HatingTheMoneyJob
From UoWiki
The most successful flight in the Gemini project (that launched the first American into space) was the monkey operated test-flight. Much to the dismay of the human astronauts. It seemed to be the case that the astronauts wanted too much to be the pilot/adventurer/hero and so screwed up whereas the monkey just pressed buttons at the right time hoping to be rewarded with a banana. Something similar can said be said of my job. It is a part-time office job at a research institute for social health care, and my task is to handle data-files in a process that a monkey could learn easily and would execute with more care than I can keep up. Perhaps a rhesus-monkey would do better than a gorilla but that would only be for the size of its fingers. The reasons they hire me and not a baboon are twofold: 1) I am cheaper 2) There are no animal right activists willing to rally against inhumane treatment.
YES! I do hate my job!
Why do I work there? Because it pays rather well all things considering, I can travel with public transport for free, and I can decide my own hours. Nearly everyone have to account for every 15 minutes of they working hours. Because my job is so low-level I don't need to do this. I would cheat otherwise but I think from the 20 hours I have to clock I actually make 16. As it happens there is no work to keep me occupied even for these 16 hours. What do I do? I email, I play chess with friends, I blog, I manage my bookmarks at del.icio.us, I try to keep up with about a 100 websites (the Dilbert website is my favourite), I contribute articles to magazines, write code, use the copy-machine for my own use without paying and make long breaks. It is indeed a wonder that I have time to actually finish any work at all.
I have a friend who wrote an article about 'slackers' for a magazine and because of this topic he decided do it during working hours. The only thing I never understood was when he decided to confront his boss with the article. Who liked it at first until he found out that he more or less paid for it. (And the magazine paid him as well.) A true slacker always avoids the confrontation at all times.
I never went to university or learned a profession and one of the most recurrent doubts is whether I should do it "now you are still young", as well-meaning advisors tell me. Your parents too probably warned you: do you want to work in a factory the rest of your life? then work hard at school! Having to do work like this for the rest of my life is not something I look forward to yet this job has washed all doubts away: my job is boring but nobody asks me to pretend it is. The Masters, PHDs and professors surrounding me maybe have respectable well-paid jobs most of them are extremely stupid and annoying and they all look incredibly boring, they talk boring, their research is boring and everywhere people are seemingly friendly but they will let you fall into the abyss if it gets them a new contract or title.
There are numerous stories about how not saying 'good day to you sir' when encountering the board of directors in the hallway will cost you your job. Which true or not is pretty sick in itself. I make it a point to blatantly ignore them when I see them, which is quit often. It is silly but it makes me feel good.
Barnaby Snap
