview. All my study abroad/educational experience, and I couldn't get an interview as a study abroad adviser with SUNY New Paltz even with connections at the school.   In my last job I was the lead employee in obtaining a 2.2 million dollar private investment, and as a former Division I and professional athlete with dyslexia, I thought I would at least get an interview for a fundraising position with the Special Olympics in Wappingers Falls, yet I didn't.  All that academics and athletics background, yet still no interview with Marist as an academic adviser for athletes. This last position received 152 applications in 7 days – the position was accepting apps for 2 months.   I have been applying for work, both in the area and the city, and not even getting interviews.   In my last position I was 'Senior Analyst, and Head of Research and Development' for a company trying to provide medical evacuation services to wounded people in Iraq and Afghanistan.  For all intents and purposes I was the number two person in the company and running day-today operations – all of the jobs I am looking at here are good options, but it is not like I am holding out, waiting for a similar job to my last.

I picked up part-time work (all the hours they'll give me) selling running shoes in a specialty store in New Paltz (a forty minute drive for a ten dollar an hour job).  I worked on finishing this second degree in my spare time, looked for work, even started trying to write a book.  Yet I realized that in the world we live in, and especially in this type of global economy, that if I want to be able to guarantee employment for myself and my future that I can't sit around and wait for others to 'give' me a job – I will have to provide it for myself.  Thus I have added starting a business to my work load, and am trying to learn websites, find a designer that will work for free, and continue to research and write content for the site. To make ends meet I am adding officiating of Women's Lacrosse (a sport I have never played), but this won't show much income for a few more months.   I am volunteering in local government doing organizational and administrative work, and tried to volunteer with non-profits and specifically with the Dutchess Community Action Program.  I almost got a job with them when I went in to apply for food stamps.  Funny how it was the only interview I've had since I've been back in the US and it was because they randomly liked me enough as I applied to ask me in for a job interview!! With luck this may work out if the position will actually get funding and exist.

So you ask me what am I doing to help myself?  Well, even being learning disabled I almost have two masters degrees, I've worked hard for over ten years, and am putting in seven day weeks and many 12 hour days balancing work for pay, volunteer work that may network me into a job or community, and entrepreneurial work that may allow me to never ask for assistance again.  Yes, I could probably take a High School kid's job working fast food, but if I did that, when would I be able to apply for work and get out of the 'cycle of poverty'?

Social services, are designed specifically to help people like me.  People that have come on tough times and just need a little help to get 'over the hump'.   Your assertions offended me.   My whole goal is to try to make a difference in the world, and I've been pushing and driving myself to do this for almost two decades.   I am working at 8 am and usually at 8 at night, every day – just ask my girlfriend how much time I have to spend with her.  I should be exactly the person that both you and the system want to help.  I will be a success story. Yet even with all this, I am not upset about me not getting temporary assistance.  I am upset for all the other people that won't get it and for how they will likely be treated by you – like criminals trying to take advantage of the system.

In 1996 we decided to 'end welfare as we know it', and as a result there aren't the support services that the rest of the industrialized world offers.  We leave people in need to largely fend for themselves.  And the worst part about it – and I was sad to confirm all the studies I had read that cited this – is that people are treated in a way that makes them not want to come back and ask for help again no matter how desperate things may get.  The whole goal of Social Services in this county, and maybe even country, is not to 'help' people, rather to try to have as few people as possible on the roles.   I was treated like that by you on Tuesday.   You did not want to help, you did not want to care, you did not even want to show me the respect that any human being deserved.  Perhaps you feel no empathy for people in need, maybe you think you are above the people that you are supposed to be helping.  Perhaps, the job itself has put this presumptive toll on you.  But if any of these are the case, then you should leave your position.  If you believe that everyone there is there to cheat the system, and you then treat them as 'criminally' minded, then find new work.  Because you are not only not helping people, but you are both hurting them and humiliating them.  And some – this must seem so hard to believe – but some, are actually working their tails off just to try to stay afloat in bad times.  Hoping that this hard work will pay off and leed to good times.

Sincerely,

Timothy D. Weldon

PS. If you do decide this isn't the job for you, I've enclosed my resume. If you could please pass it on to the appropriate people I'd appreciate it.