Marketable Skills (and my Lack Thereof)

When I went to get my car inspected in October, I almost died when the mechanic came out and told me that it failed inspection and would need work to the tune of around $2,000 (which I most decidedly do not have at this juncture in my life).

I did what I always do in those situations--I cried for awhile, then I acted like a despondent jerk for a few minutes, contemplated filing for bankruptcy ... then I asked Andy for help. Andy knows cars. He got the necessary parts (Did you know that cars have boots? They're attached to something called a caliper. I think), did the work himself and didn't charge me for labor, and saved me many hundreds of dollars. I got my car back yesterday, and it's inspected and life is good.

Which brings me to my point. I have an advanced graduate degree. I can analyze literature from poetry to philosophy and everything in between. I educate the minds of high school students. I run the school newspaper and am the sophomore class advisor. I've written a novel and three quarters of a second one. I kicked butt on the Praxis exams (think SATs for teachers).

And it all means nothing, when all is said and done. I mean, I took a couple of courses at a business college when I was pregnant with Addie so I could stay on my parents' health insurance. While there, I learned how to type and could, at one point in my life, type over a hundred words a minute (I've slowed down some in my old age). Typing is probably my only marketable skill, and it's not even like I use it all that much (other than when I'm writing ... or blogging ... okay, I type a lot, but you get what I mean).

Andy, on the other hand, dropped out of high school, got his GED, never graduated from college, and has a manual labor job where he gets paid about what I do. And he can fix cars. He is also one of the smartest people I know, and one of the kindest.

It's funny how, on paper, I look like an educated professional in a white collar field. In reality, there's not a whole lot I can do (other than motherhood--I'm pretty good at that .. and writing. Sometimes). I can't even do the laundry without screwing it up (yeah, I mixed whites and reds and have a bunch of grayish pink ... don't ask).

Do you think the dichotomy between white and blue collar is shrinking? Do people with blue collar jobs tend to have more practical skills? And why, oh why, do some people still look down on car mechanics, hairdressers, sanitation workers, and truck drivers?

Convenience Store Clerks Trying to Strike it Big

On my way to get Addie from marching band rehearsal, I stopped at a gas station convenience store to get a Coke (well, Diet Coke since I'm doing Weight Watchers, but the principle's the same).

There were two clerks on duty, and they were having a ball with scratch tickets. I mean, they were so enthralled by their "three nines in a row" that it took me about ten minutes to pay for a can of soda.

I honestly didn't mind waiting ... it gave me time to think :) And here's what I came up with:
* Were they an advertising ploy to get people to buy scratch tickets?
* Why would the company pay to have two employees on the clock if they're so busy fooling around to wait on customers?
* Why is it that scratch tickets appeal so strongly to a certain, shall we say, demographic?
* Is it unprofessional, unethical, or even illegal to use scratch tickets bought from your place of employment when you're on the clock?
* What the holy hell is so funny about the phrase "three nines in a row"? You'd think Will Ferrell was in the house or something!

Uh ... Yeah, guess that's all I've got. I'm reading Dan Brown's new book ...

Stay Home if Swine Flu is a Possibility ... but How?

The Swine Flu has arrived, and people are frightened. It's no surprise to me, for one, that "pandemic" and "panic" start with the same three letters. Pandemonium. Mary just sent me an article link exploring the somewhat contradictory directions we are being given. And I don't mean in terms of getting sick.

Recent statistics claim that 57 million Americans have no paid sick time. If they (or their family members) are sick, they must make that agonizing choice to either go to work sick or stay home then suck it up on payday. Not a good option either way.

With the economy being what it is, a reduction in work force because employees are told to stay home if suffering from certain symptoms could be disastrous, to both workplace production and employee job security. However, at the same time, nobody wants the first three letters in pandemic to turn to "epi".

The article talks about something called "presenteeism", which is basically when someone who should be absent from work instead goes in sick. A 2004 study by Cornell, in fact, found that $180 billion each year is lost to "presenteeism" due to lack of productivity brought about by sick employees that go to work anyway.

As someone who has been guilty of presenteeism (I go to work unless one of my kids is home sick ... or I'm in the hospital with pancreatitis), I think this is very accurate. If you ask my students, for example, when we watch movies or do busywork worksheets or something less exciting than my class usually is, they can tell you, "Oh, Mrs. L had a cold that day" or "Mrs. L lost her voice and couldn't talk" or something like that. The irony is, it's fairly easy for me to take time off from work--I just don't like to.

Companies and schools and public places and airplanes and so on are saying, "If you're exhibiting symptoms of Swine Flu, just stay home." However, is it really that simple? And is this indicative of a bigger problem?

Despite my aversion to missing work, if I suddenly came down with flu-like symptoms and was running a high fever, I'd call in. I wouldn't want to expose my students and colleagues to anything potentially dangerous. However, I have that luxury.

What about the 57 million people out there that don't?