“Work Is Not Supposed To Be Enjoyable”: AN EXTREME REBUTTAL

An illustration of someone who evidently enjoys her job. Photo courtesy of teflonline.teachaway.com

 

WHO SAYS YOU CAN’T ENJOY WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING?

I remember a few years ago reading something online about people who were stressed out, burned out, and generally unhappy in their jobs, the article offering suggestions on how to cope with that.

I also remember reading one particular comment in that section by someone who apparently was a miserable jerk because he wrote that those who were miserable in the workforce were nothing but whiny crybabies who need to understand…

A. That work isn’t supposed to be enjoyed, but is supposed to be difficult, which is why it’s called work, and,

B. People who feel otherwise are losers who need to get over it and feel lucky they’re earning a paycheck.

If I ever came face to face with this guy, I would tell him in no uncertain terms that he is nothing but a mean bully who a firm believer in misery loving company.

And who is just plain wrong.

Bluntly put, a career need not be eight hours of hell following orders from bosses who are essentially schoolyard bullies or supervisors with the mind of and who behave like slavery-era overseers.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that sometimes a person has to do whatever is necessary to survive, and to keep a roof overhead and the family clothed and fed if he or she has one.

I know this because like probably 98% of the world’s working age population, I worked at jobs l absolutely hated, ranging from telemarketing to working in retail, particularly at a luggage store in the early 1990s that felt much like a prison sentence, I hated it so much.

The minimum wage salary I made peddling luggage and handbags felt like blood money, as I felt that the only difference between me and a slave on a plantation was that I got a paycheck.

Those dark days were the product of me believing that making money however possible was the most important thing, and I eventually learned that nothing can be further from the truth – at least as far as I am concerned as I can’t speak for everyone else.

That luggage salesman gig taught me once and for all that you have to like what you do for work, else it’s just not worth it in the long run, and especially when you factor in mental health as I suffered from a couple of nervous breakdowns and some suicidal thoughts stemming from my unhappiness in some of the jobs I had.

There’s an old saying…

Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.

No statement can be more truer than that.

 

Here’s my point:

A person needs to have a passion for whatever job or career he or she may be involved in.

Happiness, enjoyment, and work satisfaction are essential or else bitterness and depression will set in; I know this because that’s what happened to me.

It was wanting to enjoy my work – as well as being able to work without some bully or overseer, I mean boss or supervisor, micromanaging me and telling me how much I need to improve or flat-out suck, looking for faults and reasons to fire me – that is the reason why for almost ten years I’ve been an online writer with two blogs (including this one) and working on a book about my life and struggles as someone with Asperger’s Syndrome in mainstream society called WALKING ON EGGSHELLS.

Which is getting closer to being finished and ready for (self) publishing, by the way.

While it hasn’t been the most lucrative venture, I can safely say that I very much like what I do and am pursuing my passion.

My message for all you folks who are hating on their jobs is this…

Unless you would definitely be on the street if you quite your hated job today, you don’t have to suffer through misery, because life is too short.

Go paint or work with kids.

Write a book like I’m doing.

Or anything else that you have a passion for.

Find your happiness.

It may the thing that will restore your mental health and save your sanity.

 

It’s my hope that everyone can find this. Photo courtesy of idealistcareers.org

 

 

“Work Is Not Supposed To Be Enjoyable” – A Rebuttal To That Notion

A good illustration of someone experiencing unhappiness in the workplace. Photo courtesy of noticias.r7.com

 

WHERE DOES IT SAY THAT YOU CAN’T ENJOY WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING?

 

A few years ago I was reading an article about people who were unhappy and burned out in their jobs and how best to cope with those issues.

As I read the written comments at the end of the piece, one comment upset me quite a bit.

This particular comment said that folks who were stressed out and miserable in the workplace due to things like too many hours, not enough pay or having bosses who were bullies, were nothing but whiny crybabies who needed to understand that work is not supposed to be enjoyed; that work is supposed to be difficult – which is why it’s called such – and people who feel otherwise should get over themselves and be exceedingly glad that they have a job with a paycheck.

