The Bullshit I Put Up With
I do what the boss would want done when the boss is not around. That is why coworkers do not like me. I am a guy who, “pulls the wooden shoe out of the cogs of the gear.”
The Lazy Racetracker
Nobody wants the boss or the boss’s son around all the time; and the Lazy Racetracker wants a promotion for doing nothing.
Example;
The assistant trainer’s daughter works in the barn, and she does as much nothing as she possibly can NOT do! She puts forth no effort to be a formidable member of the team.
Who Am I to Judge?
I am a member of the team.
Passing Judgement:
(After all, when your father is the boss, there are (inherently) higher expectations of you than of others.). She simply takes no initiative, and her father is content with that arrangement.
I politely suggest that he is not teaching her, or preparing her, by instilling in her, the skills required to be at the top of our profession- to get to where he is, now! How can I pass judgement on that?
I am a hotwalker, myself- a position sometimes regarded as the lowest man on the totem pole- the least educated and the least capable than the rest. I am proud to be a hotwalker, but I did not work my way up to this esteemed position overnight! I started at the bottom, worked my way all the way up to the top; and, as the racetrack turns, I’m back at the same spot!
Why Do I Pass Judgement?
It takes a village to raise a child; but, more importantly, the village becomes (the product of) the child. If the parents of the village are not raising their own children, how decrepit and immoral shall that village become! When a man allows his children to be lazy, that man is sowing the seeds of poverty (and insolence) underneath the whole village!
In the business sense, I take complete issue with it, because every lazy ass in a seat takes the place of hard working boots on the ground. Allowing lazy people to work for you takes-up the place where a more eager-to-learn, more dedicated, more skilled person could benefit the business more. That eager person is out of a job (and a possible future) whilst a lazy ass works not towards their own future; further-neither-more, the future of all mankind!
The issue I take is that, because of his lack of being a strenuous boss, his daughter’s perception of success (and of life), is:
“It’s not what you know; it’s who you know; and the people who get paid most do the least; so I am going to do as little as possible, so I can be promoted to be second-in-charge (simply because my daddy is the boss!)”
Laziness
That is her experience! And when she sees me working hard and dong things which she would do not care to think to do, (to promote good business,) she and her father, the assistant, view me as an enemy!
They both engage in passive-aggressive behavior in an attempt to sabotage my mentality and my enjoyment of work. ‘Tis quite outrageous on the surface; but I have experienced this nuance numerous times throughout my career. More times than not, quite statistically!
For example:
“It All Seems So Innocent. You’re Overreacting!”
The other day, the assistant asked me to cold-hose two horses’ legs (whom we’ve never cold-hosed before.) I did so with a smile. The next day- the same thing. The day after that- the same thing. …. All of the sudden, this is part of my every day routine, now!
What Is The Problem?
I’m a hotwalker, so cold-hosing horses is normal to me. It is part of my job description. Being asked to cold-hose horses is not something beneath me. It is an act of proper horsemanship, and I am honored to do it! That is not the problem!
The fact that the assistant has had me cold-hosing these horses is an indication of THE problem. It is two-pronged.
Prong One:
Passive-Aggressive Behavior.
To understand why the assistant’s actions are passive-aggressive, you need some background on how the business (ultimately, the Culture of the business) works.
In many cases, a retired jockey will become an assistant trainer. In this instance, that is the case.
To rise to the level of Assistant Trainer, a person puts-in long hours, works very hard and has earned that position by proving dependability. In comparison, to rise to the level of journeyman jockey, you have to, “pay your dues” by doing all of the jobs around the barn which most people do not want to do. (That is how the privilege to become a jockey is earned in {old} racetrack culture.)
Along with being a retired jockey comes being treated with respect. A retired jockey treats another, fellow, retired jockey with undying respect.
There is a badge that is earned in that retirement. I have earned that badge. From experience, I explain to you that the mutual respect which fellow jockeys share is an unspoken and unbreakable bond. Because of this bond, one retired jockey might give another retired jockey, “a pass,” in the workplace when it comes to doing boring tasks such as cold-hosing horses’ legs.
A man in the assistant trainer’s position would almost always assign such menial tasks to the younger employees who have not worked their way up the ranks.
But, No, that path of comradary is not the route which the assistant has chosen to traverse with me. Instead of offering me the mutual respect which would be culturally expected in this given situation, he engages in passive-aggressive behavior. That is a problem! …
Only Part of the Problem
Prong Two:
How Nepotism Quietly Undermines The Integrity of Your Business And Purposely Destroys Culture.
I am 47-years-old. The assistant trainer is having me do something which racetrackers do as teenagers to work their way up the ranks. That is how the Culture of our business works. It is an unspoken, but understood nuance of all workplace environments. The two hot walkers who sit in the office and do nothing all morning are at the age where they should be engaging in such activities; but they just sit and stare at their phones every day.
The fact that those two hotwalkers are so loyally employed, even though they do as little as possible, is because one of them is the assistant trainer’s daughter and the other is a family member of some sort, too! In short, the theme is to employ your whole family and screw everybody and everything else! That is what is destroying our culture!
When I was their age, I was learning everything I could learn to prepare myself for the rest of my life. (I taught myself Spanish so I could interact with other cultures at the racetrack.). That was over twenty years ago. … The demographic of the population has changed so much that, now, I cannot even interact with the people at work in English, my native language, but I need to speak Spanish, otherwise, there is zero communication. That being noted, the demographic of my workplace is comprised by the ratio of one white man (ME) to,…. ALL OF THE REST are Hispanic. In the country which I grew up in, I cannot even use my native language to succeed at work! Where is the culture I grew up in? It is NOT here! (Is it expected of me to forget my culture and to assimilate to this new, Hispanic culture?!!!)
