They've made a car park, and when I saw the tent and sign going up I thought there was something big going on, there isn't much need for makeshift carparks around here, but I thought there might be some kind of meeting at the community centre next door or something, but this was the car park in the morning...
Can you see all those green blobs?? They are the men who were getting paid to wave red sticks around to direct the thousands of cars that were surely going to pile in, what with all those guard men and stuff. However, I taught lesson after lesson and the great stampede of cars was never to arrive, yet the men sat around twiddling their thumbs, re-arranging cones, and generally tried to look busy, which is pretty damn hard in a massive field with one car...
Then this afternoon, just to prove I wasn't lying, the green blobs were getting restless, talking to each other, about the fact they were getting paid to do absolutely nothing no doubt.
And just now... After a hard day's work, the green blobs have gone home. No cars. No massive event. I have NO idea what the point of today was. Maybe I'll eat my words and today was a trial run for the 50 million cars that will be packed in there tomorrow. This is the useless guard men I'm talking about. And it's not even their fault, someone has obviously told them to go there, at someone's expense. If it's not mine I don't really give a flying fuck, but if this was a city event then my tax yen is paying their salaries?! What a waste!
I've worked my fair share of shitty customer service jobs in the past. I did them well because I was getting paid to do so, and it's to a credit of a lot of these stick guys that they do the same.
ReplyDeleteIt's possible to realise the job is crap without thinking that the people who do it are as well. I think maybe your last post crossed that line a bit, but by the same token some of the comments were just as bad or worse. When I was stuck outside in the pissing rain copping abuse for enforcing some obviously stupid rule, I'd have been severely fucked off if some patronising git had tried to tell me that actually I was doing a really important job. Clearly I fucking wasn't.
The stick men are so blatantly just make-work, and I don't think it's unreasonable to say so, or to feel that they'd rather be doing something else. People are not defined by the jobs they do, or at least they shouldn't be.
I agree, it did cross the line, it was just for dramatic effect and reading over it again made me think that it made me look like a big snob. No point changing it now, but I have learned something, which is great!
DeleteI guess it just depends on their own personal perspective, if they enjoy their work, or are happy for getting paid for doing nothing then more power to the,. I suppose I'm just not that type so I couldn't see the different angles.
Thanks for your comment!
sigh, this happens here too. Seriously, having five men all waving sticks telling you where to park is harder than just like, you know, driving in and parking between the white lines on the dirt.
ReplyDeleteIt's seriously unbelievable! When it's a huge event that is packed I get it, but when there is clearly no need for these poor guys to be standing outside I just don't get it!
DeleteHmmm, were they UFO spotting or something?
ReplyDeleteHAHA! Now why didn't I think of that!? This would be a better explaination for sure!
DeleteYou gotta really feel the words to that song: Young man, there's no need to feel down. I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground. I said, young...
ReplyDeleteEsteem and self-respect. Been there, done that.
I bet, if you played it real loud, you'd at get at least a "Y" out of one of them. The one who gives you the first letter is the one to talk to.
Make-work projects:
I'd also be willing to bet that the president of the company that has the fat contract with whoever has to rent the overpriced services of the underpaid stick-people, due to liability laws (and insurance issues, nudge, wink)... I'd be willing to bet that the president of that company is once-retired and there's some muscle somewhere that takes a cut of everything. And the guy who is in line to replace that president will have been a former good customer. I'd be willing to bet there's something like that going on. But I'm hoping I'm just paranoid at best.
Anyway...
I think it's about time to go to the...
Is it really just a case of too much money?! Maybe you're right, there is a lot of that in Japan. It's another mystery that I will never understand I guess!
DeleteThe way tax money is doled out requires you use it all or next year...no matter what your needs you will receive less because you didn't use all of last years. Even city office workers (students of mine) are dismayed by the epic waste.
ReplyDeleteConsidering the economy and shit the are doing because of it...this ancient system of waste still exists.
I should know this I guess, Ryota being a public worker and all, I guess I'm just not wired to that way of thinking so it's hard for me to grasp! Hopefully a change will come soon?? Oh wait... It's Japan... ;)
DeleteI think the comments were too much.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is that people do judge based on jobs and Corrine isn't the first to do so. This was relevant in both theatre and linguistics classes. Most people would use completely different vocabulary when they're speaking to a Politician compared to a stay at home parent, for example.
I don't like the idea of a job defining status or life competency or when some people think they can yell at retail workers or whatever. I found retail harder than tutoring because my heart wasn't in retail. But other people love it.
I do judge, it's just who I am. I guess because I7ve always been apart of a hard working, wealthy-ish family. Still, looking down my nose at others really wasn't my intention, but certainly looked that way!
DeleteI loved retail when I worked through university, I seriously considered going in to it permanently, maybe I would have if I hadn't come to Japan! I loved teaching more though I guess, we don't know until we try all sorts of careers I guess!
Wow! And to think we don't even have enough librarians anymore, because they cost too much money! Really, there is now a machine where a real-life librarian was before! O.o Life is so weird.
ReplyDeleteSee that's a shame. :( Public funds must be all over the shop.
DeleteI thought of you today, at our local sprts stadium there were heaps of guard men. Some for construction, and some for directing the traffic in quite a pointless way. One guy was stood at the road junction directing people to the right, unless they wanted to go left, in which case he directed them left. So, he was there, with a red stick, to show point the way people were turning. I can't help but wonder what goes through a man's mind when he's doing that. And now everytime I see a guard man pointlessly waving his red stick, I'll think of you. Which is different from thinking of you every time I hear the word cunt.
ReplyDeleteWoohoo! Stick man thoughts are way better than cunt thoughts! haha, wait that came out wrong... But I keep noticing more and more pointless guard men now I've actually thought about it, I keep wanting to snap them on my phone in all their uselessness!
DeleteStrange strange strange!!! Maybe they were expecting a local pol to roll in with his entourage, but he never showed?
ReplyDeleteMy other half did the guard man job for two years on and off - trying to use his brains to make it somehow interesting - but yup - somewhere there are rules about how many safety people have to be at a site...and it's all jobs for someone..
Last week I saw a guardwoman waving her stick over a walking piece of board that was no bigger than this computer desk - because it was raised 3 cm over a being repaired pavement....
Who knows?? They're there again today, but again... no cars, just men in green jackets!
DeleteAhhh I didn't think of the rules!? Of course, this is Japan, if there is a capacity for 100 cars they probably have some guideline that they need x amount of stick men... Still crazy, but more understandable (for Japan) I guess!