I’ve noticed it, and if you’ve driven past a Home Depot lately, you’ve probably noticed it, too:  A surge in the number of day laborers looking for a gig.  On the occasional morning I drive past the Home Depot at Sunset and St. Andrew Street.,  I see 40 or 50 men waiting outside the the entrance to the parking lot, hoping to get hired for the day.  One day last week, I stopped to talk to them.  It was sort of an unintentionally mean trick on my part.  They of course wanted me to hire them, and that was not my aim.

My aim was to learn what kind of strategies these men use to get hired.  After all, what could be a more honest scene than one that has to be productive if a player wants to eat that night?  When lives literally depend on one’s behavior, how does one behave?  This is obviously far from scientific.  I draw no firm conclusions from it, and neither should anyone else.  But everything, even five minutes talking with day laborers outside a Home Depot, is a learning opportunity if you are open to it.

In my brief and chaotic encounter with the day laborers on the sidewalk in front of the Home Depot, here’s what I learned: (more…)