Why I’m Re-Launching My Blog on Friday the 13th

“Days of affliction have overtaken me… I rise-up, in public, to voice my grief.” -Job 30:27, 30:28b

This Book of Job quotation is highly apropos, because only immense pain (of the psychological kind) would motivate me to make time to reinstate this blog!

As the title says: I’m re-launching my blog on Friday the 13th. (In the sense of “during the date of Friday the 13th,” not in-any-way about the film franchise Friday the 13th.)

Why the timing? Because after an unplanned hiatus spanning nearly twenty months, I spontaneously acted-upon an idea that had been germinating since I found-out my work hours would be cut (as-of last week): With this increased downtime, why-not return to the activity for-which I’ve received the most praise; namely, writing?

Sure, it hasn’t paid any bills — but that’s why I keep my day job. (This blog is not designed for anyone’s fulfillment but my own; whereas, any third-party enjoyment is entirely coincidental.)

So, what about my woes and travails?

• Practically ten years after graduating from UW-Milwaukee — with an undergraduate degree (bachelor’s) in political science (2008) and a graduate degree (master’s) in public administration (2010) — I’ve still been marginalized from professional employment.

(A more-exhaustive treatment is forthcoming; but suffice-to-say, it entails me packing cheese, cleaning restrooms, and stocking shelves as never-ending fallback jobs.)

Hopefully, my skills in writing and critical-thinking will attract more-than a well-wisher: namely, a “white knight” for under-employed college grads who will offer me a gig — if-not a recurring position — in-which I am actually paid to flex my neurons!

• My boss doesn’t want to promote me to full-time hours, even-though he’s hired people directly into full-time roles and has promoted part-timers who’ve been working there for much-less time than I have.

My rebuttal is that I’ve borne a disproportionately-large share of the shelf-stocking or “freight” duties, which is an irksome endeavor that will take the auspices out-of anybody when they do it for hours-on-end.

As some helpers have noted, the going is slow when you must kneel-down to read the tiny “bin tags” (price tags) below the shelves; and verify someone else (such-as yesterday’s customers) has not filled that “facing” (shelf space) with odds-and-ends that don’t have any particular order to them.

Therefore, saying that I’m “not productive enough” is an inevitable outcome, when I’m constantly assigned the slowest-going task, day-after-day-after-day. It’s a marathon, not a sprint! (So-phrased, because there are far-fewer search results for that variant, than-for the saying, “It’s a marathon, not a race.”)

• The Reedsburg Police wrongly accuse me of “reckless driving” from the Downtown Reedsburg District (at the intersection of Walnut and Main), up-through an indeterminate section of Highway 33 (which is really another segment of Main Street, but in the country).

I’ve actually a strong defense: There’s no license-plate match; the allegedly “similar rust spots” are found on most chassis of my make-and-model that are older-than a few years; etc. — without even consulting a lawyer yet! (But for the sake of my legal strategy, I won’t go into further detail.)

A saving grace in all this: I have been mostly free from physical maladies — notwithstanding aches and pains from my job. (But presumably, if I were a knowledge worker — an unthinkable outcome, because it would utilize my voluminous education! — then I would be spared this inconvenience; and be paid more, despite being afforded the luxury of on-the-job comfort.)

But if I don’t make it back from work today, then may this be my last will and testament.

Web Hosting Difficulties Inspire Action, Motivate Move to Better Platform

Don’t worry — I’m not moving this blog! (-That- would be a royal pain, due to disrupted / diluted brand identity and broken / obsolete hyperlinks.)

What I’m referring-to is how the freemium web-hosting platform I’ve used for my non-blog websites, Triple Zero Webhost (000webhost), has officially lost my goodwill as a “customer.” I use the term in scare quotes because technically, I never paid for the service — so, I “get what I paid for.”

I had used Triple Zero since 2009, when I uploaded a copy of my student-legislative website (now archived at the Internet Archive) from the then-recently-closed Yahoo Geocities subdomain over into the 000webhost domain. The service was good-enough for my needs, because I wanted to host a half-dozen small sites and did not need not a lot for bandwidth; email capabilities; etc. Just the file storage and content distribution!

