Fulfilling the American Dream?

Gretchen Werner

   The corporate giant can conjure up images of danger or opportunity depending upon where you're standing. I began my journey into this mysterious world of nanoseconds and robots in 1988, joining a giant microchip corporation with 18,000 employees and seven factories. Today, 87,000 employees enjoy the benefits of this 36 billion-dollar company in over twenty factories worldwide -- it's a big business! I had the opportunity to experience rapid growth both personally and professionally. The city of Rio Rancho, NM was literally created by this corporation and is now the third largest city in the state of New Mexico. So why did I give up this American Dream?

   There are probably 87,000 different opportunities at a company this size. As I found my niche, I also found my boundary within conflict transformation. This left me with an insatiable hunger for understanding the dynamics of this raw material for growth. The reasons for staying were many and obvious. I often preferred the interpersonal challenges that complemented the technical challenges of my engineering peers. State-of-the-art equipment producing cutting-edge products was thrilling as sub-micron technology emerged. Colorful conflicts accompanied this breakthrough technology.

   Maybe CTP was simply the Land Rover I never bought - and never needed. Success is a very personal choice - and mine was to probe deeply into understanding the aspects of the conflicts in which I had intervened, but making it go away was not enough! That seemed like wasted energy. The typical American Dream comes with a set of predetermined wants that are disguised as needs. I was alone in my pursuit of peace and needed to be in similar company. Those around me had very different hikes up their own ladders of success.

   The greatest opportunity I was afforded at this company was being in two very distinct jobs - like standing on the earth and touching the stars. I began my career in this company in operations - or the factory. Early in my career, I responded to a conflict by creating a women's workshop to leverage technical and behavioral skills. Similar diversity groups emerged with other minority groups. I was very intrigued with the notion of identity within a workplace when all visible identity was stripped inside the cleanroom. Everyone became a big white "bunnysuit" with a helmet and airpack - no matter your position, race or gender. I learned to recognize people by their strut alone.

   I eventually moved "up" into a Corporate Quality position. It was like touching the stars - working with two Vice Presidents and negotiating with and traveling to meet international customers and factory representatives to publish product reliability data. I traded the bunnysuit for panty hose and a blue suit on occasion; I have come to see this as retributive justice. However, I missed the grit of the factory, so I joined a computer "box" division south of Seattle. This was the launching pad for my insatiable curiosity and astonishment at the power of conflict transformation. Opportunities abounded within my workgroup of forty people ranging in age from seventeen to sixty-seven and representing a dozen nationalities in a workgroup. A tornado of conflicts swept through this factory of a thousand people hired from the Empowerment Zone. I sought training at the Lombard Mennonite Peace center in Chicago and was left with a calling on my life. I came back with a small tool kit ready to reassemble this operation. This was the most challenging and rewarding aspect of my career and after the plant closed, that tornado left me with a swirl of questions and longing for answers.

   It was this job in Washington State that gave me a glimpse of something that eventually brought me to CTP. Conflicts so colorful they superceded my capacity and my small toolkit was just not adequate. In a matter of time, the circumstances afforded me the opportunity to chase my dream outside of the company - not in a Land Rover, but in my adequate Honda. It was a Friday afternoon, a seemingly ordinary day when at 3PM, I became a free woman. It was relatively painless.

   I had been given a divisional recognition award for my work in Corporate Quality, but my greatest reward was in creating opportunities for factory technicians. In the midst of the tornado, Thai, a 19-yr-old from Los Angeles, had to return to California for family reasons. Together we secured a job that required an engineering degree, but with his outstanding work performance, he was able to work while getting his engineering degree at a local university. Pich was an unmotivated employee from Cambodia, but after finding an outlet for his art within the workplace, his performance improved. Bonnie was a housewife who was able to "test her wings" as a Trainer. These were the true stars. Other dreams were fulfilled, not in advancement but in seeing fullness in the present, or the profound in the mundane of the factory.

   An organization - whether a corporate giant or CTP, is an organism. It moves, it grows and it has a life of it's own. Rapid growth often seems like a juggling act keeping people, processes, and products in the air. The big difference between CTP and the corporation was the product - the bottom line. Seeing change in lives has become more important than the changes in technology over the years. Often I miss the hum of the factory, the rush of launching a new product, but mostly I miss the people stumbling over each other trying not to drop the ball. My personal motivation is in the process, yet the call to peace was a product worth pursuing. Even computer technology can contribute to that goal. Bringing these two worlds together in my own life has helped me appreciate the interdependence we all have.

   My current passion is in restorative justice. In business terms, there's a big bang for the buck here in America. Maybe it's because I've served my international time and I'm ready to come home, or I'm drawn to the heartbeat of change - those who directly touch and are touched by the product demand, whether it's a factory, politics, church or community. I'll try to reach for the stars, yet keep my feet firmly planted on the ground, and the ground in restorative justice is expanding rapidly. When working in Corporate Quality, once a product underwent "deviant processing" it could never be called normal again, only indistinguishable from normal. Even though it looked and acted normal, it was always an exception. Lately I've been thinking of ex-prisoners in those terms - those "exceptional" chips are used in our computers today; perhaps I could assist "exceptional" people to find meaningful work - will they ever be allowed to become indistinguishable?

   I didn't give up The American Dream; I was given the opportunity not to be consumed, but to fulfill it. The transition was less difficult, getting here was more difficult and the similarities - whether making microchips or peace - both include many challenges, a few rewards and chasing my dream of finding some answers has only left me with a swirl of new questions.

Gretchen Werner is the International Student Coordinator for the CTP program.