I'm not sure where it came from, but a common point of view among millennial is that work is supposed to provide some sort of fulfillment or self validation. It is nice if your job does provide those things but these are not the reasons that people work. People work to make money.
To me, I don't really care what sort of work I do as long as I'm making a good salary from it. One of my previous jobs paid me to sit at a computer for 8 hours a day pulling information from different databases and organizing it to get ready for auditing. It was boring. It was mind numbing work. It made me feel like a machine and by God I loved it.
If I could make the salary of an accountant for just sweeping up floors at a restaurant, I wouldn't be complaining that sweeping floors, wiping down tables, or scrubbing toilets wasn't providing me fulfillment or self validation. All that matters is seeing the numbers of my bank accounts increase.
I write this because I've seen my peers make really dumb decisions. I've seen old friends leave okay paying jobs just because "they weren't happy" or "they felt like they could be doing more". This action isn't the dumb decision. The dumb decision comes in the fact of leaving an okay job to shell out several thousands of dollars to pursue a master's degree of business administration which is no guarantee in this economy to lead to a high paying management job.
As I've heard from older wiser men, work sucks. Work is supposed to suck. If people enjoyed doing something, they would do it for free.
When people make decisions based on feelings rather than math and reality, people will suffer in the long run.
I'm totally on board with your attitude about work. Don't care about it's relevance or prestige as long as it's worthwhile to the bottom line. I've seen many colleagues seek the greener pastures only to beg to come back to better pay.
ReplyDeleteMind numbing work just motivates me to work harder on my stock trading accounts to increase my passive income.
This is the essential difference between the working and middle classes. Neither is better than the other. The working class seek mechanical jobs where they can mentally switch off before coming alive again when the shift is over. The middle class try to do their living at work. Occasionally they will switch off during their time off rather as the working class do in their working hours.
ReplyDeleteForget the snobbery. Both methods work.