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May 18, 2010
"The Wussification of the Workplace"
The men who built the Empire State Building stood on bare planks to work in the sky;
paradoxically, they were grounded in reality, not theory. They did not have to concern themselves with tones and timbres; nor did the educated architects who dreamed up skyscrapers. One suspects that if either the man on the beam or the one with the blueprints had been approached by a tanning-booth-bronzed-and-manicured corporate bureaucrat, and asked to enumerate their “goals” as part of their “performance review” they both would have hooted at him in derision. “My goal,” the first would say, “is to not fall. It’s to stay alive so I can pick up my pay, have a beer with the wife, raise the kids and get into heaven a half-hour before the devil knows I’m dead.” -- The Anchoress
Posted by Vanderleun at May 18, 2010 9:13 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
Many of the men who built the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, The George Washington Bridge and many of the New York Skylines were the Mohawk Indian iron workers.
Posted by: Cilla Mitchell, Galveston Texas at May 19, 2010 9:06 AM
It's a dirty job...but someone has to write about it.
You see where I'm going with this, don't you...
Posted by: Rick at May 19, 2010 12:34 PM
Sensible codes not withstanding the most effective safety tool is the instinct for self preservation.
Posted by: JimB at May 19, 2010 4:24 PM
OurTurdStone, has there ever been a post on this blog whose point you haven't completely missed?
Posted by: Aquila at May 19, 2010 6:55 PM
I'll never forget my first job site where the foreman told me as I was halfway up the scaffold: "If you fall you're fired before you hit the ground!"
It has served me well in life.
Posted by: monkeyfan at May 20, 2010 12:32 PM