For some time now I am stuck with my thoughts on the meaning of work. We get a good education nowadays that takes more than two decades when you consider that most people in Europe study at a university after school. During that time we do our best in order to prepare for our work life. We do internships, we learn multiple languages, we acquire IT skills. Our perfect and time consuming education makes us the best operating systems in the world. We are ready to change the world and realise our personal goals.
But then the reality smashes our dreams to pieces. First of all, it often takes so much time to find a job. Apparently, there are too many people and they are occupying most job positions. So after putting all our efforts into applying for a job, we finally get one and then everything is great.
Actually, that's not true! There may be people that are happy with their job, but in my experience and after having talked to many other equally frustrated young workers, I am obliged to tell the truth.
Most jobs are awful! You need to work in order to pay your bills but that's it. If you're working full-time, you leave your work in the early morning when it's still dark and you come back when the sun has already set. So basically you never get to see daylight. Many jobs nowadays - and I'm mainly talking about office jobs where you sit in front of a PC and do whatever you have to do - are meaningless for the person who carries them out. The modern office is nothing more than an assembly line where you answer emails, take calls, calm down angry customers, perform any task your boss passes on to you, file documents and so on. It is the same over and over. It surely could be worse and there are still people who are unhappier, that's for sure. But for yourself, your inner self and your need to personal growth this kind of job is devastating.
Meaningless jobs often don't demand physical strength, but they destroy brain cells and cause mental stress. Those once young and ambitious workers often are weakenend and don't even manage to stick to their goals, to their leisure activities and they become passive and frustrated.
Work is an important part of modern life. It is necessary to maintain a certain living standard. Everyone needs money to pay the rent, to buy (healthy) food, to travel. But there's a difference between working and working. A meaningful work means a meaningful life. Everyone should be entitled to do what they like to do. Every person has strength and they can be motivated. Why aren't there more jobs that are diversified and motivating? Why can't we let robots to the assembly line work and create fulfilling and inspirational jobs for actual human beings with feelings who have a need to reach self-realisation?
Let's change it together!
If we all got our meaningful jobs, if we all became professional artists and writers and yoga teachers, would the world be a better place? Probably not. All those jobs are important, but we also need people who work in administration, garbage collection, logistics, public transport. Those are not jobs that are seen as the highway to happiness but they matter, our society would fall apart without them. And what's so bad about it? The jobs are not the problem, it's our expectation. We all are searching for a great and meaningful job as the result of our long and hard education. But what we forget is, that even being an artist or a writer can be boring and frustrating from time to time, that's just what happens when you do something everyday. Happiness is not an appendix of certain jobs, it comes from within, from our expectations, from how we live our life. Restlessly searching for happiness instead of embracing it on the other hand is a sure way to be very unhappy, no matter the job.
ReplyDeleteYou mention a very good point. It is important to embrace happiness and not to see everything in a negative way. Of course every job is important in its own way and there are advantages in everything you do. My point is that one doesn't have to put up with everything but should change something when he or she is unhappy. If my heart isn't in the job I'm doing, I don't have to suffer but I have the possibility to look for job that fits me better. Every person has different goals and a different way to cope with difficulties. So if something makes you unhappy and you are at a point where you can't see a reason to stay where you are, make a change! We have the luxury to try different jobs, different lifestyles, so it's up to us to look for the road to happiness.
DeleteOffice jobs also contribute to diminish your physical shape, I personally feel much better since I've started to work with my hands!
ReplyDeleteYou shouldn't rely on the robots, because they require lots of metal to make and energy to work, both of which we are soon going to run short of, but we can think differently: suppress useless jobs and propose co-organization for the others. A physically hard job can be softer if you get the right tools, share the task and, most importantly, take collective decisions, this will make any job much more interesting and fun! And it will be better done!
That is a very interesting and promising approach! This way you actually see the results of your work every day and you aren't tied to a screen.
DeleteWhen considering a physically hard job,I wouldn't know where to start to look I suppose. There are so many possibilities and one has to figure out one's talent. That's a big challenge, but it might be a good way to do something completely different. It is good to see that this decision made you happier and that you appreciate all the advantages (physical shape etc.) that came with it.