“I’m looking for work”

January 19, 2009

I was sitting in my office the other day and through my window saw a gentleman walking around outside our building.  He was in his late fifties and due to the fact that part of the building we are in is empty, he was wandering from door to locked door looking for an entrance.

I saw him approaching our back (locked) staff entrance and so I left my office and went to greet him at the door to see if I could help.

“Hi.  Can I help you?”

“I’m looking for work……I don’t even know what this place is.”

I immediately took everything in.  I looked in his eyes, at his rough, aged skin, his coat and gloves.  I felt the cold air and welcomed him inside. It was -2 degrees outside.  He’s walking from place to unknown place looking for work.

I explained what we did and he knew immediately it wasn’t for him but went on to say that he was really looking for the guy across the street because he had seen some “activity” over there and wondered if they needed help.

I shared what I knew about the business across the street.

“Oh” he said, “I know that place.”

Although it was clear that he didn’t know before I told him.

It was also clear as we talked that he was looking for manual labor of some sort, his rough hands belied the fact that he had relied upon them for years.  Only now…
There is a part of me that wants to write about job search skills and how ill equipped this man was to find gainful employment.

There is a part of me that could talk about learning first about whom you are approaching or proposing better methods than walking from door to locked door of warehouse style buildings looking for work, but I think you might understand that.  It’s not what this was about.

It is about vulnerability and this man’s polite and honest expression of his needs to a complete stranger.  It is about desire and self-reliance on skills that may not be efficient or by any other measure terribly effective.  It is about the idea that someone perhaps will appreciate this direct, honest approach and the expression of a willingness to do anything within his skill set (and I am guessing that it is broad and he, resourceful) to be employed.  Even though it was so far from our norm of inquiry, even though we don’t generally have opportunities that suit his skills at our agency,  I certainly appreciated this direct, honest approach.
I stood with him for a moment and rapidly searched my head for some sort of maintenance work that we may need done (oh, but we have him and him and her already).  I searched my head for names and other businesses to approach (I gave him what I could).

I’m still not sure about the technique, but oddly enough I feel that had I something for him, I would have hired him in a minute.

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