GLUE: A Memoir

By Gaetana Caldwell-Smith

Introduction

GLUE details some five decades of my working life.

"What tribe do you belong to?"

This from the farmer’s wife on my first job: picking beans in Oregon. I was ten. Her question - - I guessed later because of my tan and straight black hair- - startled me mute. I was a city girl, born and raised in San Francisco. Still, I smiled inwardly at being mistaken for an Indian (now, in our PC culture, Native-American). Four decades later, at high-powered insurance brokerage in San Francisco, during a job interview, a department head told me that he had a "young crew." It didn’t register right away that he thought me too old - - late-forties. But he hired me anyway. Thirteen years later, I was “terminated” for early retirement.

In the early 1960s, as a single mom with three children, I wanted 9 - 5 hours, health coverage, and good pay. The insurance industry afforded me all three. I graduated from high school, didn’t immediately go to college, and had absolutely no experience in the business. So, I received on the job training (OJT), some of which had nothing to do with insurance. For instance, at a small agency, our buttoned-down president demonstrated with a sticky, rubber-tipped bottle of LePage’s glue his technique of properly affixing legal forms to a client’s file.

And, the constant threat of being fired made me feel I should be looking over my shoulder all the time. Despite following the employees manual, policy processing instructions, and bosses orders, I realized I could be let go for reasons that, like OJT, had zero to do with the actual work.

At one company, I was told never to wear “those robes” again or else. My boss was referring to an ankle-length jumper over a turtleneck I had worn, when more often than not I walked around in a skirt that barely covered my behind. But that was okay. One afternoon, he came at me with, "What were you doing ? I never want to see you out there again!" Turned out, from his seventeen story window, he had seen me on my lunch break, sitting in the lotus position in a nearby park. These events took place during the Great Pantsuit Revolt that shut down production for a day. At another outfit, a bunch of gossips reported to my boss that this "Jezebel" (me) went to lunch with a married man. "She's breaking up a marriage!" Luckily, I was spared; he got the pink slip. Once, a group of female co-workers petitioned our boss to have me fired. Why? I was never told. And, after working hours, a supervisor, who unabashedly regaled the office with details of her one-night stands, papered our files with "little yellow notes" of complaint, hinting that collecting some obscure number of them would get us the boot. One company officer, who I thought a friend, hired me away from a rival, only to let me go after two weeks, without notice or reason.

Some bosses evinced quirky, sometimes gross, traits.

An A.V.P. of sales would stroll past my desk, filch a paper clip from a cup, ream out his ear with it, then toss the clip back where it lay indistinguishable from the rest. Another boss noted the time on her calendar when we were “off the floor” and scolded us loudly for our absence. Once, seeing my name scrawled on it, I shouted a fabricated personal hygiene issue at her as my excuse, in front of my office mates. Though shocked, enraged, and embarrassed, she not only didn't fire me, but no longer tracked our comings and goings.

We working mothers had it rough (still do). I jeopardized my livelihood by taking time off when my kids were sick. Thanks to the rise of feminism, some things have changed for the better. But will we ever see equal pay? Early on, I learned that in order to get ahead financially, you job-hunted while employed and quit after you landed another job for a bigger salary.

Over decades in the workplace, I suffered many incidents involving a plethora of clueless, weird bosses - - some outside of the insurance industry - - which I will recount in upcoming chapters, as well as elaborate on those mentioned above. Only a few were fair, honest, and understanding, and made coming to work a joy. The first, you will meet in Chapter One.

My next post: Chapter One
Spoiled: A ten-year-old girl works in the fields; and, later, as a 'teen, lies to get a job.