For a few people it is not so tough
somehow, but for most it does not sit well at all, and this is why these
types of jobs will often have such a high 'turnover' rate because, frankly, nobody likes doing
this kind of work, and most people have a hard time coping with it
day after day, for an
extended period of time. It's
like this resentment just builds and builds until you really can't
take it anymore, and then you find a way out. Probably another job in
yet another low paid service position, where it's not going to be any
better, but it's new for a time, and it's like you get a 'reset' or
'start-over', until the resentment starts accumulating again and you
repeat the process.
This
is what I did for some time, bouncing between jobs and it was really
a vicious cycle, where
nothing essentially changed. The pay was usually roughly the same,
the jobs were all pretty crappy. The
consequence of this being that it doesn't look good on your resume to
have bounced from job to job, to employers it looks like you are a
more risky hire that may not last long. So this can really have a
negative effect with no benefit in the long
run. I didn't know how I was going to 'make it' if I had to do this
forever, or at least for the foreseeable future.
It's a
very hard situation to be in and not stress about it heavily. In
most, if not all, of the corporate run, low paid service jobs I've
done, almost on a daily basis, someone says “I hate this job.”
Which is often met with a response from
another employee, such as “I
know” or “Tell me about it”. In
the past I myself said all these words as well.
It's
no secret, these jobs really are unpleasant. I mean, I don't know
anyone, who when they were younger, said, “You know, when I grow
up, I want to serve fast food. I want to do a job that will draw its
profit from my labor, yet not even
pay me enough to live
effectively.” No. No one says that.
I was
wholly unprepared for the degree of compromise I would have to go
through within such jobs, where your physical and mental well-being is
completely disregarded, and you are literally treated as just a
'battery' for the 'machine', so to speak. I mean, if
I hadn't gone through this myself I would never have even guessed
that these sort of situations even existed or were taking place, it
just blew me away, the level to which we've accepted and allowed
ourselves to be so abused.
Within
all this, I went into a reaction towards this situation, where I
experienced various emotions like hopelessness, despair, rage,
hatred, defiance, powerlessness, because I saw no solution to get out
of this situation. I didn't have any experience or training or
degrees that I could use to try to get a better paying job, but
I knew I was capable of far more than this menial work. The fact of
the matter is, there just aren't enough 'good' jobs to go around,
more and more the jobs that are increasing are these menial service
jobs, and that means that no
matter what your experience, background or ability, many, many
individuals are only going to get into these types of jobs. And
that's what we're seeing today where we have people with master's
degrees working at McDonald's.
What I
came to realize though, is that this is the situation at
the moment, and that no
amount of being upset about it is going to change it. It's going to
take actual actions to change our system. And going through all these
emotions toward the situation was only adding further consequence and
stress to an already crappy situation, because
the fact is, I have to do it for now. The
key was really to stop making it worse than it already is, making
myself a victim to it, because that was just pointless.
So,
essentially, it's
to take self responsibility for my
own experience, so that
instead of getting lost in an experience toward my situation, I can
rather do what I need to do and focus on solutions. And that is what
this whole blog is for/about. It is the process that I walk to
redefine my relationship toward work/labor/the system, to stop being
a victim to it, and to 'take
back' my power that I gave away to the system.
There
are
really many dimensions to this point, that
will be opened up in more
specificity in many posts to
come, in looking at how we can transform who we are within our
relationship to our labor, to bring it from what it exists as today
which is essentially enslavement and disregard for life, and correct
it so that what we do here is an expression of ourselves that works
in harmony with the each other, earth, nature and the animals here,
so that we can exist in a way that is beneficial and worthwhile
instead of this pointless seemingly never-ending rat-race through
which we are bringing down the whole world. So
stay tuned..
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