Working for a Living

The world doesn't owe you a living. It was here first. - Mark Twain

by Christine Neilson

The Cambria chatter throughout the month of May was cluttered with controversy. The Cambria Community Service District (CCSD) Director's firing of the fire department chief lead to CCSD's Board of Directors conducting both a public and closed door meeting. A public outcry to fire CCSD's director, Tammy Rudock, after a multitude of complaints about her abrasive management style and bloated salary (highest in SLO County's Service Districts) ended in her employment demise. So a revolving door brought the fire chief, Mark Miller, back to his post and sent Rudock packing.

You may be saying, this is yesterday's news. True. But this controversy conjured up coffee house heated dialogues and the sharing of work experiences over lattes and cappuccinos.

First, you should know back in my "flower child" days I was an AFL-CIO union organizer at the University of California at Santa Cruz. My mission was to form a collective bargaining unit for the clerical workers. After placing leaflets in every office, attending a statewide convention, I heard a loud and clear message from the female UCSC work force "don't rock the boat." Thus, the end of my servitude.

Feminists did continue to rock the boat and the result has taken it's place in history. Would it have been possible 40-years ago for Rudock to leap from an assistant's position to the director's seat within two years as a female employee earning a six figure salary?

The imbalance of monetary livelihoods between the sexes has gained equality at the higher levels. Right? But has the lower end of the workforce's experiences changed from punching time clocks, sitting in dingy break rooms next to their lockers?

Isn't it interesting that most of us began our working years in a minimum wage job while saving for college tuition or for our first car. Then, gradually, some of us, like Rudock, catapulted ourselves into a comfortable livelihood throughout our 40s and 50s. Perhaps we also hit a bump in the road (loss of a job, divorce, poor investments) and found ourselves swallowing false pride, combing through classified ads, online job sites, and facing the reality of how few jobs there are in this county. Will Rudock's severance pay dwindle and retirement savings be tapped into?

Many aging Cambrians piece together part-time jobs. Some subsidize their Social Security income by reluctantly stepping behind retail counters, leaving their degrees and decades of work experience behind in order to remain in this close knit community. But what is also sometimes left behind is the mutual respect between an employer and employee. Somehow a single digit hourly wage invites demeaning remarks: "I don't hire former teachers because they talk too much," or "Don't use your brain. Just do what I say!" quip area business owners who quickly forget the resume of the employee standing in front of them shows he/she to be their equal and, maybe a few years wiser.

My final thought—the old adage "treat people like you'd like to be treated." How unfortunate that executives like Rudock, a big fish in a small pond, scoop up their six figure salary and monthly housing allowance and are blinded to the simple natural beauty surrounding them and the people who reside in it.

Doe Image on Banner by Tulip Fleurs