Category: Work Life

JOHNSON COUNTY— In a post-career life there is never a day off. I’m okay with that because days become a time to see the world through a new lens during and between existential errands.

After morning chores, I drove to the CSA to pick two bushels of bell peppers for freezing. Next, I went to the orchard and picked two dozen apples. I wanted some Wolf River and there were plenty on the trees. I also picked Jonathan, Jonafree, Gala, Haralson, Kandil Sinap and Marshall’s McIntosh. I picked up a half dozen apple cider donuts and a half gallon of fresh cider. Next I stopped at the newly opened Casey’s General Store on Highway One. It had opened for the first time that morning. From there, I went to the newspaper office to report that it was open, and that the current store would be cutting back from 24 hours per day.

I took some photos of the band stand, the cemetery, the Mexican restaurant on Main Street, and of the Bangkok peppers in our garden. It was a tour of the local, and I relished each moment before getting back to work.

Today is the first day of early voting in Iowa, and political field organizers are trying to bank votes. The Democrats seem better at it than the Republicans, but the latter now recognize it is a thing. Most likely I will vote early, but there is more learning to do before I do. A level of participation in our government that matters, so some energy spent researching the candidates and issues is time well spent.

Now on with today’s priorities in this too short life on the plains.

LAKE MACBRIDE— What working person hasn’t taken a nap in their vehicle? Part time and temporary workers with multiple jobs are unlikely to get enough rest, so why not set the alarm clock and snooze after arriving early for a shift, or during a 30-minute lunch break? At the meat packing plant where I worked during summer breaks from college, there was competition for the prime snoozing spots before clocking in the regulation six minutes before starting a shift. One’s vehicle provides a level of security and privacy— it’s also convenient.

The story of Maria Fernandes, who died in her automobile while sleeping between part time jobs at three New Jersey and New York Dunkin’ Donut shops, hit the corporate media in full force last week, and they were atwitter. The best coverage I found was in RT, the Russian 24/7 news channel:

A New Jersey woman who worked four jobs, who sometimes “wouldn’t sleep for five days,” according to a co-worker, died Monday while napping between shifts in her car on the side of the road.

Maria Fernandes died in her 2001 Kia Sportage after inhaling carbon monoxide and fumes from an overturned gas container she kept in the car, according to the New York Daily News.

The 32-year-old Newark woman pulled into a WAWA convenience store lot in Elizabeth, New Jersey for a nap early Monday. She left the car running. The carbon monoxide and gasoline fumes were the likely cause of death, authorities said.

Fernandes was found dead in the car around eight hours later when EMTs responded to a 911 call of a woman found in a vehicle with closed windows and doors. Emergency workers sensed a strong chemical odor upon entering the vehicle, authorities said.

What will the story of Fernandes mean to broader society? Regretfully, not much once the news cycle is finished. Hers is one more sad story in the life of working people.

There is media discussion of Fernandes becoming emblematic for low wage workers, and some connect her death to the current political discussion about the need for an increase in the minimum wage. Advocates will likely use her story to make a case for unionization and other favored topics. But something is missing. Let’s follow the RT story down the rabbit hole:

About 7.5 million Americans are working more than one job, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those jobs often leave people short on income compared to full-time work, said Carl Van Horn, director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University.

“These are folks who would like to work full-time but they can’t find the jobs,” Van Horn said. “They wind up in these circumstances in which they are exhausted. More commonly it creates just an enormous amount of stress.”

Workers in the United States are earning an average of 23 percent less than earnings from jobs that were lost during the economic recession that began in 2008, according to a recent report, as wealth inequality in the U.S. has shot to record highs, according to various indicators. Many long-term unemployed are considering abandoning their job search following years of stagnant economic growth.

Maria Fernandes is not a victim of her own choices, except maybe the one to leave her car running while she slept in it. Closer to the truth is that many companies want part time or temporary workers to avoid paying benefits, and this runs contrary to the expectations built for those of us in the baby boom generation. The movement to part time and temporary work is an inexorable march toward stripping costs from business operations— something few in the corporate media have covered as it relates to Fernandes.

