Friday, March 30, 2007

Fancy job descriptions

I thought I had heard all the euphemisms for job descriptions--just a few are:"ingress/egress engineer" for a doorman, "roofing technician" for a guy who replaces shingles, "transportation director" for a person who waves taxicabs forward in a cab rank and puts waiting passengers in them, "cosmetic counselor" for a person (usually a woman) who works in the cosmetics section of a department store. But I recently learned of another one.

For some time, as a volunteer, I have been tutoring men at the Helping Up Mission in Baltimore. I tutor some one-on-one and others in a group; they are all men who have been addicted to drugs and/or alcohol and are in the Mission's recovery program. I tutor them in the "three R's"; some want to become able to pass the GED tests to get a high school diploma, while others just want to improve their life skills in order to get more out of life and to improve their job prospects.

One man with whom I am working told me that he is job hunting. He showed me one lead that he was working on: it was described in a bulletin from an employment agency as openings for "floor technicians" in local hospitals and government buildings. When I asked him what "floor technicians" do, he told me that they clean the floors, empty trash, and clean bathrooms. Didn't we used to call them "janitors?"

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Mycroft Watson is the nom de plume of a man who has seen many winters. He is moderate to an extreme. When he comes to a fork in the road, he always takes it. His favorite philosopher is Yogi Berra. He has come out of the closet and identified himself. Anyone interested can get his real name, biography, and e-mail address by going to "Google Search" and keying in "User:Marshall H. Pinnix" (case sensitive).

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