Do You Enjoy Your Work?

Do you enjoy your job?  Has your vocation brought real satisfaction?  Most people dislike their work.  I read a list of the 10 most disliked vocations.  At the top of the list was Security Officer.  I immediately thought about some of the Security Officers I have known.

My first experience with a Security Officer was at Keystone Metal Molding in Clanton, Alabama.  I cannot remember his name, but he was a short thin man.  He had an abundance of information for an eighteen year old.  Every day about 2:30, the time I arrived to start the evening shift; my security friend would stop me and share a nugget of wisdom.

His experience of operating a service station, you remember those gas stations that checked your oil level, checked your tire pressure, and cleaned your windshield, created an opportunity for him to meet people from all over the United States.  I remember that he did not have much respect for Yankees.  He reminded me occasionally that Yankees traveling through the South had a distain and a host of derogatory remarks for Southerners, especially Alabamians.

He once told of an occasion where he tired of hearing the same old Yankee put down and responded with a very appropriate rebuttal.  Many years later, I used his rebuttal, now as a pastor I had to clean up the language, at a toxic waste rally in Calera.  I was asked by the community group CARE (Citizens Alliance for Respect of the Environment) to help repeal a State issued permit for the dumping, the storing, and the burning of hazardous materials at the Calera Cement Plant. Unknown by the citizens, the permit included both toxic and radioactive materials, in central Alabama.  

The morning after using the rebuttal, a professor from the University of Montevallo caught me at the Montevallo Hardees.  He asked if what I said was what the exact words of security officer said.  I said yes, excepting that, I used two medical terms in place of two slang terms.  My security guard friend said one day he finally had enough.  When one Damn Yankee told my friend that Alabama was the rectum of the world. My friend responded, “Well it ought a be.  There is enough Yankee feces comes through it.” At the rally I stated that Calera was the Heart of the Heart of Dixie and we were tired of Yankee feces trying to make us a rectum.  By the way, that night at the rally I got a standing ovation for my famous edited quote.

Speaking of the cement plant, I had a memorable experience with another unforgettable security guard.  This one took his job just a little too serious.  Webb was a short, overweight, chain smoking, weapon fanatic who reminded you of Sergeant Shultz of the Hogan’s Hero sitcom of the late 1960’s.  The only difference Shultz “knew nothing” and Webb knew everything from microbiology to the secrets of the universe.

He watched the main entrance of the plant like a hawk.  He stood with his feet pointed out and rocked back and forth.  He talked to himself.  He appeared never to bathe and his elbows looked like patches on the sleeves of an English teed sports coat. 

No one liked Webb.  He was consumed, or maybe possessed, with automatic weapons, grenades, bazookas, and all manners of total and final destruction.  To be trapped by him in his small security building was pure torture. 

Webb was in his mid forties and besides being the poster boy for obese Alabama, he lived with his mother. Sometimes he would inspect our lunch pails when leaving the plant, trying to catch someone stealing from the plant or trying to confiscate food.

One day an employee, Lucas, teased Webb about stealing a can of WD40.  Webb being the Pharisee of security guards about rules and regulations quoted from the contract concerning employees removing items from the plant.  Any item removed had to have an authorized permission slip.

Webb watched Lucas like the proverbial hawk.  Most employees could have taken almost anything during those few days.  Webb’s eyes were fixed on Lucas.  Finally, the showdown came just like two gunslingers from the Old West.  As Lucas left the plant, he sprayed some WD40 at Webb.

Two days later as I drove to work, the plant entrance was blocked.  Being the simply minded person I am, I thought there had been a train wreck since the tracks were at the main entrance.  As I inquired of the situation, I learned that the employees of the plant were on what is called a “Wildcat Strike.”  I did not have my probationary time completed.  Although the guys encouraged me to go to work, I knew better than to pass a union’s picket line.  So, for twenty-three hours Webb and Lucas shut the plant down all because of a discarded WD40 canister.  Discarded WD40 cans were all over the plant.  I learned later that Webb should have been concerned with outside contractors that permanently borrowed welding machines that he watched leave the plant.

Lucas went back to being electrician and Lieutenant Webb went back to being the most trained and over qualified security guard to wear a security uniform.

I believe that most people that dislike their jobs are not living out God’s call for their lives.  If you find your niche and enjoy what you do, work becomes more enjoyable.  If you work for the money and dislike the work, it makes for a long day.

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness (Isaiah 55:2 KJV).

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.  Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ (Colossians 3:23-24 KJV).

In memory of “Red Childs” of FBC Demopolis who enjoyed my articles, especially cement plant stories.