The Texas Employment Experience

The Work Environment At Many Texas
Companies is so depressing
the Job Applications Should Come
With Suicide Prevention Guidelines.
Today I attended the first part of a three part hiring process at a well known Texas company. I was called into a room with other candidates and we waited to receive the initial set of instructions that were to be completed. As I looked around the room, I paid special attention to the faces of those who sat around the table with me. One was an older, well dressed man from India. The other was a young Hispanic man. There was one white man and one black woman. As I looked around the room I immediately noticed something. There was no joy and no excitement with any of these people. There was also fear that I perceived. I asked a question and the other folks in the room simply looked at me as if afraid to answer. I swear sometimes I feel as if living in Texas is similar to being in a Twilight Zone movie. Just plain weird. However, the faces were just those of 'weary' people. People who saw no joy in working. No joy or hope in the company we were all out out there to work for. Since living in Texas I had seen this look many times. The black woman kept her eyes downcast. The Hispanic man and the white man (there was one other black man in there I forgot to mention) had their heads buried in their cell phones..

After looking around the room for some time I found myself deep in thought. Working in DFW has been for the most part drudgery. The corporations here operate in a very ruthless manner. There is no loyalty from the corporation and therefore no loyalty from the Employee to the corporation. It's a marriage not of convenience but of necessity and both parties end up miserable over time and switching each other out. I had seen this time and time again. Even the hiring process was a chore. A three part hiring process (consisting of Testing, then next day orientation before hire to see if the job is for you and then finally the interview process and background and drug test). It's like those in power over most of these corporations operating in the DFW area tried to make the hiring process as onerous and inconvenient as possible. They know there are so many poor saps out here looking for work and maybe they get some type of a weird, sick thrill out of it.

I wondered once hired, 'if hired' how long many of us would last. It seemed that many folks out here just drift from job to job. Whatever happened to a career? In Texas careers are only for medical professionals, lawyers and government personnel. I know that's an incredible thing to say but honestly out here too many people get shoved out of jobs or jump jobs continuously, over and over and over. It's a result of this ruthless business environment and companies trying to extract every last penny out of everyone, loading everyone up with two to three times the work and having employees continuously work in an environment of fear..

I've seen that time and time again...

Maybe this is how the job market in the entire country is changing. Republicans have pushed to make everyone as expendable and non-valued as possible. It's no longer how hard you work.  Companies know that there are so many others out there ready to take your spot and work as equally hard. Many companies have even streamlined their processes to account for a ridiculously high, continual turnover. They don't even try to keep employees. New employees are cheaper they feel. Plus many employers game the new hire tax credits and after so long working for them they figure in their financial interest to push you out and simply snag a big tax credit while hiring someone else.

Try as I might I have never been able to wrap my head around the brutal work environment of Texas with the generally nice and sensible Texas population. Texans are good people it seems but sort of Stupid. They have deferred all of their thinking to Plutocrats and Preachers. This hasn't served them well. Sure Texas is a hopping place for jobs but the  stress here is unbelievable, the wages bone crushingly low and job security in this state pretty much non existent.

There is NO JOY in working in this state. Working in the state of Texas is the closest thing to drudgery I've ever experienced in my life. All one can do is survive in this state. Many will be kept at the bottom. The lucky few will rise to the top. It really is no way to live.