“Always try to find work, even if it is temporary, and always seek out jobs nobody wants. By doing so you not only help a business along, but insure employment should you return to that town again.”
- Annual Convention Congress of the Hoboes of America, August 8 1894
“Stabbin’ people is the hobo life …stabbin’ people with my hobo knife …Don’t worry, I’m not a stabbin’ hobo! I’m a singin’ hobo!”
- The Simpsons (Episode CABFI7, “Tall Tales”)
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The turn-of-the-century American hobos rode the rails to work farm jobs, or do miscellaneous labor work in the big cities. Though there’s still an active train-hopping culture, it’s a whole lot harder to do what the original hobos did.
The economy has changed, the culture has changed, technology has changed everything. That does not mean one cannot live a nomadic life in the U.S. anymore – to the contrary, there are increased opportunities. However, most of them require something of a bankroll to set up, and advanced skills (often not attainable except through years of Higher Education) to maintain.
What about the simple fool who just wants to set out with a bindle, work doing whatever comes to hand, and never look back? It’s still quite doable, but you’ve got to do a little adapting to the times.
I am not going to delve into advanced work such as web design via telecommuting, teaching English, or any of that. All good and valid routes, but I want to focus on what’s available to just about anyone. To the restless kid fresh out of high school, or the older person fed up with the System or in dire straits and looking to pack up and roll out right this minute.
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First of all, some basics that one must establish wherever one goes in the U.S., if one is seeking work –
Phone : It is rare now to find jobs that will not require a “call-back” at some point during the application process. Of course, for someone living on a shoestring and perhaps out of a backpack, this is problematic. The simplest and most elegant solution I have found is through a web service called RingCentral (www.ringcentral.com) . They will set you up with a web-based voicemail number free of charge (placed in the area code that you are currently in no less). What they want you to do is download a small software application that you use to check your messages (and displays advertisements naturally) – now if one is using library or other public terminals, you can immediately see the drawback. However, when you receive a call, RingCentral will email a .WAV of it to your email account. So, all you really need is a free webmail account and a cheap pair of headphones (easily obtained at any dollar store). The one drawback is that you must check it via e-mail only, there is no central number to call by phone to check messages. But with the vast majority of public and college libraries now offering free Internet access to anyone, this should be little trouble. An additional benefit of RingCentral is that it acts as a sort of caller ID, giving you the caller’s phone number, and notifies you by email even if the caller did not leave a message.
Some communities also offer free voicemail services to homeless residents. This is a bit dicier than using RingCentral; they may want you to sign up for social services, get photographed, get a case manager, etc. I’ve also observed that these voicemail systems tend to use one centralized number, and the caller must enter a 3 or 4 digit “box number” to leave you a message. Well, if you fill out online job applications (and many places are increasingly moving to this as an exclusive model), you will notice that most of the forms do not allow you to enter more than seven digits. Employers also generally do not like being given only an obvious voice mail number; using something like RingCentral, it appears to them to be a cell number that simply automatically kicks them to voicemail because you have it turned off or somesuch.
There is also the option of paying for voicemail service, which is usually $10-15 a month, or purchasing a prepaid cell such as a Tracfone and using that. Obviously, you need a bit more money at your regular disposal for these solutions to work.
Mailing Adress : You don’t absolutely need a real mailing address; rarely do employers actually need to mail something to you anymore. However, you should at least be prepared with a plausible fake address. Get familiar with the area you are in; pick a large apartment complex in a busy area. In larger cities, you can get away with totally making up a street name and number. Pick a fake address in the next town over. Give a fake PO Box number. Do be ready for them to ask “Where do you live?” in casual conversation though; if it’s not asked by the interviewer, one of your co-workers inevitably will.
Of course, it’s always nice to have a place to actually receive mail. Some areas have homeless drop-in centers that allow you to use their address; but again, this may require Photographing and Opening A File and all sorts of other complications. The Post Office has a great deal on the smallest box size, but there’s usually a long waiting list for them, and you have to show proofs of residency as well. Little mail/internet places are a good bet; usually in the range of $10-15 a month you can get a small box and they are not as uptight as the Post Office, Mailboxes Etc. and the other big providers.
Clothes : You generally do not need to be well dressed for low level job interviews but sandals, dirty socks and camo pants are not going to cut it. At minimum – a pair of shoes or boots that are not chewed up and caked in mud, clean pair of jeans or khakis or slacks, long-sleeved shirt. I’ve done fine with my general purpose hiking mocs on my feet (they just look like a generic brown shoe), a pair of Old Navy cargo pants I got at Vincent De Paul for 90 cents, a button-up Wes St. Lauren shirt I got at another thrift store for 4 bucks, and my old leather belt that I’ve had for like 8 years now. Obviously, groom yourself and smell decent. Just being groomed and communicating clearly and eloquently is better than what a lot of these low-end employers regularly see.
