The past few weeks have been full of graduations and Facebook postings of people off to start new jobs. Something about that just makes me feel a little down. Not for myself. I’m actual doing pretty well. I feel sorry for those starting jobs.
Yes, I know. I’m a schmuck. But those fresh faces going off to companies. It just makes me shake my head at the loss.
I guess I shouldn’t paint with such a broad stroke. Some people have just started a job that is a clear extension of something they are passionate about. They might have spent years planning and dreaming and educating themselves and this job will be the culmination of that hard work. And to those: Rock on.
But a lot of the people I have met on my journey are going to work at Company. And at their new job in Company they will be doing… Something. They might not even know yet even though they signed on the dotted line months ago. Or maybe they do. Maybe in the time since they’ve signed on the line they’ve sat through the information sessions and had the corporate line fed to them over and over again so much that they are starting to believe it. Or if the haven’t, they’ll start soon. Goodness, I pity those people. Even if it makes me a self-righteous, smug jerk I still pity them. So many of them just push around widgets. Do they even see it?
Maybe it is living in Japan, or maybe just living in Tokyo. But I see so much talent wasted by the notion that Company gets priority and life is something that is supposed to happen around that. And it makes me feel like a prick for lamenting what those in question see as joyous. But I can’t stop it. A friend shared words of encourage sent to her from her family about setting the right note at work by showing up early and leaving late. All I could think is time is too precious to waste that way.
Do you love what you do? Is it something you want to do, or something you were talked into wanting to do? Does your job make you a better person? Does it make anyone else a better person? Are you just pushing around widgets?
Life should be a priority and it should have meaning. What you do can give it meaning.
I just feel sorry for those who are just starting and have been taught that meaning can be found in the name of a Company.
Deadly Troubadour 