Capturing Daily Life
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Candidate Insider
A Weblog by
David Scully
Co Workers From Hell
Example of Thought Sequence
March 20, 2004 (Saturday)
Well, I just went to jog
but I stopped it short
at 8 minutes because
I had a thought sequence.
In a previous article tonight
I wrote about how hard it is
to write being a truck driver.
Ideas come when driving or jogging
because of the meditative nature
of the activity,
but one needs pen and pad
or, preferably, keyboard and screen
to get the thoughts
well organized and written.
Such a sequence of ideas just occurred.
I have long been thinking of
discussing my employment past
because one is defined by others
unless one defines oneself
and Sacramento is a small town
and these assholes
have gotten it wrong,
probably intentionally.
I often think of my employment
as a Property Appraiser with
the County of Sacramento
as a good starting point
because I find that these
other-definitions are like
rivulets that become rivers.
The definition stays where it begins
because it becomes a self-fulfilling
prophecy. They see what they
want to see and then pass that
definition on. Others then
see you that way
and treat you that way.
You react to that and reinforce
that perception.
So the stream of ideas
went something like this:
Work History
County Appraiser Job
Asshole Co Workers
Retired Military Assholes
But Don't Misunderstand: Love Military
Air Force Boot Camp Graduation
Compare to public schools
Schools don't have to be like military,
it's just one comparison
Arnold's build a commission
consisting of school administrators
They won't change anything, reallly.
They're vested in the system.
He likes them because they're alpha males.
He's an alpha male guy.
He doesn't care what people stand for,
as long as they're alpha males or alpha people
That's why he's chummy with radical dems
and conservative repubs.
I'm not a recognized alpha male,
so he won't hire me. sharp elbow brats.
I'll tell it to him like it is.
Ok that was something like
the thought sequence I had
in the first five minutes of jogging.
I stopped jogging to come back
and write about it.
**********
Here goes:
Out of college,
after graduating from UC Davis in 1979,
I got a job as a Property Appraiser I
with Sacramento County Assessor's Office.
I had a real estate license
and was working in a real estate office
and was taking real estate courses
including real estate appraisal.
I took the job with all the enthusiasm
of a young man starting out
on a career.
I was overloaded because
two months before I got the job
I enrolled at McGeorge School of Law
full time, nights.
But I was young and eager
and went for it.
They hired six of us as a group,
and all were white male veterans,
except one who was a white male
son of an army colonel.
Of the five veterans,
three were military retirees.
They were the oldest, forties
and early fifties. The other
two were early thirties,
and I was the youngest at 29.
It was their entertainment
to give me a hard time
as the youngest, and I gave back
as it was given to me.
As with any small group,
there is usually one individual
who is an instigator, and
in this case it was a
retired major from Oregon
who resembled Saddam Hussein,
with the mustache and the
pot belly, Ron Hammer.
He was a heavy drinker
and a really obnoxious bastard.
He was bitter/boastful of the many
bombing runs he had done over
Viet Nam. This guy was very
attuned to alpha male hierarchy.
He started in on me immediately
as a target. I was very busy
with the full time job and
full time law school at night.
He and the others were jealous
that I was attending law school
and entertained themselves
at my expense at work. Eventually,
I focused in on the major as
the instigator and tried
to pay him back double.
As the months wore by,
the professionalism
of the environment
deteriorated and deteriorated.
There would be two hour
lunch breaks full of crude jokes
and insults and junk food
pastry-eating competitions.
(He who could eat the most
"bear claws" and that was
usually the major).
There was a retired colonel,
Don Prieve,
but he abdicated leadership
by letting the professionalism
deteriorate so much and the hazing
continue so much.
Everything I did was
a source of mockery
for these assholes -
even when I ran my first marathon.
There were two other workers
in our open office - a young Asain
male and a young black male.
Neither talked to any of us,
which I thought was rude and odd.
