Thursday, August 04, 2011

Wasted time

A co-worker and I were having this discussion last night. Take the most boring, unsatisfying and mundane job you can think of, fill in blank but we can start with armpit sniffer if you like and I said in a way it's tragic, those are lost hours of your life you can never get back to read a book, to watch a documentary on cheetahs, to go for a walk, to cultivate a friendship or any of a hundred other activities that give enjoyment and meaning to you personally. He thought for a moment and considered but then said "but you're getting paid for it." A strong logical point and I had to think for a minute. His is a common attitude, perhaps the prevailing one but dunno I said, I disagree. Since work is such a large part of our lives, such a huge chunk of Time really it should at least be satisfying and fulfilling on some level, have some overall Meaning. Now we all feel being stuck in a traffic jam is a perfect waste of time but let's say we got paid a little for it to take the edge off, to compensate us for the pain of our boredom and delay would it still be wasted time? My friend would obviously say no but I say yes it would still be since a traffic jam is not even remotely related to the meaning and purpose of Life. In Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged the motive power of Life is simply the joy of existence, that's good enough for me and by this standard being in a coma for ten years even if you're lucky enough to come out of it accounts for Time Lost and the Good Lord doesn't give those back unless there's some kind of holdover system into your next life. You'll often hear conservatives say that prisoners these days have the life. This is rather asinine and I have to say something about this. The prisoner's real sentence here is wasted time and I don't care if there's a gym involved and three square meals a day and cable tv, it's still prison. I would rather be at home at night watching that good cheetah documentary or reading a stimulating book or doing a challenging crossword puzzle and this is the short list because I'm somehow broadening my horizons, massaging my imagination, increasing my knowledge if only by increments whereas the totally nonfulfilling job takes important time away from doing this and far more besides and even taking into account the monetary consideration involved it's a total waste of my time although apparently not of my friend's and that's cool, to each his own as they say. If I could call this blog anything it's a kind of ongoing Manifesto of Life. They say you learn something new everyday. By my reckoning if you live to be 5oo you'll be a Genius:)

16 comments:

  1. Your co-worker is right.

    You don't get paid, you don't eat, you don't have money for a car to take those road trips you like where you meet someone or have a moment of solitude, buy a house, take a vacation.

    Don't believe it? Go see how your unemployed friends are doing.

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  2. Well unfortunately, unless you win the lottery, you have to spend some of your time doing work to get the money to do whatever you want to do when you are not working. I don't think many people are doing fascinating and meaningful work either, sometimes it is just a job.

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  3. Soap there's no disputing that and that really is one of the primary reasons for working in the first place but missing the point bro. I'm talking about a job that doesn't cultivate you in the least or fulfill you or satisfy you on any level whatsoever. You're not learning a trade, a skill, an art, something that helps your resume, NADA, ZIPPO and I don't care if it helps you take that vacation or pay down your pad. You're not learning anything, not stimulating your imagination etc. so my point is unless you work at a job you can get at least something out of it's a total waste of time in my book. I stand by my point (btw my best work seems to come when I have to take a piss, don't know what that means).

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  4. Beth it doesn't have to be a fascinating job, how many of us have them? just something that you get something out of. I just take issue with my friend is all that it doesn't matter what job you have. His approach is totally pragmatic but I say a good job should be practical to your own needs yes but also fulfilling on at least some level otherwise it counts to time wasted that you're not learning anything really and the better managers know this and want to tap your potential whereas the bad ones treat you like a drone or a machine. I fear yet again people are somehow missing my point.

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  5. I think I get what you're saying. When I was a kid I always would say I didn't want a 'job', I wanted a 'career'.

    Not too many people have been as fortunate as me, I guess.. I've been able to do what I do in lots of different environments and learn lots of different things while I did it.

    I'm not as totally over the top thrilled about nursing as I was say 16 years ago when like every shirt I owned (that I wore when I WASNT working) said 'nurse' on it somewhere and my whole identity was wrapped up in it. Now it's sort of like a tattoo you've had for years; just part of who you are.

    The point you made about learning is a real serious one. In this job I have now there's no clinical challenge, and it's been a bit of a bore, so I did some research and found an organization for Developmental Disabilities Nursing, and plan on getting certified sometime round the end of the year. This involves taking a test, so I'll get some chances to stretch my brain. It makes a difference. Sometimes maybe the learning part has to be up to you.. if the opportunities aren't there, find some or make some. Don't let your brain get all atrophied and moldy, or then you really ARE wasting time.

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  6. Point is nobody is going to pay you for watching a cheetah documentary or doing a crossword puzzle, so you are welcome to spend your free time however you wish, but if you need funds to, oh I don't know, eat, then you may need to spend time doing a mundane job that someone will actually pay you to do. Right? If you can get a job that you get something out of it, then more power to ya, but not everyone has that luxury.

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  7. "Soap there's no disputing that and that really is one of the primary reasons for working in the first place but missing the point bro. I'm talking about a job that doesn't cultivate you in the least or fulfill you or satisfy you on any level whatsoever."

    Did you ever finish Atlas Shrugged? You may recall the scene where Dagny is at the diner and meets a man who is extremely skilled to the point of almost being a perfectionist at a short order cook.

