Workin' Man's Blues

I have been a meat cutter for just shy of four years, and all of those years have been spent in one shop. There are good and bad things about that. First, it used to be a GREAT shop, we were top in the company, and favored by all of the big wigs. Our great leader Dave Ruedlinger left us in the Spring of this year, and it has been a steady decline since. There are other contributing factors to our decay, but I have to say that is the biggest. I talked before about the woes of our department, about not having any gainsharing anymore, etc. It may sound lame that I am unsatisfied with the pay I get and always want something more, but I feel I work hard enough to deserve something more. Besides, that extra treat is always what pushed us harder and farther to reach new levels of excellence. But we started taking on water some time last year, and while our sales were still climbing until late this spring, our gainsharing already started taking a hit. Now our team is way down to a lean 22 team members, so much better than almost 30. It's a start in a new direction, I just hope it gets a whole lot better real quick, because I am thinking of pulling up anchor and sailing elsewhere.
My good friend Neal and I may be going Entrepreneurial with another friend in the near future. What will our business be? Who knows? There are so many things we are capable of doing, we may have more than one focus, but rest assured when we find that thing or those things that are "it" then we are off to the races. Wish us luck, we are shootin for the stars.