On Donuts, Snowcream, Elvis, and the Bailout.

You might be wondering what it's like to be working at GM these days, being that we're all over the news with goings on about bailouts and loans and such.





Well, it has changed some things and not others. At the moment everyone who still works here keeps coming in to work each day and doing what they are supposed to do. Sometimes I hear people walking out of the coffee room talking about the very incredible news events as they unfold each day. For a while I was reading all about it and listening to the news on the radio in my car. I found myself agreeing with the points made by GM (you can read their official positions here) but then sometimes I would find myself nodding along with what the critics had to say too. The conflict of it was too much for me so I switched the to Elvis Radio on XM, broadcasting straight from Graceland! Much better.





Some of the people around here seem nervous, and there are signs of things being different. The shop went to a 4-hour workday. It's kind of spooky to drive up in the morning to an empty parking lot and the lights out in the area that I have to walk through to get to my desk. They have also turned down the temperature to save money, and so it is uncomfortably cold in the office area. Bob has taken to wearing a hat while he works.





But there are occasional bright spots such as today which was bagel day. (FYI it's funded by coffee profits.) You never know when bagel day is going to come and today I had already eaten a half bagel from home on my commute, so I picked out a donut. It was the kind with no hole and chocolate frosting on the top. I expected there to be custard inside but was caught by surprise when it turned out to be LEMON filling. That's just wrong. Of course I ate it anyways, and then later noticed there was a similar donut in there but with nuts sprinkled on the top. I had to know. Sure enough, my investigation proved that the nuts indicate the filling type. Very useful information. I told Bob that I wished I could erase the calories of the first, wrong donut after I had discovered and eaten the correct one. He suggested exercises that I could do in my cubicle. Another guy was listening and came up with an invention for exercising using hangers tied together with rubber bands. This got us to imagining the possibilities in the wide-open field of cubicle exercise. Then we stopped that and got back to work.





It has been said that if they don't get the bailout (loan!) money that GM could cease to exist. That's difficult to even imagine. So many people have had their entire careers here. At least I had my little break about a year ago, and I think that gives me some perspective on what life could be like without GM. Others are faced with considering it for the first time. Often that can lead to interesting conclusions. In addition to cubercise inventions, one co-worker came up with this alternative career idea:
Can you just imagine the fun of pushing this thing around all day selling "snow cream" to happy customers? But don't even think about getting one for yourself, we don't want too much competition around here. And if my kids ever see this I'll never get them to go to college.

So while dreams of alternative careers and Rockabilly avoidance techniques are helpful, there isn't much else to do except keep on working, and perhaps contacting a Senator in the hopes of influencing the outcome their vote, or buying a car. I can get you the employee discount again, now through Jan 5.