That is an opinion that I vehemently disagree with.

While it’s true that people who are gainfully employed should be glad about that, work does not have to be an eight-hour hell in the salt mines.

It has been said that one spends a third of their lifetime in the workforce, which is a lot of time.

So if that’s the case, my stance is that one better be sure that what they are doing for a job or a career is something they want to do.

Don’t misunderstand me – I get that sometimes a person has to do what’s necessary in order to survive and feed his/her family if applicable.

As an illustration of this, during my first few years in the workforce I worked at a number of jobs which I absolutely loathed, most notably as a salesman at a luggage store for almost a year in the early 1990s. It felt like a minimum security prison sentence, and in some ways I was glad when I was eventually fired, but at least I was earning a paycheck.

I used to feel that money was the main motivator for getting and staying employed, but after being miserable at too many of the jobs I held – some of them leading to suicidal thoughts – I learned a very valuable lesson:

 

A quote from Einstein that pretty much sums up the point I’m trying to make here. Image courtesy of ffbsccn.wordpress.com

 

You have to like what you do, or else it’s just not worth it.

It was that luggage salesman gig in particular that taught me that, as I never worked in retail again after being let go from what I felt was being a paid slave at a plantation, the salary I earned peddling suitcases and handbags feeling like blood money to me.

Wanting to get enjoyment out of my work is the primary reason for me becoming a writer and online blogger, posting stuff on sites such as this one. It’s something that fits my personality well in that I can express myself freely and do my own thing without some bully or slavery-era style overseer, I mean supervisor, breathing down my neck.

I’ll be honest – the money I have made in this endeavor has been extremely minuscule.

But it has helped my mental state as for the past eight years that I’ve been writing and working on my book, “WAKING ON EGGSHELLS”, I can safely say that I have enjoyed what I do.

Despite the lack of financial compensation.

If I can say anything to those people who are suffering in misery at their jobs, it would be this:

“You don’t have to be feeling like crap and dreading going to work every day; you don’t have to feel like you’re entering a prison cell. If you would much rather paint, captain a sailboat, become a coach, write a book (like I’m doing) or whatever it is that you’re passionate about and would make you happy, I’ve got two words for you…”

“DO IT!”

In other words, go ahead and find your happiness. It will do wonders for your mental health and just might save your sanity.

 

“Choose a job you love and you will never work a day in your life”    – Confucius

 

 

Another good illustration of someone experiencing unhappiness in the workplace. Photo courtesy of onthe job.45things.com

The Movie That Inspired Me To Pursue a Writing Career

 

HOW A FILM ADAPTATION OF A BROADWAY MUSICAL CHANGED ME

 

Remember when you were a child and you were asked what  you wanted to be when you grew up?

I’m sure lots of you said doctor, which is a traditionally popular answer as well as occupations like lawyer, policeman, nurse, teacher, actor…

Or a star athlete playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, the Dallas Cowboys, or whatever team you were a fan of as a youngster.

During those formative years, whenever someone asked me that question, I always answered that I wanted to be a writer.

I seemingly showed a knack for the written word at a fairly early age, an example of that being when I ghost wrote a story told by a little girl at a summer camp I was in at age eight, and when I won an essay contest from the Daughters of the American Revolution in fifth grade.

Although I did take beginning journalism and a few creative writing courses in college, and wrote for my college marching band’s newsletter, my main writing outlet during my post-undergraduate years was keeping a journal.

Not knowing to make a lucrative career out of writing, or even a living for that matter, I put that knack on the back burner to pursue the family business which was education.

After roughly twenty years of frustration, disappointment, and disillusion, it eventually became crystal clear that working with children was not for me.

The interesting part of it all was that during those two decades working at various schools and other places teaching P.E., coaching sports, and tutoring, ideas for books kept popping into my head.

I particularly recall during my high school days an idea that came to me, to write a book detailing my experiences in my school’s marching band; it was to be called “Oh Boy!” after an exclamation often uttered by the band members during rehearsals.