However, Hostinger acquired Triple Zero Webhost around 2016; and they rolled-out new changes in May 2017 that totally irked me: Sudden disruption of service; changing the website subdomain syntax without -any- advance warning; and the ultimate sin among web-hosting gaffes: 60 minutes of mandatory downtime every day, -and- total deletion of all user content! (The following screen grabs document this.)

Caption: Although 000webhost restored my account access, they -also- deleted most of my websites! It’s time to find a new web host, e.g. Domains.com, because such treatment is -not- how to get people to sign-up for Hostinger. -Screen grab by Joseph Ohler, Jr.-

Caption: This restriction won’t matter once I move to a web host that -doesn’t- erase my content without warning. (-NOT- Hostinger, which owns 000webhost) -Screen grab by Joseph Ohler, Jr.-

Thankfully, I had saved offline copies of my websites, which I then uploaded to restore all my content. Unfortunately, 000webhost kept playing games with freemium users — such as requiring websites to “sleep” or be offline one hour every day — in a desperate ploy to persuade people to upgrade.

It really speaks to the poor reputation of Hostinger that it would soil what-little brand power it had, merely by associating itself with the “annoy freemium users until they upgrade” scheme. But as they will -eventually- notice, such antagonistic plan backfires again and again via customer losses!

I would have left sooner, had I not been distracted by full-time work. But now that I’m between jobs, I can “take stock” of my online real estate and apportion -decent- web hosting accordingly.

I must organize these websites this now, because some crazy hiring manager somewhere might just welcome me into their organization. (And -you’ll- win the lottery, chum… Yet, it -still- is a better bet than trying to get a “wage premium” from your college degree these days.)

Speaking of which, the difficult I’ve had in persuading hiring managers to overlook my employment gaps probably means I’ll need to do something ground-breaking to create new demand for me, such as -change- the freakin’ world!

Step One: Make guaranteed professional job tryouts for recent college graduates part-and-parcel of the so-called “Wisconsin Promise” of school-to-work investment and pay-off. And this, my followers, happens one influencer at-a-time.

Job-Interview-Withdrawal Walkthrough for Those Interviewing for MMHI Psychiatric Care Technician

Tomorrow, I interview for Psychiatric Care Technician (and Psychiatric Care Technician – Advanced) — what was formerly called “psych-ward orderly” — at the Mendota Mental Health Institute. This means another perusal of my pre-interview checklist might be useful in determining forgotten steps in the process of making Joe Ohler the front-runner for this role.

Lo-and-behold, I found a last-minute preparation that anyone else interviewing for psychiatric tech at the MMHI ought to do: I even made a walkthrough!

Last-Minute Procedures For Withdrawing From Your MMHI Job Interview

If you’re reading this, then chances are that you wish to sacrifice your interview slot to increase my chances of being chosen. (Although I already have an interview scheduled, the more people who withdraw, the greater my chances of being hired.)

A) Withdraw via email

– All you need is to send an email to Jennifer “Jennifer” Hocker (jennifer.hocker@wisconsin.gov) with the subject line, “Withdrawal RE: Psychiatric Care Technician – MMHI (JAC 17-02661)” and, if you feel, a brief explanation in the email body (so that Jennie’s email client doesn’t mistake your otherwise-empty-bodied message for spam).

Use this withdrawal-via-email method if you cannot do Option B, i.e. you forgot your login credentials for the MMHI’s appointment-scheduling website. Feel free to model your email message on my screen-captured draft below:

Caption: Don’t worry; I didn’t actually send this. #StillInTheRunning -Screen grab by Joseph Ohler, Jr.-

B) Withdraw by canceling your interview through the MMHI’s job-interview-scheduling website

– While tedious-sounding, this method only takes two minutes more than drafting and sending an email to Jennifer Hocker. (However, if you forgot your login credentials, then send a withdrawal email, as in Option A.)

