My brother recently moved to Hawai’i, where he took an impulse job helping a couple restore a 19th century Japanese pirate ship. I thought this would be a really cool job, and so did he… until he found out that his responsibility was to strap on some snorkeling gear and clean the barnacles off the hull of the old wooden boat.

He, of course thought that his job would be more of a restoration role - perhaps helping to replace broken or rotting beams, and helping to restore the visible part of the boat back to its original glory. However, he spent much of his time strapped to snorkeling gear with hatchet in hand, shucking off barnacles a few at a time.

While I’m sure he enjoyed the opportunity to be in the water and certainly the beautiful Hawaiian sun, I’m sure that he was pretty shocked to find out his true duties were not at all what he had expected. Once he had cleaned all of the barnacles off the boat, he found out that his services were no longer needed on the boat, as it was now apparently “seaworthy”.

At this point, he found himself not only out of a job, but also out of a home because his employers/landlords (he lived on the boat in the harbor at Waikiki where his rent was paid by his labor) were now going to charge him $600 a week for one bed on top of the boat with no roof over his head (literally).

This is a great example of how the old “bait and switch” is used everywhere and I a variety of ways. As for my brother? He now has a better job and a place to live with running water and an indoor toilet. So, good for him!