[lbo-talk] "I never met a boss that I didn't like"

[Mr. WD]

One of my favorite holiday activities is reading my parents' wretched
local newspaper, The Grand Rapids Press.  The Press has always been at
the forefront of publishing Calvinist wankery, but today's front page
feature set a new low.

-WD
_______________________________________


http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-39/119830773665410.xml&coll=6

After 60 years, it's quitting time
Saturday, December 22, 2007
By Tom Rademacher
The Grand Rapids Press

When Rosie Wysocki hired on at American Seating way back in 1947, an
executive predicted that because she was a woman, she wouldn't last
long.

Rosie shot back, "I'm going to prove you wrong if I have to work here
100 years."

That executive is long gone. But Rosie has endured and, at the age of
87, put in her last day Friday at the Grand Rapids institution,
logging more than six decades as a full-time employee.

At just shy of 60 1/2 years, she may well be American Seating's
longest-serving employee ever, which is saying something for a company
that has been around since 1886.

Company Chairman and CEO Ed Clark knows of a couple of folks with more
than 50 years but none in excess of 60.

Dozens of people showed up Thursday at a luncheon staged in front of
Rosie's work station, known as "C-13." It's where she weighs and
packages hardware from 6 in the morning until 2:20 p.m.

She is paid just less than $17 an hour for her labor -- a far cry from
the 89 cents per hour she hired-in at on Aug. 1, 1947.

A native of Grand Rapids, Rosie dropped out of Union High School in
the 11th grade during World War II when her father fell sick. She
first signed on with Hayes Manufacturing at 85 cents an hour but was
laid off on V-J Day.

In applying for better pay at American Seating, she submitted a
reference from her parish priest from St. Adalbert Basilica. He
recommended her with this handwritten testimonial: "She is a woman of
good habits as far as I know as a pastor," and signed it, "Sincerely
yours, the Rev. John Maksymowski."

Rosie stands barely 5 feet -- "Put down 5-1; it'll make me feel
taller," she instructs me -- but her stature is legendary at this West
Side business.

"She's going to create a huge void here," said Paul Dieterle, who
directs human resources. "And I'm not just talking about her job
packing hardware."

No lollygagging here

Indeed. Rosie is a living, breathing throwback to another era, when
you savored your job at any cost, worked whatever hours the boss asked
and were thankful for a paycheck at week's end.

"You know what I can't stand?" she asks. "People who say, 'That's not my job.'"

According to Rosie, people worked "a lot harder then than they do
now," and to illustrate, she tells a story about how she once stopped
working to blow her nose:

"What did you stop for?" she says a foreman challenged.

"I don't want my snot on the merchandise," she told him.

"Don't let it happen again," he barked.

It's the sort of confrontation that could breed contempt in another
employee, but not Rosie. "I never met a boss that I didn't like," she
says. "You do your job and nobody bothers you. You lollygag around,
though, and you hear about it."

A widow since 1981, when she lost her husband, Stan, to a heart attack
at the age of 64, Rosie focuses on her three children and a half-dozen
grandkids -- the reason, she says, she has worked so long.

"They didn't come out of college with the great big bills," says
Rosie, who helped all of them with school finances. "And let me tell
you, they're all smart kids, too."

Smart enough, you might argue, that two of them -- sons James and
Edward -- have retired before Rosie.

Rosie has been working so long, in fact, she has been collecting her
pension for more than 17 years, not to mention Social Security. All of
which makes one wonder if she's well off. So I ask her, "Are you a
rich lady?"

She lightly slaps my hand and says, "None of your business. Put that
in your pipe and smoke it!"

She enjoys casinos

She lives simply, in a modest home on the West Side. She eschews going
out for lunch during the work week, instead packing a bologna or tuna
fish sandwich. "You want some?" she teases. "But you can't have any
fruit -- I ate that."

When I ask if she's ever taken an exotic vacation, she says, "You
better believe it," and singles out, of all places, some place called
Bullhead City, Ariz. "You should see their casino," she marvels.

Apparently, that's her only vice -- a little gambling. As far as
liquor and tobacco go, she has never tried either.

"I don't even take the church wine," she says of the Communion
offering available at Mass.

And as for smoking, she blurts out, "Do you see a chimney sticking out
of my head?" Still feisty after 60-plus years on the job.

Even though, with the grandkids out of college, she's retiring from
American Seating, who's to say she's done working?

Waving a thumb to the north, where American Seating's chief competitor
is less than a mile away, she winks and says, "I hear Irwin Seating's
hiring."

Tom Rademacher's column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. E-mail:
trademacher at grpress.com