Labor Day Thoughts 2016

It has been 13 years since I was a full-time employee of a company.   Since I "retired" I've had a few part-time (retail) jobs, one very lucrative 12 month contract job and a dozen or so "gigs" involving writing, editing or database work.   Currently my only commitment is to a volunteer job which requires 3 hrs a week. And lunch.

Most of the time since 2003, I have been free to do anything I wished, whenever I wish. Within certain parameters, (eg physical limitations, fiscal constraints and of course, permission from my wife.)

In general, I like being retired a lot more than I liked working for a living. No more meetings, daily commuting, no more trying to look competent to an audience of doubters.  Being unstructured is liberating.  Now, I only have one boss, and she is often too busy with her own agenda (grandkids, art classes, painting, museums, part time work) to place too many constraints on my activities.    

But I do my best to remain connected with interesting people I once worked with.  And I meet new people all the time who share interests.  Good books, poetry, fishing, eating, etc.

 Occasionally, I feel nostalgia for the structure and sociability of working in a corporate environment -- belonging to a team of people trying to accomplish a common goal. And I do miss my lavish salary.  (Ok it wasn't that lavish, but,  unlike social security, it paid the bills.)

I try to justify spending those decades  at the office by saying, "Well I helped make the process better for my coworkers." But the evidence of my "work" is not visible, unless you regard folders full of charts and plans as accomplishments.   Most of it was really useless paperwork demanded by some would-be Napoleon who had clawed his way into the executive ranks.  At least if I had worked on an assembly line or built a wall, I'd be able to say, "I did that."  

When you look back and realize that nothing that you did has made a damn bit of difference, it's a wee bit humbling.  It seemed like I was working hard at the time, but in retrospect, it probably made little difference whether I came into the office or called-in sick.  None of the companies that I worked for from 1972 to 2003 are still extant.  None of the applications I designed and helped develop are running today.  Obsolete and forgotten.

You might think this perspective would leave me wallowing in disappointment and regret.  But, not so.  I actually feel pretty good about my "career."  True, I did not accomplish anything permanent or important. No one will compose epic poems about my accomplishments.  No statue will commemorate my contributions to civilization.  My name will not be etched into a bronze plaque at some hall of fame.

But I did keep a record of activities.  I started writing a journal in the early 1980's.  I can go back to those pages and validate the earnestness of my intention to do good things.  Pages filled with conflict, disappointment and a few glorious wins.    

And, it pleases me to imagine that most of my coworkers, if they remember me at all, will remember me as a guy who trustworthy, creative and anti-authoritarian, who was trying to have fun in a disapproving corporate world.

If anyone asked me (and believe me, no one has) for career advice, I would tell them:

1. Never take a job that requires you to drive East in the morning. You will be driving into the sun every morning and every evening.  It's not worth it.
2. Avoid working in retail.  Retail managers do not value individuality.  They want interchangeable parts who do not ask challenging questions about process.
3. Do not take a job that requires you to carry a pager or work-supplied cellphone.  They will wear you down with 24-7 connection.  The stress will make you sick and shorten your life.
4. Make lunch the focus of your day.  Avoid eating with assholes.  Never eat at your desk.  Work will wait.  Don't drink martinis at lunch.
5. Try not to share the boss's sense of urgency.  You can't avoid dealing with it and complying with it, but never let it own you.
6.  Seek a career in a field where your accomplishments are palpable. Be a builder or a maker or a healer.   If you become a bureaucrat, at least keep a journal so you can have something to show for your time.
7.  Do mix pleasure with work whenever possible.
8.  If you hate your boss, or vice versa, quit and go somewhere else.  Good bosses are hard to find.  Keep looking.
9.  Do not get a tattoo that is visible when you are dressed for work.
10.  At some point between the ages of 40 and 50, you will come to the realization that almost nothing is worth the time it takes to do it right.  Figure out what is really important and do those few things right.