Act Like You?!

If you've read this blog regularly you know how I feel about college Professors. I’m not alone.

16^th November 2011

Dear Cassi,

   

Today I ran into an acting teacher who volunteers at my work. I can’t tell you about the residents, but I can talk to you about this fellow who shared the most interesting story with me.

   

First he told me that he owns and runs a manufacturing company. He did get his degree in theater but admitted that if he really wanted to be an actor he would have moved to New York rather than go to college in that discipline.

   

He and I got to talking about my experiences as a theater student, and he said that he could relate. One of the requirements for his degree was to have stage managed a production at the college. To do that one had to interview with the director, and his story began as he was walking to the Professor’s office for said interview.

   

On his way to the stairwell he saw the director in question walk to the elevator, so he decided to follow. He got into the elevator with her and they got to talking. They spoke of nothing of interest just the humdrum of theater and the world of the arts.

   

As they talked the Professor twirled her keys on her finger. On leaving the elevator the coordination of talking, walking, and twirling proved too much for the Teacher, and her keys fell to the ground. The student picked them up and handed them back to her.

   

When the Professor learned that he was to interview for her Stage Manager she refused to see him, because he had picked up her keys. She felt that it was a sexist act and that she couldn’t work with a student who thought women were incapable of looking after themselves.

   

Women’s liberation is a wonderful thing, but every now and again the old hags make it lose its luster.

Stay safe, Cassi,

Richard Leland Neal

The Day My Mother Died

This whole thing came from a conversation regarding my birthday were I had to explain why I did not celebrate the day.

I don’t know if these morbid topics make for good reading so maybe you can tell me. I have to tell Cassi because she asked but not necessarily tell you. So tell me what you think, do you want to see more letters like this?

19^th November 2011

Dear Cassi,

   

It had never occurred to me that I had failed to relay the events of my mother’s death now some twenty two years ago. It happened around this time of year and so I was given reason to dislike the holidays. Somehow I got it into my head that topics like that are things I should shy away from. The dismal facts of my life are many and numerous. I could drown you in a deluge of depressing events, but as the scars are closed if not healed I have no need.

   

In any case, my mother died in her second relapse of cancer. It was a disease that ate her over the years, and finally its burrowing caught into the chamber of her spirit and she was gone. That is not to say that this was the day she died, but the day she stopped living.

   

That I recall well. Her three children were called to come see her at the care facility as we did every weekend, and she called us in one by one to tell us that she was going to die.

   

I remember telling her that we had seen all this before and that she had lived through it, but she told me that it was worse this time. I believed that it was best to try and keep a positive outlook. I was a not to bright nine year old who believed what I was told.

   

I don’t blame my mother for giving up. She had lived a hard life and she deserved eternal rest. Even the solace of nothingness must have been a relief after what that poor woman lived through. That is why I know that whatever lies waiting for us beyond this world my mother is in a better place.

Stay safe, Cassi,

Richard Leland Neal

Waiting

In this economy they can ask for more work and credentials for less pay. I was once told that the way things are going one day we will all need Ph.D.’s to work at the local fast food restaurant

11^th November 2011

Dear Cassi,

   

It was some time ago that I ran into a job post that I thought was a joke. I really thought it was either that or a misprint of some kind, because it advertised a security job needing a Bachelor’s Degree preferably in Social Work.

   

I sent in an application to this place and found that it was no joke. The pay was better than my unemployment so I went in for an interview. I’ve never waited for an interview that long past the appointment time. Not that I had anything better to do or that I failed to keep myself properly occupied, but job interviews always get my kiddies going.

   

I must have gone to the head at least five times before someone came out to see me and this place had those hot air machines. I guess they are better for the environment but they just fall short of paper towels.

   

I was met by a mature woman who took me to her office, and through her voice inflections and body language I could tell that she was quite taken with my credentials. I would say that she exhibited some enthusiasm for us to work together even before the interview.

   

When we had completed our proceedings she asked me to wait for the head of security to come and conduct my second interview. She came back a few minutes later and told me that he was at dinner, but that I should come back Monday at three.

   

More than two and a half hours after my interview appointment I walked out of that place feeling tired; tired, old, and weary for what lies ahead.

Stay safe, Cassi,

Richard Leland Neal 

Drive Yourself to Poverty, Work for Use

A true account and there is little more to say. Some would tell me that some job is better than no job, others would applaud me for saying no. I say it is what it is and it is time to move on.

25^th July 2011

Dear Cassi,

 The latest of my job search woes was a growing security guard company. I sent them my resume online and was called in for an interview. I met a man with my own first name. This fellow told me that the amount of time I had spent with my last company was an exceptional reason for them to hire me.

    

I was then called in the next week to become a “Flex Officer” in the Orange county area. As I sat filling out paperwork, I found a page about steeling within the company. It stated that the company had four accounts of theft by security guards in the past year. That would be four accounts they know of indicating that there were at least forty in reality.

    

They asked if I lived anywhere near the job site, and I informed them that I did not. It was when they glazed over that point that I knew something was wrong. I brought up the point for a second time and the operations manager said “You’ll never get a job right next to you.”

    

I was informed that if I wanted this job I had to be willing to drive fifty miles to work every day at a paycheck that would hardly cover keeping my car running.

    

I have always thought that this came from the idea that if a person needs the money they will come to work. It is an idea that fails to take into account what this will do to job performance. Financial problems place a worker under stress. Where as it is true that a worker under stress is less likely to be able to get another job they are more motivated to do so. The stressed worker can put less into their work and is less productive.

People work these jobs because they have little alternative. The need for work holds them like the manacles of a dungeon. So many companies right now are held together by the bad economy that if it ever got better these companies might just disappear.

In the end they referred me to another office but I have not heard back,

Richard Leland Neal