The Marathon

     A while back, a friend submitted a post to Facebook. He wrote,  " Supervisors are simply wardens of our time." I wanted to add, " Only if we allow them to be."

     Fridays can seem to take forever as we work away in anticipation of the weekend. As Thoreau so eloquently stated " The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." I think that  it ultimately comes down to the choices we make. If I find myself working at a job that provides little personal satisfaction or opportunity for growth, it seems incumbent upon me to make a careful analysis of my reasons for continuing with that job. The primary reason is usually pecuniary. The job provides me with enough money to afford the lifestyle I like or to finance whatever personal goals I have set for myself.

     " Find a job that you love and you'll never work a day in your life." That quote is attributed to Confucius although when he said it, I think the wise old philosopher could not have foreseen the demands of modern workplaces in a society which worships high productivity. The problem, it seems, is the near impossibility of finding a job that you love. To my mind, however, it's just a matter of perspective. 

     In my drinking days, a friend of mine and I were discussing our jobs in our favourite watering hole. He lamented that his " give a fuck factor" was pretty low. I responded that every job has it's "bullshit quotient." Right then and there we developed the Barker/ Boyd Formula of Employment Satisfaction which states that, " The give a fuck factor is inversely proportional to the bullshit quotient." ie. The more bullshit you put up with, the less you give a fuck.

   I have been fortunate. For the most part I have found a degree of satisfaction in almost every job that I have had. ( And they have been many and varied over the years.) I think that what has made the difference for me is primarily one of attitude. For that, I owe much thanks to some advice given to me by my Dad. The story goes like this.

     I guess I would have been about ten or eleven years old. I got into a dispute with my Mother over some household chores she had asked me to do. As a result I was summarily sent to my room to await punishment when my Dad got home. My Dad came home and, instead of meting out punishment, had a long talk with me about work. It went something like this.

Dad; You must think I've got a pretty good job eh?

Me; Yeah, you're a trainman. You get to ride on trains and travel all over the place.
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Dad; True, but I also have to get up at four in the morning to catch my trains. I leave this house in total darkness without even getting to say goodbye to my family. Sometimes I'm gone for days and I'm not sure where I'll have to go or when I'll be back home. Sometimes in the winter I find myself hanging off a moving boxcar in the wind and the freezing cold and when I jump off the boxcar, I'm up to my waist in a snowdrift and I have to dig out a switch to put that boxcar onto a siding. I have to do this as fast as I can cause there's usually another train coming and we have to clear the main  track. In the summertime it's not much better cause I have to work when it's really hot or I have to work in the rain. The railroad doesn't care about the weather or how I'm feeling.  They just care about getting things done on time. If I don't do my work right, a train worth millions of dollars can get destroyed or, worse, people can get killed. Still think I've got a pretty good job?

Me; Well I guess your job is pretty hard.

Dad:  Work is work. Whether it's the job I do or the chores your mother asks you to do, put aside your personal feelings  about it and do the best job that you can. When you grow up, I don't care whether you're a ditch digger or a brain surgeon just do the best job that you can. Be a professional. Don't complain about it. Just do it.

    Sometimes when I'm having a particularly hectic day at work I remember my Dad and think,   " This is my railway."  It doesn't stop. It doesn't care about how I'm feeling. It just cares about getting things done as efficiently as possible. The trick is to rise to the challenge. Every job has it's challenges, even the most boring, mundane tasks. I've worked long nights in a factory putting product in boxes. The challenge then was just staying awake and alert enough to do the job well. Work is work. A challenge is a challenge.

    Any marathon runner will tell you that his biggest challenge is just to finish the race. Winning or placing in the top of your category is just icing on the cake. It's all about the attitude. When a marathon runner crosses the finish line, in the midst of the exhaustion you see on his face you will see something else. Satisfaction. He met the challenge. And given the opportunity he'll do it again. In the final analysis his achievement is  not much different from that of a successful brain surgery or even a ditch that  has been dug properly. The challenge has been met. The difficulty overcome. It's really just a matter of perspective.

                                          ...more later.