Work

Just this weekend, over a perfectly lovely brunch, I spouted off to a friend about my thoughts about how lucky I felt to be working as I do when my ancestors were digging their livings out of a field. This is a slight exageration, since most of my ancesters, though farmers, owned their own land - giving them a leg up over their hired workers.

Even to my own ears, I realized how annoying I sounded when the subject of the conversation was about finding meaningful work. The idea behind my monologue was that my work is meaningful, but even that has it's times of tedium. However the part about being grateful to have work at all came out sounding frighteningly like my father, who's motto is, "If work were meant to be fun, it would be called play."

Do I really believe this? That I should be grateful for any kind of work, even if I hated it? I suppose that what's clouded my thinking has been mounting debt and shrinking funds. I am grateful that I can pay (just barely) my bills, but that is a separate issue from being grateful for work that sucks the soul from your body.

I will say that, by and large, my paid work is generally okay (not of the soul sucking variety) and my non-paid work really does feed my soul. So I have the luxury of saying that I am grateful for the work that I have. But to all of you living day to day not always quite managing to get out of bed in dread of your job, I say revise your resumee and use some of that PTO to go on some interviews for something you can live with.*

*Note: Given the current economy it may not always be possible to find better opportunities right now. Hang in there. Administrations do change.