The Bottom Line

Maybe we've got our priorities all screwed up. Maybe instead of looking for the perfect job/career, something that we love and makes us want to get out of bed in the morning, we should just be looking for something that we don't hate.

I like my job, actually. This has nothing to do with that. But I can't help but thinking that it would all just be easier if we were more upfront about it.

In interviews, you have to gush about the employer, kiss ass, and show off like a male peacock when it's time to mate. Yet when you start working everything changes. It's all "back to the salt mines," "thank God it's Friday," or "happy hour here I come."

Maybe, despite our years of training in school and ass kissing in interviews, we don't want to work. You can call us lazy fools who lack a work ethic, but really, who wants to wake up early, slap something on that looks decent, travel out to a place where you're expected to do all sorts of things and spend the majority of your day there, and travel back home with only enough time to shovel some food in your mouth and wave to your spouse/significant other/kids as you pass out.

Most people, I think, would rather spend their time with the above mentioned relation or their X-Box then in the workplace. This seems self-explanatory, and I know that we're screwed either way because jobs obviously aren't going to and can't go away. Sure they're important... it pays the bills. But maybe it would make us happier with ourselves if we didn't put so much thought into work.

Some people can leave work and never think about it when they get home (father). Some people leave work and agonize over it until the point where they can't sleep (mother). Defining yourself by your job just seems so dangerous, like you're setting yourself up to be dissatisfied and fail.

I need to find a place to volunteer again and break out my art supplies when I get home from work no matter how tired I feel. It's a battle not to succumb to the routine of work where everything is about your job. But it really seems worth the fight.