Work

When I went to school at Wright State, I remember this line on one of the professor's home page, 'Why work for a living when you can work for a passion?'. I really wonder how many people can righteously claim that they work for a passion. What joy it holds, I may never know!

With the performance review cycle going on, my manager and I sat down to have a quick informal discussion about how things were going, what to expect in the coming year, etc. Somewhere during this conversation we talked about how there's some things that we don't like doing and yet end up doing for lack of choice. My manager was quick to respond, 'I don't like coming to work! I don't like coming to work. Period. But every day I have to wake up and drive here and get busy. Do I enjoy it? No I don't. Will I keep doing it? Yes. There are some things in life where you don't have a choice at all. Right now, for me, this is one of them.'

I think I too am sinking in the same boat as he is. Somehow, I have a feeling that most people in IT are aboard too. Hell yeah, we need a job that pays the bills, we need the big bucks. That's what turns us into code monkeys banging on keyboards all day, staring at the computer screen till our eyes start screaming for rest. I know I hadn't signed up for this when I was looking for a job. To quote Peter Gibbons from Office Space "Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about about mission statements."

Would it have been any different if I had gone on to study something that I enjoyed more? Would it have been more enjoyable if I was working in the same discipline that I studied? Would I have enjoyed coming to work more than I do now? Would this really have been a better choice on all counts? I guess it's too late to find out.