Let us raise a toast to the under-appreciated, underpaid, and
unsung heroes of every work place, the people in sensible shoes.
You
know who we are. You may even be one of us. We are the support staff, the
underlings, the ones who get the work done. We are the first ones called when
something’s not right, and the first ones let go when money is tight. We keep
the toilets clean, the documents organized, and the customers satisfied. In
these days when everything is going up except salaries, we are often miracle
workers.
How do
we do it?
Indeed,
how do we do it?
Very
few of us lie, steal, and turn to the dark side. Some of us drink too much or
dabble in self-medication. Some of us require prescriptions for glasses,
hearing aids, or stress management. Most of us eat too often and exercise too
rarely. We’ve been known to spread gossip or say hateful things about each
other to the boss, but the rumors about voodoo dolls and hit squads are
probably overblown.
The
majority of us are incredibly decent people. We show up for work every day. We
greet you with a smile. We take you and our jobs seriously, and we try to do
good work. We try to get along with our co-workers, even the annoying ones. We
want to succeed and be associated with success. We want you to succeed.
You may
find us getting to work early, skipping lunch, and/or staying late to get
things done. Those cubicles or open spaces we work in give us no privacy, so we
are skilled at covering up personal problems and discomforts. Our parties are
the potlucks in the lunch room, not the expense account meals at the
steakhouses. Our cars are those older and economy models in the parking lot. Vacations,
if we take them, last a week or less and tend to be close to home. You’ll
rarely find us shopping at boutiques. Instead you’ll find us in fashions from
discount stores or thrift shops. Our designer labels say Dockers or Dickies or
Alfred Dunner.
It is
our duty to be reliable and pragmatic, courteous and efficient. You will also
find that we are loyal and creative, generous and fun.
Here is
a blog for people like us.
For our
first toast, then, allow me to borrow the words of the Japanese official who
was rumored say to his American host, “Up your bottoms!”
And the
American’s perfect reply, “Up yours!”
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