NEW PEOPLE AT WORK DO THE JOB DIFFERENTLY?

New people at work, or in the neighborhood, take some getting used to.

They come in three varieties: Recognizable, unrecognizable, and somewhere in between the two.

The hard part for new people isn’t being recognized or not. They know who they are.

It’s the rest of us who’ve been at work or in the neighborhood before they showed up.

Your attitude and opinion will be based on whether or not you’ve had the chance of being The New Guy.

What kind of reception would you expect from a group of young white professional men raised in the most privileged towns in America?

I met a group. Suburban guys with interests.

The bar for acceptance wasn’t money, or mommy, or daddy. These guys knew tools and how to use them. A group of college educated sissies knew how to rebuilt motorcycles, restore row houses, and play guitar.

My kind of guys, but I didn’t fit into the club. At least not then. Probably not now, either, but I know more than I used to.

New People At Work

Every job I’ve had except this one as meant replacing someone.

I was the new guy, sometimes the f-ing new guy, the FNG.

My goal was to fit in seamlessly, pick up the slack and keep on trucking.

In the blue collar world new people show up and get to work. In factories, construction sites, or driving, getting hired means passing muster. If you couldn’t do the work, you wouldn’t get hired.

A union man rolled it out like this: “Keep your eyes open, help out when asked, and don’t make the other guy look bad.”

The white collar world comes with more background and testing. Maybe a desk with files the other person left behind.

The files are homework, the desk is a work in progress, and the co-workers may or may not welcome new people.

In both cases, blue collar or white, there are two essential roles:

The first is doing the work. Keep up, be alert, contribute, look outside the box.

The second is working the job. Who did you replace? And why? Network, make friends, know the boss and the bosses boss. What is the financial standing of the company? Is there a path there to the future you planned?

What To Do If You’re The FNG?

The cop convicted in Minnesota yesterday got there for taking a knee on another man’s neck until he died.

One twitter guy said he ought to get an extra ten years added to the sentence for the casual hand in the pocket.

What if you were one of the other policemen on the scene and it was your first day.

You’ve done the training, passed the tests, done the ride alongs. You are worthy of your badge.

Now you’re on the scene with George Floyd slowly dying. You stand there for nine minutes and twenty nine seconds while a human life passes.

This isn’t the police work you signed up for, but you’re the new guy. Where is someone senior to the kneeler to pull him off the other man’s neck. Is that part of the FNG’s job?

Considering the knee-cop was found guilty, the other three policemen around him have also been arrested and face trial.

The choice all three faced was pulling the knee-cop off and ending their law enforcement career.

Instead, all three now face the consequences for the actions of one man, whether they agreed with the actions or not.

Do any of them wish they had stepped in and done the right thing in that moment? That they had yanked knee-cop down, screamed in his face, pulled his hand out of his pocket, and saved a life?

Now they are linked forever to an incident they witnessed, that they condoned or didn’t condone, but now pay the price either way.

Doing the right thing isn’t circumstantial. Know who is around you and be prepared to offer help when needed, or when called.

George Floyd needed help. They didn’t respond. Now they need help.

What would you do?

“About nine days ago, the world watched Floyd utter his very last words — ‘I can’t breathe’ — as he pled for his life,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said at a news conference Wednesday. “The world heard Floyd call out for his mama and cried out, ‘Don’t kill me.’ “