the gist of it all
People should be cooperating, not competing.
I think copyrights and competitive sports are ingraining the wrong mindsets in people. We need to stop trying to “get ahead” of one another.
Blood & Justice
Friday November 27th was my final day with IBM. I sent the following letter to everybody I worked with, the people replacing us, the CEO of the company (*Name1*), an executive who oversaw our operations (*Name2*), and the up-line manager who sucked their dicks (*Name3*). The months leading up to that day brewed a great deal of frustration for my co-workers and I. I only hope my ventilation may breathe some life into the slumberous potential we all have to stand up for ourselves, and demand to be treated with respect. I don’t have much hope to change the hearts of those who really do value profit over people.
Today is the end of many people’s jobs, and the beginning of a new era of suffering for their replacements.
In order to remain competitive in the global business market BLAH BLAH BLAH IBM is shutting down places of employment for working class people all across North America to consolidate operations at a lower cost in a few locations where the new employees will be treated to significantly lower wages than the people they are replacing. A net income of $12,334,000,000 USD in 2008 wasn’t enough. Today the *Company1* Helpdesk in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is no more.
The *Company1* Helpdesk in Edmonton has gone through a lot lately. Starting with the horrible management of *Name4*. We lost a lot of good colleagues through her attempts to demand respect. Any times that we were fully staffed under her were only due to *Name5*’s relentless struggles. Of course all of the extra weight fell directly onto all of us bottom rung “resources”. We were given no compensation or adequate thanks for our perseverance. A nameless-under-appreciated saint (who quit a while ago) was never reimbursed by IBM for the money he spent to buy us cold water on the hot summer day that the air conditioning was broken. This was the beginning of a bleak future.
Misery continued. Requesting a raise for the past two years has been such an exhausting process that I don’t think many attempts ever saw any answer, let alone a positive one. “Sorry faithful resource, maybe IBM will hire you directly next year. Right now we’re more concerned about squeezing you for every joule of work we can so that we’ll look good to our stockholders. Profit before people!” While we watched coworkers come and go through the building’s revolving doors, the dedicated staff of the *Company1* Helpdesk were toyed with and smothered with FUD. *Company2* smartened up and left IBM; the end had begun. We had incompetent Team Leads sit on their asses waiting to quit or be laid off, leaving the one useful Team Lead we ever had to do the work of what was supposed to be three. Promises were broken and spirits were crushed as the once busy workplace withered away. Where were all the accounts going? No official word, only rumours.
Entropy at the workplace increased to such levels that physicists might need to update their theories. We all knew we’d be losing our jobs, but we didn’t know when, or how, and our employers didn’t even have the heart to tell us it was true. We just watched the events unfold around us. Nothing was going to get better now. There was no hope left, only rumours.
As of today IBM has still made no official statement regarding the relocation of the *Company1* Helpdesk, or the larger scheme it is a part of. It’s “business as usual.” Goodbye foul business.
*Name1*,
According to the Executive PayWatch Database you raked in $24,965,547 in total compensations in 2008. Was that not competitive enough? The CEO of Google only raked in $508,764, and his company seems to be doing great. Have you ever looked in a mirror and asked yourself whether you are consumed with avarice? You disgust me.
*Name2*,
You have been the crushing force behind our overburdened misery. Your unfathomable expectations have pushed us all to the brink. I’m certain you attained your position in IBM for your merciless ideals, and stubborn resistance. Please, for the sake of many good people who work under you, try to exercise some empathy.
*Name3*,
I genuinely thank you for firing *Name4*. I would also like to thank you for your commitment to meeting our Service Level Agreements, even when it meant going so far as *censored* and tirelessly implementing disastrous band-aid solutions. It’s just a shame you never considered getting to the root of the issue.
Colorado,
I don’t blame you for what has happened, but I do consider you in the same rank as scabs. Take this letter as a warning that you have found yourself employed by a heartless corporation that will never treat you right. I strongly encourage all of you to seek more gainful employment. If you are stuck working for IBM, then at least don’t roll over and let them have their way with you. Be aggressive, demand higher wages, and stick together. Never take on additional work or responsibility without additional compensation. You’re not IBM employees but I would still recommend that you check out the Alliance@IBM union (http://www.endicottalliance.org/).
Edmonton,
Bravo to everyone who has refused to help IBM with this transition. It is action like that which provides hope for a just future. I’ll get off my soap box before I rant three pages about worker employee relations, and the sycophants who give power to the bosses. In stead I will encourage you to read Henry David Thoreau’s 1849 essay on Civil Disobedience (http://thoreau.eserver.org/civil.html) that inspired both Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr..
“What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.”
- Henry David ThoreauBest of luck in the future. Farewell everybody.
Regards,
Maurice Enclave
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Laid Off by IBM for the Sake of Profit
I hope my next job is better.
LATFH
Everybody’s talking about hipsters. Either you are one, or you hate them. I’ve tried to ignore teen culture since I was twelve, but now it’s knocking on my door. It wants my shoes.
The only pattern I can see in the whole distasteful mess is that it thrives on subversive antics. It’s not about being ironic or original; it’s about undermining everything without provocation. It’s being punk in a world without fascists. It’s singing the blues in The Garden of Eden. It’s the epitome of childish lashing out.
