History

Contract Talks

74 Comments

Today is Labor Day, a national holiday set to recognize the economic and social contributions of working people. Rally away! It’s a day of pride for those in organized labor and it’s also a seasonal transition point marking the unofficial end of summer and a return to a more intense work schedule.

Labor_Day_Rally

If you feel like you’ve been working too hard since forever, disregard that last point and carry on. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to dial it back a bit. Celebrity banker Jamie Dimon can shift in and out of summer hours, but the woman who works the drive-through at your local McDonald’s doesn’t have that option. The Locked Out Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra would love to be able to ramp it back up, but are blocked from doing so. It can get complicated.

Some jobs you do solely for the purpose of putting food on the table. Other tasks you perform out of a sense of duty. Still more work can be done for fun, education and/or personal satisfaction. But ultimately there are only 24 hours in a day and when all of them are spoken for, something has to give.

I’ve come to such an intersection with Trail Baboon, and need to create some space in my personal schedule. While the quality of the writing may not always reflect it, I’m in the habit of setting aside a couple of hours each evening to identify and explore blog topics, and then to struggle to create some text that applies to the question at hand. How can it take so long to arrange such a few words? I wish I could explain it but I’m baffled. The fact that we have now exceeded one thousand posts is, to me, a miracle.

Whatever the reason, the six-days-per-week posting schedule, even with the generous contributions of Trail Baboon’s wonderful guest writers, is too much. And there’s clear evidence that less can be more when it comes to this type of writing. Many people do not want to sign up to receive a daily post from me or anyone – I’ve learned that an over active blog becomes exhausting for readers, too.

But I’m also aware there is a community, the Gentle Baboons, who congregate each day to have a civilized, insightful and hilarious conversation around the chosen topic. In fact, when you look at the number of RSS feeds (subscriptions to receive notification when a blog is posted), the comments section rivals the blog itself as an area of interest for readers. This is a rare thing that is worth preserving. So I’d like to try something different.

Here’s my plan for September. I will cut back from posting six times to posting two or three times per week on Trail Baboon. On the days that I don’t post, I’ll create a space on a new, connected blog called The Baboondocks. Baboondocks entries may be anything from a single line with an embedded link for more information, to a question that will provide raw material that may lead to an eventual Trail Baboon post. But I won’t spend the necessary time to have Dr. Babooner or Bubby or Spin Williams riff on a topic in The Baboondocks. That’s a Trail Baboon thing. The Baboondocks will be a place to get you talking quickly, without a lot of verbiage from me, and to let the conversation go where it may.

Over the course of our usual six day week, I will post each day on one blog or the other – Trail Baboon or The Baboondocks.

If you’ve been praying for a reduction in the seemingly endless string of Trail Baboon posts, stay with that single feed and you will feel some relief. But if you are one of the people who enjoys being part of the daily gathering, sign up for both feeds and your e-mail traffic from me will remain the same.

Change is hard, but necessary. At least in this instance it’s Just the Internet, and we can try new things without causing harm to the innocent.

Have you ever successfully re-negotiated the terms of your employment?

74 thoughts on “Contract Talks”

  1. Happy Laborday to all baboons wherever they are.

    My heart sank when I began to get the drift where this blog was going. So glad that you’re not completely giving up on it, Dale. I think your solution sounds fine, and barring technical difficulties with links on WP, I predict the Baboondocks will be an interesting place to visit.

    To answer today’s question succinctly, the answer is no. I have always been an “at will” employee, so there has never been a contract. I have, however twice in my career negotiated a better position with higher pay and indoor parking, albeit not heated; in my experience, you can’t have it all.

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    1. Not giving up on it at all, Plain Jane. I’m just trying to do a better job of managing it so Trail Baboon can continue. It will call for The Baboons to shift their habits a little bit, but my hope is that the transition is seamless. You can subscribe to the RSS feeds of both blogs to receive a notification whenever there is new material, or just go to The Baboondocks whenever you notice there’s not a new post on Trail Baboon.
      I admit this is an experiment. I hope it works!

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      1. So do I. Am I understanding it correctly that on days when there’s not a post on the Baboon Trail there will be a link, presumably in the space where blog would normally be, to The Baboondocks?

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        1. There will always be a link to The Baboondocks on the upper left hand side of the page, under the heading “Blogroll”. It should say “Blevins Book Club”, “Kitchen Congress” and “The Baboondocks”.
          If there’s no new post, simply click on “The Baboondocks” to see what’s going on there.

