An honest day’s work

Currently there’s a CBC documentary on three restaurant dishwashers in Montreal. I have so much respect for these dishwashers because they put in a real, honest day’s work. They’re not looking down staring at their smartphones. They’re not frauds and pretending to be something they’re not. They don’t talk their way out of work and they don’t use talk as a smokescreen to hide failures and shortcomings. They don’t brown-nose to elevate their status. They’re simply busting their ass, soaked in sweat, getting their job done and being part of a successful team. In my office, apparently you can fuck up, not do your job, and continue to get paid handsomely, month after month. I have more respect for the “dish pigs” (name of the documentary) than the so-called “office professionals” that I have to work with.

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Old skool

Aug 25, 2019 at 10:42am

Ah, the tween years.
Worked the sinks my early teens, paid cash under the table. They didn't let me out to the front, though, because legally speaking, I wasn't supposed to be there. So someone else bussed and I washed.
That and food prep. Nothing like cutting a large chunk of one's hand on the tomato slicer, to make one more careful in the future. Well, slightly more, anyway. The refugees get all the good jobs. Don't let anyone tell you different.
The name developed long after I left that line of work. And then they shortened it to "shpig". Quite inventive.
Anyone who looks down on menial labor, hasn't had to do enough of it. More would be better. Seeing as I'm horribly "insensitive" about things, I'll just note that saying, "Arbeit Macht Frei". And it does. But it has to be real work, not what they mostly do in offices these days: look busy.
It's no coincidence that remote workers are more productive, by 15 percent or better. They're evaluated on results, and not their connections, or sucking up, or appearances.
No sh*t.

What

Aug 25, 2019 at 11:04am

does this have anything to do with smartphones? How do you know they're not using smartphones when not working?

Your company

Aug 25, 2019 at 11:07am

Are they hiring? Lol

Oh deaaaar

Aug 25, 2019 at 1:12pm

You aspire to be a dishwasher? Good old CBC is inspirational! Even if stupid...

The heart of the restaurant is it's kitchen.

Aug 25, 2019 at 3:29pm

I'm sure they're underpaid like everyone else in the kitchen.

Paddledude

Aug 26, 2019 at 8:28am

Nice nazi slogan.. yep you are definitely horribly insensitive. A slogan on Auschwitz death camp to lull people into a false sense of "oh it's just a work camp so that's ok" and then kill them.

WTH

Aug 26, 2019 at 5:00pm

Does an " honest day’s work" even mean?
No burgling people? No robbing banks? No shoplifting?
Guess what- 99.99% of the people get through the day not doing this stuff.

Old skool

Aug 26, 2019 at 11:10pm

@paddledude
Thanks, "dude".
Fun fact:
Germany (the nation) existed before that madness, and will probably exist for hundreds of years yet. Exactly because of their work ethic (and their ancestral culture), which is nicely expressed by that saying, literally: "work liberates". Something many Scandinavian countries share - it's not even particularly German. Especially Finns and the Baltics are like that, and the Russians have their own version (that's where I'm from, actually).
Just like many people appreciate the work of Nietzsche, a true genius of philosophy who died decades before the same madness, though the madmen misused his ideas to rationalize their atrocities.
As Hitchens once pointed out, some things are true, no matter who says them.
And yes, I'm horribly insensitive. The flakes have completely exhausted my patience. It's stupid to constantly have to censor my thinking just because everything now requires trigger warnings.
Put on some big boy shorts and get over it.

Diswasher.

Aug 27, 2019 at 8:40pm

You call it honest work. I call it HARD WORK. Also it paid shit wages and I had to work 9 to 9.5 hour days with no breaks. The cooks and bartenders got smoke breaks. I got nothing because I did not smoke. Plus I could never get a date. Women would NOT date a dishwasher. I have an office job now and I would never do that work EVER again. It sucks cause you bust your ass, get paid shitty and no one on the job or off the job likes you. Actually there is good movie about dishwashers called Dishdogs with Sean Astin. At least that was a fun movie. Very relatable.

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