I used to write a blog called Shit Job Tales. After hopping from one low-wage, low-responsibility job to the next for several years, I thought I might as well get some value out of the experience. It certainly wasn’t getting me anywhere in life.
Reading those old posts, I have to laugh at the naivety I was using instead of common sense back then. Well, eventually I stopped writing that blog. Staying in one, decent job for 2 years removed the inspiration for it. Then I went to college, and had a couple more jobs that were considerably more interesting than the menial stuff I did before.
But now, at the end of a two year diploma program, close to the end of my savings, and with an expensive trip approaching, I’m back to doing grunt labor. Afraid of getting distracted from my final project by something more interesting, I went for the one job that anyone can get without trying or thinking. I won’t bother telling you what it is.
But the work is not nearly as bad as I remember. In the last few of years I’ve learned a couple of things:
- To keep my anger in check.
- To be patient so that I don’t get angry to start with.
- To be aware of my surroundings so that I’m always doing something useful, and people don’t get impatient with me.
- To explain my hearing disability to people who need to know about it, before it becomes a problem.
- To insist on people treating me politely without in turn being rude to them.
- To talk to people who are being rude or impatient, and find out what’s going on with them, before defaulting to hate.
And maybe a little humility – I’m not too good for grunt work. A job’s a job, and I can make minimum wage go a hell of a long way.
All this makes the work environment a lot more pleasant. I don’t feel like people hate me, or that they groan when I come on shift or talk behind my back.
That being said, I think my time is worth more than the legal minimum and I don’t like selling it for that price. So I’m looking into a way to make a living on my own terms. I’ve got an idea – well a couple ideas, but I’m working on one. Hope to post about it in the next couple of days.