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  2. I’ve been wondering how you could possibly keep going at the pace you sere going, Dale, since you got your full time job at KFAI (and I haven’t been able to send guest posts lately as often as I’d like). I celebrate the compromise you’ve created – look forward to continued daily opportunity to convene with other Babooners.

    Only time I remember renogotiating my job included more pay for more work, so I’m not sure that counts… I got to add on “day-to-day bookkeeping” to “office manager”, which did mean I would have to stay some days until it was DONE. Substantial pay increase, though…

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    1. BiR, renegotiating more pay for more work is a success in my book, as long as you can handle the additional workload.
      Sometimes it goes in the opposite direction – Less pay for More work.
      I don’t think it ever winds up being More pay for Less work.

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      1. Actually, that certainly happens, Dale. When I was hired by the children’s hospital in Basel, it was as a cleaning lady. My initial job was to clean one patients ward. I consistently spent too much time comforting and visiting with the sick kids, that it took me too long to get the job done in the allotted time. The hospital fixed that by transferring me from the that job to one in the personnel cafeteria. Better hours, better pay, and a much easier job to do. One time where my incompetence paid off!

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  3. After Daughter was born, and I had gone back to work, I knew that my employers could not afford to give me a raise (it was a small company – hard to ask for a raise when you know that the company is getting fewer contracts). So instead of a raise, I asked for a reduced work schedule – 75% work, but a minimal reduction in pay (not 1:1) and similar benefits. Gave me more time with Little Miss, and gave my employers a little more cash in their coffers. It worked well. I also negotiated myself out of a job once, on purpose. I think I’m better at asking for reductions than raises.

    It has been a wonder to me, Dale, that you can get something written six days a week – that’s a lot of writing, and frankly I’m surprised it only takes you a couple of hours each day to research and get something up. All things change with time – if you give the Baboons a place to congregate, I’m sure we will continue to do so. Looking forward to what happens with Baboondocks.

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    1. Thanks Anna. You can take a look at The Baboondocks right now, if you want. I put a post there yesterday as a test, and I was fiddling with the look of it this morning.
      Occasional Caroline provided a link to the photo, by the way. It’s wonderful!

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        1. Yes! Actually the baboon is sitting on a road sign that says “Baboons are dangerous WILD animals – Do Not Feed. Keep doors locked and windows closed”
          But with the formatting WordPress does on banner photos, I couldn’t work it in!

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  4. I love the name “Baboondocks”. As long as there continues to be a virtual place for us to go every day, I’m happy.

    I successfully negotiated a three-day-a-week schedule at my last office job, and it was a lovely thing. I celebrated every Tuesday and Thursday.

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  5. Rise and Shine Baboons! Especially our Fatigued Dear Leader:

    Like the other posters on-line here, I wonder how you have done this daily with another job in your life. Your plan sounds like a sensible solution to me. While I enjoy the blog, I have trouble keeping up even with just being a participant Baboon. Yours is the only 6 day/week post I am familiar with.

    I would rather have you reduce your posts, Dale, than to lose the blog entirely. With your ability to try BaboonDocks, it might be a great solution that gives us the best of both worlds. I suspect that with fewer posts, the posts you do will become more valued. I hope this works.

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    1. Yes, Jacque. Less can be more. I’m not sure the posts I put up will be any better – I hesitate to promise a change in quality. But something has to change if the blog is to continue, and I hope everyone sees this as a good faith effort, at least.

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  6. “bout time, EFriend. Been wondering how long you could give so generously.
    I had several times written a guest blog that was only 1-4 sentences thinking that maybe if you drifted that direction it would be easier for you and you would get more guest blogs. In the end I was shy about it. Thank you for what was and what will come.
    Do you still want guest blogs?
    Sorry I have not been on much, just how things are . . . And I must add that I can participate as much as my hands will let me for a couple weeks and then I will pretty much disappear for awhile again.

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    1. To add, I have often thought that this group does not need much of a hammer to yammer. Babboondocks (cleaver) will probably generate as much chatter as your most cleaver posts, Dale.
      How do we thank the man, folks?

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        1. You are on the right track BiR! I tried it out and posted a “Hello Baboons” which went up without a problem. My biggest challenge today was to get onto WordPress at all. I had to change my password. Again.

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    2. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you Clyde. And yes, I’m happy to receive guest posts. Send them to me at connelly.dale@gmail.com. I will keep guest posts as an occasional feature of Trail Baboon – The Baboondocks will be primarily a conversation spot, so every post there will be mostly about the readers.

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  7. What surprises me, Dale, in this post is how long it took you to get there. I have literally opened each blog for many days dreading hearing that you would discontinue this demanding work. Of course, I’m delighted that you will carry on in a more relaxed schedule. Thank you for that.

