Spilled Milk

I’ve always wondered why we ask people about how their job is going. The sad reality is that it’s how we spend most of our time in America. If a full-time employee works from nine to five (eight hours) and sleeps for another eight hours, only eight hours remain. Consider that most folks will require time to get ready for work and to/from work. If we made a pie chart with a full-time worker’s time, the largest slice would likely be work for most people. Regardless of how true my assumptions are, the typical American spends a relatively large percentage of their day at work.

So maybe it makes sense that we ask “how’s work?” or “what do you do?”. What’s interesting though, is how much I hate getting questions like that. Since the honest truth is angry and saddening, I answer with bullshit one-liners like “work is work” or “hey, it pays the bills”. Now as much as I dislike talking about my job, what I like even less is hearing about your job.

Maybe it’s a narrow view, but if you’re not after a goal or working a job you truly love, I seriously do not care about what you do. Maybe I’m just tired of hearing everyone in New York tell me that they’re in finance, or marketing, or private equity or some other corporation. And that they “love what they do”. Part of me is convinced that virtually none of them truly enjoy what they do, but they enjoy the by-products – reputation and money being the most important. The ends justify the means, and the means become enjoyable or admirable because the ends have this quality.

Everyone wants to feel like they are smart and capable. Your job is the best indicator of this now that you’re out of school. College reputation is replaced by company reputation and test scores replaced by salaries. If you have a high paying job at a great company, you must be smart. Similar to how if you get good grades at a top school, you must be smart! And if you’re not smart, then you’re stupid! Right?

It’s an unfortunate trap that we seem to find ourselves in. Not that I have a better solution but it seems that we are suffering at the hands of our economic system. Again, I don’t yet have strong opinions on what would be better or best – but I can’t help but observe the negative consequences.

“How ironic that we join the rat race with one goal: to leave it“