Recently, I’ve been fascinated with the idea of people who love their jobs. Now, I don’t know any of these people personally, but I see them on TV all the time. You know who I’m talking about. The middle aged woman who teach art class after curing her arthritis. The 22 year old fashion magazine executive slash supermodel whose lipstick lasts all day. The handsome chef advertising knives in a busy kitchen while serving seared scallops in white wine sauce. All those happy, attractive people surrounded by bustling activity and warm colors and just loving the hell out of their lives. I do hate them, but the advertising is working. I want their lives. But does such a perfect workplace exist?
A little closer to home, I wonder about those overenthusiastic folks at my own mind-numbing job. The ones sending out mass emails peppered with exclamation points. Ten thousand users! 200 simultaneous logins! Five million dollars saved! Seriously, I wonder? Do they really give a crap? Or are they pretending like I am? I would prefer to believe the former. Maybe every person has a destiny, and some people just love business process management more than a fat kid love cake. However, the pessimist in me tends to believe the latter. Which is rather dismal. We are all shuffling through life, pretending to care in order to get our daily bread. It all seems a bit eerie, like a group of toddlers behaving well while the teacher is out. Who are we trying to impress, exactly? Sure, there’s the person who hands out the paychecks – but what if he also doesn’t care?
Obviously, there’s a bit of a morale problem at my workplace. I have to believe that something better is out there. But I don’t think I’ve ever been there. And I don’t know anyone who has. Someone, please tell me that there is happiness outside of TV commercials.
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