That she could work in three locations with the same corporate brand and wear the same uniform in each, yet not work for the same company, gets to a core issue. By its structure, Dunkin’ Donuts and companies like it, are designed to distance themselves from workers, and create gross margin and related profits that flow to the richest one percent of the population. In this case to the parent company, Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: DNKN), led by Nigel Travis. There are layers of distancing from the company, presumably related to the goal of avoiding the costs and troubles of lowly paid workers.

The circumstances around Maria Fernandes’ death captivated attention for a news cycle. One must ask the question what will we do about it, and hope there will be an answer.

LAKE MACBRIDE— When I returned to my computer after breakfast yesterday it crashed, disrupting the balance of the day.

It was a good, not great breakfast, and a familiar, but unwanted technical glitch in a life on the prairie.

Breakfast was in four layers: a mixture of cooked summer squash, onions, garlic scapes, salt and pepper on the bottom. Next, kale cooked after deglazing the pan with the juice of a lime, followed by scrambled eggs, and topped with grated cheddar cheese and chopped Italian parsley. It wasn’t my best work, but it served. I write about breakfast to avoid thinking about the work ahead today.

Luckily, I backed up in the early morning of July 8, my email resides in the cloud, and my photos and sound recordings are on my devices. There is about one week’s work on documents and spreadsheets that will have to be reconstructed. It could be worse.

After a shift at the warehouse, I stopped at our local technology store and sent the laptop off to be serviced. The prognosis is not good, with talk about the motherboard. I turned from the counter, walked over a few rows, and bought a new desktop CPU for $370.

Laptops seem to last about two years, and each of the last three of them was convenient to have, but crashed at an inconvenient time. Since 2012, when we got smartphones, having a laptop no longer seems necessary as I can check email and news stories on the go without one.

Like it or not, today will be struggling to get paying work done on the computer, and re-engineering this technology dependent life on the Iowa prairie. Having been through this twice previously, I know, but hate the drill.

LAKE MACBRIDE— From a crack in the pavement, a thistle bloomed next to milkweed. The natural world lives in the increasingly human-made environment in which we attempt to adapt— plants, animals and people alike.

The weather report for the weekend is the return of the polar vortex, bringing rain and cool temperatures. Sun and warmth are the best help for gardens and farms, so the weekend will be a likely setback.

At the intersection of the industrial food supply chain and local cuisine I found a package of uncooked tortillas. Claiming to be “all natural,” the ingredients are recognizable— flour, water, oil, salt and sugar. The machine rolls them out thinner than I have been able to, and they cook quickly in a dry frying pan. A pack of 50 sold for $6.89, or about 14 cents each. They will be a welcome addition to the pantry for burritos, tacos, tortilla chips, quesadillas and casseroles as what I had been buying has ingredients not found in nature.

I’m busy all of the time these days, mostly with work. On a typical day, I work at three or four jobs, leaving little time for extra-curricular activities.

From time to time, it was possible to stand at the intersection of change for a while and smell the flowers. For that, I am grateful.

I am also grateful that after calculating my income for the year, it appears my federal taxes will fall in line, and that I sent enough, but not too much money into the Internal Revenue Service.

LAKE MACBRIDE— Five years ago today I drove out of the parking lot of CRST International in Cedar Rapids from a long career of transportation work into the unknown. There is no going back, nor would I. There is only forward.

Today, we have friends and family, food to eat, a home in which to live, and other accoutrements of modern life. We are doing okay. Compared to many, we are doing great. If the U.S. is not the greatest country on Earth, it is one of the greatest, at least according to a poll released today. That’s okay too.

Tomorrow the clevis and cotter pins bought at the hardware store will be installed on the grass collection attachment to the tractor. I will cut the full lawn to length for the first time this year. The garden is way behind, so I will abandon what isn’t planted and prepare the ground for the second growth of green beans, even though the first planting didn’t occur because things were so far behind.

Tomorrow will also be a culling of activities according to the Sumitomo model. Some of the barter work is nearing its end, some of it needs to go to make room for paid work. Contacts will be made about that.

Mostly, tomorrow will be a brief chance to examine who I am through tired eyes, and wonder at how we have survived in a turbulent world.

Then next steps, which will involve a chain saw and work in a pasture in sunlight.