Every job has it's problems, it's good points and its bad points. Evey one has had that boss from hell or that co-worker that you loved.
We spend a majority of our lives with complete strangers, sometimes seeing them more than our family. The average American commute to and from work is slightly under 1 hour round trip. That adds up to a little more than 10 days a year spent in our cars going to and from work.
I recently left my job in the Insurance industry. I've been involved with insurance, banking and finance for most of my adult life...and this voluntary departure was based on several reasons...but it got me thinking about work, anti-work and significant work.
I am not afraid of work.
I quickly set aside the jobs in Pittsburgh or Youngstown however. Both are 45 - 60 minutes from me and frankly I could not see spending an extra 10 - 12 hours a week just driving back and forth. I was also determined to find work in a Green field but that's going be discussed in a few more paragraphs.
The question for me soon become what did I want to do? Jobs and work were out there...and I could take my pick. It just depended on what I wanted to do, and how I wanted to work.
Like most Americans after Covid, I wanted to put the emphasis on the real things that matter. I wanted time to explore hobbies; in my case dedicate more time to various projects, and spending more time with family and friends. I am unsure if I'm on track to retire at 67, my official retirement age, but I don't want to work past it. I am burned out, tired of the grind and just "done." Frankly if I could retire today, I would.
Without even realizing it, I became part of the "anti-work" movement. I simply started to disengage from my last position over the last year or so, and I think I even told my boss about my concerns, only to have them ignored.
The "Anti - work" movement is not that people don't want to work, it's just that people don't want to feel like they contribute nothing to the overall good. When you have companies and their CEO's making millions of dollars, why should the average worker have to suffer low wages and benefits? Why should they work long hours or take cuts in benefits and pay? This tension has always been part of the American history. I can think of several cases of union busting and even violence as tensions between workers and corporations waxed and waned throughout our history.
In other words, the anti-work movement is just the latest round of that tension.
So the term "anti-work" is a bit misleading. The anti-work movement is against the exploitation of the labor force. It's not against working itself as it is often depicted in right wind media. It rejects the fact that we all need to work ourselves to the bone to fuel some constantly growing, omnivorous monster known as "Capitalism". It questions the very nature of work and why and how the worker gets exploited in a variety of ways.
Labor day was a holiday that the American worker had to fight for, and even though the debates about hybrid work, a four day work week, unionization and remote work continue the average worker must still fight for his or her rights.
Which brings me to my last thought. Significant work.
My original degree is in education. I simply wasn't a good teacher in that I am a lousy disciplinarian. However I still managed, in the three years that I taught, to make some children better prepared for life. What happened next was a surprise to me.
I started working for a civil engineering firm.
While I didn't care for the long hours the nature of the work engaged me. I learned something new nearly every day. I often went to work not knowing what to expect but knowing that I would have to engage my brain in some way. I was fully engaged in my job and even took a few classes in engineering to become more proficient at it.
If different choices had been made, I may still be doing that type of work. I consider it to be significant work because I found it engaging, entertaining and I had concrete (pun intended) results of progress.
I worked for a bank in customer service, sales and become a loan officer. When we moved to Florida I quickly found myself in management, and later owned my own company. I fell into insurance because I needed additional income. I ended up becoming a good agent and worked for a variety of companies. I was engaged and enjoyed my work. In each of these jobs I was helping people make their lives better and it became my main source of income.
I can honestly state that the last three years of my last insurance position were anything but engaging. Nor do I think that the company used my talents in the best way they could. I was sitting in my home office answering the same basic questions day in and out and working for a boss I could not understand. I got to a point where I simply didn't care.
If I have learned anything from work all these years is that I want a job that I actually kind of care about. I want a job that recognizes talent. I want a job that engages me.
I want a significant job.
Right now I'm looking for something in the Green Field. If I'm going to talk the talk about environmentalism, then I better walk the walk. I was already offered a job working for an energy company, but ended up rejecting for reasons I'll not go into here.
It's a broad field and the definitions vary, but it is work that I should find interesting and engaging, and if I can do my small part to save the damn planet then I should.
Something will come along, I'm working towards that goal but in the meantime I think I found something that will engage my mind. I'll continue to look for something that I'm sure my background can be put to use by a non profit or solar company or some group that is doing good in the world.
We all have unique talents and if we are going to change the world for the better, then we better start using those talents to do so. The clock is always ticking.
Nice. Have you thought about combinG your teaching skills with your other experience we often lock ourselves into an identity identity
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