A Year in Pictures of Working

Erik is one of the artists at work, and the guy who did the velvet Hansen painting.

He told me a story about a job he once had at a screen printing shop during a summer break from grad school. During the interview he was given a tour of the place by the boss, who seemed distracted and had huge bags under his eyes. Everywhere they went people would flip the boss off behind his back.

Erik: I was like, Oh fuck. But I needed the job so bad. I didn't want to have to move back to Cleveland.

When he came in to start the job he found out that the boss had killed himself over the holiday weekend. The boss had been forced to sell the business and the new owners did away with benefits and holidays. That's why everyone hated him. He had tried to fight it. No one knew that. His entire workplace turned on him.

Erik: I guess that's why he killed himself. I mean, other chemical imbalances could have come into play.

Everyone felt horrible but it was too late. No employees were invited to the funeral. The executives moved in and made the workplace much worse.

Me: That's a pretty sad story. Did anything funny happen?
Erik: Uh... I used to take naked pictures of myself with the stat camera. Does that help? I got caught once.

# posted by Arnie : 3:39 PM