I didn’t follow through on that idea, however, because of issues I was dealing with regarding low self-esteem and peer rejection.

In fact, writing was a mere hobby for me for me until one day in September of 2006.

I think it was on a Sunday during the early part of that month.

I was watching one of the cable channels – I believe it was Starz – when the movie Rent, based on the hit Broadway musical, aired.

As I was watching those eight individuals in that film sing about 525,600 minutes in the opening scene and pursue their passion of filmmaking, music, dance, and performance art while dealing with poverty, drug addiction, relationships, and AIDS, something happened inside me.

The movie’s story line, combined with the songs, moved me with an intensity so profound that halfway through the film, I found myself crying.

This was not a couple-of-tears-down-my-cheek kind of cry; it was a bawling, burying-my-head-in-pillow kind of sob, something that I had not experienced since I was less than ten years old. Being the movie buff that I was and am, Rent affected me in a way that no other film ever had.

How and why did Rent affect me so? I’d be surprised if you weren’t wondering that right about now.

I think it was a combination of things..

First, the fact that the main characters were in my age group coping with issues pertinent to my generation led me to having an instant interest; I was able to relate to the movie that much more.

Then, there was the music…

Not only did the excellence of “Seasons of Love”, “I’ll Cover You”, “Will I?” “What You Own”, and “La Vie Boheme” move me to tears (as well as the rest of the film’s songs), they also served as an inspiration.

As I watched the Roger character sing about his “One Song Glory” and the rest of the cast song about having “No Day But Today”, the message came through loud and clear, like a kindergarten reading book:

Be yourself, be proud of being yourself, and don’t put off following your passion.

Whatever you want to do in life, do it NOW – or forever wish you had.

It was that do-it-now and follow-my-passion message, that I took to heart, especially when it became increasingly and painfully obvious that a career in working with young people was not going to be in the cards.

In my particular case, that passion was writing.

The following spring after seeing Rent, I got busy on a book I had been working on for three years, about my experiences coaching kids in sports and what I learned was the most effective experiences in doing so.

A few months later, just before Christmas and after spending up to ten hours a day on the word processor and enduring a fair amount of lower back pain, I finished the book, which although it was never published gave me a huge sense of accomplishment.

About six weeks after that book, which I called “Diamond Lives”, was done, and after a last-straw frustration at my after school teaching gig, I was finally fed up at doing something that I was failing at. And I had had enough of feeling miserable.

Inspired by Rent and its message, I quit that gig and the “Kid Business”, deciding to pursue writing once and for all.

Here’s how I saw it:

Being in my mid-40s and officially seen by American society as middle aged, my life is a bit more that half over according to the life span of males in the U.S. If I was going to make a career out of writing and being published, I need to do it RIGHT NOW.

So here I am, following my childhood “dream”, so to speak, of being a published author and article writer.

While I have achieved some success in posting pieces online, particularly sports stuff on the FanSided Network and posts on a couple of other sites, and have earned awards and a couple of very small royalty checks, I haven’t exactly achieved Alex Haley, or J.K. Rowling, or the lady who wrote “The Hunger Games” or “Fifty Shades of Grey” level status.

Not by a long way.

But that’s OK, because while it has not proved to be lucrative career as of yet, writing – which I have been told by quite a few people that I’m good at – has proved to be something that fits me more than education and working with young people ever did.

And I am confident that the book I am working on now, which details my experiences and struggles with having Asperger’s Syndrome, will provide an impact and exposure that will immensely help my career, if not a lot of money.

Being that Rent was largely responsible for inspiring me to pursue what is now my life’s work, the lyrics of that movie’s final song come to mind when it comes to motivation for being a “Word Artist”, as I like to describe myself:

“There’s only now,

There’s only here,

Give in to love,

Or live in fear,

No other time, 

No other way,

No day but today!”

I know it sounds a little cheesy and cliched and all, but I think that sums it all up.