4 ms·

> I hadn’t interacted with any of the office staff, but they’d seen me. This story would have taken a very different turn if early on he had realized that befr

> I hadn’t interacted with any of the office staff, but they’d seen me. This story would have taken a very different turn if early on he had realized that befriending the office staff would have scored him a permanent place in one of those empty unused cubicles. No need to be best friends, but just being friendly and forthcoming now and then would have avoided their attitude of "who's that weirdo let's involve the site manager to get rid of him". It fits with his lonely wolf persona though which makes it easier for him to be a hero in his story and which he seems to cultivate in purpose.

forgetfreeman 1y ago
" if early on he had realized that befriending the office staff would have scored him a permanent place" I feel like you don't have any first hand experience with the kind of classist horseshit that is endemic to these kinds of work environments.
- teiferer 1y ago
  I do, thus my comment. The key is to use this to your advantage.
  - arethuza 1y ago
    It depends on the environment - many years ago I used to have temp job in the summer working on a large industrial plant that had a nice office building where the managers and admin staff were based. There were no signs saying "temp staff keep out" - and you did occasionally have to go in there but it was pretty clear to me that you couldn't go and hang out in there - particularly as the temps got all the muckiest, smelliest jobs in all weathers.
- criddell 1y ago
  In my experience, it isn't necessarily classist horseshit that divides office and shop (or field) workers. > They’d followed my oily bootprints down the hallway and begun to leer. Who is this diesel-stinking contractor? That's probably the real reason. Being a welder is messy, stinky work and office workers don't want that in their space.
ofalkaed 1y ago
Being the weirdo frees you from a great many time consuming pleasantries. Making friends might secure a permanent place but it also means a few minutes from every break will be lost to small talk and sometimes the entire break; you see a self serving lone wolf casting himself as the hero, I see someone just trying to find a way to do what is important to him. I am fairly certain that much of the eccentric artist image is just frustration over small talk.
- jmnicolas 1y ago
  a great many time consuming pleasantries Oh the horror!
  - ofalkaed 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - scrumper 1y ago
      And as a comment on an article written by, and about, a man who works a manual labor job because he can't support himself as a writer despite having published novels. Most guilty, indeed.
      - randallsquared 1y ago
        The vast majority of authors, even most those who were quite prolific, have never been able to support themselves on that income alone, throughout the modern history of novels. This isn't new with LLMs.
    - dmd 1y ago
      Please don't do this. You wouldn't shit in public. This is the same.
      - hrimfaxi 1y ago
        I am horrified at the thought of this comment aging poorly.
ZiiS 1y ago
Someone who can write for the Paris Review and play politics would end up the site managers boss before he could stop it.
- ckemere 1y ago
  I had a friend who worked at a plant and was an author on the side. I don’t think there’s any evidence that good novelists (let alone merely promising ones) are likely to have personalities that make them likely to be bosses.
  - 2b3a51 1y ago
    How does this union thing work - getting laid off then being brought back on again when work picks up? How do you get to be on the union list? (I'm in the UK, and I tend to associate that kind of approach to casual employment with dock work in sea ports. That ended with containerisation in the 1980s)
    - fragmede 1y ago
      Go to the union hall, sign up, pass a test, wait a lifetime (because there's a line of people ahead of you), get called in finally, start as an apprentice, work, do well, get put on the list as a trained apprentice, eventually get called into trained apprentice jobs, train up through the years, become a journeyman and later a master, all while cycling between working and waiting for work. If you're amicable, you can move up the list and get called more frequently because the person in control of the list can just do that, or alternately, someone at a job site can call for you specifically which will get you work faster than simply waiting around for work from the list. There are still union trades in the US, but they're a dying breed.
      - 2b3a51 1y ago
        Thanks for replying. So vocational training is standardised by unions in the US. That's amazing.
  - 1y ago
runjake 1y ago
Former “scummy contractor” here. So, a “contractor” being in the office is considered a mortal sin. I don’t know why this is, but it’s always been this way. Workers don’t go into the building. The office staff don’t want you there and if you stay too long, your fellow workers will rib you for hours about going to “the dark side”. In my few years at the job, I had only been in the office area for 5 minutes to fill out some sort of paperwork. Most of that from when I was hired. Seeing as he was in there on multiple occasions, he probably did establish rapport with the office staff, but left that out because it messed with the flow of the story.
- sarchertech 1y ago
  I worked at a warehouse tech startup that had offices attached to our warehouse. The conference rooms looked out over the warehouse floor through big glass walls. The warehouse workers were explicitly banned from entering the office space. I assume because the company didn’t want them enjoying the free snacks and catered lunches.

