What Do We Work For?

I used to be fond of pointing out that we (when fully employed) spend more of our waking hours at our jobs interacting with our co-workers than we do at home with our families and friends. The employed must be devoted and focused on earning their keep. It has become an American social norm, no matter how much some advocate for flex schedules, a four day work week, or mid-day siestas.

Jobs easily consume us. It’s understandable to fixate on the things in our jobs that drive us crazy. I’ve encountered some people who actually prefer to live in their state of unpleasant drama at work than find their happy place. I was guilty of this myself some years back when I was younger and full of answers but empty of chutzpah to do anything about it. We become obsessed with the negative work crap we can’t control.

I recently realized that there was a time when I absolutely hated going to work when things got bad at the office. I would get this feeling of dread and nausea as the morning alarm went off and I joined the lines of other ants marching towards their daily cubicle homes. I wasn’t experiencing anything unusually bad at those jobs, just your run-in-the-mill crappy days filled with typical jackass co-workers, idiot supervisors, or damned missed deadlines.

While crappy work days will always occur (again, when fully employed), there eventually came a point when I ceased having those nausea-filled days of dread. It never occurred to me exactly when that time was until I started doing all that great inner-reflection that comes with being jobless. Those ill feelings went away after I was RIF’d from my position with an internet broadcasting company in the autumn of 2001. That also was when my wife and I welcomed our first son, Lucas, into our family. In the time since, I have had many heartburn-inducing challenges at my jobs, but I always had a greater purpose. In fact, that greater purpose sometimes became the thing I dreaded to return to. But that’s life.

So, here I now sit, on the outside of those conversations of employment-based venting and frustration. And I don’t want to seem unsympathetic to those who are fortunate to be employed and subjected to those crappy days, jackass co-workers, idiot supervisors, and damn missed deadlines. BUT…

I am really freaking sick and tired of hearing people who are fortunate enough to be employed bitch about those crappy days, jackass co-workers, idiot supervisors and damn missed deadlines (and I am not alone). There is no such thing as a perfect job. There never will be. Sure, not everyone works simply to provide. I’ve gotten to know quite a few people who truly do live for their work. But being fairly compensated for your labor has become a precious commodity these days. The employed are lucky and there is not a single person who has lost a job over the last three years who wouldn’t do anything to reverse that circumstance.

So, to anyone who has a job and a bad day, before you go off about how bad you have it, take a few seconds to consider who you are venting to…and go have a kid. Raising children makes any job seem easy.

Employment...errr...Election Day

It’s an odd feeling to be an unemployed voter, especially as we sit in the midst of this horrible period of our nation’s history in terms of employment. Over these last weeks leading up to today’s General Election, there’s been so much rhetoric thrown around about the state of our economy and why there aren’t more jobs and who is to blame that it becomes easy to forget what voting for a candidate truly represents. 

I know that a majority of people in the country right now feel the fault of our current situation falls squarely on the President and those in his party. But it’s impossible to place total blame there as this miserable economy was created before this President ever took office.

I know that those on the left blame the previous President and those in his party. But there has been some time rectify this economy somewhat, and let’s face it…President Obama has not been super duper in terms of reaching out and leading the middle class that he claims to champion. Besides, it was a Democrat Congress over the last two years of President Bush’s administration when this recession took hold.

So, here we are today with what is, in effect, a referendum on the rehiring or firing/hiring of a few select people who have decided to direct their careers towards public service and leadership. I, one of the unemployed, get to be a hiring manager for a day. Well, one of (hopefully) millions of hiring managers across this country. Sure, I have in mind a specific set of skills and ideologies that I believe shape the ideal candidate for each position, and my desired qualifications are going to differ from at least half of the other hiring managers providing input today. So be it.

I don't have the answers (even though I sometimes act like I do, often to the great dismay of my wife and family). Heck, if I did I probably wouldn't be searching for a job right now. But, it’s kind of weird thinking that I have some infinitesimal amount of influence on some good (and some not so good…and some downright horrible) people hoping to obtain employment to, in part, represent me. The depressing thought is that, most likely, those who will be awarded these jobs will have absolutely no interest in representing me in any way.

Should make for an interesting next couple of years, if nothing else.