Retirement is near

 

Make yourself comfortable. I figure after 38 years working here, I’ve earned the right to say a few things that maybe some people don’t want to hear but maybe they should. I’m hoping this message is taken by everyone as something to think about and learn from and not something to be censored or squashed because it doesn’t conform to the ‘company line’. This is intended strictly for my co-workers and not for general public distribution. Most people when they retire, tell you about their career, but for me it wasn’t about a career. My story is a bit different but I think it might be a bit more like yours. Keep in mind that a lot of what happened then, hopefully doesn’t happen as often now. But in rural areas, like in low income areas of the state, I’m sure they sometimes do.

I have to admit that when I started at the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in 1981, I was pretty naïve. For those of you that know me, you also know that I can also be pretty stubborn. My fiancé and I had just moved into rural Morrison County, MN from the Twin Cities. I didn’t know hardly anyone and I needed a job. A friend of a friend of a friend, had a brother that lived near Randall, MN that had to move to Chicago for work because there was nothing that would support his family in the area. We (my fiancé and I) were able to rent his house while he took his family to Chicago (which is another long story for another time). It was an old farm house with an old apartment sized gas oven and it was heated strictly by an old woodstove. Winter was two months off and we had a couple of weeks before we had to pay the rent. We couldn’t even afford a telephone, so we used the Rural CEP (Concentrated Employment Program) office as a place to make job hunting calls. Both my fiancé and I started calling every company in the local phone book. The CEP folks had never seen anything like us. But, we knew that finding a job was nothing more than a numbers game. The more places you called, the higher your odds were of finding a job. At that time, one of the requirements to collect unemployment, was to make at least 3 contacts to find new employment every two weeks. On average we made approximately 30 per day each.

The CEP folks told me about a new job opening they had just received for work at the DNR. I didn’t even know what DNR was. CEP just told me it was a STATE job and usually pays better than anything else in the area. There was no internet, so I talked to everyone. I asked them about DNR. I didn’t even know what the acronym stood for. That was an education. If you want to know about what kind reputation you have as a business, ask people who you are and what you do. I heard everything. I got more stories about people being arrested for all kinds of things, none of which were true, of course. I heard that’s where people go to buy cheap trees. I heard that’s who buys land that can’t be used for anything useful. I heard they come onto your land without permission to fight fires that nobody really wants them to put out. But I also heard that the people that work there, were for the most part, nice people.

The job was for an entry level Office Clerk. Yes, that’s what Office Administrative Specialists were called back in 1981. They also warned me repeatedly that I probably wouldn’t get the job. They didn’t want me to get my hopes up only to have them dashed if someone claimed the job as sometimes happens in rural areas. I told them “That’s the job I want, so that’s the job I’m going to get.” I had no idea how, but I was determined. I called and made an appointment for an interview. By now I had been to a lot of interviews, but I wasn’t ready for this one. I had never had an interview for a “STATE” job before, so I had no idea what to expect.

I showed up for my interview and there were three gentlemen seated at a table and I was invited in to have a seat. The first, was a guy in his 40’s, dressed with precision and appeared to be straight out of the military. He sat rigidly straight and his uniform was neat and pressed. The second was also in uniform and about the same age as the first, but this one was more laid back. It was obviously clear to me he didn’t want to be sitting in this room doing interviews. The third was a guy in his early 30’s with his feet up on the desk looking more like a big burly lumberjack with a full beard and wearing a red flannel shirt. He looked like he would be more comfortable in the woods than at a desk. All I could think was “How am I going to answer their questions so my answers appeal to all three personality types”. For the first time, I wasn’t at all confident that I was going to get this job. They explained the tape recorder and turned it on, then took turns asking me questions. It felt more like an interrogation than an interview. When I finished the interview they indicated they had several more people to interview and they would call me in the next couple of days and let me know. As I was leaving, I noticed four guys sitting in a line of chairs and they held signs with numbers on them. I didn’t learn until much later what that was all about.

I got a call back. I was going in for my second interview. This time it was only with the military-like guy. He had me sit in his office which was dark. Not pitch dark, but only lit by the light coming in the windows. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. Did the lights not work? He asked me things like: Was I married? Did I plan on having children? What did my fiancé do for a living and where? Did I plan on moving if my fiancé‘s career moved him around? It finally dawned on me, why the lights were off. In 1981, these questions were considered illegal. He explained that they had over 30 gals in the position before me and were looking for someone who was going to be around for a while and not gone in 3 weeks. I answered honestly, that I couldn’t predict the future but that I was looking for a permanent position.

I did get the job. The military-like guy turned out to be one of the best bosses I’ve ever had, even to this day. The laid back guy, he didn’t care about interviews or people for that matter. All he cared about were fish. He ate, slept and breathed fish. And the lumberjack….well, he was a lumberjack. He was a forestry technician and since the Forester for the office hadn’t been hired yet, he was sitting in the interview to determine if the person they hired would be suitable to dispatch for fire season.

