I walked to the corner 7-11 store a few hours ago and ran into a co-worker from my former job. Just to recap, I had worked at this job for a little under six years and a week ago today (and from the time I started writing this, which is ironic, is the actual time when my world changed) I was fired from my job. My co-worker had been there almost ten years. While we suspected things we’re not as good as they seemed, we were given no prior notice that our department was being removed, and our severance was 2 weeks of pay. Maybe some feel this a better deal than they received when they were fired from their jobs. Maybe some feel this is someone whining and should feel grateful they got something.

If that’s the argument you want to give me, you’re perpetuating what has become awful about how we, and by we I mean those who believe they are in status positions, treat folks whom we deem are grunt workers. We buy into the myth that low wage workers should be treated almost like second class citizens, yet if we found ourselves in their shoes we would have every excuse in the book why we deserved better consideration. We don’t follow the credo of do unto others as we would have them do unto us. I find it hilarious when I see McDonalds, WalMart or other low wage workers on television demanding better wages. I don’t find the workers funny. I find the people who criticize them as funny. Many people still cling to the myth that people working at low wage jobs are kids just starting out and they deserve to have non-living wages. I think, many decades ago, the thinking was if you take a low paying job it was motivation to improve yourself for a higher paying job. Since the 80s, when we outsourced jobs overseas, there have been fewer and fewer midlevel income jobs. The low paying jobs have become main income jobs for a lot of Americans.

A few months ago, Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa gave a state of the Union response where she talked about how see used to work at Hardee’s making biscuits to get through college. It was to illustrate how she came from humble beginnings to work her way to the Senate. Politicians, corporate leaders and other captains of America often talk about the humble beginnings they had before they ‘made it’ in society. They make those menial jobs sound quaint, a necessary step to the bigger goal of rags to riches. The American dream is you can work your way up from a low paying job to the land of milk and honey. I know in my heart of hearts that one reason why people that are low wage earners are so eager to vote against their self-interest is they still think of the American dream rather than the American reality. We still think jobs for people at WalMart or at fast foods is for teenagers, yet if people open their eyes to the workers at those places they will see single mothers, they will see regular people who rely on those jobs for a living wage. We don’t have the manufacturing jobs, the labor intensive jobs that would afford people to make a living wage in other areas.

I read an article a few weeks ago that looked at people who were early morning biscuit workers just like Joni Ernst was. The first thing the article mentioned was they had to go 40 miles away from Ernst’s home town because there weren’t Hardee’s fast food places in the area. Many of the people interviewed were single mothers with children or people who lost jobs and were at Hardee’s to fill the income gap. These were people who were willing to work, who were looking to improve themselves, but the reality was they had bills to pay and kids to take care of. They weren’t lazy teenagers and had to work to make ends meet. The article talked about the snowstorm in town, which made traffic miserable, but how these dedicated folks came in to work. The next time you’re at a WalMart, Target, the local grocery store or fast food place, take a look at the people who work there. Don’t think of them was workers, employees or associates. Put yourself in their shoes and think if you could survive on minimum wages.

At my old job we came in sick, we came in tired and we were loyal to that company. We wanted the company to succeed and we contributed any way we could. When I ran into my former co-worker at the 7-11 a few blocks away I found out he is a friend of the clerk at the store. We got to talking and came to find out that the store was bought by new owners and the clerk might have to get another job. Now, this is where we both got a bit angry at our situation. The clerk at the store got a two week notice about the change in ownership. He was told if he wanted to leave after the two weeks, he would get his back vacation as well as four weeks in severance pay. He has time to think about if he wants to stay or go. He has time, if he wants to go, to look for other work. He has to time to mentally prepare not only for the loss of the job and routine but to get things set in terms of bills and finances. With the four weeks in pay he even has time to transition financially. The owners of the 7-11 gave their employee respect and treated him like an adult. They didn’t assume he was going to go crazy and shoot up the place. They didn’t assume he was going to cuss them out. They gave him the time and compensation to adjust to the change in his employment.

Our former company bragged about its multi-million dollar contracts or its many offices in Asia. If you look at their website you will see all of the descriptions of an expanding company that thinks of its employees as family. I have been in countless meetings where the head of the company attended where we were told how our department was the backbone of the company, how we had sustained the company through hard times. Yet, in consideration of our hard work we were given no notice, no fair compensation and no substantial answers to our questions when we were let go. I was never under the assumption, even though we worked in an office building, that we were never nothing more than the grunt people. A year after I started working there I jokingly called our department the cornbread room. It was in reference to a scene near the beginning of ALIEN, when everyone had woken up and they were having that first meal. The maintenance guys were saying they should get an equal cut of the commission because they were the ones who made sure the hunk of junk stayed together. They complained about the cornbread and their commission. We worked hard at our jobs, covered for the mistakes of many people and, if we take the CEO of the company at his word, kept money flowing into the company when the other departments drained the company. When it mattered, we were kicked to the curb with no warning, which displayed terrible disrespect.

We wonder why people have such poor attitudes about their jobs yet we don’t think about the ultimate disrespect we give them on the job. I don’t think either of us intended to but my former co-worker and I spent a lot of time talking outside of that 7-11. None of us are angry about losing our jobs, well not really angry. We are disappointed in the disrespect we got from the job and the bosses who lied to our faces for many years. This, I’m afraid, is what corporate America has become to those working in the trenches. The attitude exhibited by my former employer is why a large minority of Americans have no loyalty to government or employers. We are given soothing words to keep us calm yet when changes occur we are dismissed like discarded tissues. A majority of Americans still believe in the American dream, still believe with hard work they will reach the land of milk and honey, but a growing number of people have stopped believing the smiling faces and broken promises.