Step B1) – Find the appointment hyperlink sent by MMHI.

Caption: Click this link to access the MMHI job-interview-scheduling website. -Screen grab by Joseph Ohler, Jr.-

Step B2) – Enter your login credentials for the MMHI job-interview-scheduler portal.

Caption: Enter your login credentials into the upper-right boxes. Then, click “Log In.” -Screen grab by Joseph Ohler, Jr.-

Step B3) – Identify, and click “Cancel” next to, the job-interview appointment you had at MMHI.

Caption: Click the “Cancel” link next to your appointment. (Yours might be 8:00 a.m. instead of 1:00 p.m.) -Screen grab by Joseph Ohler, Jr.-

Step B4) – Click the “OK” button to confirm you’ve canceled your job interview at MMHI!

Caption: Click “OK” to confirm your withdrawal. Congrats on having one fewer chore to do! -Screen grab by Joseph Ohler, Jr.-

C) Withdraw verbally when you show-up

– If you had the willpower to interview until seeing your competition in-person, at the physical agility test — or if you simply forgot to withdraw electronically — then you can still take yourself out-of-consideration by verbally telling the interviewer(s) that you wish to no-longer be considered.

Think about it: Besides sparing yourself the grueling physical agility test and the nerve-wracking panel interview, you also free-up another 3 hours (of what would-have-been the interview time) to shop the stores around Madison! #InterviewFree #ShoppingSpree

Deferring to Joe Ohler in the Selection Process

If you’ve withdrawn from an interview for MMHI psychiatric-care technician, then you’re my hero(ine). Rather than merely speak of empty-handed Progressive ideals, you’re putting your job prospects where your mouth is, by stepping-aside until I’m hired first. #RealSocialJustice

3 Phenomena That Favor My Selection For Psychiatric Care Technician (And 3 That Don’t)

In one week, I will interview for Psychiatric Care Technician (and Psychiatric Care Technician – Advanced)“psychiatric care technician” — a.k.a. psych-ward orderly — at the Mendota Mental Health Institute. (If you’re also interviewing, then I advise you -stay home- to improve my chances of being chosen.)

Do you need a college degree to do the work? No.

Do individuals with a background in physical-premises security have a theoretical advantage? Yes.

Do I believe that despite being nominally over-educated and lacking a security background, I have a strong chance? Yes!

Three Factors Skewing The Odds

The Flu Epidemic: Going approximately 3-weeks-strong, the H3N2 influenza virus has affected nearly-all-50 states. And when infects individuals, they have very-low energy, as well as chills and other bodily disruptions.

This bodes well for me, because perhaps some of my fellow job competitors will be too ill to interview! (I already had the recent strain of flu during one of my off-days; and therefore, I’m immune to catching that strain again.)

The Obesity Among Applicants: While Wisconsinites are less-likely to be medically obese than are Mississippians — compare our state’s 1-in-5 obesity rate with their 1-in-3 proportion — 20 percent is still a significant figure. Even if some out-of-shape applicants withdraw or screen themselves out before attempting the agility test, others will fail the agility test and thereby be unable to interview against me.

The Gender Ratio of Applicants: Men are about one-third more likely to apply for psych-ward orderly jobs — which is what this “psychiatric care technician” jobs is, no-matter what others might say. Why does it matter that I’m interviewing against mostly-other men?

Because many hiring managers like to play “identity politics” in their choice of hires. And it’s not only women hiring women, but also left-leaning / progressive “beta” men believing it is their “moral obligation” to hire women whenever possible.

I’ve noticed a markedly gynocentric bias in the selection process for organizations of all kinds: small-to-large, public and private. But when the applicant mix is predominantly male, even the most-radically feminist hiring manager must hire a few men to fill the many vacancies.

Irrelevant Factors That Don’t Impact My Odds

My white-male privilege: Yes, I mentioned women are less-likely to apply for psych-ward orderly than are men. But really, the environment at Mendota Mental Health Institute is extremely safe. The only real “danger” you’re in, is entirely within your head.