My first day, I arrived at 8 AM as instructed. He showed me around the building and introduced me to the gals in the FHA & ASCS office and the managers. He showed me to my new desk. An ancient, somewhat dirty, dark gray cold steel desk that held a telephone, a pad of paper, a pen and nothing else. A broken chair which was supposed to be adjustable but didn’t adjust. My new boss said that everyone else was in the field and they would all return around 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon. I would start my days at 8:00 AM and be finished at 4:30 PM. Then he left for the field too. I’m not sure which field or what he did in that field, but that’s another story.

I answered the phone, terrified every time it would ring. Not sure what the caller would be asking about and even less sure of what I would respond. There were a lot of brochures that were obvious handouts for folks that came to visit, so I started with those, and read everything I could get my hands on. I borrowed one of the visitor chairs, so I could at least see the top of my desk while seated. I spent the next couple of weeks ease dropping on people’s phone calls. If someone called for a Forester, I would ask what it was in reference to and then I would position myself so that I could hear the answer, so the next time I would know what the answer was. The lumberjack gave me a pile of ‘management plans’ to color code. More as something for me to do so I would keep from asking him so many questions. I learned that those management plans were what the forester did out in that field. He created plans for people’s property so they could manage their forests for income, to enhance their property value, and provide shelter for wildlife.

So over time, I learned. I colored a lot and finally threatened to leave for a different job if they didn’t give me something else to do besides color. I worked for Wildlife (Military guy), Fisheries (Laid back Guy) and Forestry (Lumberjack). One third of my salary came from each of their budgets. And they argued over whose budget my office chair would come from. Budgets get tight in field offices. I put up with that broken chair for 6 months before I finally threw it in the dumpster and stood at my desk. They all started to feel uncomfortable when they saw me standing at my desk because I didn’t have a good chair. Within a couple of days, a brand new chair magically appeared at my desk.

I stayed for 15 years. Turns out the lights in the Wildlife Office worked just fine. Military guy retired shortly after I left. Fisheries, laid back guy, retired years later and I learned recently passed away. Forestry, Lumberjack guy left after about year 10 for a passion in the arts in northern Minnesota. I trained in a new lumberjack and then a couple of new Foresters. I learned that the people who came to work for DNR usually stayed for their entire career. A few moved between offices to get closer to where they lived. One even took a demotion so that he could be closer to home. Each person had a passion for what they did. They loved being in the woods or on the water. They loved the fish, or the ducks, or the pheasants they helped create habitat for. They loved what they did. Each day at about 4 PM they would filter back to the office with a smile and a story. I worked for DNR in that field office until I couldn’t advance my ‘career’, then I was forced to make some changes. I took a personal leave of absence to help my fiancé (now husband) start a business. Once that was up and running, came back to DNR but this time to Central Office. You see, you can leave but rarely do you get your old job back when you return. So I knew that the only place that would have an opening when I returned would be Central Office. There were always openings in Central Office.

CENTRAL OFFICE – Not just Another World but on a totally different planet.

When my leave of absence ended and it was time to return to a regular paying job. While I learned a lot of valuable lessons while running our own business. I also learned it is stressful and you live on a shoestring and a prayer. It wasn’t my passion so I knew I would return to the workforce as soon as things settled in place with the business. I’ve had an opportunity to sit on the other side of the desk (as a supervisor vs. employee), I was able to view the two worlds from new perspectives. The employee side is a whole lot less stressful than the supervisor’s side. Getting paid by the hour is much more profitable than getting a salary. You see, the employer owns you if you get a salary. They get to send you to meetings that last half the night on the weekends to meet with people you don’t really want to talk to about what the employer deems is an important agenda, even if it isn’t even close to what you believe. My husband and I refer to this rule as: “He who has the gold, makes the Rules”.

After my leave of absence, there was only one job open in Central Office that was posted. It was in Human Services. Don’t get me wrong, Human Services is important work, but it’s just not my cup of tea. There are too many rules that you have to comply with that only makes sense to some politician who I swear makes up rules to make people miserable.

There are 3 types of politicians. 1) Politicians that are in it for the power (Abundant). 2) Politicians that went there to do a good job and got forced into playing the political games, or they can’t get into positions of leadership to make the changes they came to make. Then once in leadership positions, became too comfortable in their political careers and become lifelong politicians perpetuating the problem they came to solve (Common). 3) Passion politicians. These are the people that really care about the people they represent. These politicians actually held down real jobs at one time and got into politics because something made them angry but yet still feel hope that they will get things straightened out (rare). Usually politicians know nothing about much of anything. As a state agency, it’s your job to educate politicians as to what you do and why you should continue to do it and why they should provide funding so you can do what you do. Politicians do not care about government workers. Until election time that is. They would prefer you worked in a cave with a chisel and stone tablet except of course if they need something or want to look good for the local news. I digress.

A position in Central Office Fisheries opened up and I got a phone call from a (now retired) senior manager. He said he wanted me to work for them in Fisheries and he would do what was necessary so I could return to Fisheries and not Human Resources. I was thankful. While I had worked for the Area Fisheries Staff, I found out quickly that Central Office was a totally different planet. Politics drives everything. Most folks in Central Office have to work especially hard to get any time on the open water to wet a line and stay connected to what got them into their line of work. All DNR staff are passionate about their chosen field. That’s what makes working here so great. When they need something, it’s not because they are wasting time until it’s time to go home for the day, but rather because they truly are trying to make things as good as they can despite the politics.

