Work Ethics

My brother Scott is insane. Today, he worked for fifteen hours, give or take a few hours, and in the process took one pitiful half hour break.

Like I said, my brother is insane.

I may rag on him a lot, say he pisses me off to no end, and he would respond to this with some variation on the word "likewise", but one thing i can never impugn is his work ethic. His dedication to his job, to his workplace, and to his company, is beyond reproach, and is something that not only I, but most workers should aspire to. He goes in early, he stays late, he works shifts that last more than ten hours on a weekly basis, and he works at a Harvey's.

Harvey's for crying out loud. He is not a financial accountant, he is not the chief executive officer of a major corporation, he is not even the manager. He is the pseudo-assistant manager, or more officially, the acting assistant supervising manager. He's seventeen, and he already does the work of an assistant manager.

For this hard work, how much does he make, might you ask. My brother, who does all this work, who is trusted with the financial information of his store, who is trusted with all the confidential files of his Harvey's location, makes eight dollars and twenty five cents per hour.

$8.25/hour.

He leads his workplace's health and safety board, he does all this work, he puts up with the endless streams of crap from both his customers, and his coworkers, and for all that, he makes a pittance. A measly eight dollars and change, in return for each and every hour of his life that he spends in the nook of the Home depot.

So yes, for those in the world that say that my generation is lazy, you may all stand up and take notice of people like my brother. For all of those who would say that my generation has no work ethic, again I say to look to my brother, and all those like him. To take shots at an entire group of people, without regards to those who are truly exceptional is wrong. It is just as bigoted as any form of discrimination.

You make me proud to be your brother, Scott. I just hope you know that. For all the joking, for all the fighting, and for all the animosity that often exists between us, I hope you know that.

Until next time...