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Monday, 30 August 2004
Corporate Hostages
There was a hostage situation in TO last week. There is the one you read about in the news, but for me the story went like this:
August 25, 2004:
I took an early train today because we were having a big `future of our company' meeting at 8:45 am. These things are always a mix between corporate propaganda, ass kissing and over explaining why we aren't doing so well. But despite all that doom and gloom there is a positive outlook, a re-invention of the wheel, a re-defining of the corporate structure, blah, blah, blah. Not something I would say I am looking forward too. I'm not one of those guys who sit attentively nodding and agreeing with everything the exec is spewing. I am not looking for work to be a spiritual experience. Pay me every other week and I will work. Thanks, can I get a raise?
Our jobs become albatrosses around our necks. Once we enter that employment field we pretty much give up our freedom. We are made to believe that we owe our whole existence to our employers. We are constantly told how grateful we should be for having a job. Then we buy a house, a car, have some kids and notice that our debt is pretty healthy and it becomes true. I am a hostage. If I negotiate correctly I will be released. My captors will hold me until I am 55 or 65 or maybe even later. Or maybe the stress of the captivity will kill me - a heart attack at 42. My paycheck is my captors gun being held to my head. I can change jobs, get more money elsewhere, buy a bugger house and car, but I'm still looking at a CEO wearing a baliclava telling me to keep my face down on the ground and not to make any sudden moves.
So these are thoughts going through my mind as I get off the train and start my two second walk to the office. But I find myself rudely interrupted by a Union Station security (?) guard, who informs me that the doors are locked and I need to go through the underground. Great, thousands of people piling into the station every two minutes and only one exit. Great, 24 hours in a day and they need to shoot some stupid scene for some stupid movie, or worse a Canadian TV show right now right here. Unbelievable. I'm ready to go berserk and lose it. I end up on Bay Street, cops are everywhere (real cops not fake NYPD movie cops). A taxi driver tries to make his way to the Royal York, only to be cursed out by a young cop who seems to have been run out of patience for taxi cab drivers. People are complaining that they need to get to their office, but the cops aren't letting anyone by - `hostage situation, I'm sorry but you cannot go down there'. What the F?
I make my way to work - make it time for the meeting. These things are always a mix between corporate propaganda, ass kissing and over explaining why we aren't doing so well. But despite all that doom and gloom there is a positive outlook, a re-invention of the wheel, a re-defining of the corporate structure, blah, blah, blah...
Posted by Bastard Boy
at 4:49 PM EDT
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