I learned to fish on my own when I was about 9 or 10. None of my family members fished. I come from a family of immigrants. My mom spoke seven languages and said that English was the most difficult to learn. My family was about survival and hard work. They came to America like other immigrants to escape war. Keep your nose to the grindstone and keep a low profile so you can go through life unnoticed. We lived on a farm, because as my Dad said used to say “We would never go hungry”. I was a kid, I didn’t know about war, and my folks never talked about it. I just knew that working all the time didn’t sound like a whole lot of fun.

Fishing brought me to the water, which I learned was my ‘recharging’ element. I would take my bicycle, a fishing pole that I bought at a garage sale and I would disappear for hours at a time. I loved sitting by the water wondering about the fish below the surface, that I couldn’t see. Which one would surprise me and take my hook. I didn’t even care if I caught a fish or not, and even less about what kind it was. As long as I was sitting along that lake and floating a bobber, I didn’t have a care in the world. And that’s what fishing is all about. A co-worker just prior to his retirement said at a meeting we were at: “What we do doesn’t really matter. What does matter is: Did they go fishing and did they have a good time.” He wasn’t wrong. Keep that in the back of your mind the next time you get in a heated debate over stocking issues or budgets. It will help keep things in perspective.

Working in Central Office was just that: Work. We didn’t socialize like folks did at the Area level. Because much of your day involved politics, you couldn’t wait to get away from it as soon as your day was over. There are folks that socialize together and would go out after work but I wasn’t one of them. My commute of 75 miles one way made it impossible for me to socialize after work. Folks would go out for drinks but I had to drive 75 miles and so drinking was never an option. After socializing I would have a 1-1/2 hour drive to get home, which meant getting home too late to make supper or spend any time with my spouse. Some said that it was my choice to live so far away. It was, but I also knew that I couldn’t live in the cities. The stress of living in the cities takes its’ toll on people. I lived and still do live, in a 100 year old house on 32 acres on a lazy river. As I drove home each night from the office, I could feel the stresses of the cities leave me as I got further and further away. It made every mile of that commute worthwhile.

I enjoyed my commute. I’m actually an introvert so socializing isn’t really my thing anyway. My commute would remind me every day why I was driving so far and working so hard. I would see eagles just about every day, sometimes many eagles. A flock of turkeys might impede my path to work in the morning. The king fisher would be on the wires of the power line eying his next meal as I drove by the swamp where the toads and frogs would be singing so loud you couldn’t hear yourself think. Or maybe I’d see a herd of deer so vast that you couldn’t count them all as you drove by. Or maybe that deer would test your brakes as it rushed to get to that herd. There were days when the fall colors of the trees were so vibrant or the frost was so thick, I would have to stop and take pictures on my way to work or because it was all so beautiful.

I spent many years making that commute. It became more and more difficult as traffic increased or the weather turned. Long winters meant I could go long periods of time without ever seeing daylight. As I drove into the cities, I would see the dome of black air that hung over the twin cities. My entire career, I tried to remember that we worked in the cities to provide opportunities for those folks that couldn’t go home to a place like mine. I was privileged. Blessed.

I modified my career over the years by going back to school for a computer science degree. Remember, I started with a phone, notepad and pen. I saw Data as a future and I wasn’t wrong. Now everyone has a laptop, tablet, or phone and data is collected at every turn from every device. I’ve was assimilated into MNIT. While the political structure has changed, my job is still basically the same. There is just more of it. I always looked for ways to eliminate those things which were repetitious so I could move on to more interesting projects. By eliminating redundancy, I was able to do more with less. That trend will continuing and will continue to accelerate. New technologies and a society that moves faster and faster will drive how we do our jobs. My greatest skillset was bridging the old until the new could replace the old before it broke. Sometimes letting it break so that those that held the purse strings saw the need to get it replaced sooner rather than later.

Our purpose hasn’t changed. We have done enough research to know what happens when population densities start to threaten resources and put stresses on that population. We need to keep helping Mother Earth because she has a way of calming our souls and reminding us what is really important. Even if she has to create a virus to bring us back to our senses. Lend her a hand when our population density threatens her ability to help us. While my folks still preach about hard work and keeping your nose to the grindstone, I believe the future is about being happy. About finding your place in the world that brings you joy whether that is in the woods, or on the water, chasing turkeys, or just quietly watching the birds come to your birdfeeder. Mother Earth can definitely survive without us, but we cannot survive without her. So as I approach retirement from MNIT @ DNR, my message to you is find your happiness. Work with your whole soul to spread that happiness to others.

Thank you for doing what you do. Thank you for sharing your passion. Thank you for not caring about politics unless it is to further that passion. Now, it’s time for me to go refill that bird feeder. See you in the woods or on the water.

PS

Are you still wondering what the four guys sitting at the door holding signs with numbers on them were doing? They would hold up a number ranking the women that came in for interview by their attractiveness. I found out these guys were seasonal smoke chasers and not permanent employees. I did have the last laugh, as I became the person they had to report to for their daily job duties.