'Blue collar' at General Motors

[David L Smith <davidlsmith@comcast.net>]

I found this while cleaning up files on my computer.
I wrote it on December 10, 1994.
I will retire from the job described below this year.

~
Today is long,
Time goes so slow.
Yesterday was unbearable.
Tomorrow's coming is unthinkable,
Yet it’s always so close to mind.
I'm not whole,
Something is missing.
Where is the JOY in my work,
The laughter,
The pride?
There is a thief among us.
What did he steal?
I look around and find my future has disappeared.
I know there was one here,
Once.
When was it stolen?
Who stole from me?
What does the thief look like?
Do I know him?
Have we spoken in passing?
Did he secretly smile at my naïveté?
He was so quiet.
So cunning.
He came upon me completely unannounced.
Or did he?
I remember now.
Dr. Deming revealed his presence to me on December 7, 1990.
He warned me of the thief’s coming.
He told me what would be taken.
I was asleep.

	- 'Blue collar' at General Motors
~

I have seldom posted to this forum, but have regularly read it for a very 
long time. I quit high school at 16 and went directly into the workforce as 
manual labor. After attending Dr. Deming's seminar in 1991, I attended a 
business college and obtained an education in Statistical Process Control 
and Quality Management. I educated myself solely because of the influence 
Dr. Deming’s teachings had on me.

The labor workforce is filled with men and women who feel just like my 
poem. And they feel that way primarily because of their management. Their 
management, like Dr. Joyce Orsini once stated, is so bad that if they were 
arrested for being managers they couldn't collect enough evidence to 
convict them. It's true, today's managers are horribly ignorant and their 
workers suffer from it.

From the DEN postings, I know that the overwhelming majority of my fellow 
Denizens are not employed as hourly labor, and yet they share all the same 
frustrations with labor save one. That one is mobility. Manual laborers 
that have worked their way into the higher wage bracket are stuck. There is 
nowhere they can go as they work by the hour and but trade their time for a 
pension. This is a fact of life and not a bad thing at all, but the labor 
workforce is at the bottom of the food chain and is usually the first 
casualty of poor or greedy management. You men and women of the DEN and the 
few books in print on the subject are all that stand on the wall in defense 
of those in direct labor. You defend labor by saying to the salary world 
that there is a better and more humane way to manage your business while 
still obtaining your goals! You are the only ones sending this message.

Without your knowledge, but with your help, I have introduced Dr. Deming's 
teachings to about ten salary co-workers. They went on to study on their 
own, and all but one have resigned from here. Each has went on to improve 
their life and the lives of others. The one hanger-on is now sending out 
his resume. So, you see you have changed the course of the future - Just 
like George Bailey.

If I had one wish here, it would be to see more DEN discussions on 
application. Questions pertaining to the writers thoughts on how they are 
managed and how they, in turn, manage others.

Hang in there all,

        David Smith