    She comes to find the man is none other than Hugh Akston, the "renowned philosopher and the head of the Department of Philosophy at Patrick Henry University, where he taught Francisco d'Anconia, John Galt, and Ragnar Danneskjöld."

    Whatever it is you do Z, do it with your best effort. Somethings you will find greater satisfaction in than others but you will always have the satisfaction of knowing you fully committed yourself to the task at hand.

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  8. You get out of it what you put into it. It is no-one's obligation to provide you with a sense of worth and fulfillment in your job. They pay you for a service. What services you decide to offer to the marketplace is purely up to you.

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  9. WOW, being lost in transalation again! I'm talking about people who just want a paycheck, no ambition, no aiming higher. Beth your free time AND your work time should be all about Learning otherwise what's the point of Life? Any job that you don't get something out of is a waste of time imo. Maybe it's the nature of the job, more likely it's the boss who doesn't care to cultivate you and tap your potential and teach you new skills because he's lazy or feels threatened by you. Many years ago I worked as a van driver for a wholesale flower place and I worked there for about a year. Was it wasted time? NO, I learned ALOT about roads and driving and still use that valuable knowledge to this day. I think y'all are not getting my point. I think I communicate clearly enough, again I think something's getting lost in the translation when I blog. Saty said in a recent comment about her job that in her view there are people who are just willing to accept their mediocrity. I don't agree with my co-worker's philosophy that the nature of a job doesn't matter, that even if it doesn't stimulate you and your brain atrophies as a result the only thing that really matters is the paycheck every Friday. It's an uninspired philosophy, it's mundane and I've evolved on this issue. It no longer suits me.

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  10. Point being Beth the cheetah documentary or the crossword puzzle is enriching your mind in some way and I do believe it as a kind of scientific fact that if we don't stimulate our imaginations in some way our brains literally atrophy. I can make the case that watching The French Connection for the 10th time is more important than working 9-5 as an armpit sniffer because I'm somehow enriching my mind, it's creatively and aesthetically pleasing on some level just like painting and I'm not pushing high-falutin' jobs here just something that contributes to your total Life Experience in some way. Finished Atlas btw soapie. Nothing wrong with being a short-order cook but I'm talking about people who admit a job does nothing for them but don't mind 'cause of the paycheck. Something doesn't seem right about this POV, may as well just subscribe to the Work State.

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  11. I get your point. Back in 98 I worked at Coastal Rehab Hospital in Wilmington. I have never hated a job so much in my life. I mean seriously hated, raw hot hate, every single day I worked there.

    I hated it so much that I hate to say that I learned so much stuff, and I mean stuff that's totally enhanced my career, been useful every single day I've worked since then. I cannot think of one aspect of my career that has not been made better and more complete by what I learned working there.

    Every single day there was a complete misery, but what I learned (despite myself) has been absolutely priceless. As a result, while I don't deny the hate (it motivated me to finish school in record time), I also don't regret the time I spent there, not one bit.

    Have I got your point?

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  12. I think we get your point Z-man, but we also realize that for some people "just a paycheck" is good enough for them, so why worry about them if they don't care?

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  13. It's real hard to work with people who don't care. Yesterday me, another nurse and one of our doctors were talking about the whole thing with where we work (for the state) and how the legislature hasn't approved raises in 4 years and how the policies really handcuff the nurses from using their skills and so on and the other nurse totally went off on how she just doesn't care, she does what she's told and that's as far as she's going and it's just another job.

    The doctor pitched a fit and said (verbatim) All the doctors know who gives a shit and who doesn't and even with the policies that keep you down it shows in the work. And if you don't think that matters it does.

    My coworker's right about the raises and the policies, but still that's not an excuse to do shitty work. The policies (and I am the FIRST one to tell you that this is a great place to lose all your technical skills because they don't let you do anything) address procedures, not attitudes and the way you approach your work. And that's where the caring comes in. The fact that I DO give a rat's ass about the care that gets delivered makes it frustrating to work with people who don't. You work so hard to do something or to get some intervention in place and then someone comes along who gives someone a brand new blood pressure drug without checking the pressure first, or who does some other dangerous thing because they just don't care enough to think beyond what's in black and white.

    Nobody's an island and an environment where you spend 40+ hours a week, and the people there, have to necessarily affect you to some degree, and it is hard to work with people who are just there to do the absolute minimum and bitch about it on top of that.

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  14. Most of this is subjective of course, I mean if a tolltaker gets something out of his job then God bless him but for me once a job reaches a point where you stop learning new things then it becomes for me at least wasted time. Driving the flower van I was constantly learning new roads and routes...it's all in the eye of the beholder but I think most jobs could be made more interesting through better management.

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  15. Quite a lot of jobs could be made more interesting by the motivation and willingness of the person doing it to make it more interesting.

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  16. Like my chef friend says some people just do a half-assed job and call it a day. At the Culinary Institute up in Dutchess County, you know where that is, the instructors call anyone who does the bare minimum on a recipe, you know it's adequate and all but nothing special, those people are put down as shoemakers. No offense to all the cobblers out there btw. Your comment you just made I was thinking of applying it to this endless education debate we're having right now about public schools and teacher tenure. Conservatives would have it that there's a whole lot of bad teachers out there who should be fired but maybe it's just a bunch of asshole kids who can't sit still and learn. Dunno man:)

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