    Have I ever successfully renegotiated a contract at work? Just once, when I told my boss (a terrible, terrible man) to “take this job and shove it.” Of course, I’m hopelessly Midwestern, so it came out sounding a bit more polite.

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  8. all my renegotiated contracts have been for the beneift of the gou on the other end of the deal. i am in the situation where i need to sign my name to a contract that does it too me again. i hate it hate it hate it. i ran into a couple at the fair with the husband wearing a big support the minnesota orchestra t shirt and i stopped them and asked if the new management proposal was worth talking about or just a bunch of poppycock. turns out she is the principle harpist and no the contract offer was the same crap they turned down in september with virtually no differences management…i am sorry dale this offering is not acceptable. youre fired. … oh wait that doesnt work either does it. thanks for the first thousand and it sounds like it will take another 6 or 7 years for the next thousand 2020 here we come. 2020 is a good number for me. back in 1997 when the internet and estuff were becoming a reality i had to come up with a moniker to go by. jmi2000 was what a lot of people suggested for the new millenium, i couldnt see it. in 3 year it would be outdated. i chose jmi 2020 because if i didnt have it done in 23 years shame on me, i would be 65n that year and ready to get to phase 2 of my e name and it was synonimus with perfect vision which i could smile wink and say was part of my presentation as well. nothing turns out perfectly but we continue on. dale had a hole in his schedule for a year or two there and we were happy to provide the trerapy he needed and i think we should pat ourselves on the back for that. now it is time to put his big boy pants on and attempt a real life and i think we should all support him in that too. even if it sucks. i felt the same rotten feeling in my stomach as i get when i am fired, getting bad news from the irs or a kicking of one kind or another and i though iam not certain without getting into it a week or two this could be ok. baboondocks will be a place for our withdrawl to occur and i am looking forward to a copy of the story of the illinois state baseball teams story form the 70’s any day now.
    thanks dale and enjoy your new found freedom. if you find you want to throw a fourth blog on the trail dont hesitate in a given week dont hesitate. as you may have noticed i go by the type without thinking mode of authorship and it doesnt take me two hours to type a whole bunch of words. type faster and think less. it works great fo rme

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    1. I love “for the beneift of the gou on the other end of the deal”, although I have figured out what you probably meant…

      I don’t feel like we’re going to be withdrawing from anything, tim; at least I’m not planning to. It’ll just be a different format.

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  10. My most successful “renegotiation” was to quit my last job and start my own business. Best thing I ever did was walking away from traditional employment. Most workplaces are unimaginative and so stuck in “This is the only way to do it” that they lose many valuable employees who are their most creative minds. There is almost always a better mousetrap.

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        2. I don’t believe the Odegard bookstores in Mpls. and St. Paul were competitors, BiR. They were owned by a married couple. They folded after their divorce, if memory serves.

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  11. My next “renegotiation” will be to quietly retire in two years. I believe by that time my mother will come to live with us and I have planned the first years of my retirement for caring for her. My dad is to have an angiogram on Friday. I am a tad annoyed with the cardiologist for this, as i don’t see that the benefit will be for very long or improve his quality of life one bit. The doctor may insert a cardiac stent. Really? He’s 92 and failing and there isn’t much anyone is going to do to halt the progression of age.

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    1. Amazing what lengths doctors will go to as long as there’s insurance that will cover the cost of the procedure. They often put patients through procedures they wouldn’t endure themselves under the same circumstances. What’s your dad’s take on this, Renee? Does he want the procedure?

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      1. He seems to be ok with it, but he is so tired, I think he would do whatever any doctor asked. I also don’t know how much critical thinking he is putting into it. This procedure involves his stopping his coumadin today, and my mother has to give him two daily injections in the abdomen until Friday, which is the day of the procedure. I think it is quite a bit to ask of her, given she is housebound for the most part and not in good health. Neither of them would consider asking for a visiting nurse to come and help, of course.

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        1. enjoy the remaining time renee with both of them. we were all amazed that he was still umpiring at age 90 whatever it was and now reality is catching up. not as much fun but part of the process just the same. when we start the end of the trail retirement community we can tell each other what we want and have it taken care of as decided here on the blog. wed better hurry up and get it in place before we qare all too old to do it.

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        2. I’ve heard that some people get a resurgence of energy and a feeling of well-being from these cardiac procedures. Maybe your dad will be one of them. I hope so, anyway.

