The Disgruntled Employee

He painfully addresses the many masochistic individuals who are hell-bent on joining the ranks as your happy co-workers. For them, the author gives a cynical lesson on how to not only get a job, but offers the same perspective on how to interpret the want ads. For example: When they say: Plenty of opportunity for advancement! It really means: Give head to get ahead! When they say: Fun team atmosphere! It really means: We have a lynch mob here with a sense of humor!

Pulling out all the stops, he then treads on some privileged territory as he offers a guided tour through the processes of the job search, job application, the interview, orientation (brainwashing), a brief history on the significance of labor unions, management types, your typical co-workers and what you can expect from this volatile cocktail, including the ever-present threat of someone "going postal" and how you must protect yourself. Because not only are dead co-workers bad for morale, but no job is worth your life!

My irresponsibility took me directly into the blue-collar workforce. I found that working my ass off, with loads of overtime in a union shop gave a single man money to burn. And burn it I did! Irresponsibility was an understatement. However, I was happy enough and visualized my future in increments of paycheck to paycheck. (Ain’t I a pistol?) By 1978 I relocated to the Puget Sound region of Washington State. I’m still here. My life is full of surprises.

Things were going great until 1980. Then Ronald Reagan was elected President. On his agenda was every blue-collar worker’s worst nightmare. His "Bust The Unions" campaign was what industry dreamed of since the early 1900’s. The momentum alone screwed virtually millions in the working-class arena, both union and non-union. People were being forced out of work and into the streets at an alarming rate. (Nancy Reagan said: "These people are just going to have to take money out of their savings, like we did!") So Ronnie said: "We all need to tighten our belts." So the Reagan’s tightened theirs by spending thousands of our tax dollars on new china for the White House! (I detected Alzheimer’s long before his doctors did . . . I just didn’t get paid for my diagnosis.) At the speed of lightning, we saw our constitutional rights being flushed down the crapper by industry, with the blessing of our government. By the late 90’s I had lots of time to analyze the situation. I spent lots of time in the library researching governments of all types, particularly the Eastern European dictatorships, better known as Communism and Socialism. I found the similarities to those systems and the policies governing my own job to be frightening to say the least. After confirming my worst suspicions by talking with many of the Eastern European immigrants I worked with, particularly those from Russia, who lived under communist rule all their lives, the groundwork for this book was officially in the hopper.

My personal experience at work included such ludicrous rules as: "No negative remarks about management would be tolerated." "Conform or be cast out." Conversation on the floor was to consist of "Positive work related issues only!" I remarked to a supervisor (who hinted to me more than once that he had a gun) that "I thought this was America!" He said "one more remark like that, and I would be terminated!"

Convinced? I am! The American way, which we have all cherished and worked so diligently to preserve, is disappearing at an alarming rate. If we don’t do something to salvage our constitutional rights we’re going to lose them altogether. I can’t do it alone. So I wrote this book to inform, instigate, and motivate. The rest is up to the eighty-two million blue-collar workers who are being jerked around as we speak. As of now, my job is to see to it that we do just that. Wake up America! We have a problem!