Hard Jobs

    The harder you work, the less you get paid.  I've spent my whole life working in a system that glorifies the ruthless and the lucky and makes financial slaves of the rest of us.  Every job I've had, whether it be for a local or international company, has anywhere from 75-90% of its employees doing the real work, while the rest of them take advantage of their position to either slack off or regurgitate the same orders over and over again.  If we were all paid by the amount of labor we actually put in, I'd be a millionaire and every CEO would be a blue-faced bum.
    I started out at McDonald's, working every position that was available to me.  My speed was only rivaled by one or two others (speed is important, that's why they call it fast food).  This, along with my versatility, made me the most valuable employee on the team.  This isn't an exclamation of pride; many others felt the same way about me, and were always relieved when I was scheduled to work with them.  And yet, did I make as much as them?  No.  Did I get the highest raises?  No.  Did I work more than every single person that got paid more than me?  Yes.  Often times they would leave me out on the floor while they sat in the office, and they wouldn't come out to help me unless I asked for it.
    Next came UPS and Fred Meyer, both union jobs that required an exhausting amount of labor; Panera Bread, which promoted bad people and had some corruption in our branch; and Biondo, the pizza place I briefly worked at, where literally nobody did any work except me.
    Lastly, what of all the bosses higher than mine?  You'd think that since they made twice as much money as me, they'd be doing a lot more work, right?  Wrong.  Whenever I saw one, they'd walk around the building using fear and intimidation to make sure we, the real workers, were doing things the way they wanted us to.  They did even less than my bosses; they simply traveled, held meetings, and watched us do what they used to do, figuring it fair that they didn't have to work anymore since someone else had watched them in the past.
    Most of us would ass-kiss and compliment their suits, but me- the MVP wherever I went- I hardly paid them any attention.  My contributions and talents went unrecognized, mostly due to my rejection of every promotion that was offered me, but also as a consequence of shying away from the spotlight whenever the opportunity came to impress a higher boss.