In the fall of 2002 I hired a few friends to work under me doing telecommunications salvage for three weeks at a time on a national contract. Questionable Content reminded me of these times today. I remember sitting down with each of them after they expressed interest and telling them that this job meant something to me and I took it seriously. I remember a conversation with Matthew years prior about how it was hard to find someone who worked as hard as I did and was self motivated and interested in learning more and doing a better job. I take pride in my work ethic, I always have. I finished reading Shop Class as Soulcraft last night which articulated to me a lot of why I both fix small engines and web infrastructures; the nature of the beast. Anyway, hiring friends didn’t really work out because few of them had pride in their work. You had to have a reason to do a good job.

I recently had a conversation about interviewing friends with another friend of mine. We didn’t talk about work ethics, but I think we did indirectly. What tier do you stick people in who sort of care? Tier-2, where they don’t have to deal with customers but aren’t responsible either for getting shit done. This is like middle management. It is the meatcloud of hiring friends.

Anyway, when I have time, there’s a discussion here to be had about work being exciting [or not].