Some people like to work with their hands and be left alone.

I just got a pretty good Navy story from an old sailor.

He was a first class petty officer at the time and had a pretty sharp third class working for him. He was unaware at the time that the third class had a master's degree in engineering. He learned that later when the man was promoted to second class.

He said nothing to the man because he knew that if the now second class wanted to go to OCS he would put in for it. It was his business. 

During the promotion process the man's education came to the attention of his supervising officer who went straight to the man with an application for OCS. The applicaation was already filled out.  He refused to sign it. When asked why he told his supervisor it was his business.

Of course there are some people that just don't get it so the young ensign got a couple of other officers to try and pressure him to take a commission. The three of them called him in and started to pressure the man to no avail.

Finally one of the officers asked him why he didn't want to commission and the man told them that he liked working with his hands.

One of the officers started in with "I don't understand why you won't take advantage of this opportunity."

"Because I would have to work with people like you!" he shot back. "By your leave, Sir!" He turned and walked out.

The incident got brought to the attention of the captain a day or to later. The captain was a mustang, a former enlisted man that had gone through a commissioning program. The Navy had sent him to college.

He looked at the officers in th ward room and said, "I was like that second class. I loved what I was doing and loved the Navy. I'm a mustang and almost didn't take a commission for the same reason he won't. I would have to serve with people like YOU."

"Fact is," he continued. "I did take a commission but only because I wanted a degree for when I retire. Had I not wanted one I would have stayed enlisted. I enjoyed being enlisted a damned sight more than I like being commissioned. It was sure as hell a lot more fun. Leave the man alone."

This story had a happy ending. Lots of them don't. Both the services and businesses lose good people by trying to promote them into positions they simply don't want. They generally go somewhere else where they can do what they like doing.

I knew a Marine staff sergeant that said the highest rank he'll let the Corps promote him to is gunnery sergeant because if they promote him to master sergeant he won't be able to use his tools. He'll be a supervisor. He doesn't want that and when the Corps does try and promote him he will simply retire.

I know of more than one person that has refused promotion because they liked what they were doing and were content. I've also met people who have over the years have gotten themselves demoted because they didn't like being in management.

A couple of them reported that when they requested being put where they were the boss expressed mass confusion and wondered why. So did other people.

An awful lot of people have not gotten it figured out yet. One spends a rather large part of his/her life working and it makes no real sense to be in a place you are miserable all the time.

Of course the common reply is "But the money!"

You have to ask yourself if the money is actually worth it. It's a formula we all have to plug into ourselves. How much money is enough?

For some people it's always a dollar more. For others they just look at their bills and if they're paid and they have enough for a beer after work they are good to go.

Some people just don't give a damn and live off the leftovers of an affluent society. It's not hard. I did that for a while. Personally I never looked at life as a contest. Some people think the person that dies with the most toys wins. 

Some of these people ought to take a trip to a graveyard and see where the people that had the most toys are buried. Right next to some guy that didn't have a pot to piss in and had a ball going fishing with his kids Saturdays instead of busting his ass to buy toys he seldom got to use.

It's an individual thing.

I always liked the Marine colonel that planned on opening a bait shop when he retired. No corporate rat race for him! He'd pull his pension and putter around. 




To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY