Social Beat

Since being let go from my previous job in February, I was job hunting long and hard to find something stable. After I had lost my job, I received my tax refund and since then, this refund was the only thing that was holding me over until I found an employment opportunity at a Walmart store. Although hesitant about working at Walmart, once I received a call to set up an interview with this ultra mega retail giant, I took the opportunity constantly reminding myself that it would only be temporary until I found something more desirable [and higher paying]. This did end up becoming the game plan. When the hiring manager extended to me a job offer for a “courtesy associate” position, I accepted said position.

After the first day working this position, I was already fed up. My whole body seemed to absolutely hate me because I felt sore everywhere. According to the job description of a “courtesy associate,” I was responsible for pushing rows of carts in from the parking lot, replenishing the supply of shopping carts for customers to use [and abuse]. Also apart of this official job description, I was responsible for picking up trash in the parking lot whenever I came across some laying wherever it may have been irresponsibly left by the piggish public. In order to perform these job duties, I had to be outside in the parking lot, which meant that I had to slather on sunblock at the beginning of every shift, resulting in me not only feeling greasy and sticky from the sunblock and sweat, but also feeling gritty and dirty from vehicle exhaust, as well as the dirt that flew through the air during strong wind storms.

Growing continuously aggravated, these working conditions weren’t at all justified by the $8.00 per hour pittance of a pay wage, as well as the barely-worth-it 20 hours a week. I spoke with my immediate supervisor over a phone conversation one day, requesting a transfer indoors to a cashier position, claiming that I was having “severe allergic reactions to the spring-time pollen” [when you have the allergy card in your hand, why not play it?]. That plan went south in a quick hurry—the supervisor responded to my request in a seemingly bitchy tone of voice and shot me down. After that phone call ended, I became completely unmotivated and unwilling to do any work at this job.

Continuing my job hunt, I found an open position at a local natural grocery store. Jumping on the opportunity, I was called in for an interview and a few short days later, I was offered the job at the natural grocer. After accepting this position, I had absolutely no problems waking up my laptop, opening Word, and composing a two-week’s notice to submit to Walmart as soon as I possibly could.

It was because of the members of management at Walmart royally shafting me, as well as the poor working conditions that I decided to be a “no-call, no-show” for the last few shifts I was scheduled for as a “courtesy associate” [a.k.a. parking lot bitch].

After being hired into a position with Walmart, it didn’t take me long at all to figure out just how substandard the workplace truly was. As a courtesy associate, I was one individual hired to do the work of two or three people, all for the inadequate pay wage of $8.00 per hour, mere cents above the legally-set minimum wage for the state of Colorado. The entire month and a half I worked in this position, I was very observant of how other workers were treated. Every employee was expected by management to be motivated to perform this shit work they “had” to complete.

Personally, I do not intend to libel Walmart and their business practices in this column [as tempting as this may be]. However, Walmart is a company that does very little to actually help their workers. Let’s be realistic—exactly who can survive on an $8.00 per hour pay rate, especially in this day and age with the economy in the state that it’s in? Because the present state of the economy is so poor, this is an employer’s market. Since thousands are out of work, companies such as Walmart literally have the pick of the litter and can hire whoever they want. When all the power of the job market lies in the hands of corporate america, where will the corruption end? Will we see an end to the corruption?

Since coming out to my family about my sexuality, it has been quite the experience, quite the adjustment. The biggest thing that certain people within my family ask is “why?” They ask that question as if I woke up one morning and decided for myself that I’m going to be homosexual for the rest of my life. So in disgust, I ponder how to answer this question without completely losing them mid-conversation [a conversation, need I mention, that they usually initiate]. Not feeling the motivation to actually give a response, I tell them anyway: “I’m sexually attracted to men, and it’s not like this is a choice that I made.”

Hearing such response usually prompts them to throw their hands up and say “I don’t buy that.” Well, quite frankly, I’m not selling anything. I own this outright.

I use this instance as an example that prompted me to write this column. How come we as people just can’t be? Why is it that every time you own something, someone has to try to strip it from you as if there’s no basis for the way you live? These “stripping” efforts seem to come from the idea that “you will conform to society or be cast out.” Seems pretty accurate, right? I think so. The ideas of the conformist majority that have been carried through our society almost demand obedience, for people to become sheep and to not deviate from what is considered “normal.”

Having said this, I think about the people that lived back through the 1900’s. If you were a gay individual during that century, genuinely attracted to your same sex, you absolutely could not be open about it. And if you so much as dared to be open about it, you got your ass kicked by a gang of five or six homophobes with way too much pride to let you just continue walking home at night. In this present day and age, I personally breathe a sigh of relief due to the fact that extreme homophobia such as this is becoming more frowned upon and socially unacceptable. But it is sad to think that homosexual people back in the day had to conform to what society wanted them to be, just so they could be safe, so they could live.

I use homosexuality in society simply as an example for what I am writing about. Considering religion, if you do not identify as Christian or you don’t believe in God, you are viewed in a negative light. Again, why? Instead of passing judgement on people for not following the Bible and going to church, why not just let people live. Thinking about this the other day, I was approached by two older men at my college that were passing out pocket-sized versions of the new testament. As I passed by, I responded with a “no, thank you” and instantly I was stared down until I turned a corner into a hallway.

