UNIT 1 JOB OPPORTUNITIES UNLAM-DPU-INGLÉS 3

READ THE STORY, COMPLETE THE ACTIVITIES AND THEN, GIVE YOUR OPINION IN THE
FORUM

UNIT 1 – SECTION II – A STORY

1. Look at the picture on page 22 of the class material (BOOKLET).

This is a stoker. A stoker is someone whose job is to put coal (carbón) or other mineral
on a fire or into a furnace, for example on a steam train.

A STOKER ON A STEAM TRAIN

FURNACE SHOVEL COAL STOKER

In our story, stokers extract coal from a mine. As you can imagine, the work is hard and
needs physical energy and strength. Besides, we know it is not a healthy job because
the air in a mine is contaminated and this is bad for the lungs and all the respiratory
organs. The only task they do in the mine is scoop coal with a shovel into a furnace. So
it is true that not all the people can do this job.

2. Now, look at the ad and think.

a. What is the company offering the job? Where is it situated? Do you know where
this city is located?
b. Look at the requirements. Are they asking for any special qualification? Why (not)
do you think this is so?
UNIT 1 JOB OPPORTUNITIES UNLAM-DPU-INGLÉS 3

An esteemed & well reputed company in the Mining

sector is looking for qualified staff on urgent basis
STOKERS
 hard working and energetic men
 no experience required
 full availability
We are interviewing applicants as from tomorrow 6th April at
235 Canvas St., San Diego.

3. Listen to the audio file and read the complete story SEÑOR PAYROLL

3.1. Simply read it to see what it is about. Don’t stop at vocabulary, for the moment.
Anyway, these are words that you will need to understand:

Payroll: the activity of paying salaries or wages.

To earn: to receive an amount of money for the work you do.

Wage: money paid for your work according to the hours, days or weeks you have worked. It is
different from the salary, which is paid monthly.

To hire: to give somebody a particular job for a period of time.

To quit/to resign: to leave a job on your decision.

Handy gangs: small temporary jobs

SEÑOR PAYROLL*
by William E. Barrett

*payroll: the activity of managing salary payments for workers in a company.

Larry and I were Junior Engineers in the gas plant, which means that we were clerks.
Anything that could be classified as paper work came to our desk. The Main Office
downtown sent us a lot of orders and rules that were to be put into effect.
Junior Engineers were unnoticed by everyone except the Mexican laborers at the
plant. To them we were the visible form of a distant, unknowable paymaster. We were
Señor Payroll.
Those Mexicans were great workmen; the aristocrats among them were the stokers,
big men who worked Herculean eight-hour shifts in the fierce heat of the retorts. They
scooped coal with huge shovels and hurled it at tiny doors. The coal streamed out
UNIT 1 JOB OPPORTUNITIES UNLAM-DPU-INGLÉS 3