Personal fortitude is an individual characteristic, not determined by EEO categorization. Ergo, my “bravery” — or really, knowledge that I would be personally safe — is meritorious and not a mere side-effect of my birth.

My college education: I wouldn’t even waste my time to contend for these lower-end positions, if hiring managers believed my degrees amounted to anything.
Even those who initially supported my attainment of a bachelor’s and then an advanced degree — such as my dad — have come-around to the perspective that I should have just worked at Pizza Hut full-time and tried to become a manager there, instead of earn an ultimately-frivolous education.

My ability to bribe job candidates into withdrawing: Normally, I never see my fellow job candidates because everyone is interviewed separately. The layout of the interview room is such that interaction between an arriving and a departing interviewee is discouraged.

But due to the quantity of people interviewing, multiple candidates will take the physical agility test at once — and this presents the possibility of interaction, including the opportunity to bribe people into withdrawing on-the-spot! (I saved a lot of money while working at the dairy plant.)

However, this tactic has obvious drawbacks: Besides needing to pay a respectable sum — upwards of four-figures — to persuade fellow contenders to remove themselves from consideration for the job, that would only persuade those with an immediate need for cash and only the weakest interest in the job.

Those who see the job as a stepping stone to a better career — as I do — would refuse a bribe because they believe they’ll be hired, however arrogant they might be to presume such a conclusion. (It’s not like they “deserve” the job more than I do; yet, I get called “arrogant” for pointing this out.)

Also, the hiring managers are more-or-less sitting on a reserve labor force, so they can delay filling the vacancy if it came-down to either hiring me or no-one-at-all!

Self-Sabotage: Another Job Interview, Another Rejection?

Conclusion: The attributes required for successful performance of the job, as well as the chaotic job-seeking milieu, provide an almost-tailor-made opportunity for me to “get my foot in the door” at MMHI. Even better, the psych-ward orderly job is a direct-hire, public-sector position — none of this rip-off permatemping that the private sector seems to be adopting en masse.

However, I somehow realize that I won’t be offered the job, no matter how well I perform on the interview or the agility test. There seems to be a transcendent, cosmic force that bars me from ever-attaining my career goals — and no amount of reflection, preparation, or planning can surmount that.

4 Reasons I Should Be Offered The Job Of Psychiatric Care Technician

Although the WiscJobs announcement for Psychiatric Care Technician (and Psychiatric Care Technician – Advanced) neither required nor allowed a cover letter to be uploaded as part of the employment-application submission, I wrote my own list of “selling points” in preparation for the job interview with the Mendota Mental Health Institute (MMHI) / Wisconsin Department of Health Services (WisDHS).

4 Assets I Bring To The Role Of Psychiatric Care Technician

1) I’m punctual, and have references to prove this.

During my 3 years packing cheese for Saputo Cheese USA, I never missed a day and was never late. (Neither was I written-up for other reasons, which begs the question as to why Saputo would release me in-the-first-place.)

2) I’m physically fit, especially for a college grad.

Years of hard labor have prepared me to work physically-demanding jobs for the long-term. While others might be dissuaded from commitment to such work, I realize that even if this opportunity does not correlate with career-advancement prospects, I’m capable of handling the work for decades-to-come.

3) I’m accustomed to thinking quickly, e.g. “on my feet.”

My college degrees are but one indication of my enjoyment of engaged thought. My prior experience in a fast-paced production environment shows that I know when to curtail the “deep thought” and act reflexively, according to my training.

Knowing the difference between “time to think” and “time to act” is an invaluable asset that cannot be bought, but must be earned through consistent experience. Furthermore, I separate my “reflection time” from my “work time,” to reliably ensure present-mindedness.

4) I’m quicker to recover from exhaustion (emotionally and/or physically).

