Facts of Life

Ran into a couple neighbors while cleaning the Saturn out this morning, getting it ready to turn over to granddaughter tomorrow.

I mentioned that I’d not seen Assistant Maintenance Guy (AMG) since calling him about the smoke detector last week; he didn’t respond, so I’d had to go to a hotel for the night.

I’d heard through the grapevine that he’d come in 6:00 a.m. the day after, but then turned around, got in his truck, drove off, and did not return.

Another prima donna walk off the job episode, thought I.

“He’s here now”, one of the neighbors said. “He’s in the Manager’s Office and it looks like he’s being talked to”.

Probably a corrective interview or write-up.

That started a discussion about how disappointed I am with his becoming lazy like his supervisor, Head Maintenance Guy (HMG).

“He’s not lazy. He’s trying to outdo the other”, said she.

That made perfect sense.

He’s been upset for some time that HMG makes him do all the work, but I told the neighbor that AMG needed to be smart. He just bought a house, a new truck, and needs to accept the facts of life. Those facts being he’s Black and it’s always been our dharma that we have to be smarter and work harder just to get our foot in the door. And don’t expect any thanks, acknowledgment or reward.

That’s the way it was during my mom’s tenure in this world. My daughters and grandchildren are experiencing it and, of course, it’s certainly was my experience in the working world. I had to keep my head down, work my butt off, swallow, not complain about abuse of authority or how the rules were different when applied to me, because I was the sole support for my children and could not afford to not “know my place” and lose my source of income.

That was then, this is now, but not much has changed. I'm guessing AMG doesn't realize this is the first time a Black man has been employed by Corporate to work on this property. Color us surprised when we saw Corporate had evolved to hiring color, and he represented well by being such a hard worker. But now his ego at having once been a supervisor with a workforce of his own is taking over and he resents having to work twice as hard as HMG.

If and when I do run into AMG, I’m hoping he’ll apologize, which will give me an opening to share my thoughts. That I understand why he’s pulling back on his job duties, but that he will lose in this Corporate culture. Consequently, he needs to swallow his feelings and face the facts of life.