from the shovels to the narrow opening. The stokers worked stripped to the waist,
and there was pride and dignity in them. Few men could do such work, and they were
the few.
The company paid its men only twice a month, on the fifth and on the twentieth. To
a Mexican, this was absurd. What man with money will make it last fifteen days? If he
still had money beyond the spending of three days, he was a miser. Therefore, it was
the custom for the stokers to appear every third or fourth day to ask for more money
due to them.
There was a certain elasticity in the Company rules, and Larry and I sent the
necessary forms to the Main Office and received an “advance” against a man’s pay
check. Then, one day, Downtown favored us with a memorandum:
“There have been too many abuses of the advance-against-wages privilege.
Hereafter, no advance against wages will be made to any employee except in case of
genuine emergency:”
We had no sooner posted the notice when in came stoker Juan Garcia. He asked for
an advance. I pointed to the notice. He spelled it through slowly, then said, “What
does this mean, this `genuine emergency`?”
I explained to him patiently that the Company was kind and sympathetic, but that it
was a great problem to have to pay wages every few days. If someone was ill or if
money was urgently needed for some other good reason, then the Company would
make an exception to the rule.
Juan Garcia turned his hat over and over slowly in his big hands. “I do not get my
money?”
“Next payday, Juan. On the twentieth:”
In the next hour two other stokers came in, looked at the notice, had it explained and
walked solemnly out; and then no more came. What we did not know was that Juan
Garcia, Pete Mendoza, and Francisco Gonzalez had spread the word, and that every
Mexican in the plant was explaining the order to every other Mexican. “To get money
now, the wife must be sick. There must be medicine for the baby.”
The next morning Juan Garcia’s wife was practically dying, Pete Mendoza’s mother
would hardly last the day, there was an epidemic among children and, just for variety,
there was one sick father. At any rate, nobody paid Larry and me to examine private
lives; we made out our forms with an added line describing the “genuine emergency”.
Our people got paid.
That went on for a week. Then came a new order: “Hereafter, employees will be paid
ONLY on the fifth and the twentieth of the month. No exceptions will be made except
in the cases of employees leaving the service of the Company.”
The notice went up on the board, and we explained its significance gravely. “No, Juan
Garcia, we cannot advance your wages. It is too bad about your wife and your cousins
and your aunts, but here is a new rule.”
Juan Garcia went out and thought it over. He thought out loud with Mendoza and
Gonzalez and Ayala, then, in the morning, he was back. “I’m quitting this company for
different job. You pay me now?”
We argued that it was a good company and that it loved its employees like children,
but in the end we paid off, because Juan Garcia quit. And so did Gonzalez, Mendoza,
Obregon, Ayala and Ortez, the best stokers, men who could not be replaced.
Larry and I looked at each other. One of our duties was to engage workers for the
handy gangs. Any man was accepted who could walk up and ask for a job without
falling down. Never before had we been called upon to hire such skilled virtuosos as
stokers for handy-gang work, but we were called upon to hire them now.
UNIT 1 JOB OPPORTUNITIES UNLAM-DPU-INGLÉS 3

The following day, there in a stolid, patient line were skilled men –Garcia, Mendoza,
and others- waiting to be hired. We hired them, of course. There was nothing else to
do.
Every day we had a line of resigning stokers, and another line of stokers seeking
work. Our paper work became very complicated. The procession of forms showing
Juan Garcia’s resigning and being hired over and over again was too much for the Main
Office. Our phone rang early and often.
Tolerantly and patiently we explained: “There’s nothing we can do if a man wants to
quit, and if there are stokers available when the plan needs stokers, we hire them.”
Out of chaos, Downtown issued another order. The order read: “Hereafter, no
employee who resigns may be rehired within a period of 30 days.”
Juan Garcia was due for another resignation, and when he came in we showed him
the order and explained that standing in line the next day would do him no good if he
resigned today. “Thirty days is a long time, Juan.”
It was a grave matter and he took time to reflect on it. So did Gonzalez, Mendoza,
Ayala and Ortez. Ultimately, however, they were all back –and all resigned.
We did our best to dissuade them and we were sad about the parting. In the
morning, however, they were all back in line. With the utmost gravity, Juan Garcia
informed me that he was a stoker looking for a job.
“No dice, Juan,” I said. “Come back in thirty days. I warned you.”
His eyes looked straight into mine without a flicker. “There is some mistake, Señor,”
he said. “I am Manuel Hernandez. I worked as the stoker in Pueblo, in Santa Fe, in
many places.”
I stared back at him, remembering the sick wife and the babies without medicine, the
mother-in-law in the hospital, the many resignations and the rehirings. I knew that
there was a gas plant in Pueblo, and that there wasn’t any in Santa Fe; but who was I
to argue with a man about his own name? A stoker is a stoker.
So I hired him. I hired Gonzalez, too, who swore that his name was Carrera, and
Ayala, who had shamelessly become Smith.
Three days later the resigning started.
Within a week our payroll read like a history of Latin America. Everyone was on it:
Lopez and Obregon, Villa, Diaz, Batista, Gomez, and even San Martin and Bolivar.
Finally Larry and I, growing weary of staring at familiar faces and writing unfamiliar
names, went to the Superintendent and told him the whole story. He tried not to
smile, and said, “Dammed nonsense!”
The next day the orders were taken down. We called our most prominent stokers
into the office and pointed to the board. No rules any more.
“The next time we hire you, hombres,” Larry said grimly, “come in under the names
you like best, because that’s the way you are going to stay on the books.”
They looked at us and they looked at the board; then for the first time in the long
duel, their teeth flashed white. “Si. Señores,” they said.
And so it was.