I know my “place in the world.” That is, I recognize the collective nature of deciding which occupations are “accessible,” such that I know better-than to invest in yet-another college degree that might never be validated as “valuable” by my would-be employers.

This conservation of resources empowers me to fully rest-and-recharge between shifts as psychiatric-care technician. Such economy-of-effort allows me greater focus and available energy vis-a-vis peers who might “stretch (themselves) thin” by attempting to work full-time -and- study part-time.

Also, harboring reasonable expectations allows me to minimize disappointment and to prevent waste of personal resources. Contrast this with those who nurture frustrated ambitions, ever-exhausting themselves in-pursuit of their delusions and having nothing-left to contribute towards legitimate work.

Conclusion: The Obvious Good Outweighs The Non-Obvious Bad

While Points 1 and 2 aren’t exactly “unique” selling propositions, they -are- must-have qualifications for this type of role. Point 3 is less-typically invoked by a job applicant; and Point 4 is simply unheard-of in our post-modern world of, “You can achieve any goal.”

However, Point 4 is perhaps the most-important to employers who desire minimal employee turn-over: Whereas the blue-sky worker might leave for an organization that has more ostensible “opportunities,” the realistic employee who “knows his place” will be loyal to the end.

Finally, any possible “bad points” — which I won’t brainstorm here, lest passionate imaginations be piqued in the wrong direction — are summarily-outweighed by the “good points” described herein.

Preoccupation With Job Competition Invokes Insights on Ultra-Capitalism

This is all I’m posting this week, because I’m preoccupied with applying for jobs that would -ostensibly- provide an entry-level “foot in the door” and subsequent career-advancement prospects. Yes, it’s back to the part of the rat-race decathlon that I call “job competition.”

I see it as the worst part of the rat-race decathlon because job interviews are a winner-takes-all, losers-get-nothing proposition. Why are there no consolation prizes for job seekers? #UltraCapitalism, #AlsoRansAreScrewed

How about some consolation prize for the finalists, such as a favorable lead to other positions in related organizations? #ReputationalRisk, #ThatIsWhy

While my memories of prior rejections for these types of jobs can be troublesome, I manage to block-out, or “dissociate,” these negative memories into a far corner of my mind just-before and during the job interview.

Is dissociation dishonest? Perhaps, but hiring managers -hate- any semblance of negativity; worry-free, pro-social “acting” is what they demand, even while simultaneously desiring people who “demonstrate urgency.” How can one be urgent, yet also be worry-free? #Paradox

The good news for hiring managers is that I can put-on a positive demeanor without any Prozac, so they need-not worry about medication side-effects or how much I’ll cost them in pharmaceutically-related health insurance.

P.S.

If you’re an employer who -does- appreciate a healthy dose of realistic negativity, then recruit me on LinkedIn. Although -most- people try to -avoid- employers of your “pessimistic” mindset, -I’m alright- with working there. #UnafraidOfReality

No Power Poles Plowed on New Year’s Eve = Great Start for 2018

Someone in my neck-of-the-backwoods genuinely likes plowing into power poles: Since I moved out-here in autumn 2011, it has been a nearly-annual tradition for the entire neighborhood’s power to be snuffed for hours-at-a-time every New Year’s Eve! (And sometimes also on Christmas Eve — but always on New Year’s; and always for 3-or-more hours.)

I can readily imagine some louche lush, driving through brush, battering-ram-like-a-ham, breaking-a-hole in the utility pole. (While singing the drunkard’s anthem “Trashed,” written and performed by Black Sabbath, which is the unofficial theme song of Wisconsin.)

To connect two tangentially-associated things — or to “put two-and-two together” — one can surmise the New-Year’s-Eve-Power-Pole-Plower also sang “Trashed” while crashing his vehicle into the utility pole. By doing so, s/he also trashed the power supply for the entire neighborhood and made his-or-her township blackout!

(Of course, it is also possible different drivers crashed into power lines in different years: Consider out-of-towners careening off the roads when they come-upon corners they didn’t know were lurking. However, it is more comical to blame the same hypothetical strawman-driver for each outage.)

