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Why our day jobs make us inhuman
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Why do you think the movie Fight Club was so popular? Why do you think so many people identified with it? Because it showed us a guy who escaped from his hellish nightmare only after he became delusional and beat himself up. That’s just about what our jobs, our own hellish nightmares, can do.
The monotony might actually kill us
After we go through the learning curve at our jobs, things really start to look the same every day. In the beginning things weren’t quite so bad. We had new people to meet, new tasks to learn, new responsibilities to master. But for many of us, those days are now a distant memory. Now we come in every day, shuffle paper around, answer e-mails, and solve the same problems that we fixed yesterday. And we can look forward to doing them all over again tomorrow.
That stupid person over there just won’t shut up
Not that every person we work with is intolerable, but at most jobs there’s at least someone who comes across as extremely annoying. They have a really loud laugh, or they always use the same phrase, over and over again. Or they’re always talking about the same stupid thing. It’s not that we’re mean-spirited people. It’s not that we hate them or anything. It’s just that we cannot escape from them. We are forced to coincide with them for half of our waking hours. We are forced to exist beside them. Sooner or later, the laugh becomes unbearable, the same old news becomes boring.
Our bosses just don’t seem to get it
It’s not that we all hate our bosses or anything. There are lots of great bosses out there. But what they don’t seem to grasp is that the jobs they do aren’t actually that difficult. They never understand that we could probably do their jobs just as well as they can. They take their position of authority for granted. They forget to prove to us the talent that their authority is supposed to represent. At the same time, they forget that the jobs we do support their jobs entirely. They forget that without us, they’d be doing the job we’re doing now. They owe us something for that.
The rewards we get are disproportional to our efforts
A raise? It’s not always just about the money. Money helps, but most of know that our companies have budgets, and most of us want to have a role in the company’s profitability. None of us want to bleed the company that feeds our families dry. But our jobs constantly demand that we do more, and more, and more, but our jobs don’t often pony up for that. Most of us are more than willing to try our best to do more but most of us want at least something for our efforts. A little recognition. Hell, a thank you would be great now and then.
Our creativity is stifled
Many of us work for companies that are built on layer after layer of procedures. There are rules that govern the tasks we do, the way we can interact with people, even how and when we can eat. If we have a new idea about something, it faces a long obstacle course of denial and skepticism before it finally ends up in the trash. But the people on the ground usually know pretty well what might work and what won’t. If they would just listen to us for second, they would figure out that we might have something really useful to share. We might actually have a good idea or two.
There is just no damned variety
I mean seriously. Many of us spend more than half our waking hours involved in our jobs. After we include getting ready in the morning, the time we’re actually at our work places, and the time we need to get home, sometimes it is much more than half. Then we have this small little pocket of time in the evenings where we can try to squeeze in some new scenery. It’s not much, but for many of us, it’s the peak of our days. But it’s so small. The whole rest of the time, we see the same highways, see the same walls, and sit under the same lights next to the same people doing the same things we did the last day.
Can we escape?
For many of us, that’s our single biggest hope. We hope to one day be able to move on to another more engaging job, maybe one with more dynamic responsibilities, or maybe we hope we can start a business of our own. Can we relieve ourselves? Can we do it without becoming delusional? We don’t have to always beat ourselves up over our jobs…sometimes our jobs do that for us.
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26 Responses to “Why our day jobs make us inhuman”
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oh lord, this is exactly what i have been saying for SOOOOO long.
I understand exactly how you feel!
Yes. Exactly! Had to add you over on Friendfeed as well.
Our jobs are supposed to be organized so that we serve ‘The Man’ in the very bset and most efficient way. The communists served ‘The Bureaucracy’ in the very most efficient way. A pastor serves God. Me, I’m retired. I serve ‘Me’ in the most comfortable way possible. It took a while to change gears from the corporate world, but I have learned how to be utterly selfish and self-serving, and it is a blast!
I can completely relate with this article. I’m on a mission to escape the cubicle and start my own business. Something’s wrong with my cog.
I think you might like this post that I recently wrote:
http://www.illuminatedmind.net/2008/08/14/7-essential-rules-to-re-claim-ownership-of-your-mind/
Your cog too, huh?
@ sqd - I hear ya
@ majongkid - Hey thanks! I appreciate knowing others feel some of the same things.
@Yolanda - Thanks to you too. I added you on Friendfeed too
@ Uncle B - I salute you. Congrats on the retirement. Here’s a raised glass to financial independence!
it’s all true
@ dsfds - You from the StumbleUpon crowd?
Like you (and me too), this article has resonated with (now) thousands and thousands of people.
I wrote it as a tribute to my own feelings that I often have about work, and my suspicions that some of those feelings were more universal than just my own selfish thoughts.
