The Written Word and 'Class'

Working in business-machine/computer repair shops as I have all my working life, I've noticed a peculiarity of how service manual 'libraries' are kept; they're always kept at a distant remove from the technicians who actually have need of the things. They're invariably kept in a front-office space somewhere, not in the shop where they'd be right handy to the technicians. Odd, eh? Counter-productive/counter-intuitive? I think I may have divined the reason for it.

The service manuals contain written words, and the written word is the province of the intellect. Management is loath to concede that there could possibly be an intellectual dimension to the work that technicians do. So, the service manuals must be kept where they're readily accessible to those 'intellectuals' who have no use for them; not where they're readily accessible to those 'grunts' who do have use for them.

It all makes perfect sense, once you acknowledge the 'class' structure that's at work. 'Classless society'? Yeah, right,

Am I bitter about it? Not at all. I'm so far past giving a shit, I could be be in a workshop in the Yukon, while a service manual I need is in an office in Prince Edward Island, and I wouldn't give a shit.

Management, you're welcome to your membership in a superior class. I'm sure you're entitled to it. And here's my 'working class' anthem in response to your 'superiority'.

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Addendum -- SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2011

There's a noteworthy corollary to what I've just said above. The content of those service manuals is written not by those who actually know and understand the machinery, it's written by low-end members of the 'intellectual' class. They're the ones with the credentials to qualify themselves to be hired as technical writers. Consequently, the content of the service manuals is, by and large, not worth the powder to blow it to hell.

Do we have a great system here or what?

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