Los Trabajadores

Unlike most of the rest of the world, the United States celebrates its workers in September rather than May first. Although the urban legend is that we do this because we didn't want to be communists, the truth is that we wanted to divorce what should be a tranquil holiday for working-men and women from the anniversary of an unfortunate incident involving bomb-toting anarchists. Regardless, I like to spend the holiday at least briefly reflecting about what it means to work in this country.

So much is tied up in the concept of work in this culture. How many times have we heard the phrase "work for a living?" It is a peculiar twist of fate that we seem to have decided to leave out the word "wage" from that phrase. By eliding the concept of the "living wage" we conveniently can forget that the limits on the capitalist system that exist for the benefit of all were put into place via a movement where workers banded together and stated that they would not be exploited any more. This after a century or so of modern exploitation, preceded by centuries of rigid class immobility and little to no concept of a meritocracy. And that's just the history of "Western" economic exploitation. I won't even get into the perils of mercantilism, colonization, and unrestrained monopolies/oligarchies. 

It's important to commemorate the progress that has been made in society. Things like the Forty Hour Work Week, the Eight-hour day, weekends, child labor laws, occupational health and safety laws and more. We sometimes scoff at how arbitrary it all seems. And how restrictive some of the labor protection laws are. Managers and business owners are often tempted to skirt some of the laws in the name of better productivity and increased output. But there is sound data that indicates a broad consensus on how much work can and should be squeezed out of the average person.  Safety protections are generally there for a reason.  

I'm happy that we have Labor Day, because this is the day to stop working and think about the conditions of our workers. It's not just a day for barbecues and transitioning from summer to fall. The day means something special to all those people that sacrificed their laws to put a system in place to make life a little better for future generations. And for the people that continue to fight for their rights and the rights of their fellow workers. 

Entre Un Mundo y Otro

Mentally these last few weeks are turning out to be a strange endeavor. I've moved many times in my life, once with State Department help, most of the time on my own. But with the exception of going abroad for limited periods of time, I've always had a period of transition, usually by driving, with which to mentally prepare and get myself in the proper headspace for the new place.

This time is different.

Allow me to explain. Because I cannot allow more than three calendar days between my current federal job and A-100 (to keep the benefits that I've already accrued) I will be having my last day of work next Friday, flying to DC next Saturday, and starting A-100 the following Monday. This gives me exactly one day to get reoriented to the time-zone change (I'll be starting work at what feels like 6 AM for me) and a very different way of living from Ciudad Juarez. Some are the changes will be good, like the ability to walk, bike, and just generally live without a car. Some will be not so good, like the fact that I'll be away from my spouse for who knows how long. But it very much will be different.

So I'm trying techniques to get myself ready, like envisioning my life in my new apartment and planning my commute to work. The only problem with this is that at the same time I'm trying to remain pretty fully engaged here in CJ. It's a jarring dissonance that everyone has in the Foreign Service, and I think it's one of the reasons that officers are mandated weeks and weeks of home leave before their transition from one post to another. It's almost as if Congress realized that people moving all over the world are going to tend to be workaholics and might just need to be told to take a few weeks to relax and transition.

But the first move, the move to join the service, is not like that. And so while I'm wondering about my future classmates and my route to work in two weeks, I'm also Fourth of July, one last Mexico trip, and CJ despedida (farewell) planning. And if you've ever worked a Fourth of July party in the Foreign Service, it's no joke. Not to mention the necessity of training my replacement in EVERYTHING I KNOW. So, my future classmates, if I seem a bit distracted those first few days of class, I apologize. My head (and my heart) may still be in Juarez.