Here’s something that job security is good for: I realized while two-thirds of the way to work the other day that I would be a few minutes late, and I didn’t worry about being expected to call ahead and tell someone.

It might have been otherwise. Sure, I clocked in literally three minutes after I was scheduled, but I’ve seen that not matter. It usually isn’t sitcom-style prickishness about exact compliance; instead it’s management already having a problem with that worker and seizing on an excuse to give them grief.

In my case, though, I actually get along with half of management (as long as I remember not to rely on them for much of anything), and I have a sort of live-and-let-live relationship with the other half. No one, not even the manager who was covering the register for that three minutes and had to swap the drawer out again, said a word about it, and beyond a brief apology, neither did I.

…

That’s pathetic. And the worse part is that, as long as I’m dependent on a paycheck, this is as much good as I can expect.