Later, I found that the major
had been extremely offensive
and rude to the Asian worker
at one of those two-hour
coffee breaks - so much so
that he never spoke a word
to the major after that,
even though the two sat
side by side. I was not there
during that incident, but
I imagine the others all
just laughed along with the
major, as they usually did
when he insulted me.
After many many months,
the young Asian began to talk
to me and another of us,
especially as the openly
hostile dynamics between me
and the major escalated, but
by that time the year
of probation was ending,
and they kept only one of us -
the non-military boy
who was a previous county worker.
These military assholes
were co workers from hell.
They ruined what could have been
a positive, collegial, professional
environment, to a bitter,
catty, hazing, endlessly hostile
environment.
I do not know exactly
what my reputation was
as a result of that year,
but it was not a good one.
I believed I suffered
the bad effect of being
one of the racist, rude
white males, even though
I was generally their victim.
I believe I also got some
reputation as hot-headed,
violent, or quarrelsome,
for standing up continuously
to the major. It became
a ridiculously unprofessional
environment, a real "frat-boy"
kind of thing.
**********
OK, the next thought connection
was that I wanted to
make it clear that
I love the military
and military people,
even though I had
that horrible work experience
with the military retirees.
I especially think of
my daughter's graduation
from Air Force Boot Camp in 2000.
It was such an inspiring
and proud experience
to go to Texas and
see my daughter graduate.
The disciplined behavior
of these young teens and
early twenties men and women
who had just accomplished
such a rigorous 12 weeks
was thrilling. These young
men and women actually addressed
one another as "sir" and "m'am".
I was a day and night comparison
compared to the bratty punks
in the civilian world,
and the civilian population
in general. These, military people
are BETTER PEOPLE than civilians,
plain and simple.
I L O V E the military
and I'm VERY PROUD that
my daughter's in the Air Force
and I hope she
makes it a career.
They're great people
and it's a wonderful environment.
Gov Arnold ought to check out
a graduation ceremony in Texas
and then check out a sampling
of California public schools
undercover. Compare possibility
with sordid reality.
Continuing the thought stream...
I'm not saying to the Honorable
Gov Arnold or to Californians
that only military schools
are good. No, I come from
a broad and liberal background
and believe that gentleness
and freedom and whimsy are
equally important elements
of schooling and growing up.
It's just that the comparison
when you look at these
Air Force grads makes it clear
what a bunch of bullshit
these public school administrators
and teachers swallow and spit out.
The committee on education
that Gov Arnold has assembled
to make recommendations
is a collection of
alpha males and females
in their field. They're
good players and impressive people
but they're vested in the field
and its culture and ideas.
They're going to recommend
tweaking the system,
but it will be ballyhooed
with great fanfare
as radical and fundamental reform.
You see, Gov Arnold,
you like being around
alpha people.
With you, it doesn't matter
what their ideas are
or what they stand for,
as long as their big shots.
You dig big shots.
A radical liberal
is as good as a conservative
as long as they're powerful.
You'd probably dig Saddam Hussein
if he were still powerful.
You are one - the big alpha male.
You're the big dog,
the Winner.
But winners like things
just the way they are.
But IDEAS ARE POWERFUL, TOO
AND YOU NEED NEW,
POWERFUL IDEAS,
not the stale canting
of those running things now,
not if you want change,
and that's why the people
voted you in - to change things.
You need some outsiders
and underdogs,
people who
THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX,
as the say,
and, where better
to find people
who think outside the box
than outside the box ?
don't look inside the box,
Gov Arnold.
Look outside the box.
Ever read "Call Of The Wild" ?
Look for the dog
who's been knocked down
and mauled and scarred,
living on the fringes,
living on scraps at the dump.
He's got an outsider's view.
He's living outside the box.
He's not vested in the system.
He'll tell it to you like it is.
My final thoughts
in the sequence
were of the young
political brats
with the sharp elbows
around Gov Arnold
whose job is
to keep everybody
away from him.
Gotta go jogging
and shower
and drive down
to the military base
to recharge my spirit.
Later, assholes.
Posted by dscully at 07:77 PM Top of Page
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David Scully
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