Who Built the Pyramids

            Who Built the Pyramids is an interesting part of the book “Working”.  It is about a guy named Mike Lefevre.  He is a steel worker at a factory and from what he says he hates his job.  He actually handles about fifty thousand pounds of steel a day.  All day he just lifts about four hundred pounds of steel, puts it down and keeps doing it.  Mike feels he can’t take pride in his work anymore.  For example, if you build a house or a bridge you can take pride in that.  You can point at what you built and say, “I built that.”  That is what Mike wants from his job.

            Another thing Mike would really like to change about his job is the hours.  Mike works forty hours a week eight hours a day.  Mike barely has any time to see his wife and kids let alone time for himself.  Mike believes if he only had to work twenty hours a week he would have a lot of time to expand.  Mike is so tired and frustrated after work that he always goes to a bar, has a beer and starts brawls.  He says going to a bar is better than going home and taking it out on his wife or his kids.

            Mike actually wants his kids to grow up to be “an effete snob”.  What he means buy this is he doesn’t want his kids to grow up like him.  He wants his son to look at him and say, “Dad you’re a nice guy but you’re a fuckin idiot.”  Mike wants better for his son and I don’t blame him.  Mike feels there is nothing unique about his job.  Sometimes he even makes a dent in something when he makes it just because it will be different.  Mike would like to make his imprint.  But as Mike stated in the last paragraph “This is going to sound square but my kid is my imprint.  He’s my freedom.”