Martin goes to work 2

Work“Something you like that you hope you will be paid for” “Something you do that you try to like” A short history of work in 34 pictures

In this book we follow the story of Martin,who starts “work” as a young sapling, onlylater to grow into an old tree.Note: any characters represented here are not in any way meant to representany living creature, alive, dead or retired.

The very early yearsMartin’s friends and relatives knew very early on that hewas going to be an educator. But by what foresight orwizardry did they guess?

The teenage yearsMartin, lived in the baby boomer years. This meant that he didnot have to go out to work whilst trying to pass his difficultschool examinations. However he did do some voluntary work,without being paid.Martin spends a lot of his Martin’s favouriteteenage years in the dark. comic. Does this tell us about his future career?

1970 – Martin gets his first jobWhilst his dull school friends workon kibbutz in so-called ‘gap years’, hetakes his first exciting job workingin computers. Surrey County Councilown an ICT 1901. Martin is sometimesallowed to load the discs and changethe magnetic tapes, that go round andtell the computer what to do next. Youcan see a man like Martin in thepicture.The big printer writes chequesautomatically, and even printsfirearms certificates! You can see theelectric typewriter that controls the‘electronic brain’It is quieter on Wednesdays, becausethe scientists turn off the computerto clean and mend it.

1971 – 1974 the tough yearsMartin has to leave his interesting jobto go to university, because his teacherstell him it would be a good idea. BecauseMartin was born in the baby-boomeryears the government pay him to go touniversity, so he does not need to have ajob. But the clever people at theuniversity tell him he must work to findout what it is really like to be anengineer.The helpful boss who gives him a jobpays him 75p an hour, which is a lot ofmoney for a young man. Sometimes themen in the workshop ask Martin to go tothe cake shop to buy all the doughnutsfor their tea-break. They have nicecalendars hanging on the wall behindtheir bench lathes.Martin gets his first ‘reference’. This isa piece of paper he can take to his nextemployer, to tell them things that arenot quite true. Martin’s reference hastwo things that are true and one that isa lie, Can you guess which?

1971 – 1974 the tough yearsMartin is told that he cannot have a very longuniversity holiday to be a hippy, like some of hisfriends, because he wants to be an engineer,Engineers have to work very hard because they doan important job, Engineers can design bridgesthat are so strong they do not fall down.Martin wants to learn about The World of Work, sohe takes a job in an aircraft factory. Martin hasto put a card in a clever clock every morning, totell his boss how much time he has worked. Theycan then work out how much to pay him. He likesdoing this, and is happy that he is paid 37p anhour. He wonders if he will have to do this whenhe gets a grown-up job.Martin is often made fun of by his fellow workers,because they all left school at 12 and arelearning to be naughty apprentices. But he workshard and makes this masterpiece, which he isallowed to take back to university with him toshow his teachers. Martin is very good at makingsimple square things into complicated angles, andthis is a job that he does all through his‘Working Life’