Admiration is such an odd thing...
I've been hesitant to write about this. In part because it's been a constantly developing situation that I've only been tangentially aware of. Also in part because I get the impression that it tends to deal with issues that I imagine are supposed to be beyond the scope of my knowledge.
In keeping with that idea, I'm probably going to be more vague than I'd like to be from time to time. But, in fairness, that comes from a combination of lack of knowledge and inability to share the few things that I may know. Maybe I'll get into more of it later, but I just want to apologize in advance for any vagueness.
I've always respected my dad. I've always loved my dad. These are things that I imagine most reasonable people in reasonable situations could say about their parents. But today was, to the best of my knowledge, the first time I've ever really admired my dad. That is, this is the first time I've sat back and thought "You know, if I was in that position, I'd like to think I'd do what he just did."
My dad quit his job today. This is where the "maybe I can't explain everything" thing starts to come in. What I think I can comfortably say is that he's spent the last month and a half or so going to work without getting paid, but that his quitting was more a matter of principle than it was a matter of money.
Over the last couple months, I've seen a lot of instances where Denny Hecker has been vilified in the local news. I made a couple attempts to make the distinction between Denny himself and his employees in the comments on Strib articles. By and large, those distinctions seem to have been lost on people. Similarly, I get the impression that they were lost on Denny.
I think, on the whole, my point was that Denny Hecker may be an unscrupulous businessman and I can understand people wishing ill on him, but he employs a lot of good people these people will suffer a lot more from his troubles than Denny personally will. The last 6 months or so have made that more and more abundantly clear.
No doubt, Denny is not as well off as he was say 5 years ago. But the people who are suffering most from the collapse of his business are the people who are living paycheck to paycheck. If he goes a couple weeks without paying his employees, he'll be fine. And so will most of the people who work at his corporate office. But the people who depend on a weekly paycheck stand to suffer a lot. And it's unclear to me whether he's oblivious to that fact or if he just doesn't care, but I get the impression that he's focused more on himself than he is on realistically helping the people who would suffer the most from his business falling apart.
So, with all of that in mind, my dad, as one of the employees at the Hecker Auto Group corporate office, quit today. He turned down a paycheck because of what I maybe can't describe more accurately than as "for moral reasons". I get the impression that he's losing out on an amount of money that would pay for a significant part of me going back to school. It's certainly not insubstantial.
And, for what it's worth, I can't help but admire him for it. I don't doubt that it's not easy. I don't doubt that there's a temptation to take the money and keep doing what he's doing, seeing as a month's pay for him seems to be pretty significant. But he turned it down.
Politically, I think my dad and I are pretty diametrically opposite. I don't know that we've ever really discussed it with any depth, but he's decidedly more conservative than I am. And, bearing that in mind, it's hard to find a point where I can say "I sincerely respect where he's coming from". But today, I definitely found that. And then some. And, without question, I admire him more than I ever had before.
In keeping with that idea, I'm probably going to be more vague than I'd like to be from time to time. But, in fairness, that comes from a combination of lack of knowledge and inability to share the few things that I may know. Maybe I'll get into more of it later, but I just want to apologize in advance for any vagueness.
I've always respected my dad. I've always loved my dad. These are things that I imagine most reasonable people in reasonable situations could say about their parents. But today was, to the best of my knowledge, the first time I've ever really admired my dad. That is, this is the first time I've sat back and thought "You know, if I was in that position, I'd like to think I'd do what he just did."
My dad quit his job today. This is where the "maybe I can't explain everything" thing starts to come in. What I think I can comfortably say is that he's spent the last month and a half or so going to work without getting paid, but that his quitting was more a matter of principle than it was a matter of money.
Over the last couple months, I've seen a lot of instances where Denny Hecker has been vilified in the local news. I made a couple attempts to make the distinction between Denny himself and his employees in the comments on Strib articles. By and large, those distinctions seem to have been lost on people. Similarly, I get the impression that they were lost on Denny.
I think, on the whole, my point was that Denny Hecker may be an unscrupulous businessman and I can understand people wishing ill on him, but he employs a lot of good people these people will suffer a lot more from his troubles than Denny personally will. The last 6 months or so have made that more and more abundantly clear.
No doubt, Denny is not as well off as he was say 5 years ago. But the people who are suffering most from the collapse of his business are the people who are living paycheck to paycheck. If he goes a couple weeks without paying his employees, he'll be fine. And so will most of the people who work at his corporate office. But the people who depend on a weekly paycheck stand to suffer a lot. And it's unclear to me whether he's oblivious to that fact or if he just doesn't care, but I get the impression that he's focused more on himself than he is on realistically helping the people who would suffer the most from his business falling apart.
So, with all of that in mind, my dad, as one of the employees at the Hecker Auto Group corporate office, quit today. He turned down a paycheck because of what I maybe can't describe more accurately than as "for moral reasons". I get the impression that he's losing out on an amount of money that would pay for a significant part of me going back to school. It's certainly not insubstantial.
And, for what it's worth, I can't help but admire him for it. I don't doubt that it's not easy. I don't doubt that there's a temptation to take the money and keep doing what he's doing, seeing as a month's pay for him seems to be pretty significant. But he turned it down.
Politically, I think my dad and I are pretty diametrically opposite. I don't know that we've ever really discussed it with any depth, but he's decidedly more conservative than I am. And, bearing that in mind, it's hard to find a point where I can say "I sincerely respect where he's coming from". But today, I definitely found that. And then some. And, without question, I admire him more than I ever had before.
posted by Mike at
3:53 AM
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