How Nepotism Quietly Undermines The Integrity of Your Business
Familiarity breeds contempt.
I contend that a man who allows his subordinate family members to coast through life without any responsibility of bettering theirselves or the environment around them, … that man, as the result of employing nepotism, is knowingly and quietly destroying the integrity of his employer’s business and is purposely destroying our culture.
-Quick note: if you do not fear being fired by your boss, you have no incentive to work very diligently, … at all! (Familiarity breeds contempt!)
Purposely Destroying Our Culture
The less prudent set the bar under which we all must limbo- below our own vast abilities; and we all must appeal to the lowest common denominator in order to maintain harmony!
Why the Fuck is that?
My proverbial question is: “Why?!”
I could write an encyclopedia on this subject, but, in short, it is proven that, after you lower the standards of working, less qualified people can fill those, otherwise, difficult to earn positions. After all the higher-up positions have been filled by less qualified workers, the ultimate quality and efficiency of your entire business fall into disarray; and you end up with a metamorphosis from your business model into something completely different!
For perfect example: If you became a racehorse trainer, and seventy percent of your workforce spoke English, your business would run smoothly. Communication would be efficient and accurate. However, after being a racehorse trainer for forty years, and you realize that zero percent of your workforce speaks English, business does not run smoothly anymore, and communication is neither efficient nor accurate. ….
Hell, You can’t even point up at the sun anymore and say, “The sun is warm!” Because nobody will fucking understand you!!! That is how different the culture of the racetrack is in America, today, from forty years ago!
Being outnumbered, culturally, is a distinct reality. Gentrification is frowned upon and feared by those cultures which it affects.
It is ironic that I find myself being viewed as a Gentrificationist by people who have come to my country and are changing the culture of my country! My steadfast holding-on to my culture and not acquiescing by assimilating to becoming more tolerant of the Hispanic takeover has marked me as a problem to them!
(And let us not pussy-foot around this one: America is absolutely being over-run and taken-over by the multitude of Hispanic cultures! American Culture is no longer a summer day of hot dogs and burgers on the grill with a case of Budweiser and a game of baseball; it is now burritos and enchiladas out of the Mexican food truck and a faggot-ass bottle of Corona with a slice of lime in it, and a game of nothing, or possibly soccer, maybe,…)
The Lazy culture of drinking beer and working as little as possible has become the poster child of what America has accepted to be it’s culture, now!
But How Is A Hard Worker A Threat To The Lazy?
The reason is because they know that the example which I set is a threat to their lazy status quo; and they have no way of counteracting such threat to their employment, because the only way to suppress such threat would be by practicing due-diligence, hard work and integrity and doing what the boss wants done (especially when the boss is not around!) They are not willing, therefore, not capable of equaling my example; so they deem me as being their enemy! As the result of this, they attempt to sabotage my employment status and the enjoyment of my life! In fact, the only way they have been able to counteract the prowess of gentrification is through nepotism- by employing their own family members; and that is what they do!
The whole: “Do the least to get paid the most,” mindset is the most retarded animal on the planet!
What Is The Reason For The Sabotage?
The Wooden Shoe In The Wheel
Back during the Industrial Revolution, when factory owners were yielding exponential profits, but not compensating the factory workers in-kind, the workers took it upon themselves to extrude profits from their employers by purposely decreasing the productivity of the factory.
One tale told is that some workers, who wore wooden shoes called, “sabots,” would throw one of those sabots into the gear mechanism of a machine, stopping the machine, costing the factory owner time and money! The practice of wedging sabots into moving machinery parts became know as, “sabotage.” Sabatoge is how factory workers punished their employers for selfishness and greed.
In my case, all of the workers have agreed to “turn a blind eye” and allow for sabotage to occur, but I see more esteem and profit in putting forth effort to see to it that things are running smoothly, that things look nice and that things are nice. I execute effort in keeping the place looking respectable for prospective clients.
If I tidy-up an area which needs to be cleaned-up, (in order to promote continued-business,) the workers around me scoff at my efforts and attempt to belittle me, telling me, “You don’t need to do that. You’re wasting your time.” They comport themselves with an air of vanity which is perpetrated by their natural ignorance. Their laziness and purposeful lack of effort are their rendition of throwing a sabot in the wheel! SABATOGE!
The factory workers despise me for pulling the sabot out of the machinery! In short: My coworkers detest me for doing a good job and pretend that I am stupid for doing such a good job; when, in fact, it is they who are stupid; because the rest of the world sees their being lazy and their lack of value (in comparison to me,) whilst the people who make the decisions and who have the money observe my hard work and my providing of tangible value!
The Lazy Ones think that the joke is on me; but the cosmic joke, really, is on them! As they look at me, shoveling mud, like a looser, I am winning, because I am making myself physically and mental stronger (in the process;) and I am enjoying all of these activities which have gratiously been provided for me to participate in!
Hard work equals reward.
No work equals no reward.
As the Lazy Ones, these factory workers, feel as though I am ruining their efforts to dismantle the business, to sabotage the machinery, they view me as the enemy, an undercover agent for the enemy, and as a problem in their lives.
Yes, the fact that I do a good job is viewed as a “problem” to the people around me! (Think about that!)
-Ride Tight