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With this out of the way, it’s time to look at the types of jobs that will be available.
· At the absolute bottom of the barrel is Labor Ready. This is the one place that absolutely anyone can find work, and they have offices most everywhere. However, the jobs on offer are usually very physically demanding and in poor conditions. As for pay, you can expect about a dollar and hour more than whatever your area’s minimum wage is. You must also arrive at 5 A.M. and wait around the office, potentially for hours, to see if any calls for laborers come in. You will be picked up from and returned to the office, but they insist you be there at 5 or you cannot work that day. You are not guaranteed a job on any given day. I have also heard, though not personally observed, that if the job requires steeltoed boots or other safety gear that you do not happen to have, Labor Ready rents it to you at rather exorbitant fees. You will be paid at the end of the day, but if you want cash you have to pay a $2 fee to use their “ATM” to withdraw it.
It sucks ass, but it is an option if the straits are very dire.
· The next step up are various “temp” agencies that look for labor, production, warehouse and office workers. There are many different ones, with different focuses. Manpower is one that you will see nearly everywhere. With these, you go to a central office and put in an application as if applying for a regular job, though generally they do not conduct an interview (unless you are applying for office work). Most of the jobs require no experience, except office temps, who generally need to type 40-60 WPM, have knowledge of Word and Excel, and possibly be able to do 10-key at a certain rate (they generally test for all this at the agency). These generally call you a day or two in advance of the job; the jobs can last anywhere from a day to a couple of months. Labor and production temps will probably make only a dollar or two an hour over minimum; office temps can expect three or four. The jobs on the whole are not nearly as noxious as Labor Ready, though they certainly won’t be glamorous. While they are not as thorough in screening as normal employers they will expect basic cleanliness and dress and ability to function, and those with criminal backgrounds may not be able to get office work.
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The next tier would be regular part-time or full-time work at any number of regular employers. All of these will expect proper dress at an interview, and will ask Interview Questions; all will do a criminal background check and probably a drug test; all will ask for previous employer information and references, though not all will actually bother to check them.
Sadly, thanks to the Wal-Martization of the American economy, full-time jobs for unskilled non college grads have almost completely disappeared. If you have a skill, bully for you, use it. If not, anticipate part-time income (if you are vagabonding you probably don’t want to work that much anyway).
What’s available varies widely from region to region, town to town, and sometimes depends on the season. We’ll look first at jobs that are available just about anywhere and at any time.
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· The ubiquitous “job for anybody” is fast food. Anyone can get in at these places, convicted felons, people who’ve been fired from five different jobs, whoever. Of course the work enviroment is poor, you’re vending slow death to spoiled fatsoes and their kids, and the pay generally sucks. It’s also about 99% guaranteed to be part-time with limited hours. For most people McDonalds and such are right out on principle, and I think most of these places are starting to only hire bilingual Hispanics anyway. There’s a few that could work for a while though. Subway is kind of bland, but their food is basically decent, and aside from having annoying advertising I can’t really see them as being overly evil. Same deal with Quiznos, some of the other sandwich chains. According to Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, In-N-Out is actually committed to being a responsible company that treats it’s people decently; personally I can’t get past the dorky paper hats, and those places are always crazy busy as well. Some of the pizza places might be decent, such as Papa Murphy’s Take and Bake, I don’t have any experience there to speak of but they seem a little less odious than the average burger-flipping fast food job. Pizza delivery is apparently a pretty easy gig if you’re tooling around in a vehicle, as well as delivery for other types of food.
· Restaurants (of the sit-down, table-waiting variety) are generally not too discerning about who they employ. However, for any position but dishwasher or table-busser, they will probably want at least a year of prior experience. Table waiting is a good portable job, if you have the temperament for it. You can actually makes some decent money in an affluent area where there’s steady business and the tips are good. I am not sure, however, where you are supposed to go for that first year of experience. Possibly Denny’s, Applebee’s, Chili’s or one of the other generic low-end restaurant chains. Personally I would rule Applebees and Chili’s right out due to the whole “pieces of flair” mentality they seem to have. Though Denny’s food roundly sucks, every one I’ve ever been in has seemed pretty lax, and I’d imagine that third-shift (graveyard) work wouldn’t be too rough.
· Bartending also seems a quite decent portable job. From what I have heard those “bartending schools” are largely a waste of money and employers do not give a flip for them. The way to do it, apparently, is to start as a “bar back” or bar assistant and prove yourself at that for several months, before being promoted to bartender.
