Have You Paid Your Dues?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Mar 18, 2011
“I’m frustrated. I have two master’s degrees and I’m working on my doctorate. I started teaching earning $17,000 a year. I’ve paid my dues.â€
Skaneateles NY Superintendent Philip D’Angelo on Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposal to limit the salaries of superintendents across NY state
The question of paying one's dues sometimes comes up, and it can be a difficult one to respond to. Does someone pay dues by time? Does someone pay dues by accomplishment? Does someone pay dues with money? And if you've paid your dues, what should you expect?
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I was asked to comment on the statement above, which of course means it generated this particular post. Whereas one would applaud the accomplishments of Mr. D'Angelo, his stating that he's paid his dues because of his degrees is illogical and ill-conceived. If the number of degrees is all it takes to say someone has paid their dues then there are a lot of educated people out there who could claim that same thing without ever having to produce anything.
Let's think about money for a quick moment. For many people, they had to pay their dues to earn the money they have, and many people do good things with that money. However, there are a lot of people that have money that didn't do anything with it. They sometimes feel a sense of entitlement, and think that if they do one selfless act a year that they've earned "dues" and the right to be less than a good human being any other time.
Frankly there's a lot of jerks that have money that will do good things, often for the tax break. If you didn't earn it yourself you have never paid any dues, and thus we have to throw out money.
Now let's look at time. This is a tough one to rate because I've heard many people utter a phrase like "I've been here 30 years and I've paid my dues; someone owes me." It's an interesting statement, but all that takes is to be able to survive and possibly have no drive to make it in a job 30 years.
If you've never threatened to reach any of the higher positions within a company then longevity gets you accolades for being able to stick it out, but I'm not sure it means you've paid any dues. A lot of bad employees have been able to last 30 years or more at a job; what dues would we say they've paid?
So then this brings us to accomplishments. Accomplishments are what gives people the right to expect certain things in my opinion, but within reason. As I told someone today, I've been in business for myself almost 10 years now, and I actually helped one hospital increase their revenue by $720 million in one year, more than double what they were bringing in before I got there.
To me, I've paid my dues and deserve to live the good life, so to speak. And yet, even with such a success, overwhelmingly people have no idea who I am, and thus whenever someone wants to subcontract with me they ask for a resume. Dues means nothing when people don't know who you are.
Then there are people who really have earned their dues for some of their accomplishments, yet don't get to carry it across the board into everything. Let's look at Mel Gibson. Oscar winner multiple times over, big time movie star, donated lots of money to charity and then built a church. Yet, in the last 5 years he's gone over the deep end with bad behavior, which I don't have to document here.
This was a guy who'd paid his dues and really could have been seen in a much brighter light, and now he's a late night comedian joke and vilified, especially after admitting that he hit the mother of one of his children, and of course after we've all heard some portion of those taped rants. So, dues doesn't give you absolution from bad behavior.
Finally there are some people who have earned their dues and thus have earned the right to say certain things. There are a number of people who have marched in protests, donated all types of money to causes, and spoken out in favor of freedom and equality of others. Those folks get at least an initial pass whenever they decide to speak up when it concerns their own, so to speak.
And the same goes for every parent who gave of themselves to raise their children the best they could, kept them from harm, helped them with their education, and guided them into adulthood with a chance to succeed. None of this means anyone gets a free pass from everything; but it means they've paid their dues, and thus are granted some laxity in some areas.
Think about how you might have paid some dues, if you have, and what you feel you deserve from it. Is it in proportion with reality? In actuality, the superintendent has probably paid dues based on the job he does; he was inarticulate in what he stated. I think I'll give him a pass.
Again, a very interesting topic Mitch!
To me, the superintendent’s comment was just poorly articulated. A more sympathetic view of his comment would be :
“I voluntarily went into a field that requires me to get advanced degrees, yet doesn’t compensate me at the rate that a private sector worker with my educational attainment receives. I have worked hard to advance and have finally reached the top levels of my profession, where I would ordinarily expect to receive better financial compensation, but now the governor says that I am overpaid? I believe that my hard work and dedication to my profession justifies my salary. I have paid my dues.”
Thanks for your input, Phil. I gave the guy a pass also because I believe he stated his case incorrectly as well. However, being a superintendent, one assumes that he’d have a bit more political savvy than to utter the phrase he did. I personally have an issue with any outsiders getting into how someone else decides how people should be paid, even if they make bad decisions at times.
I remember Bill Cosby when he was THE black comedian.
Tom, I remember just that he’s always been one of the top comedians. In a way, he never rivaled Richard Pryor and the first comedian I really knew of was Flip Wilson, but Cosby’s always been steady and hit a goldmine with his show in the 80’s.
Watch the Seinfeld documentary “Comedian” about Jerry re-tooling his act and getting back into stand-up after the TV show ended. He and Chris Rock discuss Cosby in reverential terms and Jerry makes a pilgrimage to see him perform (in Atlantic City, I believe.) They were mesmerized by his longevity, the length of his shows and the fact that he’s never seemingly had a stale period.
What I learnt with time, even if I am just 32, is that very few people really deserve recognition, and usually the more they claim so the wronger they are.
There’s this misconception everyone owe us something, I don’t really understand it but I am sure you know what I mean. Truth is, most of what we do is for our own good, and that’s ok, unless it hurts someone else deliberatly. If you think about it, even acts of kindness very often have very personal reasons behind them (I think immediately about Zuckerberg’s generous donation when The Social Network came out).
Of course a good act is a good act, no matter what. If it benefits someone, why you do it doesn’t really matter.
Gabriele, I think I wrote about that somewhere, asking if a gift to a good cause was valid even if the giver was questionable. As to the other, I do believe that there are times when folks have earned something, call it dues or respect. But it’s not all encompassing, and should be seen in that fashion.