Thank Goodness It's Monday #372

THE LEGEND OF JOHN HENRY

MEETS LABOR DAY 2012

Few of us “labor” like the steel-drivin’ man of folklore and folksongs is said to have labored.

Hey, it’s the 21^st Century. We’ve got remote-controlled vehicles cruising around the planet Mars laser-blasting rocks, analyzing their composition and sending that data across millions of miles of space. 

 

So the idea of Man vs. Steam Drill is pretty archaic.

Or is it? Writing in Yes! Magazine, Michael Schwalbe observes -- 

“Every year, thousands of men in the United States die like John Henry, albeit with less drama. They quietly work themselves to exhaustion, bad health, and premature death. Or they take risks and suffer fatal workplace injuries. Women workers die, too, of course, sometimes in exactly the same ways.”

What do you think? Before you answer, let’s review the classic version of the John Henry tale: 

Folksong John is a black man of exceptional physical gifts, a former slave who, to save his job and the jobs of his mostly black steel-driving crew, refuses to bow to the superiority of a machine. He races the steam-driven drill and wins, though the effort kills him which, in some versions, leaves his wife a widow and their small children fatherless.

There seem to be historical roots to elements of the story, but nothing very solid. One research I particularly favor argues that John William Henry (prisoner #497 in the Virginia penitentiary, released by the warden to work on the C&O Railway in the 1870s) is the basis for the legendary John Henry.

The Labor Day connection: Because of his strength and pride, John Henry is usually celebrated as a working-class hero. 

He’s also sometimes derided as an exploitive capitalist’s dream: a worker who devotes his last ounce of energy to generating profit and then conveniently dies just when a cheaper technology becomes available to replace him.

Either way, I think there are 21^st Century TGIM lessons suitable for a Labor Day post.

In today’s still-striving-for-equality workplace, we can interpret the extraordinary efforts of John Henry in a race neutral, genderless way … across almost all strata of class -- working-, middle- , upper-middle … and “work” – blue- and white-collar … and industry – service, manufacture, construction, retail, what have you. 

And that opens the door for this -- 

TGIM TAKEAWAY: The emphasis on being competitive has many of us “laboring” in the workplace and the marketplace just like we imagine John Henry labored, even if it’s to our own detriment. 

·         We behave as if working long hours is noble.

·         We strive mightily to outdo “the competition.”

·         We compete for advancement.

·         We risk our long-term wellbeing and keep plugging away despite pain or sickness.

·         We forgo safe and sensible measures that we suspect might slow our progress.

·         We put work first even when it threatens other interpersonal relationships and family.

Not good, right? Hey, it’s the behavior that kills John Henry. And that’s not an end result we want to strive for, is it? 

Not me. So consider this in-the-spirit-of-Labor Day –

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Labor not to beat the system or gain status, power or domination over others, but to realize rewards that you can enjoy without sacrificing being human. Channel your enthusiasm for an effort well made into a mindset that serves your needs, not one that makes you the servant. Don’t be blind to the toll your work places on you personally as well as those who surround you. 

And now for a –

Big Surprise. I’m going to suggest that the folklore/folksong legend of John Henry that I’ve put forward as a cautionary tale also contains often-overlooked, good-then and good-now strategies for successfully coping with pressures of a system that “beat John Henry down.” 

You see --

The story itself is NOT the triumph of “the Everyman” over the system. John Henry dies; that’s not good. You know the steam drill is destined to replace the steel drivers. 

But the John Henry secret of workplace survival is today’s --

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Success is in the tempo at which everyone sings together. 

These days the song is treated as a up tempo blues ballad or dance tune and played at a frenetic pace that suggests folkloric roots as a jig or a reel. But it’s pretty clear that at its roots --

John Henry is a work song. Its pattern tells you gangs of workers sang it on the job to help keep the rhythm and pace suitable for the work they were doing. (Or that the words were plugged into a commonly known chant pattern used to synchronize action as well as provide some “uplift” on the job.)

Do it at the right pace and in unison and the song tells you what to do and how to survive even when “the Boss Man” is hard on you.

Try it. Imagine you’re swingin’ that hammer, then sing, slow and steady and with feeling – 

When John Henry was a little baby (Clink!)

Sittin’ on his Pappy’s knee (Clink!)

Picked up a hammer and a little piece of steel (Clink!)

Said this hammer’s gonna be the death of me, Lawd Lawd (=Clink!)

This hammer’s gonna be the death of me (Clink!)

More proof: In Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American Legend, Scott Reynolds Nelson, the associate professor of history at the College of William and Mary who made the prison labor gang/C&O Railway connection, points out that --

...workers managed their labor by setting a "stint," or pace, for it. Men who violated the stint were shunned... Here was a song that told you what happened to men who worked too fast: they died ugly deaths; their entrails fell on the ground. You sang the song slowly, you worked slowly, you guarded your life, or you died.

Labor Day “Aha!” moment. Live your workday at a proper steel-drivin’ pace. Hammer away, but hammer away with others at a tempo that enables you all to go the distance and accomplish the greater result with greater ease. 

Get in tune. Assuming this is a Labor Day you have the good fortune to be able to celebrate, sometime between checking out your local parade or similar civic celebration and the last official beer and burger before the pool is winterized, appreciate what we all have gained since the first Labor Day.

Don’t let ‘em beat you down. “A man ain’t nothin’ but a man.” Success is in how everyone sings together. 

Geoff Steck   
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P. S.  And speaking of labor, and taking a break to celebrate it, even the ancient Greeks and Romans understood the concepts. They tell us: 

“Without labor nothing prospers.”  Sophocles (c. 497/6 BC – 406/5 BC) said that.

“The end of labor is to gain leisure.” Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) said that.

“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.” Ovid (43 BC – AD 17/18) said that.