Corporate Sweatshop? A word from the underground.

Sundays are kind of sad. Over the weekend, I get a glimpse into what it would be like to have a significant amount of time to do the things that are important to me, and just as I begin to feel inspired it’s over. Monday comes and I’m up at 5:30am to be bussed off to the corporate sweatshop.

The buildings are tall and the computer screens hum quietly, inconspicuously zapping years of my life away. I sit for hours on end worrying here and there about mid-weight obesity and sedentary lifestyle. I am lucky, I have only one other person in my cubicle, and we get along. The others are crammed like sardines in hot rooms, hunched over their keyboards dreaming of health care coverage and paid time off, when no one is watching. But of course, someone is always listening or watching so, we've learned to shove entire dreams into the time span of a single blink, or to forget dreaming all together. If we keep our eyes closed for a couple minutes too long chances are some of us will be gone by the time we open them. Fired or laid off because of real or fabricated events, lack of communication, disconnect, disorganization. Disposable.

I have a lot of nerve writing this; hopefully I won't become one of the “disappeared.” We are on edge. We are long term temporary employees, minding our p's q's and F yous, hoping that one day we'll actually get hired and be recognized for the hard work we do and are (or not) passionate about. We are actually the blood line of this department, the foundation and literally so since most of us are housed on the first floor due to some legal technicality. Interestingly enough, when you walk around on the 1st floor you see mostly and disproportionately faces of color. "Diversity candidates," brought in through a special interview process to work on contract, often subject to "special" treatment by regular permanent employees. (That latter of course, we only find out during the 1st month when the all but hazing begins. Or maybe you're lucky and someone spoke out before you and it actually got nipped in the bud.)

And we all say, thank god for any job in this economy, after all, we do get paid pretty well. But, really? Any job? Under any conditions? I don't know.