Today I spent my lunch hour walking through a park close by my office. It was a beautiful day with plentiful sunshine, warm temperatures, a pleasant breeze, and only somewhat oppressive humidity. Inspired by all the wonderful photography here on Steemit, I decided to shoot some pictures around the park of whatever happened to catch my eye. I realized just how much diversity of plant life there is in a public park, and was reminded of how you can find beauty in almost anything.
I did not want to go back in to work. I wanted to stay outside and take more pictures and talk to more people and eat more food and rest in the shade. However, my desire to keep my job was stronger. So the worker bee returned to the hive.
Which got me to thinking...
Imagine someone offered you a job. This job would pay one and a half times what you are making now, or one and a half times the median wage, whichever is higher. You would work Monday to Friday, 8:30-5:00, with a half hour for lunch. The benefits are fantastic, including holidays and four weeks paid time off, generous health and dental, and even the unicorn of all perks, a pension. If you stay for 30 years, you can retire and they will pay you 66% of your salary for the rest of your life. The hiring manager assures you that you are well qualified at the job and will excel as long as you can follow company policy. You agree to stop by to tour the office and learn about what it is you would be doing.
Upon arriving at the office, you are taken to a small room. There is a lockbox outside the door, and you are asked to place all your personal belongings in the box. Entering the room, you see a desk, a comfortable office chair, and a clock on the wall. You are told that your job will be to arrive on time every day, deposit your personal effects in the lockbox, and sit in this office until lunch, which you may take at whatever time you'd like. You are allowed a reasonable number of bathroom breaks throughout the day, but are told that these must not exceed 30 minutes combined throughout the day. There is a receptionist who can take emergency calls for you, so you would not be completely cut off from your family. You may leave early or come in late without prior approval, but this will reduce your paid time off balance.
You realize that basically, they want you to sit in a room and do nothing for 8 hours a day. There is no way to outsmart the rules, but they are not designed to guarantee that you will be fired either. The company seems flexible and reasonably accommodating, but at the end of the day there is no getting around the fact that you would be getting paid to do nothing but sit there. Or stand. Or pace. Or do push-ups. But not to walk around the office, not to talk to co-workers, not to surf the internet, and not to have access to your phone or books or music or anything like that.
Now granted, this is a ridiculous premise, but humor me the thought experiment. If this were actually offered to you, would you take it? I am guessing the vast majority of you would say no. Heck, I would say no. But why? Why do we feel the need to enjoy our work? Why do we need it to be fulfilling, provide meaning, or make the world a better place? Why can't we just work for money's sake? Well, the fact is that many of us do just that. It may not be an empty room with zero distractions, but many of us are just not excited about our what we do for a living. According to a Gallup study, the majority of Americans are just going through the motions at their jobs.
Of the country’s approximately 100 million full-time employees, 51 percent aren’t engaged at work -- meaning they feel no real connection to their jobs, and thus they tend to do the bare minimum. Another 16 percent are “actively disengaged” -- they resent their jobs, tend to gripe to co-workers and drag down office morale as a result.
Yikes.
But really, is this such a bad thing? I can't imagine anybody being passionate about unclogging toilets, cleaning hotel rooms, or picking up garbage. Yet these things need to get done, and people choose to do them for a living. And all those other jobs with better conditions, yet which still don't provide fulfillment or meaning or a tangible benefit to society... are those such a bad thing?
I may not have any passion for what I do each day, but at least it keeps food in my kid's stomach and a roof over his head. That has to count for something, right? And how dare I be unsatisfied with what I have, right? I should be grateful that I have a job at all, and even more so in light of my pay, which is enough to where my wife can stay home with the baby. I am incredibly lucky and blessed to have this job. That should be enough, right?
I wish I could be satisfied with work for the sake of a paycheck, but every day that passes I feel like I'm missing out on something. I wish I had the courage to do something about it besides gripe on the internet. But I am quite terrified of living without a steady paycheck. I am strongly averse to taking a cut in pay. I am absolutely clueless as to what would actually make me feel contented and fulfilled in a career.
So for now, the worker bee stays in the hive.
What about you? What's your take on all this? Do you find fulfillment, satisfaction, and meaning in your job? If so, what do you do? Does it pay enough to live a comfortable life? If not, are you content to remain where you are in exchange for a paycheck with benefits? Either way, I'd love to hear your thoughts, feedback, and advice for me and anyone else out there searching for answers.
