There are probably surveys to confirm or refute this, but I'm on my 27-minute lunch break and don't have time to look it up:
90% of Americans hate their job.
Okay maybe it isn't that high. Maybe I'm just old and bitter. It could be that 89.2% of Americans are just damn glad to have a job. The other 10% are unemployed.
Working for a living, particularly for a large, impersonal outsource-you-tomorrow corporation is a bitter slog, a drudge through eternal winter. It grays and dulls us. We are bent by years of mind-numbing policy emails and sunny updates on new company initiatives. If you have a job like mine, the customers' shrill dissatisfaction rings in your ear like an out-of-tune heavy metal band. The sound of the missed high C of bitter invective will never stop ringing in my ears.
I hate my job. I dread it every day. I log in with a heavy sigh and spend the whole day with one eye on the digital clock in the lower right hand corner of the monitor, just praying for the next nine or 27-minute interlude of blessed silence, when I can wolf down a sandwich or granola bar in relative piece.
I know I have a bad attitude. I should count my blessings, or think of the wonderful possibilities my work creates for me, health insurance and money to buy food and a roof over my head. But on a day-to-day basis, it seems like a bad trade. You know in primitive societies the hunter-gatherers work about 10 hours a week? The rest of the time they spend in the social unit, embracing their babies and singing and crafting and telling stories. They sleep peacefully in their primitive huts. They never wake up in a cold sweat wondering, "what if I lose my job?"
This worst part is, I'm really terrible at it. I work in customer service and the longer I do the more I discover, I really don't like people. I'm terribly misplaced. I should have planned better and become an accountant or an IT guy, someone who can hide behind mountains of data, someone who is expected to be surly and arrogant. Yeah, that's the real me. I should have been a contender, a famous writer, or the discoverer of the post-it note. But here I am, 2nd cubicle from the window, staring out with a sad resigned sigh. What was I thinking, fool?
I can't imagine what it would be like not to be the minion of some petty middle manager, not to suffer and dread work. Some people somewhere enjoy what they do and feel useful, feel confident they are valuable to their employers and secure in their future. That must be wonderful. I hate my job. And the day I lose it will be a terrifying and awful day. I'm getting older, that's sure, but I'm not getting any smarter. If I don't win a big jackpot or get discovered by a long lost rich uncle it's going to be a very uncertain year.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
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This is the Way the Transformation Begins
"Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say "Why not?"
George Bernard Shaw, Robert F. Kennedy
This is the way the transformation begins.
It begins in me.
It begins now.
It begins with small incremental changes and shifts in attitude
it begins with positive action
failing forward
and suddenly I start looking at the world and my place in it in a new way. I speak differently and dress differently and project a different energy, and the world opens up like a glorious pink azalea bush, eight feet tall and blooming like mad.
photo by Kajo123 from the website flickr.com
Good morning!
An engineer builds a bridge and every bolt and weld has to be exactly right; every measure has to be perfect, or the bridge collapses or fails to take its place. Fantastically detailed blueprints have to be laid out. Impact statements have to be filed, sediment has to be studied, years of effort, months of planning, and a man-made marvel rises in the sky. Park somewhere and take a good look at a bridge, and think of all the skill and knowledge and hard honest work it took to create it. Consider how a few thousand years ago we were living in caves.
It is not so with a dream. Some people are remarkable dreamers and dreams spring whole from them, or they can leap up from bed and pages of creative genius flow out of their pen, intricate and perfect. Most of us though are baby dreamers, new at it and tentative to the trust the power of what we wish for.
Start the dream! Whether you want to go to nursing school or college or learn to play the guitar, take a first step, now, even in the wrong direction. Don't wait for the blueprint to come to you, the environmental impact statement, the permits and the 200-page budget and legislative dream approval. Rough it out, sketch it on a napkin, tell a friend, and take action. Your dream begins the moment you step out in first moment of believing, and the result can touch a thousand souls. Listen to Jim Valvano: never give up, never surrender. Believe in the audacity of action and your fantastic potential for change and new opportunity.
It is not so with a dream. Some people are remarkable dreamers and dreams spring whole from them, or they can leap up from bed and pages of creative genius flow out of their pen, intricate and perfect. Most of us though are baby dreamers, new at it and tentative to the trust the power of what we wish for.
Start the dream! Whether you want to go to nursing school or college or learn to play the guitar, take a first step, now, even in the wrong direction. Don't wait for the blueprint to come to you, the environmental impact statement, the permits and the 200-page budget and legislative dream approval. Rough it out, sketch it on a napkin, tell a friend, and take action. Your dream begins the moment you step out in first moment of believing, and the result can touch a thousand souls. Listen to Jim Valvano: never give up, never surrender. Believe in the audacity of action and your fantastic potential for change and new opportunity.
The Hawthorne Bridge at sunrise, Portland Oregon. Photo by Joe Collver, from flickr.com
Genuine happiness and success start with an attitude of abundance
Make it a daily practice to begin your day with five minutes of thankfulness. You can even do it in your car on the way to work. Do it in your own way, whether it's thoughtful reflection or a prayer or singing out loud, but focus on your rich, amazing, abundant life.
Feeling grumpy or resentful or worried instead of thankful? Change direction! Consider the incredible gifts you have--mind, body, spirit, senses, your family, your friends, your clothes, your car, and the breakfast you enjoyed this morning. By the standards of 99% of the world, Americans are incredibly, amazingly rich. You truly have no idea how richly blessed you are until you start thinking about it. Even the heart that beats within you and the lungs that breathe your air are an intricate and amazing miracle.
Some of my favorite movies are ones that feature a once-defeated character waking up to an absolutely new day: "It's A Wonderful Life," the various versions of Dicken's "Christmas Carol" and "Groundhog Day." How exhilarating it is for George Bailey to wake up and realize his life isn't over, it's just beginning, and that today truly is a brand new day.
"It's a Wonderful Life"
George returns home to everything he ever wanted.
2 comments:
Dad--
That's depressing.....I dig my job. I'm searching for a part-time nanny this summer you could always come work for me. Pathetic salary, no health benefits, strange hours, tons of driving, but three really awesome kids.
Me
That sounds like the greatest job I could ever have. Me and Mr. Man, eating grilled cheese on the deck with a gallon of grape kool-aid. Where do I sign?
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