White Lab Jacket Syndrome

 When I arrived in 2010 at my Pentagon GS job (deep in the basement area)....I had this closet in my office area (something I'd never had throughout my military or contractor period).  So there in the closet was a white 'lab-type' jacket.  

I asked one of the 'team-members'....what the hell was the lab-jacket for?

So they related that 'respect' automatically came when you wore the jacket as a facility manager.  I stood there for a moment....thinking they were joking.  Well....they weren't.  Course they didn't wear it....mostly because they felt it was a status symbol that they didn't think they deserved.

For weeks, I stared at the jacket each morning and just declined to wear it....feeling that it just seemed awful fake.

As I left the job in 2013....the white lab jacket still sat there.  It was obviously a status symbol....for a job which you'd typically just wear a $49 cheapo blazer and $11 tie at work.  

In the last year or two of Covid.....I've come to look at the white lab jacket crowd, and wonder if their fake status was just gained by the jacket, and not actual knowledge.  It sticks with me each day now.  

Big Whatever

 I noticed this yesterday and it's been on my mind.  The White House came out this week and chatted over rising prices.  What they wanted to blame....were the big-four companies that deal in meat in America.....say Big Meat is to blame for price inflation at grocery stores.  

The problem here....just about everything has escalated over the past twelve months.  

So lets be fair, Big Bread, Big Muffins, Big Bean Dip, Big Beer, Big Soda, Big Pop Tarts, Big Beef Jerky, Big Beer, Big Wine, Big Dog Food, Big Bacon, Big Potato Chips, and Big Nuts.....are all contributing to the inflation as well.  

White House staff members ought to be mandated every sixty days to tour five states in the heartland for a week....to understand the real world.