forgetfreeman 1y ago

" if early on he had realized that befriending the office staff would have scored him a permanent place" I feel like you don't have any first hand experience with the kind of classist horseshit that is endemic to these kinds of work environments.

teiferer 1y ago
I do, thus my comment. The key is to use this to your advantage.
- arethuza 1y ago
  It depends on the environment - many years ago I used to have temp job in the summer working on a large industrial plant that had a nice office building where the managers and admin staff were based. There were no signs saying "temp staff keep out" - and you did occasionally have to go in there but it was pretty clear to me that you couldn't go and hang out in there - particularly as the temps got all the muckiest, smelliest jobs in all weathers.
criddell 1y ago
In my experience, it isn't necessarily classist horseshit that divides office and shop (or field) workers. > They’d followed my oily bootprints down the hallway and begun to leer. Who is this diesel-stinking contractor? That's probably the real reason. Being a welder is messy, stinky work and office workers don't want that in their space.

ofalkaed 1y ago

Being the weirdo frees you from a great many time consuming pleasantries. Making friends might secure a permanent place but it also means a few minutes from every break will be lost to small talk and sometimes the entire break; you see a self serving lone wolf casting himself as the hero, I see someone just trying to find a way to do what is important to him. I am fairly certain that much of the eccentric artist image is just frustration over small talk.

jmnicolas 1y ago
a great many time consuming pleasantries Oh the horror!
- ofalkaed 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - scrumper 1y ago
    And as a comment on an article written by, and about, a man who works a manual labor job because he can't support himself as a writer despite having published novels. Most guilty, indeed.
    - randallsquared 1y ago
      The vast majority of authors, even most those who were quite prolific, have never been able to support themselves on that income alone, throughout the modern history of novels. This isn't new with LLMs.
  - dmd 1y ago
    Please don't do this. You wouldn't shit in public. This is the same.
    - hrimfaxi 1y ago
      I am horrified at the thought of this comment aging poorly.

ZiiS 1y ago

Someone who can write for the Paris Review and play politics would end up the site managers boss before he could stop it.

ckemere 1y ago
I had a friend who worked at a plant and was an author on the side. I don’t think there’s any evidence that good novelists (let alone merely promising ones) are likely to have personalities that make them likely to be bosses.
- 2b3a51 1y ago
  How does this union thing work - getting laid off then being brought back on again when work picks up? How do you get to be on the union list? (I'm in the UK, and I tend to associate that kind of approach to casual employment with dock work in sea ports. That ended with containerisation in the 1980s)
  - fragmede 1y ago
    Go to the union hall, sign up, pass a test, wait a lifetime (because there's a line of people ahead of you), get called in finally, start as an apprentice, work, do well, get put on the list as a trained apprentice, eventually get called into trained apprentice jobs, train up through the years, become a journeyman and later a master, all while cycling between working and waiting for work. If you're amicable, you can move up the list and get called more frequently because the person in control of the list can just do that, or alternately, someone at a job site can call for you specifically which will get you work faster than simply waiting around for work from the list. There are still union trades in the US, but they're a dying breed.
    - 2b3a51 1y ago
      Thanks for replying. So vocational training is standardised by unions in the US. That's amazing.
- 1y ago

runjake 1y ago

Former “scummy contractor” here. So, a “contractor” being in the office is considered a mortal sin. I don’t know why this is, but it’s always been this way. Workers don’t go into the building. The office staff don’t want you there and if you stay too long, your fellow workers will rib you for hours about going to “the dark side”. In my few years at the job, I had only been in the office area for 5 minutes to fill out some sort of paperwork. Most of that from when I was hired. Seeing as he was in there on multiple occasions, he probably did establish rapport with the office staff, but left that out because it messed with the flow of the story.

sarchertech 1y ago
I worked at a warehouse tech startup that had offices attached to our warehouse. The conference rooms looked out over the warehouse floor through big glass walls. The warehouse workers were explicitly banned from entering the office space. I assume because the company didn’t want them enjoying the free snacks and catered lunches.