It's the May Long again, opening weekend to the summer. Unusually, it isn't a complete washout, although the forecast does call for the possibility of thunderstorms this afternoon and tomorrow. Yesterday was sunny and hot--our kitchen made it to 26 degrees, prompting some seasonal bitching from yours truly. But of course, that was after I got home from work.
I'm writing this blog before I go into work today. And although the store is closed tomorrow for the statutory holiday, in past years we've run a garden center. I've neglected to ask if we're doing so again, lest somebody ask me to work in it.
Oh, the joys of working retail. I should consider myself lucky: at least I'm paid something resembling a living wage. And (as of now) I do get every other weekend off. This one, alas, ain't one of 'em.
The cashiers--some of whom are classified part time, but work full time hours--are worse off. I inadvertently found out this past year how woefully underpaid they are--and I'm pretty sure the wages are competitive across the industry. Our economy is increasingly based on service industries, but you'd never know it from the hard work so many put into them and the little reward they get from them.
Indeed, there's absolutely no mention of us retail slaves in that article whatsoever. It's as if we don't exist, as if everyone works in an office. Speaking for myself, I'd gladly work four ten hour days a week--from the time I leave home to the time I get back is ten hours most days anyway--in exchange for three days off. But somehow I don't imagine our store would be closed for three days a week...or even one.
This is, of course, to say nothing of the myriad of public employees upon whom our society depends. You can't close the hospitals, the police and fire stations, the public utilities, or the transportation network. Someone's gotta keep the ISPs running so that you office types would have something to do with your long weekends.
There's something else missing from that article...the real reason we don't have a four day work week and likely never will. That reason can be expressed with a single symbol: $.
I wasn't even a teenager yet when I first read about how computers would revolutionize the workplace and allow a single employee to do the work of three or four. This would, I read, inevitably lead to a four day workweek and a glut of leisure time.
I was skeptical even then, and I'm beyond cynical now. Because if corporations had their way, they'd pay prison wages, institute a sixty hour work week, and force everyone to do the work of FIVE. All the better to line the pockets up on Mahogany Row, you understand.
Every time I write something like the above, I'm accused of envy. I don't envy the rich. Some of them have indeed worked hard for their slice of the pie. I'd just like to say that I, too, work pretty goddamn hard...and so do a great many people who make less than I do an hour. Some recognition of this fact is in order, I believe.
And it's not all about money. Not for me, anyway. I'd just as soon keep my wage right where it is and get that extra day off a week. Which will never happen.
For those of you who get the weekend, I hope you are enjoying it. And for those who don't, no matter what you may read...YOU'RE NOT ALONE.
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