However, New Year’s Eve 2017 transpired differently: There was no power outage. This unusual “break” from a power-break demands a self-commissioned poem:

“No Power Poles Plowed”

New Year’s Eve elapsed without electrical interruption — ’twas an interesting fact.

Perhaps the power-pole-crasher-trasher was only delayed in their annual reckless act?

New Year’s Day: Vacationers, nay, left the power lines intact…

Perhaps they stayed-in last night, the better to counter-act…

Snowdrifts pulling their cars aside, sliding over ice…

But this year, they managed to avoid their beloved utility poles — nice!

-Copyright 2017 Joseph Ohler, Jr.-

Bonus Twitter Hashtag Equation:
#NoUtilityPolesPlowed = #NoPowerOutage = #MaximumUtilityFromUtilities = #ContentedRelief

Working on Christmas at Saputo? Tough Beans! Blame the Hiring Manager.

Although I’ve been catching-up on my journaling since being terminated from Saputo (and effectively laid-off from QPS Employment Group, per their lack of follow-up work), I nonetheless made time during the holiday rush to “rub it in” over how the hiring manager’s decision to end my working arrangement will now result in 4 of the 6 hourly packaging workers having to work Christmas! #WorkingChristmas = #WhatTheUnderclassDoes

It must be acknowledged that as an agency worker with an open-ended contract — what I call a “permatemp” — I had proven my capacity to work as many, or more, hours as the regular employees — including holidays, and demonstrably more weekends than practically any recent employee.

It therefore stands that if the hiring manager (Susan Felson) and the most-senior first-shift supervisor (Karl Dischler) had done the sensible thing — by offering me a permanent-job contract following the dissolution of my temporary contract — then I would, as among the most junior employees, be filling-in for one of the more-senior employees in packaging right now.

Even without extending a permanent job-offer, the packaging department could have kept me as a permatemp to schedule me to work on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day, instead of paying its employees time-and-a-half to work Sunday (Dec. 24) and a holiday (Dec. 25). #PennyWise, #PoundFoolish

But because Dischler and Felson badly wanted me out of there, the people in packaging are stuck working on days you might not want to: They don’t have me to substitute for you on Christmas; New Year’s Day; etc.

From the way a few of them shunned me at the lunch table, I can readily image some of them might say, “I would rather work on Christmas, and miss my family and friends on that day; instead of have-off on Christmas, but work with you the rest of the year!”

My response to that unkind comment at work would be, “There’s no need to be rude,” and then leave it at that: While I would register my complaint that such sentiment contributes to a hostile work environment, I would not let it distract my attention for more than a few seconds. #HowAProfessionalWorks

However, I’m no longer on-the-job; and am therefore unbound by any workplace etiquette or double-standards of acceptable behavior. Accordingly, my response to such indignation is to perform this parody-of-Saputo song:

“Slumming at Saputo”

(To the tune of “Jolly Old St. Nicholas,” which is a public-domain melody.)

Office politician’s back in town / Looking for a raise /
Wants a promotion, wants it now / Wanted it for days /
Yet, the company has to trim / Expenses where it can /
Future’s looking ever-dim / Dissent, it must ban /
Slumming at Saputo, how / Decrepitly you run /
Protesting is futile, now / Because your temp is done.

-The preceding lyrics are copyrighted in 2017 by Joseph Ohler, Jr.-
However, limited permission is granted to distribute these lyrics non-commercially.
(This means you may give print-outs to your friends; hang them — the lyrics, not your friends! — on your refrigerator; etc.)

Slumming_at_Saputo_(Lyric_Sheet).pdf

Downloadable audio track:
Slumming_at_Saputo_(Original_Recording_By_Joe_Ohler_Jr).mp3 – Sorry, can only be streamed at the moment! #HostingProblems

[12-25-2017 UPDATE: I had wanted to post a direct-download link for the MP3. However, in typical Joe Ohler fashion, a third party put a wrench into my plans: 000WebHost suspended my account,* which means I could not log-in and upload the MP3 of my song for distribution.