The worst part is that it makes sense. They’re mostly teenagers and older people who failed to mature. They have to rebel against something. They just don’t have any cause to rebel for, or against. They have no self identity.
Kids these days are growing up in a globalised world with an internet. Local culture is almost completely eroded and homogenised. We live in a virtual metropolis where customs are what you pay when you order something from Japan. We’re time travelling border hopping culture vultures.
Today you can learn anything from bed, experience whatever you want, and respond in whatever way gets you off. We’re drowning in options, and nobody even knows how to give direction anymore. How is anybody going to grow up with solid roots and personal conviction in this environment?
Hipsters are the unknowing doom preachers of humanity’s grotesque future. Can culture be saved? Can people discover who they are again, and pursue individual interests? Has the world seen the last serious cowboy? Tune in next generation to find out. This one appears to be composting itself.
whizzzarrreee
It is official. I leave Edmonton permanently on Monday morning. Holy shit.
ziggamaroo
Forecast: 90% chance of moving out of BIG sky country and back to BIG rain country before 2010. OH BOY! My thoughts are swirling with nostalgia for both places, excitement to leave the cold, apprehension about entering the rain, sadness about leaving friends, happiness to see friends, confusion about how to do it, and at least two other sentiments.
i’m famous
Normal people started using the internet. Advertisers started using the internet. Celebrities started using the internet. That makes normal people celebrities too! We’re all celebrities! We can all tell each other every bit of our daily trivia, and we’ll all love knowing, because we all love knowing what all the celebrities are doing!
¡GET THE FUCK OFF MY INTERNET!
If I don’t notice when I see your new haircut, I’m not going to care that you’re getting one right now. Please leave me to all of the incredibly important things I was busy doing.
I never got a Twitter account, and I deleted my Facebook account a while ago. I’m still inundated with both entities at least a hundred times a day. Every website I visit wants to be more popular on them. I guess websites are celebrities too.
The other day I was looking something up, and the second search result came from Twitter. That American teenager’s thought of the second did nothing to further my investigation. I fear the future this foreshadows. An internet three quarters full of every regular dullard’s fleeting moments, and less than one quarter porn.
In an attempt to protect myself I made a custom Firefox search plug-in. It queries Google and filters the results from those offending domains (Facebook and Twitter). If you’re like me, then put this file in your C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins.
Say goodbye to the days when you had to do something special to attract attention, and getting it actually meant something. Hello banal future.
civil apathy
Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau (1849) is an eloquent, thought provoking, and inspiring essay which any good person should find totally agreeable. It provided major inspiration to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. I think it’s time it inspired again.
We all know about the drama of the world, but we rarely admit our own part in the play. Our lives are overwhelmingly entangled with all sorts of organizations around the globe. Strings to this company, and that party, stick to us relentlessly. Our life’s potential is the static electricity they cling to. Each human being contains a certain potential to produce. If you’re not careful, yours will be used for you. So be careful, and watch your actions.
As a citizen, as a worker, as a consumer, and as an individual you must consider the consequences of your actions and your support, direct or otherwise, of others’ actions. If one of the strings clinging to your side is engaged in injustice you must cut that string off, for the sake of your own integrity, as well as for the world that you are a part of. The world has become significantly more complex since 1849, but Thoreau’s words are not any less applicable. They apply just the same to our governments, as well as to our businesses and the affairs they govern.
I’m at work right now. I work for IBM. I don’t agree with IBM’s actions in the world, and I don’t want to “lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.” So I’m writing this instead. I haven’t done anything productive for IBM today, and I will continue to do as little as possible until I quit this job (soon I hope). From that point on I will avoid employment with any company that I do not personally approve of. I know that sounds obvious, but either most people aren’t doing it, or most people need to have some second thoughts. A lot of people work for IBM.
Mapping out the complete paths of your actions may be impossible today, but you must at least consider the first step. If you think McDonald’s has a negative impact on the world, then don’t eat there. If your friend owns a restaurant, and you think your friend is a good person, then eat at his restaurant and hope that he considers the consequences of his actions too. If he does, and that chain is followed to its termination, then the impact should be good. Essentially, if everybody ensured that their actions had a positive impact to at least one step, then every step of every person’s actions should be positive. If you know a step is negative, consider how that is likely to compound. One bad deal likely leads to another, and another, and another.
Don’t let the overwhelming complexity of the modern world shut you down. Don’t just heed the thoughtless consensus. Always do what you want to do, and never do something you wouldn’t want someone else to do. Canadian law states that you can’t cross the road without the special light’s permission. Fuck that. If the road is safe to cross then cross the damn road, and do it drunk and high, and on your way to fuck a hooker. Then piss in an alley on your way home.
The term civil disobedience may technically apply to resisting unfair laws, but the principles Thoreau argues in his essay do not stop there. People just need to take a stand for virtue. The lust for wealth and power isn’t going to resist itself. By resisting it in simple ways you’ll see a growing impact in your life, and the ways you think and act. Many people resisting it in many ways will inevitably lead to many laws and lawmakers brought under fire.
Remember that we’re in the state we are now because of our history of civil apathy.
hammerstache
I grew my beard out longer than I had done before …
… and then I cut it off.
christians believe
Christians believe that I’m going to go to hell to be eternally punished for not believing that I’m going to go to hell and be eternally punished.
