Posted on 12/26/2018 9:30:48 AM PST by Incorrigible
Austin Murphy
Author and longtime Sports Illustrated senior writer
Holiday parties were right around the corner, and I needed a cover story. I didn't feel like admitting to casual acquaintances, or even to some good friends, that I drive a van for Amazon...
...Let's face it, when you're a college-educated 57-year-old slinging parcels for a living, something in your life has not gone according to plan. That said, my moments of chagrin are far outnumbered by the upsides of the job. There's a certain novelty, after decades at a legacy media company, Time Inc, in playing for the team that's winning big, even if that team is paying me $17 an hour (plus OT!). It's been healthy for me, a fair-haired Anglo-Saxon to be a minority in my workplace, and in some of the neighborhoods where I deliver. As Amazon reaches maximum ubiquity in our lives, as online shopping turns malls into mausoleums, it's been illuminating to see exactly how a package makes the final leg of its journey.
There's also a bracing feeling of independence that attends piloting my own van, a tingle of anticipation before finding out my route for the day. Will I be in the hills above El Cerrito with astounding views of the bay, but narrow roads, difficult parking, and lots of steps? Or will my itinerary take me to gritty Richmond, which, despite its profusion of pit bulls, I'm starting to prefer to the oppressive traffic of Berkeley, where I deliver to the brightest young people in the state, some of whom may wonder, if they give me even a passing thought: What hard luck has befallen this man, who appears to be my father's age but is performing this menial task?
Thanks for asking!
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
When unpaid bloggers are doing a better job of covering the news than professional journalists, it sort of explains everything.
I would suggest he get his CDL license with endorsements, such as hazmat endorsement and work for an oil or gas company. Salary is much much higher and you ain’t delivering 9 gabillion packages a day 16 hours a day solely to help a leftist like Bozos become the worlds first trillionaire.
Although Jake Tapper handing me my fries at the Burger King drive-thru is still one of my secret fantasies.
Wow, very little in the way of paying ads. Some targeting tourists but ... yuck, not much else. These guys will be out of business in a few years at this rate.
I suspect that this holds true for most small to medium newspapers, radio stations and TV stations.
How can they survive if the big 10 Internet sites suck up all of the revenue?
You said a lot of truth in those 6 compact paragraphs.
Young people these days don’t read; Magazines or otherwise.
If it cannot be spoon fed via video, they are not interested.
Their attention span is about 2 minutes. After that, it’s on to the next website.
I see them in restaurants, groups of them, ALL STARING INTO THEIR PHONES LIKE GOOD LITTLE ZOMBIES. Not talking to each other or having any meaningful repartee, except via TEXT MESSAGE, which is chock full of misspelled words, acronyms and internet shorthand that is as meaningless as an intercepted Enigma message before the code was cracked....................
I love it too although I don’t drive big rigs, I have a CDL B with airbrakes, drive a panel truck $25 an hour for a perennial farm all up and down the east coast, 3 or 4 deliveries a day (and a big bonus at Christmas time) I would usually leave 3am and get back in late afternoon. Easiest job I ever had in my life. Before that I did something similar to this guy working for a contractor for Fedex doing ground deliveries. Holy crap, never again. 300 stops a day for a set $150 a day (before taxes) So you know where that led? More and more stops every day because I would get paid the same no matter how many hours I worked. I remember one day starting at 4am and getting back 11pm. Never ever ever again will I ever do that unless the Marxists take over and get their way and kill jobs
If the Marxists ever do take over, there won't be any packages that need delivering..........................
57 ain’t anywhere near old
This guy is amazed that hard work has a value
You have pretty much summed-up what I see in most Millenials.
I was going to write the exact same thing. What is it with liberals that they have to inject their politics into everything that they say or write? For instance, I loathe Barack Obama as much as any liberal would loathe Donald Trump but I don't obsess over it nor do I look for ways to bring that loathing into conversation.
So this guy was a sportswriter. I always think Oscar Madison when I think sportswriter. An obnoxious slob in a loud sports coat who has an uninformed opinion on just about everything. A stereotype to be sure but this guy didn't do much in this article to dispel that stereotype.
Must not have been a very good sportswriter either. I mean, games are still being played. So why did he not land someplace else? Red Sox beat Yankees 6-2 - write a story about it. Jets trade QB to Panthers - write a story about it. How hard can that possibly be? Or do a human interest story on some washed up jock who didn't handle his money well so needs to find some menial job to supplement his wife's income. Oops, I guess he did write that story, only it was about himself.
He was a freelancer who needed a W2 steady income for mortgage purposes. Wufe’s an attorney. This ain’t bread and butter for him. It’s a lark
A step up. SI became a SJW cesspool years ago.
Well I have a CDL with all the endorsements from way back when all you needed was a chauffeur license as I was grandfathered in...Drove a tractor trailer for 15 yrs and decided to change careers and jump into the IT field on the ground floor back in the mid 90’s. I did very well and held some top end jobs but at the end of 2016 I got laid off and again in 2018 and just landed another job but I am now 55 and realize this will not last as I am long in the tooth for IT as I am competing with 25 yr olds...During this last lay-off I looked into going back to driving but now they have that 10 yr rule so what experience I have in driving is useless...
Who cares about sports ? Ok fine
Now TALKING about sports not even going on ? Snore
My SIL proudly graduated with an English degree. Being very conservative politically and socially(Staunch Orthodox) he found no one was buying English degrees. He is now a pharmacist and doing very well.
Some of the videos and stories I have encountered about Amazon drivers leave me shaking my head. Seems UPS and FedEx have hired the cream of the crop.
The most important words in your post:
‘get to’
You are either a ‘have to’ person, or a ‘get to’ person. I have to work vs. I GET to work, for example.
That's because no one speaks it (Or writes it!) any more....................
“When unpaid bloggers are doing a better job of covering the news than professional journalists, it sort of explains everything.” [Buckeye McFrog, post 41]
The “professionalization” of journalism may have been its death knell. The requirement to attend “J School” and earn a college degree before a publication would hire them seems to have turned many aspiring journalists into condescending snobs. Or naïve do-gooders who yearn to “make a difference.” Either way, they look down on “lesser” Americans. Back when the job title was “reporter,” it was more of a working-class occupation and writers had a better understanding of who their audience was. It’s easy to see in articles by guys like Ernest Hemingway and Ernie Pyle.
Celebrity worship may play its role too. Bunches of young pups watched as praise, notoriety, and riches were heaped on Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. They headed straight to journalism school, wanting to be Woodward & Bernstein.
Heck, these days Woodward & Bernstein wish they could be Woodward & Bernstein all over again.
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