In the beginning....

Yeah.......everyone has been blogging away for forever it seems, and finally I've been inspired enough by an event to want my thoughts out here on the web. To hope they are read, even understood by some, and perhaps in some tiny way change things in this dollar worshipping lunatic asylum we have named North America.

Some background....and why bad dog?

The kick in the pants that started this was my best friends recent stress-induced heart attack scare. We work for the same company, and like many (far too many) workplaces in this greed riddled materialistic society we are being run into the dirt by the people I label the corporate killers. And make no mistake, a lot of folks are in the ground because of them.

People leave and are not replaced, their jobs remaining undone or left for the remaining fools to do. Expected to work insane hours, complete things without the proper time or materials, and work nights and weekends for the same salary. Five figure income with six figure stress sums it up. And not even a fat five figures.....

She ran herself dizzy for them, picking up slack til she ran out of hands......doing her own job and five other peoples. Putting in 80 hour weeks. Giving up the time she should have been relaxing and resting (and maybe having FUN-there's an idea!) to cover their mistakes, cheapness and short sightedness and be the big hero who saved the day for them time and time and TIME again.

Making....well the exact same salary as always. Getting....exhausted and run down. Not getting to take her vacation time, never mind being compensated in any way for all the unquestioning loyalty she displayed to these maggots. Running on their wheel like a manic gerbil for.......nothing.

Yes, maggots....feeding on others' bodies. What a great deal for them, never even a "thank you" needed for all that flaming hoop jumping. She took things personally-success or failure of projects meant a lot to her. I won't name the place here, or even what the industry is, but will refer to it as FITA. And that little acronym stands for F__k in the Ass!

Which is all we do get from these bloated faceless investor types. I am fully aware we are far from the only ones out there with sore behinds...it's happening all over.

She was a good dog.

I am not.

I don't jump through hoops, I do not take any pride in my job, as they make sure I can't do it well, and give me no chance to improve things, I am supposed to run blindly as she did, not think!

I will not make up for the people they have fired or the people who have left and save them tons of money on payroll. I am my own union. My logic pisses them off, my valid questions are irritating and my refusal to put in six seconds of overtime or work on a weekend is a part of my character they couldn't beat out of me with a two by four or coax out of me with bullshit.

I'd die for a family member, a child, a loved one. Hell I may die trying to get an injured raccoon of a major highway hahaha......but I WILL NOT die making people who don't give a damn about me rich.

NOT happening.

I am Bad Dog. I see through it all. I cannot be fooled into feeling like a hero while I'm actually bent over a desk at FITA Inc. I am intelligent, insightful, educated and talented. I could be an asset to the right people and use these traits to benefit them, but as it is they are used to my own design ONLY, and part of that design is self preservation.

I am angry they almost killed my friend when they should be kissing her feet and showering her with bonuses. Right now they are concerned of course-concerned about when she is coming back that is. And I KNOW she is far from the only person a corporation has almost killed, or actually managed to kill. With overwork, with stress...they use us up like workhorses and when we fall in harness they grab another, leaving us to die on the side of the road. I may have this hated yoke around my neck but I'm a still mustang through and through...they wave that whip and will see how far I kick them, in a metaphorical sense of course.

Fuck that and fuck them. Wake up people! Work is nothing but work. Part of earning a living is actually LIVING. Friends, family, good times and rest should not be sacrified to the money men. We should not run blindly for those who don't care a fig about us, or be bullied into picking up their slack so THEY make more cash. We should snicker under our breath at their corporate pep talks.........WE doesn't exist.......unless WE "need to make this work" or WE "need to pull this off".

Where's the WE where the GOOD stuff is concerned, eh? WE "came in under budget here's your cut" or perhaps WE "managed to pull this off have a bonus"....where's all that "go team go" then?

I don't need any pats on the head....they get 40 hours of my time every week, and that's all I owe them. I'm not condoning anyone going postal.....but I have no problem understanding how it happens. Unlike child abusers or serial killers who make no sense at all I can actually see how normal good people can be pushed, stressed and backed into a corner til they come out fighting and do something totally crazy. Our society is artifical, based on printed paper with numbers on it, people live for it and die for it and it's all wrong.

If one person reads this and thinks of their own health and sanity tonight rather than a work deadline I will be happy with that. If one of you does only what you are paid for, instead of going above and beyond, good for you. You owe yourself.

In Freedom,