Getting a Job and Handling the Boss

“he goin’ give yo ‘ a job, he can’t let chew pass.” A Waycross man said it of any boss, however full his crew, once the job-seeker had rubbed the right dust behind his ears (Hyatt 672 · Waycross, Ga. · informant 1097).

For Hyatt’s informants, work was rarely secure and almost always under a white boss, a foreman or a Captain. Getting hired, staying on and staying in favour were matters of survival, and rootwork was brought to bear on all three.

What it is

Job work is influence magick aimed at one person: the man who does the hiring. Hyatt’s informants used it for four ends:

• Getting taken on when the boss says he is full.
• Holding the job once you have it.
• Gaining the boss’s favour, so the work goes easier.
• Making a rival lose his job.

What Hyatt’s informants said

The Waycross informant described a man walking up to a big work site, asking for the boss, and being told the crew was fulled out. He had snake shed dried and pounded fine, which he called goofer dust, and he rubbed it on his hand and three times behind his ears before walking up anyway.

Graveyard dust was used the same way. A New Orleans informant took it from the third grave while the moon was full, and said “you sprinkle it just where he walks and you goin’ to get that job.” (Hyatt 1918 · New Orleans, La. · informant 867).

In Memphis, a job-seeker ground lodestone to dust on a piece of window screening and bottled it in Jockey Club perfume. If he wanted it stronger, he killed a black cat and ground in a bone from the front of its left shoulder. Then, talking to the man, “he’ll git ovah tuh yo’ – give yo’ a job.” (Hyatt 1731 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 939).

Working on the boss

Gaining the boss’s favour was close, personal work. A Brunswick informant took dirt from the hollow of the boss’s footprint, bottled it, and buried the bottle bottom upwards at the boss’s own steps early in the morning before anyone saw.

The point, he said, was to “put chure track an’ de boss track together” and so give you influence with him (Hyatt 1863 · Brunswick, Ga. · informant 1242).

Other ways of getting and keeping work:

• A brass ring worn on the ring finger of the right hand (Hyatt 1753 · St. Petersburg, Fla. · informant 988).
• A red flannel bag holding John de Conker, lodestone, sachet powder and a silver dime, tied in nine knots and carried when asking for work (Hyatt 737 · Brunswick, Ga. · informant 1175).
• The dishrag. Washing your face with the dishrag while doing the dishes, to hold a job (Hyatt 1839 · Wilmington, N. Car. · informant 322).

Making a man lose his job

The same tools were turned against rivals. In tobacco country, broomstraws were laid crossed where a worker would step over them, and before the year was out he and his bossman were so crossed up he had to leave (Hyatt 1758 · Wilson, N. Car. · informant 1509).

Dirt dauber nest, used across Hyatt’s collection for confusion, was thrown where a man had to walk over it. He would lose the job: “Den de boss an’ deyself will fall out.” (Hyatt 1837 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1414).

In their own words

“They say that’ll make you hold a job.”

(Hyatt 1839 · Wilmington, N. Car. · informant 322)

“put chure track an’ de boss track together”

(Hyatt 1863 · Brunswick, Ga. · informant 1242)

“Den de boss an’ deyself will fall out.”

(Hyatt 1837 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1414)

How it’s worked today

Job work remains in steady demand. Workers still dress their hands and the backs of their necks before interviews, still carry a lodestone or John the Conqueror root in a bag to the meeting, and still use the boss’s name, track or signature in influence work.

Commercial Steady Work and Boss Fix oils and powders are the modern descendants of these rites. Crossing a rival out of a job, with dirt dauber nest or crossed straws, is still worked as well.

Learn the work

← Back to The Hyatt Files

Source: Harry Middleton Hyatt, Hoodoo – Conjuration – Witchcraft – Rootwork, 5 vols., 1970-1978. Numbers refer to Hyatt’s own item numbers; the town and informant number follow. Written by Hoodoo Witch in our own words, with short quotations from Hyatt’s informants for reference.