I was 18 and graduating high school without a clue on what I wanted to do after graduating.
Oh, isn't that the truth? As they say,
"I wish that I'd have known then what I know now!"
All through school for twelve years everyone asserted that making good in life was essentially based upon the merit system. Learn your lessons, excel in your education and those merits will substantiate your progress into success. That’s what I was told. That’s what I believed.
But that’s only true for an exceptionally small group of people who excel far and above everyone else. Those who have unique abilities that enable them to accomplish tasks that no one else has the ability to do. Believe me, I’ve met some of those people.
One in particular who personally was responsible for creating much of the software that General Motors used in a majority of their operations. I complained to a colleague one day that the man took many advantages of our operations and that he deserved to be reprimanded (if not punished) for his irresponsible acts and aloof attitude toward our senior employees. I thought him to be disgustingly rude to people in general but apparently he’d earned that privilege.
My friend just smiled and told me,
“They’re not going to say anything to Bickem, regardless of whatever he does as long as he can write their software. He can pretty much do anything he likes. They just don’t want him going to work for Ford or Chrysler!”
Believe you me, that man definitely got to where he was based upon the merit system. Few people could have done what he was consistently able to do. I swear that he must have been able to think in binary! But all the rest of us tend to get ahead by a bit of tactful skulduggery. I have observed and actually participated in some of those methods and they consist of basically four means:
- Cronyism: Gaining favoritism by means of religious, social and cultural organizations.
- Coercion: Being deliberately obstructive until there is a nuisance payoff.
- Nepotism: Be born into a sphere of influence or marry the boss’s daughter.
- Bootlicking: More commonly known as ‘sucking up.'
Let me tell you how I got my first job out of high school by using cronyism. I was 16 years old when I graduated from high school. (I was big for my age so my mom told my older sister,
“Take that little SOB with you and put him on the school bus and get him the hell out’ta here. He’s as big as some of them other ones on there.”)
So I was too young to qualify for insurance liabilities to work in the local industries and I went to Cincinnati, Ohio to look for a job. Being a member of the “junior masons” – the
Order of DeMolay (kind’a akin to the ‘Job’s Daughters’ for girls – only for boys but less known), I went to talk to the Masons in Cincy.
The Masonic Employment Bureau was located at 317 E. 5th Street at Sycamore. The man in charge there told me that he’d make an exception in my unusual case and said that Interchemical Corporation was interviewing for a new mail clerk on E. 7th Street the following week and told me that I needed to wear a suit to the interview. I asked him if he knew of a place where I could buy a suit and he suggested a basement store a few blocks away that was run by members of ‘
The Brotherhood.”
Dad took me to the men’s store and bought me a suit there that I thought looked absurd. Most all of the clothes there looked like they’d been styled in the 1930s with pinstripes and wide lapels and many were double breasted. But beggars can’t be choosers so I was fitted with a pinstriped suit with pants that were baggy looking and double pleated. I thought that I looked like one of Al Capone's gangster buddies but what the heck?
Mine looked more like the one on the right.
I felt rather self-conscious in my retro-aged suit when I went to the job interview but was quickly set to ease when the two men conducting the mass interview came in. Stanley C. Meininger, the personnel manager and Howard Macke, the office manager were wearing the same kind of suits that were almost like mine!
We applicants were all handed a test booklet and given 30 minutes to complete it. At the end of the exam the booklets were taken up and graded. I was surprised and stunned when my name was called out for congratulations for having scored 100 on the test. (I know with certainty that I never got all those answers correct!) It was obvious to me that my Masonic Lodge connection secured my place above all the other applicants as the two men conducting the exam both wore large, gold Masonic rings on their fingers.
It made me feel rather deceitful and scrupulous when all those other hopeful applicants were turned away.
“We’d like you to stay and have a few words with us in your new position. Everyone else is dismissed and thank you for coming.”
I’d always thought that the Masons were upstanding and were of high integrity but that really made me feel ashamed to have been so disingenuous to those other guys who I’m sure were more deserving than me. I never again used the DeMolay credentials to influence anyone and never pursued any affiliation with the Masonic Lodge as that really disgusted me. I suppose that being but 16 and still wet behind the ears was some excuse but I should have known how that would play out when I involved the employment agency.
If you haven't seen this Glen Ford movie - you owe it to yourself to watch it. There a lot of truth in the basic theme that mirrors life.
But that’s the way things actually work in the real world. If you’re ever in competition with others and an “Illustrious, exalted, grand worshipful master” is in charge, you can toss in your towel if there are any exalted members in your midst. Forget anything you’ve read or been told about meritorious selection.