3.2. Complete these general ideas about the story

a. The story happens in ………………………………………………………………..…………………….

b. The principal characters are …………………………………… and ……………………………….
c. They have problems with ………………………………………………………………………………..
UNIT 1 JOB OPPORTUNITIES UNLAM-DPU-INGLÉS 3

d. The company doesn’t want to …………………………………………………………..so ….……

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
e. The stokers always find a solution and ……………………………………………………………

4. Read the story again.

The story has been divided into parts for you to pay attention to certain information
that will help you understand it better and more easily.

Larry and I were Junior Engineers in the gas plant, which means that we were clerks.
Anything that could be classified as paper work came to our desk. The Main Office
downtown sent us a lot of orders and rules that were to be put into effect.
Junior Engineers were unnoticed by everyone except the Mexican laborers at the
plant. To them we were the visible form of a distant, unknowable paymaster. We were
Señor Payroll.
Those Mexicans were great workmen; the aristocrats among them were the stokers,
big men who worked Herculean eight-hour shifts in the fierce heat of the retorts. They
scooped coal with huge shovels and hurled it at tiny doors. The coal streamed out
from the shovels to the narrow opening. The stokers worked stripped to the waist,
and there was pride and dignity in them. Few men could do such work, and they were
the few.

4.1. Complete the first part of the diagram on page 24 of your class material.
Where it says: EMPLOYEES Think of the 2 groups doing two different types of
Work.

CHARACTERISTIC Find one characteristic (not necessarily in the

story) that describes them in relation to the
job they do.

EXAMPLES give an example of one task they do. In fact, the

stokers only do one thing.

4.2. Read the following part (3 more paragraphs) and think about this:

The company paid its men only twice a month, on the fifth and on the twentieth. To a
Mexican, this was absurd. What man with money will make it last fifteen days? If he
still had money beyond the spending of three days, he was a miser. Therefore, it was
the custom for the stokers to appear every third or fourth day to ask for more money
due to them.
There was a certain elasticity in the Company rules, and Larry and I sent the necessary
forms to the Main Office and received an “advance” against a man’s pay check. Then,
one day, Downtown favored us with a memorandum:
“There have been too many abuses of the advance-against-wages privilege.
Hereafter, no advance against wages will be made to any employee except in case of
genuine emergency:”
UNIT 1 JOB OPPORTUNITIES UNLAM-DPU-INGLÉS 3

The money was not enough for the Mexicans. After three or four days, they didn’t
have any more money so they needed an advance. Giving advances was extra
work for the clerks, who already had a lot of administrative work.

a. Were the Mexicans’ wages good? Why do you think so? What did they
probably do with their wages?
b. Why was paying advances extra work for Larry and the other clerk?

4.3. Read 4 more paragraphs.

We had no sooner posted the notice when in came stoker Juan Garcia. He asked for
an advance. I pointed to the notice. He spelled it through slowly, then said, “What
does this mean, this `genuine emergency`?”
I explained to him patiently that the Company was kind and sympathetic, but that it
was a great problem to have to pay wages every few days. If someone was ill or if
money was urgently needed for some other good reason, then the Company would
make an exception to the rule.
Juan Garcia turned his hat over and over slowly in his big hands. “I do not get my
money?”
“Next payday, Juan. On the twentieth:”
In the next hour two other stokers came in, looked at the notice, had it explained and
walked solemnly out; and then no more came. What we did not know was that Juan
Garcia, Pete Mendoza, and Francisco Gonzalez had spread the word, and that every
Mexican in the plant was explaining the order to every other Mexican. “To get money
now, the wife must be sick. There must be medicine for the baby.”
The next morning Juan Garcia’s wife was practically dying, Pete Mendoza’s mother
would hardly last the day, there was an epidemic among children and, just for variety,
there was one sick father. At any rate, nobody paid Larry and me to examine private
lives; we made out our forms with an added line describing the “genuine emergency”.
Our people got paid.

Go back to the diagram on page 18. You can complete up to the first line under
solution.

Where it says: PROBLEM The company thought there were abuses. What was the
Mexicans’ problem? Why did they ask for advances?

SOLUTION ….. unless…… What was the first rule the company set?

