Getting Ripped
Does not involve a bong. Sorry.
I must be Rip Van Winkle.
I can tell, because I just woke up and I must have missed a couple of decades because somewhere along the line the social contract between employees and employers just up and died. The deal was; you work, you get supplied enough to “own” some land, a house, a fence if you like, a car, utilities, phone, food, and a few bucks to spare in case you want to raise some kids. You took care of the business, the business took care of you. I’m old enough to remember this and I’m sorry if you aren’t.
Look around. Now it’s “we want all your contact information, social security number, addresses for the last ten years, background check, social media accounts, and the knowledge that you represent the company at all times and should never express negative opinions of it or do anything that might tarnish its image even if you’re off the clock, on holiday, and in Europe.”
Oh, and enjoy being paid maybe a third of a living wage with no benefits. Can’t eat? Go cry to the government and after some paperwork and interviews they might decide you deserve to live and feed you.
This all happened during one lifetime. ONE. LIFETIME. I’m not even a fucking senior citizen…yet!
Why in the name of Flying Spaghetti Monster are we allowing for this? How is this in any way even forgiveable let alone logical, ethical, or desirable for any but those at the very tippy top? If you’re not at least in management you better get a second job which will also want claims on you and everything you do on and off the job and you best hope your two owners can agree on what hours they have your body.
Heed this; if you read this, you are meat. A meaty little profit earner. You will be trained to do tricks for someone else’s amusement and most likely someone else’s credit. You are a number on a spreadsheet somewhere and may never meet anyone more than a level or two above or below you. You may never like any of the people you work with. There will be this weird disconnect because even though you're both there to earn a living and ostensibly working towards the same goals, you will often also be competing for favours, promotions, and rewards. It may even be that some or all of you have no passion for the job and are just there to earn a wage.
Look at this planet. Take a walk. Touch grass. Google Earth the planet if you like. Some of it is still beautiful and vital. We could be running wild and loving to music in this endless garden paradise. Or we could make up imaginary borders and countries and tie our identities to them and go through endless drudgery and fighting for slops.
Where are the words to find the people to reclaim our planet and our lives from these parasites and their private jets and parties while we live like free range fucking chickens waiting for slaughter??
“Oh hey did you hear Netflix has this new show starting…”
Oh just shoot me.
I'm convinced that the cause of this is social media. Thirty years ago, companies had no claim over your personal life, aside from a few outlier mega-corporations which made you sign NDAs and No Compete clauses. When you clocked out, you were on your own time, which your company had no say over; nor did they really care, because unless you ran around shouting about how you were an employee of Acme Corp., there wasn't anyway for someone to know that.
Flash forward to today. It is likely that the company you work for has a social media presence. And if your personal social media presence can in any way be linked to your employer's, you're screwed. Everyone is increasingly connected, to the point that our personal and public lives have essentially overlapped, like a Venn diagram.
As for money and the corporate ladder, that's all an inevitable part of capitalism. American capitalism involves celebrating success, which means obscenely wealthy people have no incentive to give back or treat their employees with respect.
I feel you, Fae, and I am also old enough to remember life before the oligarchs.