The World Has Changed

Had an impromptu meeting with a few veterans of the construction industry.

We are all in our mid-to-late 50’s and are all in supervision of sorts.

“We can’t yell at them anymore,” the lead foreman said. “I got called on the carpet for telling a kid to move his ass.”

Which brought a few chuckles and a number of stories.

“I had a carpenter boss who threw a hard hat at me,” I said. “Hit me right in the ass. Called me a f**king idiot.”

Which brought a question.

“Did it hurt your feelings?” The owner of a large business asked.

“No, I laughed,” I said. “I deserved it.”

“You must’ve been a real mess as a worker,” the foreman said. “Did you work or bust balls all day?”

“Both,” I said.

Another story.

“I was working as a carpenter’s helper. He used to make me go get a hammer. The tool box was about a mile away. I handed him the hammer and he’s say, ‘Go get me a level.’”

They all laughed. The carpenter was abusing me for fun.

“I got back at him,” I said. “He was framing a unit and he was sweating his ass off. “

‘Come here!’ He yelled. ‘Put some pressure on this wall.’

“So, I walked over, casually, and said, ‘Hello, wall, you’ve just lost your job. You have three kids, and your wife is threatening to leave.’”

They all laughed.

Years back the hard hat he threw hit me right in the ass, and we told that story for three weeks straight back then.

“That’s when construction was fun,” the owner said, and we all agreed.

“But we were completely abused as workers,” I said. “I don’t know if it was all fun. I had bosses who got drunk and verbally abused me daily.”

“But did it ever hurt your feelings?” The owner asked me. “I’m sure, by now, you’ve been called every name in the book, and you’ve certainly talked some shit.”

“I’ve never had hurt feelings,” I said. “But I’m thinking the world has changed for the better.”

“No way!” The foreman said. “We can’t say a damn word to anyone. ‘Move your ass’ gets me a human resource visit? We’re paying these people and we have to make sure that they’re happy and comfortable and validated all day long!”

“There needs to be a balance,” the owner said. “But a lot of what we loved is gone. No more nicknames.  No more raunchy jokes. We can’t have a beer with a work crew for fear of being sued.”

“So what’s the upside?” The foreman asked.

“We are more inclusive and less abusive,” I said.

“Oh, who gives a shit!” The foreman asked. “You just said that you never had hurt feelings.”

“Not me,” I said. “I’m a white man. I haven’t been excluded from anything,” I said. “Others have and back then a whole bunch of groups were treated horribly.”

The owner was nodding along.

“The world has changed,” he said. “Progress is hard. We’ll get used to it.”

“But we can’t have fun anymore,” the foreman said.

I took that moment to tell a raunchy joke that brought hearty laughs.

“See,” I said. “We can still do it. We just have to make sure everyone in the conversation is over 55.”

“I have you on video telling that joke,” the foreman said. “I’m emotionally destroyed. You’ll be hearing from my lawyer.”

Yes.

The world has changed.