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    2. I have a buddy who is a doctor. He agrees that the US spends way too much on end-of-life measures that don’t add quality to the patient’s experience. But Bill also tells me that these things look one way when viewed after the death but when a doctor is trying to help a patient they look another way. He says it is virtually impossible to recognize when it isn’t worth fighting for the patient any more.

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    3. “I have planned the first years of my retirement for caring for her” – how wise you are to see this ahead of time.

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    4. Speaking of halting the progression of aging…………….

      I’ve quite recently swallowed my pride, challenged my stigma, and asked for a service I’ve desperately needed for three years: Meals on Wheels. The stigma was that it was the final step between really old or disabled people remaining in their homes and assisted care living. I’ve been ever so gradually losing the battle to eat enough to stop an ounce by ounce further loss of weight. I’ve run out of tricks to play on my mind and the desire to fight back. Being told a couple of weeks ago that I’m a mere 5 pounds from a feeding tube shook my reality and I finally looked into this incredible, volunteer-run service.

      Every late morning, a cheerful volunteer arrives with a warm, high-calorie, nutritious and large meal for only $5.50. This program is for anyone over 60 who’s “nutritionally-challenged” for any reason. God knows that I’m the poster girl for such a service! I’ve always been ravenous when in the hospital and eaten like a little pig. It suddenly occurred to me that the act of someone putting an already-prepared, good-smelling meal right in front of me releases me from a daily battle to eat at all. These meals are large enough to make two meals. An extra added bonus is a fun conversation with the food-bearer if we both have the time (which I most often do). I’ll have the same person delivering on Mondays each week; the same person every Tuesday; etc. In other words, there will be five new humans in my life for whom giving is a high priority. I’m finally reduced enough by cancer and aging to receive what they’re offering.

      I think that this program will be a literal life-saver for me. Still, accepting that my age or medical condition robs me of any kind of independence is quite humbling and so I’m pitching MOW as a service many if not most of us “late middle-agers” may one day need.

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      2. More power to you, CB! I can see this would be difficult to do, but once you’ve made the decision, a positive step.

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  13. a couple days ago i noticed (late in the day) that i hadnt seen blevens on the trail for quite a while. i was waiting for an explaination. look at the top of the baboondocks blog

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    1. Dale addressed this early on after the format change, tim. For some reason or another he couldn’t get Blevins to appear in the new format. Glad to see that he has reappeared in the masthead of The Baboondocks.

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  14. This is in the nature of a test, in that WordPress hasn’t allowed me to post for two months or so. I can sign on Ok, but when I try to comment, I get a response that “this message can not be posted.” Here goes…

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  15. The one instance I can remember where I negotiated the terms of my employment, it was to, in a sense, negotiate down. I was working as a middle manager (sort of a vice creative director) at a creative firm and one of the perks of my position was that upper management offered a year end performance bonus. The catch was that I had to compose an extensive written argument justifying the amount of my prospective bonus. The problem with that was that nothing I did or could do in my position fell outside of what I should have been doing normally as part of my job, so the whole process had this elaborate kabuki quality that didn’t have any positive effect on performance or attitude.
    After a couple of years of this, I went to my immediate supervisor and told him I didn’t see any point in the bonus process as it was structured. I suggested that management take the money they would otherwise award to me and divide it into twelve equal portions. Each of those portions could go to an employee of the month, based on actual extraordinary performance and selected from nominations made by supervisors. For the same amount of money they had been giving me, they could have real impact on morale and employee recognition.
    Management graciously eliminated me from the bonus program but flatly refused to instigate the other part. It’s my sense that recognition of employees in that manner would have been too egalitarian and democratic to suit them. They were firmly attached to a hierarchical management style. Needless to say, that was not my style and my days in middle management at that company were limited.
    I think the Baboondocks approach may work out well. Many is the day when The topic needs to veer off track before I start to get interested.

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    1. I am posting, incidentally, by not logging in, but rather just filling in an email address (a different one from my log in one) and my name. It’s clear that the problem with posting under my regular identity has nothing to do with my computer or any of its settings.

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      1. I never log in to post, just fill in the email address and name. So far, I’ve never had the posting problems that other people have had. And I like my green doily.

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    2. Interesting story, Bill. I assume all the other managers found ways to describe their work that made it seem like they deserved an extra bump at the end of the year? It sounds like a creative writing contest more than a bonus program.

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      1. I was able to construct the argument that would win me the bonus, and did so for several years, but it felt fraudulent, pointless and kind of insulting. After requiring an artificial enumeration of the reasons why one was exceptional, management would proceed to discount them.

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        2. Sometimes the only way a worker can negotiate with dignity is to leave a position that has become untenable. I wish I could say it works economically. Often it doesn’t, but working in some situations saps the soul.

