Just Folks

Who Is Your Boss?

          "I work for someone else," he said;
          "I have no chance to get ahead.
          At night I leave the job behind;
          At morn I face the same old grind.
          And everything I do by day
          Just brings to me the same old pay.
          While I am here I cannot see
          The semblance of a chance for me."

          I asked another how he viewed
          The occupation he pursued.
          "It's dull and dreary toil," said he,
          "And brings but small reward to me.
          My boss gets all the profits fine
          That I believe are rightly mine.
          My life's monotonously grim
          Because I'm forced to work for him."

          I stopped a third young man to ask
          His attitude towards his task.
          A cheerful smile lit up his face;
          "I shan't be always in this place,"
          He said, "because some distant day
          A better job will come my way."
          "Your boss?" I asked, and answered he:
          "I'm going to make him notice me.

          "He pays me wages and in turn
          That money I am here to earn,
          But I don't work for him alone;
          Allegiance to myself I own.
          I do not do my best because
          It gets me favors or applause—
          I work for him, but I can see
          That actually I work for me.

          "It looks like business good to me
          The best clerk on the staff to be.
          If customers approve my style
          And like my manner and my smile
          I help the firm to get the pelf,
          But what is more I help myself.
          From one big thought I'm never free:
          That every day I work for me."

          Oh, youth, thought I, you're bound to climb
          The ladder of success in time.
          Too many self-impose the cross
          Of daily working for a boss,
          Forgetting that in failing him
          It is their own stars that they dim.
          And when real service they refuse
          They are the ones who really lose.