The Work We Play
This is not a political blog. Or at least not in they way you’re thinking right now. You will not see me on Pod Save America breaking down how Hakeem Jeffries can save the Democratic party. I want to talk about our lives, our happiness, our finances, and if that comes into to contacts with what you deem politics then so be it. Now, if I may complain a bit.
My Job is fine. I commute to the office 4 days a week. I get paid much less than I hoped I would be by now with absolutely no signs of promotion. It pays the bill (barely) but I know it could be a lot worse. My workload fluctuates. It would not be surprising to find me watching youtube videos while sitting at my desk. I feel silly complaining, knowing how bad so many people have it out there, but I hope we can wrap my dumb issues into a larger more interesting point. Oh I am from the U.S. for those wondering. (Shocker, American complaining about their quality of life). If this does not resonate with you and your life, totaly understand. I am just speaking from my point of view. Ok now to the real complaining.
I started working full time around 11 years ago, and since then things have become so much more efficient. Sometimes I stop to think about how long whatever task that is being completed by automation used to take me to manually process in the past. In that sense I do feel lucky. Like I said, Youtube is calling. This actually makes me feel disappointed in myself sometimes. “You have it so easy. Why are you so frustrated with this place? Your grandpa would hate to hear you feel this way.” I hope I am not alone in these feelings. I have a suspicion I am not. I believe this is the problem. Logically, work becoming more efficient should make you feel less stressed, more accomplished and allow you to get to the things you enjoy more. In corporate America that is not how it works. Your time is freed by a program or automation but you are now responsible for more output, Yes more may be getting done but in the end you are in charge of making sure all of that output still is completed. You have Teams and Slack message alerts 24/7 cluttering your devices and your mind. You have a laptop so you can work at any moment, from your couch or bed. This needs to stop. Efficiency is cool and all but it must have a purpose. A greater purpose I would argue.
This efficiency is creating a disconnection within ourselves. Because we see how much comes out and what we get in return we can feel the lack of importance in this whole thing. So many jobs are made up and wasteful. We as a society cannot handle not working to the maximum because of the origins of this whole system so we go bang our heads against our spreadsheets for 10 hours a day to feel something. This has been eating at me for a while now. We need a realignment. Companies have to do sillier and sillier things to justify what they do to us. I received my work goals today and one of them was to go to company wide presentations in person so the chairs in the back of the Zoom screen aren’t empty. Are you kidding me?
We get so much self worth from our jobs, but I feel that this is getting harder and harder to do. We have to adapt. Employee output is growing higher and higher compared to wages. I’m sure you’ve seen the charts. We currently have one million more people with no jobs than open positions in the country. That is not user error. That is system error. This is why more and more people look for “side hustles” these days. To fill the gaps and to feel like one day you’ll be in charge of your situation. Hell I’m starting a blog. I hope we can collectively one day take better control of this situation. You are more than your output. The rising tide really can lift all ships. It doesn’t have to drown us.
I know this was a bit of a downer, but my day had me feeling inspired. I do want to come to some of these with more joy and more education or humor, but today I had let it fly. See you in the next one.
-Eddie