(*Or at least, partially suspended: While account access is indefinitely terminated — much like my career at Saputo — 000WebHost strangely allows hot-linking to the files that had ostensibly triggered the suspension.)

On that note, here’s the only file I had recently shared, e.g. the only one in the past few months that could be reasonably inferred to have caused a complaint and subsequent suspension:

“Aunt Sally Says, ‘Sign My Petition, Please!'”

Economics of Staffing Agencies, i.e. Economic Vampirism: Analyzing a Case Study from QPS and Saputo

I was earning QPS Employment Group a lot of money — about $7 out of every $20 Saputo paid them for my services as a cheese packer — but someone at Saputo drank sour eggnog and decided I would be a suitable target for their wrath.

After all, Saputo had paid an hourly premium, just for the luxury of having the option to terminate me at any time and without due process. Contrast this with the lot of those fortunate to receive a permanent contract immediately, without -any- temping: The need to document the worker’s mistakes before dismissal; the need to allow a certain number of absences before punishment; and other ameliorations of the otherwise one-mistake-and-you’re-done, unless-we-really-like-you world of at-will employment.

These are protections that direct hires have from Day One — which begs the question as to why Saputo doesn’t force -all- their packaging workers to be permatemps before a job offer, as they had specifically required from me as a condition of my work there.

Anyway, this disruption has unlocked my creative powers: I’ve been writing prolifically offline, but have yet to edit the material into the perfect rendition for sharing online — such as this very blog article about the economics of staffing agencies. (And yes, I’ve much more to say about Saputo — but am busy filing for unemployment benefits; continuing my crusade for higher-education reform; and otherwise planning what’s next.)

Now, I’m not here to badmouth QPS: After all, everyone at QPS wanted Saputo to continue my assignment, so that I could keep earning QPS the equivalent of one-third of my paycheck, i.e. $7 out of every $20 Saputo paid QPS hourly.
Cue QPS and its oft-claimed defense, “Oh, but we don’t take from anyone’s paycheck!”

While that might be legally true, it is practically false: The only difference between taking a share of one’s paycheck — such as through a surcharge or special tax — and reducing their up-front wage is how the under-cutting of take-home pay is structured.

“Job clients,” such as Saputo, pays the same (or higher) hourly rate to the staffing agency. The worker is the one who ends-up with a small piece of the piece, because his or her wage is reduced by the difference between what Saputo pays a new hire and what QPS pays me — a temp, not a hire — after QPS skims its portion of whatever Saputo pays it.

(As will be shown mathematically, this loss of wages — from being denied a direct hire and needing to permatemp — is about 5 dollars per hour, or $10,400 annually. Unfortunately for Saputo, few of their recent direct hires have shown greater performance or punctuality than the “disposable temps,” whom they nickel-and-dime in various ways and hold to double-standards on nearly every dimension.)
The fact is that when an employer pays a staffing agency for any “contingency worker,” that is money that would have instead been paid to that worker if s/he had instead been a direct hire. Staffing agencies make their livelihood through this economic vampirism.

Yes, the “job client” — in this case, Saputo — decides whether to pay the full wage to a worker (by allowing that employee to be a direct hire) or to pay some of that wage to the staffing agency (thereby removing a portion of the worker’s take-home pay).

However, the fact that Saputo pays such a large portion (more than one-third) of the hourly wage to the agency account representative — instead of 100-percent directly to the worker — means the agency worker -is effectively robbed- of that portion of the wage.

Mathematically, this is the difference between the direct hire’s higher-than-agency-worker starting pay and the agency worker’s lower-than-direct-hire starting pay. In my case, Saputo paid $20 hourly to my agency overlords at QPS; QPS kept $7 of that hourly pay; and this left me with only $13 hourly, which is $5.49 lower than the $18.49 hourly starting wage for Saputo’s Reedsburg packaging employees.