My question: why are we a society that doesn’t just let people be? Why do people feel the urge to “convert” others into their line of thinking? And because our society is so inclined towards conformity, would it be safe to say that same societal conformity hinders free thinking?

We have all worked a job where there was some level of office politics [drama following the politics]. In the workplace, there are people that are there to clock in, put in a full day, then clock out and go home. And on the flip side, you have the brown nosers, who’s only goal in life is to impress the boss they work under in hopes that it will advance them in their lives and professional careers. And in most cases, when you brown nose the boss, you do wind up getting some kind of raise or promotion and you actually have advanced yourself forward. As a result, you feel great satisfaction in “accomplishing” something great. But when you kiss your boss’s ass, are you hindering yourself rather than helping your cause?

One of my great friends, Natasha, recently had something happen to her in her place of employment that prompted me to write this column. Natasha works as a personal assistant for a gentleman in the downtown area of Denver. Because her workload can sometimes be intense and demanding, her boss understood this fact and recently hired a second personal assistant to take some of the work load off. Since Natasha had been working for her boss in her current position for over a year, she was essentially relieved that there was someone else to work along side her, to pick up the work. But she was also wondering why it took her boss so long to finally hire the second assistant. For purposes of anonymity, I’ll refer to the second assistant as Joe. 

After Joe was hired, Natasha noticed that he was really kissing the boss’s ass. Instead of Joe actually doing the assistant work that he was hired to do, he was straying off and doing unrelated tasks that were only intended to butter up the big man, not to help Natasha in any way. Two days ago, Joe was called into the boss’s office for a discussion. Natasha, watching this, thought that Joe was getting canned because he wasn’t helping her in the office. Instead, after the meeting, Joe had walked out and gave Natasha the news that he was getting a pay raise, explaining to her that the boss thought he was putting in an extra effort to help around the office and that it was time to reward him with the raise.

After Natasha had been told that Joe was getting a raise, she was absolutely furious, and rightfully so. Natasha had been working there for over a year before Joe was hired [keep in mind that she never received a raise during her time working there], and after three months of Joe working there he was given a raise. On occasion, I have stopped into Natasha’s office so that we could go out for lunch together, to break her away from the stress, even if that break was only for an hour. On these few occasions, I have witnessed exactly what she does and what kind of stress she is put under, and I don’t blame her for being as frustrated about the situation as she is.

After Joe getting his pay raise had simmered on Natasha’s back burner, she finally had a solid mental peace and clarity to brush it off. But what could an assistant do, in all actuality? Consider the unfortunate reality of office politics—in every work environment, there is a “pecking order.” And when you’re apart of any said pecking order, the power and pull that you have is already determined once you’re hired, and it usually doesn’t amount to much. Having said this, when a person is in that position, they have the option of doing one of two things: 1). working their ass off and not expecting a raise or promotion, but seriously wanting one, or 2). being the office kiss-ass to get it faster, not putting forth an honest effort worth a damn.

Option number one would bring to a person an absolutely true sense of self-worth and self-satisfaction at the end of the day, knowing they put in the work to make them feel exhausted when they got home at night. Option number two would bring a person the immediate means of acquiring a false sense of self-worth, but that person wouldn’t have put in the work ethic needed to back up that success.

I write this column because it’s interesting to think about the kind of world we live in when it comes to today’s working people. Bringing this subject matter into question, do we really value and reward kissing ass instead of a hard work ethic in the professional world? And when a person does kiss ass in the workplace, what does that say about that person’s character, their drive? Feel free to message me or comment below in response.

Very recently, I had just come out of the closet to my family. And trust me, to do so is absolutely one of the best feelings ever. And since I have come out, I have noticed that homophobic attitudes and skewed ideas about the gay community are a lot more prevalent than I originally thought, especially when it comes to the aspect of religion and family backgrounds. And even more and more, my parents have been asking me religion-related questions when speaking in the context of homosexuality. Being an individual that has never cracked a Bible open, nor has ever gone to church on a regular basis, these are questions I continually cannot answer. To add to the strangeness, operating under the impression that homosexuality is a choice, it seems like they’ve been trying to scare me to into going straight by telling me that AIDS is a “gay disease” (because every AIDS-positive individual in Africa is gay *said sarcastically*).

Having said all of this, the really sad part of it all has been my parents explaining their personal reasons for their “views” on homosexuality, and so far, I’ve laughed hysterically at all of them. “Well this is what I was taught and how I was raised, so it is what I believe” has been said the most. Another one is “well actually the Bible says it, so it’s a fact.” Now, I may not know a lot about the Bible, but what I DO know is that it [the Bible] has been written and re-written and re-written again and again and again. So what is “truthful” in that book anymore? Maybe a piss-poor religion argument coming from me, but it still bears asking. All of this being said, the only conclusion I can really make is that my parents’ generation simply did not have access to quality and truthful information about the GLBT community.

So how can an individual actually answer questions for people and still have those people understand? Essentially, how do you tear apart someone’s fabric (thread by thread) and re-weave it with the right, unbiased information that they are supposedly seeking? I know that sociologically, religion is a very concrete and established aspect of people’s personal biographies. So how can you thoroughly explain the truths and realities of the GLBT community to a religious individual without completely losing their attention mid-conversation? Feel free to comment below!