Why Curwood Sucks (Of Many Reasons)
By jimrob | July 19, 2008
I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, but have never remembered to actually do it when at a computer until now.
Last December, we had a horrible ice storm. The power was out for three days, and the roads were blocked with ice and debris. One place in town still had power though - the factory I work at.
You see, they’re what’s called a “priority backup.” If the power goes down, they’re one of the first customers in the area to have their power restored. They pay a hefty premium (a few thousand a month) for this service.
It seems like a good idea at first. Pay a little more, get your power back up. The problem is that the utility company can only provide this service to so many people. So whoever has the most cash gets their power turned on fast.
There used to be an elderly couple living across the street from me. The husband had a lung ailment that required regular oxygen and nebulizer treatments. When the power went down, his family had to scramble to find a generator to keep this man alive.
Meanwhile, two blocks down the road, Curwood went happily on it’s way with the twenty-four hour production cycle. No plant closures, no slowdowns, nothing. If you couldn’t make it to work, you had to use a vacation day. If you were out of vacation days, you had to use an attendance point. If you already had six used, you got fired. Doesn’t matter what the weather was. Doesn’t matter if you had to risk life and limb getting to work. All that mattered was that the bags got out the door. Even if you had to spend the evening trying to fight people for a generator to keep your father-in-law alive.
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