A Model Employee?

Glenn’s work ethic was shaped by his years at Bethlehem Steel. His time there taught him that each man has to be able to depend on the next man, which often meant life-or-death “at the Steel” as they called it. A mutual respect grew among the co-workers because of it.

Each man knew to respect the other’s personal space. Glenn spoke of a time when a co-worker grabbed his shoulder unexpectedly. Glenn had shockingly quick reflexes and with that, he turned and sent the man tumbling with a fist to his jaw. While I knew him, there was at least one time that I accidentally bumped into him and he almost instantly turned and had me by the wrist. With a smirk on his face and a twinkle in his eye, he said, “You watch yourself! You know what I did to that man at the Steel.”

Glenn also knew to respect another man’s tools. At the Steel, a man’s tools were his livelihood and to even as much as touch them was the gravest sin. Glenn told of fistfights that broke out over the smallest infringement on this unspoken rule.

Responsibility was considered the highest virtue among the steel workers. Each man needed to be hard at work before the bell rang each morning and not stop until the day was done. Tardiness was never an option. But being a responsible worker involved more than just being there on time and doing your job. It meant doing your job right. Since being able to do your job depended on the guy next to you, anyone not doing his job right affected every other man down the line. Any worker not paying attention could very well cost the life of another man.

Long after his years at the Steel, Glenn still maintained these high work-ethic convictions. While we were co-workers, he became quite disillusioned with the small business we worked for. Glenn’s workbench was often not as he left it, his tools were lost or damaged and he saw other employees, both high and low, who didn’t seem to know how to work or value it as he did.

As a result, Glenn understandably had little respect for his bosses or co-workers. While management couldn’t help but notice, (and those with larger egos took it very personal!) they really had nothing to reproach him on.

Whether you agreed with Glenn or not, you had to respect him. He was hard at work every morning while everybody else was still getting their coffee. Any business would benefit from having more men like him around.