To Work, or Not to Work...

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Jay Pedro: "monday is the zit on your forehead before the big dance, of the week."

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Christopher Nipper: "first day being unemployed in quite a while...yep, this sucks."

These two posts, from literally opposite ends of the country, obviously say a lot about our economic status these days. One complains about work, the other laments about no work. In fact, I see this every single day. Someone is always complaining about their job at one of the places I work. As do I. I kick myself every time I whine about the state of my workplace, and the job I do there, or how much it seems the owners don't care about their employees. I am employed. And there are many not as fortunate as that.

But when did it become the status quo to just work? And work for people who don't care about you any more than they care about a mere piece of trash? People that throw the common worker away because they can, because it makes the numbers look better, or the equation equal out?

In this city I live in, the world's adult playground, the capital of sin, Las Vegas, everyone is disposable, transient, replaceable. There is no job security. And the people who run things know this fact all too well. They know they have the power to feed a family, or send them to the welfare line. But, I doubt they ever think of it on that personal of a level, because if they did, they wouldn't use such reckless abandon when making these decisions. Or maybe they would.

The reality of our world today is that there are not enough jobs for the people who want, or need to work them. A lot of good, hard workers - with families - are left to beg borrow and steal just to survive. Some of us are fortunate enough to have some stability in employment. A lot more of us are not. Companies are becoming stricter and stricter about who they hire. There are sometimes thousands of applicants for one or two openings. Competition and qualification are the highest rungs of the ladder. And everyone is fighting. To win, to survive, to eat.

Chris, I truly feel for you during this time in your life. I hope you will soon find work and be able to breathe a little easier.

Jay, get your head out of your ass. You have a great job, and dealing with its stresses is something you'd rather have than dealing with the look on your childrens' faces when you can't feed them.