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  16. Dale, I enthusiastically support your decision to cut back on blog posts. Many days I am not able to answer the question of the day until late at night because I am a slow thinker and don’t know what I want to say until then – so I will welcome having a new question less days of the week. Additionally, the days when you don’t make a new post – Sundays or the rare day when you forget to push the right button – the Baboons seem to have No Problem keeping a conversation going. Like others here, I’ve been amazed at your ability to write creatively day after day after day. (But then, the few times I write a guest blog post, I usually write it, tweak it a few times, then let it sit several days before I look at it again and make even more changes. If I had to write one every day, as you have, I wouldn’t have the luxury of taking as much time as I want to write it.) So, thank you for having this blog, Dale. I think the changes will be good – for us and for you.

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  17. Great solution Dale. I love your creative solution to a difficult problem. Thanks for all you do. Looking forward to how Baboondocks plays out.
    I found a better link to the baboon on the sign photo and to a second baboon sign that strikes a chord as well.

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  18. Thanks for all of the writing you’ve done, Dale. Like everybody else, I’ve been amazed at what you’ve been doing for the past few years. I enjoy reading everything you post and the conversations in this group are great. You’ve brought all of us together. We were all friends for years but we needed your writing to bring us together. Now our friendships can be really lasting and permanent and that matters to a lot of us. The new site looks great!

    I worked today. I worked all weekend. I have to work tomorrow. I’ve worked for the State of Minnesota, and I’ve been an AFSCME union member, since June 9, 1977. I’ve been through two strikes and a shutdown. I’ve worked for two state agencies. When I go to work, I leave my life behind and I work for the people I serve. I’m truly qualified to do anything with nothing.

    Speaking of doing anything with nothing, this week I’ll be on vacation in preparation for Rock Bend. I’ve heard some of you are coming on Saturday. Please come find me at the North Grove Stage! I hope to negotiate some time with you!

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  19. Thank you Dale for post upon post. I am amazed that you have been putting in a couple of hours a night for us. Amazed because it is mostly for l’il ol’ us and because I thought that surely it MUST be something that you could knock off quickly or why would you do it AND I’m amazed that your wife/family/life would not have said enough is enough far sooner. As a non-writer who spends way too much time just editing a simple email, I bow down to you and thank you. LIke Edith, I don’t quickly come up with a response to the day’s topic and so less will probably be more (for me).

    I do think that with this group, you could write just a sentence and baboons’ thoughts/comments/ruminations would flow without a problem. Actually, you could probably get it down to a single word and there would be no diminution of flow. Eventually, a single letter. Just work your way through the alphabet for 26 days and then start over. Easy-peasy.

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  20. Very good, Dale. It has been wonderful having the opportunity to reply to your daily offerings and I certainly think that there is nothing wrong with your plan to cut back. I have often wondered how you could manage to find time to post on a daily basis your very interesting offerings that are always well written. I’m glad you have thought of a way to cut back and still keep going. During the last few days I have not had much time myself to participate in this blog. I try to be here every day as a way of doing my part to keep us moving down the trail and I think going to the dock on some days and to the trail on other days will work well for me.

    My Dad told me he never got a raise without asking for one. I was hardly ever in a position where I thought I had a chance of getting a raise if I asked for one. I did get a raise by asking for one once, but the job was only a very low paying small writing job and the raise didn’t amount to much. I did get a little satisfaction from finding out that my writing was good enough to put me in a position to get that very small raise.

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  21. Renegotiate? Nah, I usually got bored with the job or burned out and moved on to the next career (seven and counting at age 57! 🙂 )

    Only had one place try to get me to stay, a small neighborhood liquor store that couldn’t match the huge signing bonus I got for going to Surdyk’s as a wine consultant ( yes, I’m joking!). Back then, “I’d have played for Surdyk’s for free.” Now, in hindsight I realize I was a glorified stock boy. Actually, I figured that out in about a year. But it was still fun and the fringe benefits in the form of tasting thousands of wines, some of them among the best in the world, was a damn fine perk.

    Chris in Owatonna

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    1. I’m somewhere between career number 5 and 6, depending on how you count ’em, at the tender age of (not quite) 47. Not two jobs have really been in the same line of work, though there is an odd through-line to them, circuitous and oblique though it may be. None, so far, have had wine tasting as a perk. Dang it.

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      1. Anna, my common thread in careers is “hobbies that got out of control.” Music, wine, investing. If that trend continues, my “retirement career” will likely have something to do with golf. 🙂

        Chris

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