Hard Times

‘Hard Times’
by Rick Marshbanks

Staring at a blank computer screen, I was sitting at my desk this afternoon engulfed in complete frustration. The apex of my frustration had to do with making money, or lack thereof. You see, I was actually making more money 10 years ago and I was also in a greater position to advance in my career than I am currently. Yes, this is hard times, indeed. But it wasn’t until after I spoke with a couple of people that I realized what hard times really was.

Every day at 3:00pm, Mike the janitor comes in and cleans my office. As a former “janitor” of sorts in the US Coast Guard, I understand the type of work that these people are subject to and I always try to make it a point to chit chat with the janitors and try to uplift their spirits. It’s a shitty job so the least I can do is to try to be really nice to them and let them know I appreciate their diligence.

I was on my way out the door to take care of some business when I approached Mike. I asked him how his day was.
“Another day in paradise”, he proclaimed.
Given that type of half-hearted response, I could easily ascertain his apathetic demeanor, it was like he was- almost in a daze. And that struck me as kind of odd because Mike is usually full of energy. It was getting close towards the end of the work day and I wasn’t really in that big of a hurry so I started probing a little deeper. A little probing turned into a near 20 minute conversation. It was only after then that I realized what hard times really was.

I quickly learned that Mike wasn’t always a janitor. He actually repaired/installed chimneys for 13 years, making pretty good money at around $18 an hour. This, in today’s bleak economic landscape, is a pretty lofty accomplishment for somebody with no “skills”. But it all went downhill for him last year when the company he worked for went out of business, leaving him unemployed for nearly 8 months. Without a college education to fall back on, the options for him today were pretty slim. In order to try to make ends meet, he took up a janitor’s job for minimum wage, which is around $7 and change per hour. If that wasn’t bad enough, his company does not offer health benefits. However, they do offer plenty of overtime, as Mike stated he’s been working 10-14 hour days for the past few weeks. The company even asked him if he could work this Saturday and Sunday, which Mike was begrudgingly willing to do. “It is what it is” he said. Painfully positive as that outlook is, that’s still hard times.

Mike is no spring chicken. I reckon he’s in his late 40’s – early 50’s. He’s got 4 kids of his own and 2 grandchildren. That’s a lot of mouths to feed. He went on to say that his last paycheck was around $800. Yes, that’s two week’s worth of work, which is slightly higher than what the state of Michigan offers for unemployment benefits. Mike went on to say that his take home was only $350, due to more than half of his pay going to his ex-wife for child support.
“Yep, they screwed me again” he proclaimed with a chuckle.
All chuckling aside, that leaves him $50 short for his rent this month, which he told his landlord he would have the money for him today. Hopefully for Mike, his landlord will be able to cut him a break.

The irony was, it as hard as I tried to interject with a little bit of hard times stories of my own, I was not able to match the ones I was hearing. Here’s a middle aged man with a wealth of specialized experience but no college education working 10-14 hour days, 5 to 7 days a week, getting crappy pay, having to support a family, and still showing up every day with a paper towel in one hand and Windex in the other; ready, willing, and able to work.

“Every day, I’m online putting my resume out there, but I haven’t had any responses. Everybody wants a degree plus 10 years of experience. It sucks. I just don’t have that.”
That’s for sure. Forget Michigan’s economy. That’s hard times wherever you live.

That conversation really opened my eyes. It was then that I really realized that suffering is relative and so are hard times. What one person considers hard times, 10 others out there would die to be in the same situation, or to be given the same opportunities. My epiphany came full circle as I was actually kind of grateful to be given the opportunity to be employed.

A few minutes after Mike and I spoke, I returned to my desk. I grabbed a stack of paperwork and headed to the lab to speak with Lisa, one of the Hydrologists, about a travel claim she had submitted. Lisa is one of the lead scientists in the department and works a lot with the new hires. After a bit of small talk, I finally asked her about the specifics of what she does and what the company looks for in new employees. I was also interested in the credentials of these scientists that work under her. They all seem so smart and I just assumed everyone was making really good money.

“Last year, the government put a hiring freeze on the entire division. We had a lot of people quit and many of the students got their degree and decided to work elsewhere. I really can’t blame them” she said. She went on to say that because of the hiring freeze, all new employees had to be hired as TERM (13 month appointment with an option to extend to 2 years).
“That was my case”, I told her. “I was hired as a TERM.”

She went on to tell me that right before I came onboard, the government was actually trying really hard to eliminate the admin position altogether, in effort to save on resources. For example, they wanted employees in other parts of the country to take on the added responsibilities of the Lansing admin office.
“Your supervisor had to submit a proposal to keep the position active, and then it had to go up the chain of the command to the director, and then finally to OPM (Office of Personnel Management). After a long waiting period, they finally got the approval to keep the position alive as a TERM appointment.” I actually felt pretty damn lucky to be the one selected for such an offer.

I asked Lisa if everyone hired within the past year was TERM. She responded by saying that there is this other category of employment (I can’t remember the acronym for it). Basically, it’s categorized as “as needed”. The theory is that if work is needed, then they can bring you in for hours. But the division is so short staffed as it is, that everyone just works full time. The caveat is, those people are not eligible for health benefits or earned leave. They just show up for work every day with the agreement that at any time, they could be sent home for an undisclosed amount of time.

“What kind of people of people would possibly accept this type of employment?” I asked.
“Oh, grad students, young scientists, and even experienced people that already have their masters or Ph.D. You should see the applicant pool. It’s rather large. Anyway, they are brought in as a GS5, but they are able to advance to higher steps within the pay grade rather quickly.”

Yes, if you are an experienced scientist with your masters or Ph.D., you might be able to come on for work for $30,000 with option to advance to $40,000 a year without benefits. The sad reality is that this does not only pertain to the government sector, it’s prevalent throughout the private sector as well. Welcome to the American Dream, in 2011.

“Wow, hard times” I said.
“Yeah”, she responded, “Hard times indeed”.