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.