· Retail is still hiring pretty much anybody, but the hours are absolutely ridiculous, and most of the corporate chains have this cult-like “corporate culture” (based on Wal-Mart’s example I assume) that is rather creepy and disturbing. I find these jobs to be way too demanding for the tiny paychecks they provide, and a rather soul-killing atmosphere in which you are expected to smile and suck up to the oblivious and disrespectful “consumers” that patronize such places. They also implement some rather questionable and odious “personality tests”, and generally all require a drug test. However, these are widely available and fairly easy, for the purposes of desperation cash.
· Grocery used to be a pretty excellent low-wage job to do. Now all the corporate chains are taking over and they’re running the groceries like they do the retail stores. Expect ridiculous personality tests, expect silly uniforms and the cult mentality, and hours all over the map. The one saving grace is third-shift receiving and stock, where one will largely be left alone and have regular hours to boot. Tedious yes, but easy and largely devoid of bullshit.
· If you happen to be near a meat or poultry processing plant, this is a job absolutely anybody can get. They also usually pay well above minimum and offer full-time hours. There is a reason for this. It is one of the most hideous jobs known to man. Stink, animals being killed in mass quantities, guts and blood, feces, the danger of sharp knives being used at high speeds, bulky rubber safety gear, working in freezers. These jobs are mostly taken by illegal Mexican and South American migrants. If you’re not Hispanic expect to be given a hard time. This is really an even worse deal than Labor Ready, once again you can refer to the book Fast Food Nation for a depiction of exactly how bad they are, but these places are out there if you are really and truly hard up.
· “Production” is the code word for all types of tedious, repetitive assembly work in a factory type setting. This can be anything from food to gun parts to cell phones. From what I’ve seen, production jobs are usually staffed through temp agencies – they take you on for a few weeks then decide if they want to keep you. Mostly boring shit but usually not too hard, and surprisingly they usually go well above minimum wage (out here in Cali these types of jobs average around $12 an hour starting out)
· Mail / package handling is one to consider. UPS and FedEx hire part-time on two shifts – early morning (4 am to 9 am) and twilight (5 pm – 9 pm). They are generally hiring as there is regular turnover. The Post Office is a job that many poor people dream of – but they only hire at random mysterious times, the entry process is lengthy and arcane, and you will be thoroughly scrutinized. The only time it is good for hobos is at the holidays, when they are desperate for what they call “casuals” to help with the Xmas mail crunch. They pay well, but be ready to work 6 or 7 days a week, 10 or 12 hours a day (I did this Nov-Dec of ’98, as a mail handler … we were doing 6 days a week 10 hours a day … the clerks who handled letters were doing 7 days a week 12 hours a day). Lots of work, but you can make a fair amount of money in a fairly short period of time.
· Enviromental phone / foot canvassing. Generally available only in larger cities. Soliciting donations either on phone, or door-to-door, for such causes as “Stopping The Bush Agenda” and whatnot. I have no personal experience of these, but I see ads in the paper all the time offering $10-$12 an hour.
· Furniture moving. Look in the phone book and just call some companies – they generally are not picky about hiring (as long as you have a good back) and sometimes pay under the table. Of course, be prepared for heavy lifting.
· Auto detailing. Another type of business that doesn’t generally care much about your background. You have to clean cars, usually rich people’s high-end cars. So you can expect some pandering servile mentality and all of that.
· Janitorial (custodial, you dick!) – from what I’ve seen janitors with a few years experience actually seem to make some pretty decent money. This is a good third-shift possibility.
· Barista / coffee server – Everyone thinks they need their coffee, coffee shops are everywhere, near any urban area. There’s always Starbucks – though they have some questionable business practices they apparently hire nearly anyone and actually pay a cut above minimum wage. If you are interested in this line and have no experience, perhaps you could use them for a little while to get trained, then jump ship to a better place.
Of course there are also the regional and seasonal jobs, which follows more in the migratory tradition of the true hobos. Orange picking in Florida in winter, apple picking in the Northwest in fall, grape picking in Napa in the summer. Mostly Spanish migrant work, but from what I’ve heard they really don’t turn down anyone.
Obviously none of these suggestions are glamorous. Some are more tolerable than others. It is up to the individual to figure out what works best for them.
Of course, other possibilities exist. This is far from being represented as a complete list, more of a brainstorming session of ideas. I think perhaps future entries will be called for, and reader suggestion is naturally always welcomed …..
RG
(comments and suggestions welcome – river_fireflies@yahoo.com)