I’m glad you liked it, glad you identify with it.
o gosh, very nice entry!
and yes, i stumbled upon this.
Agreed with all points except for some supporting statements re: bosses.
1. If you weren’t doing your job the manager would hire someone else to do it.
2. If the department wasn’t there and it was left to the manager to do the work the manager would get another job being a real manager.
3. Managers owe employees nothing. Their job is not to make you feel good, their job is to delegate work and monitor performance. This stated, the best managers do their best to make the experience tolerable and in some cases enjoyable for their employees. These are usually the managers that never get promoted because “They’re too good to promote”.
If the above aren’t the case in your job, then you’re not working for a real manager and you need to find another job.
Perhaps that will correct the other issues .
Great post otherwise.
Amen!!
@ shermaine - Hey thanks
@ Al - Hi Al, thanks for sharing your input. I think everything you’ve mentioned is valid.
@ MzMelanie - Indeed
Great article Dereck.
Regarding your question, -Can we escape?-, yes you can, as long as you figure out what you like to do, and start offering that service directly to those who benefit from it, without the company in the middle. However it’s not easy at all at first, that’s why it’s important to love what you do. Otherwise you’ll not be able to surpass the initial setbacks.
@ DanGTD - I think you’re right on here. I especially appreciate your indication of the importance of eliminating the middle man, the company. Even if there is something you love, sometimes even if you serve a company that serves something you love, it detracts from the full goodness that might be found if you just served it yourself.
Well that was the reason why I resigned from my full time job. Unfortunately my family do not support the idea of working independently. I thought they would but apparently I’m wrong. My parents particularly my father wants me to work with the government hence you do not need to worry about monthly salary etc. But life is more than that. I refuse to become a slave and a working robot that has to keep recycling his life from day to day just to do the same thing again and again. But nope, my parents do not seem to get the idea.
Regards - JJ
@ JJ - It’s a shame that they don’t support your efforts. More than likely, they feel you should take “the normal track” because of their faith in convention. Working a full-time job is the traditional thing people do, so it must what we should do. Of course, I say this, working a full-time job.
But the article should suggest just how I feel about that.
Your points are surely valid, I almost can say that you’ve read my mind when you wrote this article. However, going on your own is a very tough change. Three years ago I resigned from a job that paid me about 10 times the average salary in my country, to set up my own business. While I had that job, I was actively working some 5-6 hours a day, the rest up to 8 hours being day dreaming. Although the job in itself was cool, I hated the system which I had to pretend being a part of. One day I thought I’d start hating myself if I stayed there one more day.
Running my own business, without enough funds to have employees, turned out to be a 15-20 hours a day enterprise, a crazy race full of clients who paid very late and suppliers who refused to work anymore if not paid. Life was now much tougher. For a few times, I found myself looking for a job and thinking to leave all that nightmare behind.
Thinking back, today I’m happy I went on my own, but I’d strongly advise anybody who thinks of quitting to have enough savings for two years of paying the bills. And if your daily job doesn’t bother you that much, you’d better stay there and direct your thoughts and efforts towards your beloved ones. Going solo will result in neglecting them, at least in the beginning. No matter how understanding they may be, it still hurts to see that the person you love the most in this world is barely speaking to you, because she’s all focused on the computer. For the whole evening. For 300 evenings a year. For how many years?
@ Simonne - I completely agree with everything you’ve said. Wanting to leave, and being able to do without creating more harm and distress is a huge obstacle we must take into consideration.
Have you ever read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn? So relevant. Nice post.
@ Brazen - Heard of it. My sister was a huge fan. I’ll check it out.
ditto!!!
Clarisse´s last blog post..Oh, Bob!
Dereck - I’ve been able to arrange a breakaway from the work I’ve been doing for many years, but the reason why this had to happen was a bit different from what you describe in this excellent post. Monotony was not the problem since my work has involved dealing with different cases with many people to keep track of, complicated meetings to run, etc. The problems I’ve had with depression, though, ultimately got to me, and every day became unbearably stressful. What you say about working in an organization is so true. I used to work on my own - for years I did everything on my own - until I took this job. There were lots of good things about it, but it’s an outfit with a founder still running the show. So that person’s judgment is the last word, and I often wind up feeling dismissed out of hand. There are so many ways working for others can undermine your confidence - it’s hard to steel yourself against unfair treatment and adapt to a work style that isn’t your own. So I’ve gotten out of that steady grind, and the relief from stress is amazing. My own energy comes back in force. Change is the way to go - if, as others point out, you can afford it. In my case, an income drop is well worth it.
Thanks for this series on work. I’ll let you know when I get back to that subject on my blog.
John