LAERLOOPER

America is unique in the world in it’s ignorance toward the fact that May 1 is traditionally a celebration of the working class around the world. For political reasons long ago, Labor Day in America was set apart from the May 1 date. But the significance of this date is dawning upon a whole generation in the US as workers here rise up against the many factors lowering their standard of living in recent times. May Day is becoming a rallying point for better treatment.

I’ve always been the baby in my family. And not by just a little; half a decade separates me from my only sibling. And I was always a ‘good kid’ so it wasn’t hard to get me to act responsibly and pull my weight. Hindsight shows me that this set the stage throughout my life for me to gravitate toward older, more mature and responsible people. I would call my work ethic good.

Throughout my working years (which began at age 9 for me since my first significant purchase, a computer, was bought completely with paper-route money), I have held several jobs considered ‘long-term’ by the standard-setters of such things. On my way to finding these jobs I also worked several shorter-term gigs that paid my bills but which ultimately weren’t a good fit. This is pretty standard according to most people.

Jobs that aren’t a good fit can do a number on your work ethic if your skin isn’t very thick. I struggled in my early working years with the notion that the people ‘in charge’ aren’t always good at their jobs, and that their attitude toward me was more a statement about them than me. It certainly is part of the maturing process to be able to spot this difference and make major life changes accordingly.

When I was young I had an especially hard time parsing a situation when the end goal wasn’t made clear and the rules changed on a whim. For these bosses I would find that I was never able to reach the nebulous goal even when I thought I had, and my methods were always in question in spite of my expertise, commitment, or experience. These are the work situations that I learned to terminate with the quickness as I gained more years of experience. And terminating these bad situations always led me to much more satisfactory work with a new employer, and job security that lasted for several years.

Through work, some lessons held sway over my personal life in a way that cannot be understated: favors. It was those aforementioned jobs where my goals were unclear and my best work was never good enough that taught me to avoid being a ‘yes-man’. There was no methodology involved, but instead it was more of an ability to spot exploitative situations and take avoidance steps up-front. It was the idea that it’s okay to say ‘no’ to people when saying ‘yes’ would set me back or interfere with attaining my own needs. This is a really tough call.

My mom has a saying for when you become someone’s lackey, getting “roped-in”. It is a very specific set of circumstances that are involved in getting roped-into something, usually starting off as a very small favor or project which, upon your acceptance of this project, turns out to be something much, much bigger. And a pain in the ass! Where you find yourself upon getting roped-into something is knee-deep in someone else’s shit work that they either couldn’t do because they over-extended their schedules or they simply decided that the task wasn’t for them once they accepted it from yet another person. Once you figure out you’ve been roped-in, it’s usually too late to remove yourself from the situation gracefully.

On this May Day, I will be reflecting upon my avoidance of unfavorable work situations of the employment type and otherwise. This is super-important to me as I endeavor ever-closer to my goal of self-employment. Knowing the terms of any given project and enforcing the limits therein will be a key challenge for me going forward. I now have several life experiences to reference when my gut is telling me not to answer the phone, to make sure every ‘i’ is dotted and every ‘t’ is crossed, or at least to make sure my terms of service are super-clear. Welcome to work in the new paradigm and Happy May Day.

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