4.4. Now you can finish reading the story and complete the diagram.

That went on for a week. Then came a new order: “Hereafter, employees will be paid
ONLY on the fifth and the twentieth of the month. No exceptions will be made except
in the cases of employees leaving the service of the Company.”
UNIT 1 JOB OPPORTUNITIES UNLAM-DPU-INGLÉS 3

The notice went up on the board, and we explained its significance gravely. “No, Juan
Garcia, we cannot advance your wages. It is too bad about your wife and your cousins
and your aunts, but here is a new rule.”
Juan Garcia went out and thought it over. He thought out loud with Mendoza and
Gonzalez and Ayala, then, in the morning, he was back. “I’m quitting this company for
different job. You pay me now?”
We argued that it was a good company and that it loved its employees like children,
but in the end we paid off, because Juan Garcia quit. And so did Gonzalez, Mendoza,
Obregon, Ayala and Ortez, the best stokers, men who could not be replaced.
Larry and I looked at each other. One of our duties was to engage workers for the
handy gangs. Any man was accepted who could walk up and ask for a job without
falling down. Never before had we been called upon to hire such skilled virtuosos as
stokers for handy-gang work, but we were called upon to hire them now.
The following day, there in a stolid, patient line were skilled men –Garcia, Mendoza,
and others- waiting to be hired. We hired them, of course. There was nothing else to
do.
Every day we had a line of resigning stokers, and another line of stokers seeking
work. Our paper work became very complicated. The procession of forms showing
Juan Garcia’s resigning and being hired over and over again was too much for the Main
Office. Our phone rang early and often.
Tolerantly and patiently we explained: “There’s nothing we can do if a man wants to
quit, and if there are stokers available when the plan needs stokers, we hire
them.” Out of chaos, Downtown issued another order. The order read: “Hereafter,
no employee who resigns may be rehired within a period of 30 days.”
Juan Garcia was due for another resignation, and when he came in we showed him
the order and explained that standing in line the next day would do him no good if he
resigned today. “Thirty days is a long time, Juan.”
It was a grave matter and he took time to reflect on it. So did Gonzalez, Mendoza,
Ayala and Ortez. Ultimately, however, they were all back –and all resigned.
We did our best to dissuade them and we were sad about the parting. In the
morning, however, they were all back in line. With the utmost gravity, Juan Garcia
informed me that he was a stoker looking for a job.
“No dice, Juan,” I said. “Come back in thirty days. I warned you.”
His eyes looked straight into mine without a flicker. “There is some mistake, Señor,”
he said. “I am Manuel Hernandez. I worked as the stoker in Pueblo, in Santa Fe, in
many places.”
I stared back at him, remembering the sick wife and the babies without medicine, the
mother-in-law in the hospital, the many resignations and the rehirings. I knew that
there was a gas plant in Pueblo, and that there wasn’t any in Santa Fe; but who was I
to argue with a man about his own name? A stoker is a stoker.
So I hired him. I hired Gonzalez, too, who swore that his name was Carrera, and
Ayala, who had shamelessly become Smith.
Three days later the resigning started.
Within a week our payroll read like a history of Latin America. Everyone was on it:
Lopez and Obregon, Villa, Diaz, Batista, Gomez, and even San Martin and Bolivar.
Finally Larry and I, growing weary of staring at familiar faces and writing unfamiliar
names, went to the Superintendent and told him the whole story. He tried not to
smile, and said, “Dammed nonsense!”
The next day the orders were taken down. We called our most prominent stokers
into the office and pointed to the board. No rules any more.
“The next time we hire you, hombres,” Larry said grimly, “come in under the names
you like best, because that’s the way you are going to stay on the books.”
UNIT 1 JOB OPPORTUNITIES UNLAM-DPU-INGLÉS 3

They looked at us and they looked at the board; then for the first time in the long
duel, their teeth flashed white. “Si. Señores,” they said.
And so it was.

4.5. Once the diagram has been completed, try to retell the story. Practise it in a
loud voice. ( You will find the KEY to the Diagram in the file KEY TO THE
STARTING POINT )

5. THINK ABOUT THE STORY

What is the stereotype about Mexican men that can be seen in the story?

To answer this question, consider the following parts of the story. There are many
possibilities of answer.

“Few men could do such work and they were the few”.
“It was the custom for the stokers to appear every third or fourth day to ask for more
money due to them.”
“He spelled it through slowly, and then said, ‘What does this mean, this genuine
emergency?’”
“I explained to him patiently…”
“To get money now, the wife must be sick. There must be medicine for the baby.”
“His eyes looked straight into mine without a flicker. ‘There is some mistake, Señor,’ he
said…”