“Yeah, but we don’t take it from your paycheck! (We just take it through a service-level agreement -before- formulating your paycheck.)”

QPS can deny this discrepancy all it wants, but that wage difference -did- come-out of what would have been my paycheck as a direct hire. Intercepting that money -before- it becomes a payroll item is mere slight-of-hand, the same kind of accounting trick that got Enron, Mitsubishi, and other large firm into huge scandals that diminished their reputations for decades thereafter.

Add this-up over the course of a year, and that means QPS is “earning” (skimming) $13,867 annually -just- for providing the option for anytime, due-process-free termination. It’s basically the same thing as a wage garnish, except applied before any money changes hands: The garnisher simply agrees with the garnishee’s employer (Saputo, without whom QPS would not have a job assignment to offer) that the garnishee will be underpaid, such that the skimmed-off portion of the wage will be paid directly to QPS instead of to me.

Indeed, QPS Employment Group was paid -only- for providing a walk-away option to Saputo: QPS itself never did any “work coordination” because scheduling was -always- between me and the supervisor. (And I never saw any benefit from permatemping, as QPS wages and benefits pale in comparison to a direct job offer from any of the so-called “job clients” where job assignments can take place indefinitely, without any on-boarding timeline.)

Furthermore, I had negotiated my transition from part-time “fresh line” worker into full-time “packaging” worker! QPS was riding my coattails, and more-or-less conceded as much when my “work coordinator” authorized me, in writing, to negotiate whatever type of job placement I could with Saputo Cheese (at the Reedsburg plant or elsewhere).

Also underscoring QPS’ trivial justification for its perpetual wage-skimming (or whatever QPS calls it in the legalese of its Saputo-side labor contract) was that by the time my contractual hours had approached exhaustion, QPS proved powerless to make Saputo correct its hostile work environment or to make Susan Felson follow-up with the uniform she “had ordered” a month before my termination.

Meanwhile, Saputo would have paid -the same- amount in total if they had hired me directly; whereas, I would have grossed $41,600 instead of only $27,733. It really seems that Saputo “had it out” for me from the start, due to allowing me to work there -only- if I were to be exempt from union protections by artifice of having the staffing agency as the middleman employer-of-record.

Terminated from Cheese Packing Job and Laid-off from Further Agency Assignments

November 19, 2014 – December 2, 2017: My third-of-a-decade-long courting of Saputo has come to an end. It’s because within the managerial echo chamber, it was decided (by a handful of people within Saputo) to end their contract with QPS Employment Group for my job assignment.

It even ended like a messy divorce, with Saputo ordering QPS to tell me, “You are not to contact Saputo in any way.” And based upon the email read to me by a supervisor (who I won’t name here, lest he be punished for the favor), Saputo had decided as early as November 29, but (cowardly, inconveniently, and unprofessionally) did not tell me — despite many opportunities to do so face-to-face — or even the staffing agency, which was not alerted until about half an hour after my shift had ended that Saturday.

The funny thing is that due to not checking my email or voice-mail messages over the weekend, I did not find-out about this termination until showing-up the morning of Sunday, November 3. (I was actually on the film-sealing machine for about 20 minutes; and none of my coworkers thought anything was amiss.)

The supervisor that day discreetly notified me of the termination; he put someone else (a permanent employee) on the machine; and allowed me to gather my belongings and depart with dignity. He was tasked with the dirty duties of serving as Archangel Michael with the Flaming Sword; whereas, the serpentine Satans (Susan Felson and possibly Karl Dischler) responsible for ordering the termination were safely away from any possible confrontation.

However, Saputo is no Garden of Eden. Furthermore, the individuals responsible for my dastardly dismissal cannot escape public scrutiny on this blog. To this end, I will describe their modus operandi of permatemp exploitation and thereby frustrate their future endeavors in that miserable business.

Despite being treated like a criminal for no actual wrongdoing, I’m going-out here to present my side of the story. Furthermore, history — and a local court of torte law — will vindicate me.