Kim Eicher

LA 400 Senior Integrative Seminar FALL 2022

Looking Now at My Vocation Through the Lens of Laborem Exercens, John Lewis’s Life’s Work, & My
Own Ideas

My present vocation is that of an office worker/secretary/administrative assistant and currently a data

coordinator. I was the youngest of four children raised by a single mother so the opportunity to go to
college was nonexistent. Immediately after graduation, I worked at a drug and alcohol treatment center
and began taking college courses at the community college. I then took a job at a hospital as a medical
transcriptionist and from there various other doctors’ offices and hospitals over the next 15 years. While
working at these various jobs, I continued to start and stop attending college as life continued to move
me in different directions.

After the birth of my sons, I started back into the workforce but working in the construction industry,
which I enjoyed much more than my prior medical jobs. Healthcare was not my passion and a lot of the
energy from patients and their families was very negative and draining on me. I landed a great position
at a large corporation and was excited and confident about my future there, but unfortunately layoffs
began after four years, and I was laid off in the second round of “right-sizing”.

I vowed then to get my Associates Degree. I felt like I was not marketable without it and many
employers looked for that. I also wondered if that was one of the reasons that I was laid off in the
second round, it always made me feel “less than”. Fast forward I received my degree while working full
time for a very negative manager and was so happy to escape this employer! I had made it! I received
my Associates and am now at a great company with a great future, while pursuing my Bachelor’s. This
degree will allow me to move up even further in my career ladder and I feel extremely proud.

My vocation at my present company is supporting the US Navy, which is 100% about social justice and
the life of the common good with their mission being to protect and serve our country. My position is in
provisioning and what I do enables the sailors to be able to order what they need to stock their
inventory on the ships. Dignity and respect are given to all the U.S. Navy and their support staff. They
are treated as the #1 customer and everything I do is for the good of the sailors. As John Paull II stated
in Laborem Exercens (On Human Work) #17. “We must pay more attention to the one who works than
to what the worker does. The self-realization of the human person is the measure of what is right and
wrong.”
I believe my current employer embraces social and equality with various fun and support groups that
are run by employees themselves. Some groups that come to mind are African American, LGQBT, The
Green Team, The Chess Club, and after-Hour Mixers. My current position is a union position, so the
rights of employees are protected. I have not had any personal experience of a position being awarded
to someone else over me, but it has happened, even though jobs are supposed to be based on seniority.
There have been employees who have had unfairness regarding jobs they have bid on, the job
descriptions are worded in a way that “tailors” it for a certain individual. This is not fair, but it cannot be
proven, and it seems like there will always be a way around something when it comes to an employer
giving the job to who they want.

“The truth is still marching on.” from John Lewis’s “Last Word” Speech, narrated by Morgan Freeman,
makes me think of groups of people, all sharing the same desire, need, or want, protesting in a civil
manner. Even though John Lewis is seen mainly for the rights of the African American race and their lack
of privileges, opportunity, safety, education, and many more unjust issues I feel like his principles and
efforts can be applied to any unjust situation.

John Lewis’s desire to stand up and fight and demonstrate for what he believes in and what he wants to
achieve are in the hearts of all of us who have ever been discriminated against. I would enjoy hearing his
ideas on how I could stick up for and fight against the laws that keep my 18-year-old out of the Army
because of Type I diabetes. We feel that this is an old, outdated rule because with the modern advances
in controlling the disease it is much safer.

The Amazon union victory in Staten Island is something that workers can be proud of because it is the
first U.S. organizing effort in Amazon’s history. Company owners like to make their own decisions and
not be told what to do by an outside source. Owners want to be able to tell their employees how and
when to do things. An employer may not practice fair labor practices and overwork and underpay hard
working employees. A union is for the workers, they work for the workers, they want what is best for
the workers, and they fight for the workers. I am happy that Amazon workers have begun this fight for
their rights and that of bringing a union into their workplace. I feel that anything for the workers, the
“little guy” is a step in the right direction.

My present vocation is helping our vendor procure items that they need. This makes me feel good about
what I do. I do not just think of my job as me sitting at a desk at a computer entering data and solving
glitches in the management of the data being transferred to the vendor’s computer system. I am proud
to work at this company. Even without a union I believe that I would still be treated fairly. I sometimes
feel that I may have more opportunity without being a union employee. My next position after I
graduate will hopefully be a professional position that is not in the union. As of now, our company policy
is that you must have a bachelor’s degree to bid on a professional position. This is what brings me to this
chapter in my life. I am learning to be successful and that to continue to climb you must continue your
education. I am looking forward to climbing my career ladder folder. I am grateful for the company I
work at and the opportunity to continue to grow in my position.

References

Laborem Exercens (14 September 1981) John Paul II (vatican.va)