Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for July 18, 2012

“I owe my soul to the company store…”

Kohler, WI, is one such example. It looks like the workers had it pretty good.

Notice that Goat didn’t specify the turn of which century.

i guess i should count my blessings, then. where i work we have a rather stern “no o.t.” policy and as i’m a full timer my days off are definitely my own.

“…FIfteen tons and what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go, I owe my soul to the company store.”

(That was definitely a racket for the employers. The laborers rented overpriced shacks from them and spent their whole salary at the company store where the prices on goods were sky high.)

Good one.

Glad I got out before before work came to me……

Yep, 10 min recall, 5 state pager, and an issued nationwide cell phone. Have to be available even during vacations. In some ways it is worse than in the military and then again I don’t have to keep up my Marksmanship Medals or live for two week at a stretch in the same uniform and chemical suit with gasmask. Some of the various trade-off have made it worth the change.

In order to avoid this in the future, we intend to make one company, the government, with complete police and regulatory control of everything we do. One big one will keep the little ones from taking root.

Where I live, cellphones arrived comparatively late. Used to leave the house on days off, just to miss calls from coworkers (who did the same thing.) Glad retirement came before the tyranny of the cellphone.

Thanks to cellphones and the net there’s no longer a need for the company town. I think in some ways employees are worse off today than they were back when the towns were so prevalent. At least then if you managed to scrap up enough to take a vacation the company couldn’t really get in touch with you. I can remember as a kid my dad getting phone calls and having to go in to the plant because some machine broke down or some mechanic screwed up, company towns back then weren’t really a prevalent thing but thanks to the phone the company could still get you at home. At least you could take a vacation and they couldn’t reach you for a bit. Now you go on vaction you take your cellphone/smartphone and maybe some kind of computer to get on the net with and they can get you even on vacation.

@BrassOrchid I seriously hope that what you said there was some dark humour. We already tried that with a large experiment called the CCCP. Ask the Russians how that worked out for them…

Technology, helping to keeps us all connected.

I’m no receiving the strip. Just ads and comments. Bummer!

It’s not showing up for me either. Running a Mac Power PC w/Tiger. Hope it’s temporary.

easy solution, don’t answer.

I had one job where the boss complained that, while I always came in promptly in the mornings, I never stayed after five. When he finally made conditions so horrible that I quit, I dold him that I felt like the colonists at Yorktown. When that didn’t impress him, I used a different metaphor that would have violated Godwin’s law.

some things never change

I remember a young woman temping at the school where I worked during the summer term of 1986. It was (obviously) her first teaching job and she moaned endlessly in the staffroom about how preparing classes and doing lesson plans, correction etc. left her without “my personal time.” I asked her what she thought her parents did all day. Welcome to the adult world, where responsibility is a part of life. You may be able to clock off at 5 or 6 PM (or whatever) but when you go home there are still things to be taken care of, whether work, family, or relationship-related.

Or to quote one of my employers, “We know your wife is dying of cancer, but you have to work weekends as well as 60 hours a week isn’t going to cut it”

I understand all the moaning but here is the thing… If you are not getting paid while off from work don’t answer the phone.

I tell everyone at the place that I work that I am going on vacation (usually tell them camping in the mountains) where there is no cell phone coverage. Then I go where I really want to go with my family. My off time is my time to enjoy with my family and see new things and share the moments. The important people in my life know that if they leave a message I will get back to them.

This all started about 5 years ago when we visited Alaska and in the middle of Anchorage my cell phone rang and it was my then boss asking me if I could drop what I was doing and work on a report with the information that they had just emailed me. From then on I swore never again.

Guess Neighbor Bob shouldn’t always have his cell phone with him. Either that or pretend the battery died!

Sort of like slaves, huh!

Awwwww. That’s too bad.

But these things happen!

xxx

I did have to remind a boss that I was not an indentured servant. I had a special ringtone for him and did not answer it on my days off and did not share my personal e-mail address. I trained my staff well and they could handle most situations or one of them could call me. Because I respected their time off they respected mine and did not call unless absolutely necessary. Could not say the same for the boss.

I have a cell phone, but I only have it on when I’m expecting a certain person to call me; otherwise, I have it turned off.

Which Is why my cellphone has a different, quieter ringtone for all my work numbers. And there’s a volume control on the ringer as well. On my days off, work knows I don’t answer my phone, I’m catching up on my sleep.

I am sorr,y I forgot my phone on the table when I went out.

I helped open up a company town…6,000 people, less than a third of the voting age registered BECAUSE they didn’t want the COMPANY to know…I personally registered three thousand voters, jerked the chairs out from under the mayor and city council, who had been there forever.

It was a Northern California lumber town, now famous for another vegetable product entirely.

Twelve years ago a beautiful young woman I was smitten with and I agreed that we WOULD carry cell phones, but only for another hundred grand a year…funny, huh.

As far as anyone at work knows, I don’t have a cell phone.

all your anecdotes confirm the reason while I’ll go to my grave without a cell phone. My wife has a Cricket for 911 stuff but when I’m away from work I work on me. Not one human being will lay on their death bed and wish they had taken that work call while fishing on the upper Clackamas river or where ever you float your boat.

“It’s the work that we avoid ‘cause we’re all self-employed…”

I’m reading this on the week that I’m “on call”. In other words, I’m working 9 to 5, M-F, but the rest of time including this weekend, I’m subject to being called in for any emergency, any time of day or night.

At least it’s only one week in seven, though, and I get a little extra pay whether I come in or not. Could be worse. They haven’t actually woken me up to come in for a while.

Employer rhymes with Emperor.

Just sayin’ :)