Already a member?
Welcome to Brazen Careerist!
Rachel Canfield is using Brazen Careerist to share ideas. Join now to become a member and start networking with Rachel Canfield and other professionals just like you. Learn more.
Rachel Canfield is using Brazen Careerist to share ideas. Join now to become a member and start networking with Rachel Canfield and other professionals just like you. Learn more.
I started my job with a pro-rated total of 4.62 sick days. I waited two months before feeling comfortable (and sick) enough to finally use one.
There’s something wonderfully beautiful about a sick day. Whether it’s the hours of lounging on the sofa, or the ability to watch “Price is Right” (although, let’s be honest Drew Carey doesn’t hold a candle to Bob Barker), the occasional sick day is necessary for your physical and mental health. For me, my sick day came not only as a time to recoup from a migraine, but also as a time for me to regroup on where I stand after two months on my job. The implications of the huge transition in my life were coming crashing down on me, leaving me with a not-so-cheery disposition.
About 20 million Americans have a mood disorder and about 40 million have an anxiety disorder. I can’t imagine spending 40 hours (or more) per week at a job cannot be helping to alleviate these health problems, or for that matter, what about spending 40 years with one company could do to a person.
My parents have worked at their jobs for nearly 30 years, and after two months at my job, I have no idea how they’ve done it. I can’t shake the feeling of being trapped in a lifetime of work. But there’s hope in the fact that frequent job changes are more the norm these days and can actually make life more stable and fulfilling.
After spending eight hours on a Tuesday at home instead of at a cubicle, I remembered that a lifetime of work isn’t all that’s in my life. Happiness can come in a lot of forms, like a hobby. Sometimes it takes being a breaking point, and taking a sick day, to really evaluate a situation.
One walk at a time, one day at a time... Nobody does great things; they do a serious of small things that amount to a great thing.
If you look at work as 40 years of work, then it will be unbearable. If you look at each day as an opportunity to make the world just a little bit better, you will look back at the end of 40 years and see where you started and where you ended up.
I spent so much time feeling this way after college... like something wasn't clicking. Here's what I've come up with.
1) Working for something. When we look at our parents, we think "how could they work so long and be okay with?" Its because they were working for something. Whether it was just for food, clothing, housing, the basics, or to raise their children, they had something that the money made a difference.
For us, while everyone wants to make more money, we are pretty easily sustained with our work salaries to the point where money isn't making a difference. You can say it does all you want, but keeping a roof over your head, having food on the table, etc. is much easier than it was for our parents. The amount of what we've been convinced what we need is much greater. The best computers, cars, houses, clothes, whatever... but these don't translate into goals. These are detractors, like taking a day off and being lazy isn't actually fixing how you feel, its helping you ignore it.
2) Working will not absolve your need to understand what you're doing. Your twenties are really meant for exploration and not being tied down to the point where you feel like "this is my life forever." Nothing is holding you back from doing new things, trying new jobs, moving to a new place.
The best thing is not to compare yourself to anyone else. When we compare ourselves to our parents, to other people around us who look like they got it together, that only frustrates us more. In the end, its our life, not theirs, and you have to make sure you're doing the best thing for you.
3) If you feel hobbies are the escape, its time to start looking inward and figuring out what your purpose, your bliss, is and how you're going to go about achieving it. Don't let other people's attitudes tell you you have to do certain things at certain points in your life. Be different and find your own way. Not everyone wants to be part of a corporate structure, maybe you want to work for a small business? Maybe you want to work for yourself? Maybe you just need time to figure out what you want to do and if you still need to work, there's jobs that can help in that respect.
Don't take this as all directed to you, I'm just writing for anyone who may be feeling the same things.
I TOTALLY feel you on this one, especially because I have a digestive disorder. I panic about sick days sometimes. I am actually switching jobs to a place that is much more laid back and flexible because of this. Some days I look around my cubicle and wonder how I can take a lifetime of this crap. I really almost took a leap to do full-time writing but I just chickened out and took another office job. I know I need the health insurance, and I love that someone takes care of the taxes and retirement plan for me, but I feel like I'm going to have to be self-employed at some point for my sanity. It's scary to realize our parents have done this their whole lives -- it makes me wonder how people do it without going crazy. Not that I'd want to sit around and watch TV all day, every day...people just work themselves too hard in America, in my opinion.
I think any long-term plan can seem breathtaking at first. When considering 40 years of work, which for you is more than a lifetime, it probably seems like an inescapable life sentence. If you take it in smaller pieces, though, it gets easier.
completely with you, I can't imagine spending decades (upon decades) working the 40 hours a week in the same cubicle...
... it's difficult.
is there anything more to say? thanks for writing about this, I appreciate your honesty.
Robin
Your post is right along with what I'm going through.... 3 months on the new job, trapped in the office (entirely alone, by the way) for 8 hours a day, wondering "what the heck am I doing here???" and feeling crazy anxious. I need a sick day, in a major way....
Until you get to the top 1% in income, there isn't that much of a choice, especially if you have a family to support. How did your parents do it? The same way my parents and grandparents did it. Because it had to be done if they and the kids wanted to sleep indoors, eat, and wear decent clothes. Otherwise, it didn't happen. We do what we have to do to survive. I'm just very surprised that you haven't learned that by now.
And, unless you win the lottery or inherit a fortune, a lifetime of work is what we all have to look forward to.
Everyone needs that day off just to unwind and focus on just you. It's easier to think of life as endless work but it all boils down to what you're doing as work. If its something you like then life will not feel that way but if what you're doing is just okay then yeah, life sucks right now.
It's also important to see what you can get out of where you are. Each job is a chance to learn a new skill, hone in on what you really want and prepare yourself for other, better opportunities.
Sometimes a day off is required to realize this.
I feel your pain. The thing that finally relieved it was finding a telecommuting job. It was never the work that trapped me, it was idiot bosses and conforming to a schedule whether I had work to do or not.
Today, I benefit from being effective in my use of time. If I get it all done, then I can do something else. It didn't matter at my other jobs if I got everything done at 4:15, I still had to twiddle my thumbs until 5.
For the most part, in collge you have a lot of control of your time. Then when you get a job, you're expected to turn that power over to the company.
Right out of college, this Gen-X'er hopped on a plane, went to Asia, and learned an Asian language fluently. No 40-hour-cube life for me! I managed to parlay that into some cool jobs in my 20s and 30s, and have finally landed at a big company...I'm rather older now, and a stable gig at a Fortune 100 firm has its attractions.
My point? Like you, I couldn't imagine going from college into lifelong wage slavery. So I made my own situation.
So...What are *you* waiting for?
Email
Print
