Just Curious

This January marked the three year anniversary of when I first began working at my current job. Three years seems like a long time when you say it out loud or type the actual words out. That’s only one year less than I spent in high school and a year and half less than it took me to graduate from college (both of which seemed endless at the time). But truthfully, these past three years have flown by. In comparison to those other two time periods I just mentioned, the three years since I graduated from college have seemed like a nanosecond. Maybe that has to do with the passing of certain life events such as getting engaged and getting married…I don’t think it has had as much to do with my work itself (which is what this post is really about).

I have been telling myself for the past six months that I was going to start looking for another job. This wasn’t because I hated my job or anything, but more because I just wanted to see what else was out there. Finally, this past month I posted my resume on a couple of job websites. I told myself I still wasn’t “actively” looking for another job, just doing my due diligence in the employee world. Well, here I am only a few weeks later, and I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that I didn’t “just want to see what else was out there.” The nature of the work that I do is very cyclical in terms of how heavy the workload is at any given time. At times, you have a lot of down time, but at other times you may have multiple projects occurring simultaneously, and you may find yourself struggling just to keep your head above water…however, it seems as if I have been in a “down” cycle for almost a year now, and I can see myself going from a “just looking” attitude to a “get me out of here” attitude very quickly, as I have gone from passively looking to actively searching within only a matter of weeks.

I read a thing the other day that said something to the effect of “everyone’s goal should be to make as much money as possible while doing as little actual work as possible.” Obviously, that statement is only meant half-jokingly, but there is some truth to it. To that effect, maybe I should just keep quiet and stay the course for the time being. With everything I’ve said up to this point, it’s tough for me to say anything negative about my job. I’ve learned a tremendous amount, I’ve worked on some really interesting projects, and I’ve been treated really well by my employer. I mean, is it really killing me to sit at a desk and get paid to be bored for eight or nine hours a day? Probably not, and even if I’m never quite as consistently busy as I would like to be, it’s not like I’m never going to get another interesting project to work on here, but there have been too many days lately where if Krissy were to ask me what I did at work my answer would basically be, “I don’t really know.” I think everyone is bound to have days like that once in awhile, but it seems like the days where I actually feel like I accomplished something at work are sandwiched between way too many days where I feel like I accomplished nothing at all.

Like I said, maybe there is something to that above quote. Maybe we as humans are naturally inclined to do as little work as possible. I think that’s mostly true…I mean, most modern advances in technology are designed with the intent of allowing us to sit on our cans as much as possible. But without waxing too philosophically here, I also think humans are naturally inclined to strive to achieve some type of purpose. For example, Krissy works for the state as a social worker. I don’t want to get into too many specifics, but it’s a hard job. She constantly has to deal with people (half of which seem to be clinically insane and the other half completely unhelpful), she usually logs several hours a day in the car driving from place to place, she is often placed in semi-dangerous situations with people who aren’t always the most stable, and she always has a ton of nonsensical paperwork to fill out. On top of all of that, she isn’t paid half as much as she deserves (in my very biased opinion of course)…and yet there are days where I can see the pride she has in herself for the good she was able to do for someone through her work. On those days, I would be lying if I said I didn’t envy her.